1. The activities and relative 3-oxoacyl-CoA substrate specificities of oxoacyl-CoA thiolase were determined in a large number of animal tissues. The relative activities with different 3-oxoacyl-CoA substrates varied widely in different tissues and, in addition, the activity as measured with acetoacetyl-CoA (but not with other longer-carbon-chain acyl-CoA substrates) was activated by K(+). 2. These properties were due to the presence, in different proportions in each tissue, of three classes of thiolase, all of which use acetoacetyl-CoA as substrate but which have different intracellular locations and substrate specificities and which differ also in kinetic and chromatographic behaviour. 3. Cytoplasmic thiolase activity was found to be widely distributed among different tissues and was due to an acetoacetyl-CoA-specific thiolase. This cytoplasmic activity was found to account for a significant proportion of the total tissue activity towards acetoacetyl-CoA in several tissues, and especially in the brain of newborn rats. 4. Mitochondrial thiolase activity towards acetoacetyl-CoA was due to two different classes of enzyme whose relative amounts varied with the tissue type. An oxoacyl-CoA thiolase of general specificity for the acyl-CoA substrate constituted one class, the other being a specific acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase that differed from its cytoplasmic counterpart in being greatly stimulated by K(+). 5. This activation by K(+) made it possible to calculate the tissue contents of mitochondrial acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase and mitochondrial oxoacyl-CoA thiolase from measurements of activity with acetoacetyl-CoA in tissue extracts under defined conditions. 6. The properties and the different thiolases and their tissue distribution is discussed with respect to their possible roles in metabolism.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia cause destructive lung disease in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Both pathogens emploỳ quorum sensing', i.e. cell-to-cell communication, via diffusible N-acyl-L-homoserine lactone (AHL) signal molecules, to regulate the production of a number of virulence determinants in vitro. However, to date, evidence that quorum sensing systems are functional and play a role in vivo is lacking. This study presents the first direct evidence for the presence of AHLs in CF sputum. A total of 42 samples from 25 CF patients were analysed using lux-based Escherichia coli AHL biosensors. AHLs were detected in sputum from patients colonised by P. aeruginosa or B. cepacia but not Staphylococcus aureus. Furthermore, using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and thin layer chromatography, we confirmed the presence of N-hexanoylhomoserine lactone and N-(3-oxododecanoyl)homoserine lactone respectively in sputum samples from patients colonised by P. aeruginosa. ß

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1. Cytoplasmic acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase was highly purified in good yield from rat liver extracts. 2. Mg(2+) inhibits the rate of acetoacetyl-CoA thiolysis but not the rate of synthesis of acetoacetyl-CoA. Measurement of the velocity of thiolysis at varying Mg(2+) but fixed acetoacetyl-CoA concentrations gave evidence that the keto form of acetoacetyl-CoA is the true substrate. 3. Linear reciprocal plots of velocity of acetoacetyl-CoA synthesis against acetyl-CoA concentration in the presence or absence of desulpho-CoA (a competitive inhibitor) indicate that the kinetic mechanism is of the Ping Pong (Cleland, 1963) type involving an acetyl-enzyme covalent intermediate. In the presence of CoA the reciprocal plots are non-linear, becoming second order in acetyl-CoA (the Hill plot shows a slope of 1.7), but here this does not imply co-operative phenomena. 4. In the direction of acetoacetyl-CoA thiolysis CoA is a substrate inhibitor, competing with acetoacetyl-CoA, with a K(i) of 67mum. Linear reciprocal plots of initial velocity against concentration of mixtures of acetoacetyl-CoA plus CoA confirmed the Ping Pong mechanism for acetoacetyl-CoA thiolysis. This method of investigation also enabled the determination of all the kinetic constants without complication by substrate inhibition. When saturated with substrate the rate of acetoacetyl-CoA synthesis is 0.055 times the rate of acetoacetyl-CoA thiolysis. 5. Acetoacetyl-CoA thiolase was extremely susceptible to inhibition by an excess of iodoacetamide, but this inhibition was completely abolished after preincubation of the enzyme with a molar excess of acetoacetyl-CoA. This result was in keeping with the existence of an acetyl-enzyme. Acetyl-CoA, in whose presence the overall reaction could proceed, gave poor protection, presumably because of the continuous turnover of acetyl-enzyme in this case. 6. The kinetic mechanism of cytoplasmic thiolase is discussed in terms of its proposed role in steroid biosynthesis.