p-Hydroxymercuribenzoate as thiol-protein modifier for simultaneous determination of glycolytic enzymes by hydrophobic-interaction chromatography

Summary The use of hydrophobic-interaction chromatography (HIC) is proposed for the simultaneous determination of more than one thiol-protein after formation of the corresponding mercury mercaptides withp-hydroxymercuribenzoate (PHMB). The new chromatographic procedure, based on the HIC separation of the modified proteins from each other and from excess organomercury reagent has been successfully applied to the quantitative determination of phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI) and phosphoglucose mutase (PGM) in crude PGI powder, and of L-lactate dehydrogenase, PGM and aldolase in crude pyruvate kinase from rabbit muscle. The suitability of²⁰³Hg-labelled PHMB has been tested in the analysis of mixtures, which give barely distinguishable UV-peaks owing to the presence of other non-thiol components in the sample. For this purpose glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDHy) and PGIy from bakers yeast have been considered. Results obtained in experiments performed by both procedures are reported.