The effect of p-hydroxymercuribenzoate and congeners on microsomal glucose-6-phosphatase

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Abstract
Summary Iodoacetamide, N-ethylmaleimide, p-hydroxy-mercuribenzoate (p-MB) and HgCl2 were tested as inhibitors of microsomal glucose-6-phosphatase. Iodoacetamide had no effect at 2mm. N-ethylmaleimide inhibited only crude, but not purified microsomal preparations (M2) or crude microsomes exposed to deoxycholate.14C-labelled N-ethylmaleimide was not bound by the M2 protein fraction. p-MB inhibited all types of preparations and the inhibition was not counteracted by detergent. A more detailed study was carried out with the purified M2 fraction (specific activity: 2–4µmoles Pi/min/mg protein). Glucose-6-phosphate hydrolysis was inhibited 50% by 5 × 10−5 m p-MB. The inhibition was completely reversible by dithiothreitol except when the enzyme was pre-incubated with p-MB in the absence of substrate. Then p-MB accelerated the temperature-dependent inactivation of glucose-6-phosphatase. Binding studies showed that around 3µmoles14C-p-MB were incorporated into 100 mg M2 protein regardless of the concentration of mercurial in the incubation mixture. That is, over a 25 fold range of p-MB concentration, causing up to 80% inhibition of enzyme activity, no difference was seen in the amount of labelled p-MB which was irreversibly bound to M2 protein. Kinetically p-MB behaved like a reversible inhibitor and this was confirmed by dilution experiments. Several compounds, including some amino acids, antagonized the inhibition by p-MB. The order of effectiveness was EDTA > barbital > tryptophan > histidine > lysine > other amino acids. Glycine, Tris and urea were ineffective competitors of p-MB inhibition. Double reciprocal plots showed that the Km for glucose-6-phosphate was increased and the Vmax reduced in the presence of p-MB. HgCl2 was a more effective inhibitor than p-MB with a Ki of 6 × 10−6 m. We conclude that a reaction of p-MB with M2 sulfhydryls does not play a part in the inhibition of enzyme activity. It is suggested that p-MB may interact with one or more amino acid side chains in such a way that enzyme conformation is altered.