The Sub‐Cellular Localisation of Pyruvate Carboxylase and of Some Other Enzymes in Aspergillus nidulans

Abstract

The sub-cellular localisation of enzymes has been defined by latency analysis, and fractionation by differential centrifugation, in cell-free extracts prepared from the mycelium of Aspergillus nidulans by growth in the presence of 2-deoxyglucose followed by treatment with a mixture of β-glucuronidase, sulphatase and β-glucanase and exposure to N₂ cavitation at 5.2 PMa. In such extracts pyruvate carboxylase and NAD-dependent and NADP-dependent glutamate dehydrogenases are exclusively localised in the cytosol whereas all the other enzymes studied have sub-cellular localisation patterns similar to those described for mammalian liver. Electrophoretic analysis has established the presence of unique mitochondrial and cytosolic isoenzymes for many of the enzymes, e.g. NAD–malate dehydrogenase, NADP–isocitrate dehydrogenase, glutamate/oxaloacetate transaminase, fumarase, which show a marked extent of incomplete latency and the presence of significant activity in the mitochondrial and cytosolic fractions prepared by differential centrifugation. A novel method is described for detection of citrate synthase activity following electrophoresis of the cell-free extract. Application of this method confirms the absence of a unique cytosolic isoenzyme of citrate synthase and hence shows that citrate synthase activity detected in the soluble fraction results from damage to the mitochondria during isolation. A scheme is proposed on the basis of these data to describe the organisation of lipid and amino acid synthesis from glucose in an organism which posessesses a cytosolic pyruvate carboxylase.