title: Lysine degradation through the saccharopine pathway in mammals: involvement of both bifunctional and monofunctional lysine-degrading enzymes in mouse.
abstract: Lysine-oxoglutarate reductase and saccharopine dehydrogenase are enzymic activities that catalyse the first two steps of lysine degradation through the saccharopine pathway in upper eukaryotes. This paper describes the isolation and characterization of a cDNA clone encoding a bifunctional enzyme bearing domains corresponding to these two enzymic activities. We partly purified those activities from mouse liver and showed for the first time that both a bifunctional lysine-oxoglutarate reductase/saccharopine dehydrogenase and a monofunctional saccharopine dehydrogenase are likely to be present in this organ. Northern analyses indicate the existence of two mRNA species in liver and kidney. The longest molecule, 3.4 kb in size, corresponds to the isolated cDNA and encodes the bifunctional enzyme. The 2.4 kb short transcript probably codes for the monofunctional dehydrogenase. Sequence analyses show that the bifunctional enzyme is likely to be a mitochondrial protein. Furthermore, enzymic and expression analyses suggest that lysine-oxoglutarate reductase/saccharopine dehydrogenase levels increase in livers of mice under starvation. Lysine-injected mice also show an increase in lysine-oxoglutarate reductase and saccharopine dehydrogenase levels.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Biologia Molecular e Engenharia Genética, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, CEP 13083-970, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Papes
authors.forename: E L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Kemper
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cord-Neto
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Langone
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Arruda
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D015723:Gene Library; D007668:Kidney / Q000201:enzymology; D008099:Liver / Q000201:enzymology; D008239:Lysine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D012443:Saccharopine Dehydrogenases / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013217:Starvation / Q000378:metabolism; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D009097:Multienzyme Complexes; D012443:Saccharopine Dehydrogenases; D008239:Lysine; C100169:saccharopine