• BMB Reports
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2003

Cytoplasmic $\alpha$-glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase from fruit-bat-breast muscle was purified by ion-exchange and affinity chromatography. The specific activity of the purified enzyme was approximately 120 units/mg of protein. The apparent molecular weight of the native enzyme, as determined by gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 was $59,500{\pm}650$ daltons; its subunit size was estimated to be $35,700{\pm}140$ by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The true Michaelis-Menten constants for all substrates at pH 7.5 were $3.9{\pm}0.7\;mM$, $0.65{\pm}0.05\;mM$, $0.26{\pm}0.06\;mM$, and $0.005{\pm}0.0004\;mM$ for L-glycerol-3-phosphate, $NAD^+$, DHAP, and NADH, respectively. The true Michaelis-Menten constants at pH 10.0 were $2.30{\pm}0.21\;mM$ and $0.20{\pm}0.01\;mM$ for L-glycerol-3-phosphate and $NAD^+$, respectively. The turnover number, $k_{cat}$, of the forward reaction was $1.9{\pm}0.2{\times}10^4\;s^{-1}$. The treatment of the enzyme with 5,5'-dithiobis-2-nitrobenzoic acid (DTNB) under denaturing conditions indicated that there were a total of eight cysteine residues, while only two of these residues were reactive towards DTNB in the native enzyme. The overall results of the in vitro experiments suggest that $\alpha$-glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase of the fruit bat preferentially catalyses the reduction of dihydroxyacetone phosphate to glycerol-3-phosphate.