Glycolytic enzyme binding and metabolic control in anaerobiosis

Abstract

Metabolic rate depression is a key survival strategy used by facultative anaerobes for enduring periods of environmental anoxia. In determining the molecular mechanisms of this phenomenon the role of enzyme binding to the subcellular particulate fraction was assessed in muscle tissues (ventricle and foot) of the anoxia tolerant marine gastropod,Busycotypus canaliculatum. Using two different methodologies for preparation, soluble versus particulate fractions of muscle were separated and assayed for their contents of eight glycolytic enzymes. Preparations from anoxic animals showed decreased percentages of enzymes associated with the particulate fraction as compared to controls; this was particularly pronounced for hexokinase and aldolase. A return to aerated seawater reversed this effect, and increased enzyme binding to the particulate fraction. The absence of a Pasteur effect in animal facultative anaerobes may be due, in part, to an anoxia-induced dissociation of enzymes from the particulate fraction of the cell promoting a decrease in glycolytic rate.