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Articles

Origin of Acetate in Spinach Leaf Cell ¹

Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, Davis, California 95616

Mitochondria were isolated from spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) leaves using a Percoll gradient step. The high purity of the organelle fraction is demonstrated by electron microscopy and biochemical parameters. In the matrix space of these mitochondria, a short-chain acyl-coenzyme A hydrolase is present that converts acetyl-coenzyme A to acetate and coenzyme A with reasonable rates (K_m, 150 micromolar; V_max, 140 nanomoles acetate formed milligram¹ protein hour^–1). The enzyme is product inhibited by coenzyme A-sulfhydryl, other thiols are ineffective; however, the disulfides 5,5'-dithio-bis-(2-nitrobenzoate) and cystamine stimulate the hydrolysis. The possible role of this mitochondrial enzyme as a means of generating free acetate from pyruvate via acetyl-coenzyme A in the mitochondria of mature spinach leaves is discussed. It is suggested that free acetate moves rapidly from the mitochondrion to the chloroplast where acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase, solely localized in this organelle, converts the metabolically inert free acetate to the highly active acetyl-coenzyme A.

¹ Supported by grants from National Science Foundation (PCM79-03976) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

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