Abstract
We have examined the relationships between the genetic determinants for mouse β-galactosidase heat stability and electrophoretic mobility, in order to clarify previous reports indicating that a variation for enzyme heat stability is restricted to kidney while that for electrophoretic mobility is expressed in all tissues. We find that the two phenotypes show concordant strain distributions and cosegregate in genetic crosses. In contrast to a previous report, the thermal stability variation is expressed in all tissues, although the absolute rate of enzyme inactivation is tissue specific. The evidence supports the notion that a single β-galactosidase structural locus is expressed in all tissues and that the differences in enzyme stability between tissues results from posttranslational enzyme modification.
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This work was supported in part by USPHS Grant GM-19521.
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Berger, F.G., Lusis, A.J. Relationship between genetic variation in thermal stability and electrophoretic mobility of mouse β-galactosidase. Biochem Genet 16, 1007–1014 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00483750
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00483750