Sumario: | 1. 1. Gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 and Sepharose 4B were used to redetermine the molecular weight (MW) of porphobilinogenase, deaminase and isomerase purified from different sources, and determine the MW of these enzymes purified from Eugtena gracilis. 2. 2. Results reported here, indicate that porphobilinogenase can be found, into three different molecular forms, tetramers, dimers and monomers according to the source organism. 3. 3. It is proposed that minimal functional structure of PBGase is a hybrid protomer of MW 25,000, composed by two different domains, in a ratio of 1 mol of deaminase, MW 20,000 to 1 mol of isomerase. MW 5000. 4. 4. A model explaining the occurrence of different MW species of PBGase in nature and the possible interconversion among the various forms is postulated. © 1980.
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