Plant microbody proteins. Purification and glycoprotein nature of glyoxysomal isocitrate lyase from cucumber cotyledons.

1. Isocitrate lyase from cotyledons of cucumber seedlings (Cucumis sativus) has been purified 100-fold. Two methods of preparing the soluble glyoxylate cycle enzyme are described: an elaborated method which used crude extracts of cucumber cotyledons, and another procedure which started with purified glyoxysomes from 4-day-old cotyledons and included a separation of glyoxysomal matrix enzymes by zonal centrifugation. The product behaved as a single species when tested by (a) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of dodecyl sulfate, (b) zonal centrifugation, and (c) double immunodiffusion against rabbit antibody to isocitrate lyase. 2. Isocitrate lyase of cucumber glyoxysomes exhibited a molecular weight of 255,000 and was composed of four apparently identical subunits of Mr 64,000. An isoelectric point of 5.9 was determined. 3. It was shown that isocitrate lyase is a glycoprotein, (a) by Schiff stain on polyacrylamide gels, (b) by periodate oxidation of the enzyme, subsequent reduction with NaB[3H]4 and electrophoretic analysis of the labelled glycoprotein, and (c) by incorporation of [3H]glucosamine in vivo into a protein which could be precipitated with antibodies to isocitrate lyase and revealed a 64,000-Mr band upon electrophoresis.