Post-transcriptional regulation of S-adenosylmethionine synthetase from its stored mRNA in germinated wheat embryos

Abstract

About 2-3-fold stimulation of S-adenosylmethionine synthetase was witnessed in germinated wheat embryos (48 h). The enhancement of enzyme activity was significantly inhibited by cycloheximide and amino acid analogues. Simultaneous addition of corresponding amino acids alleviated the inhibitory effect of amino acid analogues. Conclusive proof for the de novo synthesis of S-adenosylmethionine synthetase was obtained by labelling this enzyme with [35SO4]2- in vivo. Thus de novo enzyme synthesis seemed necessary for the rise in activity of AdoMet synthetase in wheat embryos. Curiously, blocking of transcription with cordycepin failed to repress the de novo synthesis of AdoMet synthetase in germinated wheat embryos. We envisage the presence of stored mRNA for AdoMet synthetase in wheat embryos. Thus the regulation of this enzyme occurs at the post-transcriptional level. L-Methionine, which is one of the substrates of AdoMet synthetase, stimulated the enzyme activity (2-2.4-fold) over that observed in control germinated embryos. L-Methionine promotes increased de novo synthesis of AdoMet synthetase. Preincubation of enzyme fraction with L-Methionine failed to activate or stabilize the activity of AdoMet synthetase. Three isozymes of AdoMet synthetase were physically separated by DE-52 ion-exchange chromatography. One of the isozymes of AdoMet synthetase has been purified (1529-fold) to electrophoretic homogeneity by resorting to phenyl Sepharose and ATP Sepharose affinity chromatography. The purified enzyme catalyzed the synthesis of S-adenosylmethionine and also exhibited tripolyphosphatase activity. The reaction product of the purified enzyme was chemically and enzymatically characterized as S-adenosylmethionine. The molecular weight of the native enzyme is 174,000 and that of its subunit is 84,000 as determined on SDS-PAGE. Thus the native enzyme seems to be dimeric in nature.