CHARACTERIZATION OF A HUMAN CLASS-THETA GLUTATHIONE-S-TRANSFERASE WITH ACTIVITY TOWARDS 1-MENAPHTHYL SULFATE

A purification scheme is described for a glutathione S-transferase (GST) from human liver that catalyses the conjugation of 1-menaphthyl sulphate (MS) with GSH, the method devised results in an approx. 500-fold increase in specific activity towards MS. The human enzyme which metabolizes MS is a homodimer comprising subunits of M(r) 25 100, and immunochemical experiments have shown it to be a member of the class-Theta GSTs. Automated Edman degradation of this enzyme has confirmed that it is a Theta-class GST but the amino acid sequence obtained differs from that of GST-theta described previously [Meyer, Coles, Pemble, Gilmore, Fraser & Ketterer (1991) Biochem. J. 274,409-414]. We have therefore designated the enzyme that catalyses the conjugation of MS with GSH GST T2-2* (in the absence of complete amino acid sequence data, the T1 and T2 subunits are provisionally designated T1* and T2*); the evidence which indicates that GST-theta (which should possibly now be called GST T1-1*) and GST T2-2* represent distinct isoenzymes is discussed.