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Metabolism and Enzymology

Purification and Characterization of Ornithine Transcarbamylase from Pea (Pisum sativum L.) ¹

Department of Biology, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267, Department of Chemistry, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267

Pea (Pisum sativum) ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) was purified to homogeneity from leaf homogenates in a single-step procedure, using -N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-ornithine-Sepharose 6B affinity chromatography. The 1581-fold purified OTC enzyme exhibited a specific activity of 139 micromoles citrulline per minute per milligram of protein at 37°C, pH 8.5. Pea OTC represents approximately 0.05% of the total soluble protein in the leaf. The molecular weight of the native enzyme was approximately 108,200, as estimated by Sephacryl S-200 gel filtration chromatography. The purified protein ran as a single molecular weight band of 36,500 in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. These results suggest that the pea OTC is a trimer of identical subunits. The overall amino acid composition of pea OTC is similar to that found in other eukaryotic and prokaryotic OTCs, but the number of arginine residues is approximately twofold higher. The increased number of arginine residues probably accounts for the observed isoelectric point of 7.6 for the pea enzyme, which is considerably more basic than isoelectric point values that have been reported for other OTCs.