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Science 15 February 1980:
Vol. 207. no. 4432, pp. 769 - 770
DOI: 10.1126/science.7352286
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Articles

Science, Vol 207, Issue 4432, 769-770
Copyright © 1980 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Lactate dehydrogenases of Atlantic hagfish: physiological and evolutionary implications of a primitive heart isozyme

BD Sidell and KF Beland

Isozymes of lactate dehydrogenase from heart and muscle of Atlantic hagfish show less functional divergence than those from other fishes and higher vertebrates. The enzyme from hagfish heart (B4) displays a higher Michaelis constant for pyruvate and lower substrate inhibition at moderate pyruvate concentrations than heart isozymes from other species. These properties support the hypothesis that the ancestral vertebrate lactate dehydrogenase was a muscle (A4)-type enzyme and also suggest a role for the B4 enzyme in the unusual physiology of hagfish cardiac tissue which functions under sustained hypoxic conditions.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)