Biochemical characterization of the mouse muscle-specific enolase: developmental changes in electrophoretic variants and selective binding to other proteins
The glycolytic enzyme enolase (EC 4.2.1.11) is active as dimers formed from three subunits encoded by different genes. The embryonic αα isoform remains distributed in many adult cell types, whereas a transition towards ββ and γγ isoforms occurs in striated muscle cells and neurons respectively. It is not understood why enolase exhibits tissue-specific isoforms with very close functional properties. We approached this problem by the purification of native ββ-enolase from mouse hindlimb muscles and by raising specific antibodies of high titre against this protein. These reagents have been useful in revealing a heterogeneity of the β-enolase subunit that changes with in vivo and in vitro maturation. A basic carboxypeptidase appears to be involved in generating an acidic β-enolase variant, and may regulate plasminogen binding by this subunit. We show for the first time that pure ββ-enolase binds with high affinity the adjacent enzymes in the glycolytic pathway (pyruvate kinase and phosphoglycerate mutase), favouring the hypothesis that these three enzymes form a functional glycolytic segment. ββ-Enolase binds with high affinity sarcomeric troponin but not actin and tropomyosin. Some of these binding properties are shared by the αα-isoenolase, which is also expressed in striated muscle, but not by the neuron-specific γγ-enolase. These results support the idea that specific interactions with macromolecules will address muscle enolase isoforms at the subcellular site where ATP, produced through glycolysis, is most needed for contraction. Such a specific targeting could be modulated by post-translational modifications.