The urea cycle disease carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase deficiency (CPS1D) has been associated with many mutations in the CPS1 gene [Häberle et al., 2011. Hum Mutat 32:579-589]. The disease-causing potential of most of these mutations is unclear. To test the mutations effects, we have developed a system for recombinant expression, mutagenesis, and purification of human carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1), a very large, complex, and fastidious enzyme. The kinetic and molecular properties of recombinant CPS1 are essentially the same as for natural human CPS1. Glycerol partially replaces the essential activator N-acetyl-l-glutamate (NAG), opening possibilities for treating CPS1D due to NAG site defects. The value of our expression system for elucidating the effects of mutations is demonstrated with eight clinical CPS1 mutations. Five of these mutations decreased enzyme stability, two mutations drastically hampered catalysis, and one vastly impaired NAG activation. In contrast, the polymorphisms p.Thr344Ala and p.Gly1376Ser had no detectable effects. Site-limited proteolysis proved the correctness of the working model for the human CPS1 domain architecture generally used for rationalizing the mutations effects. NAG and its analogue and orphan drug N-carbamoyl-l-glutamate, protected human CPS1 against proteolytic and thermal inactivation in the presence of MgATP, raising hopes of treating CPS1D by chemical chaperoning with N-carbamoyl-l-glutamate.

Mammalian liver mitochondrial carbamoyl phosphate synthetase, a polypeptide of 160 kDa, is activated allosterically by N-acetyl-L-glutamate. The analogue of this activator N-(chloroacetyl)-L-[14C]glutamate has been found to serve as a photoaffinity label for this enzyme. The specificity was demonstrated by the drastic reduction in the radioactivity bound to the protein when (a) an excess of unlabeled acetylglutamate was present during the irradiation and (b) the enzyme was replaced by pyruvate kinase, an enzyme that is not affected by acetylglutamate. The labeling was due to the photoactivation of the chloroacetyl group since there was no labeling under equal conditions with acetyl[14C]glutamate. To localize the binding site, limited proteolysis was used. Trypsin cleaves carbamoyl phosphate synthetase into complementary NH2- and COOH-terminal fragments of about 140 and 20 kDa, respectively [Powers-Lee, S. G., & Corina, K. (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261, 15349-15352], but only the latter was found to be labeled. Similarly, of the various fragments generated by elastase, only two, of 20 and 120 kDa, contain the COOH terminus [see Powers-Lee and Corina (1986) above] and were found to be labeled. Thus, the binding site for acetylglutamate is within 20 kDa from the COOH terminus. This excludes the possibility that the acetylglutamate binding site evolved from an ancestral substrate site for glutamine: this substrate binds to the small subunit of the Escherichia coli enzyme, which is homologous to the NH2-terminal domain of the rat liver enzyme. Exhaustive tryptic digestion of photolabeled carbamoyl phosphate synthetase yielded a single radioactive peak, suggesting that the labeling is restricted to a single minimal tryptic peptide.

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Carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase was inactivated by elastase with first-order kinetics, and N-acetyl-Lglutamate speeded inactivation. From the dependence of the tlI2 value for inactivation on the concentration of acetylglutamate we estimate a Kd value for binding of the activator of 0.365 mM, which is approximately 600 times greater than in the presence of ATP, HCO;, K + and MgZf. K + and Mg2+ are not required for binding with low affinity, and in the absence of ATP they do not appear to increase the affinity for acetylglutamate. In the presence of acetylglutamate, mixtures of ATP, K + and Mg2+ protect the enzyme from inactivation. ADP or AdoPP[NH]P partly replaced ATP in protecting the enzyme and thus binding of the nucleotide without further reaction is enough for protection. Two partial activities of the enzyme were inactivated by elastase to the same extent as the overall reaction, and thus elastase affects some property of the enzyme which is essential for catalysis. With other proteinases tested, inactivation was also accelerated by acetylglutamate and was slowed by mixtures of ATP, K + , Mg2+ and acetylglutamate, suggesting that changes in the accessibility of susceptible bonds are responsible for the changes in the degree of inactivation. It is concluded that elastase attacks at or close to the binding sites for ATP, and that exposure of the binding site for the ATP molecule that yields Pi (ATP,) upon binding of acetylglutamate causes the acceleration of the proteolytic inactivation.Carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase I, an enzyme which consists of a single polypeptide chain of approximately 160 kDa [l], accounts for about 10% of the mitochondria1 protein in liver of man [2] and rat [3]. It catalyzes reaction (1). Mg2+>Kt , 2 ADP(1) 2 AT' + HCO; + NH3 acetylglutamateThe two molecules of ATP used in the reaction have different roles [4]: one yields Pi (ATPA); the other yields carbamoyl phosphate (ATP,). Separate binding sites for these two nucleotide molecules have been demonstrated. These sites differ in their affinity for ATP and in other respects [5].The enzyme has a nearly absolute requirement for N-acetyl-L-glutamate, which is an allosteric activator [6]. We have previously demonstrated, using rate of dialysis and ultracentrifugation [7], that the enzyme binds one molecule of [14C]acetylglutamate with high affinity (Kd % 0.6 -1 pM) when K + and Mgz+ (which are essential ionic activators of