Desensitization of glutamate dehydrogenase by reaction of tyrosne residues.

1. The reaction of glutamate dehydrogenase with N-acetylimidazole and with tetranitromethane leads to modification of tyrosine residues. 2. Modification of 1 tyrosine residue/subunit does not affect the enzymic activity but decreases the response of the enzyme to the allosteric inhibitor, GTP. 3. The physical properties of the enzyme (sedimentation coefficient and optical rotatory dispersion) remain unaltered. 4. GTP partially protects against desensitization. 5. The diminished responses of the modified enzymes to GTP are also detected by using the fluorescence of 1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulphonate as a conformational probe. 6. Difficulties that generally arise in chemical modifications from inhomogeneous distributions of products are discussed.