The three-dimensional structure of Salmonella typhimurium orotate phosphoribosyltransferase (OPRTase) in complex with the ribose 5-phosphate donor alpha-D-5--phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate (PRPP) and the nitrogenous base orotic acid has been solved and refined with X-ray diffraction data extending to 2.3 A resolution to a crystallographic R-factor of 18.7%. The complex was generated by carrying out catalysis in the crystal. Comparison of this structure with the previously reported structure of the orotidine 5'-monophosphate (OMP) complex [Scapin, G., Grubmeyer, C., and Sacchettini, J. C. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 1287-1294] revealed that the enzyme backbone undergoes only small movements. The most significant differences occur near the active site, at Ala71-Gly74, with the largest difference involving the side chains of Lys73, Val127-Ala133, the 5'-phosphate binding loop, and a long, solvent-exposed loop at the dimer interface. The position of the ribose moiety is, on the other hand, very different in the OMP and PRPP.orotate complexes, with its anomeric carbon moving approximately 7 A across the binding cavity. In the PRPP.orotate complex the highly conserved acidic side chain of Asp124 interacts with the ribose of PRPP, whereas there are no interactions of this aspartate with the substrate in the OMP complex.

The seven-stranded alpha/beta-barrel domain of QAPRTase is very similar in structure to the eight-stranded alpha/beta-barrel enzymes. The structure shows a phosphate-binding site that appears to be conserved among many alpha/beta-barrel enzymes including indole-3-glycerol phosphate synthase and flavocytochrome b2. The new fold observed here demonstrates that the PRTase enzymes have evolved their similar chemistry from at least two completely different protein architectures.

Salmonella typhimurium orotate phosphoribosyltransferase (OPRTase) catalyzes the formation of orotidine 5'-monophosphate (OMP) from orotate and alpha-D-5-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate (PRPP). There are five highly conserved lysine residues (Lys-19, -26, -73, -100, and -103) in S. typhimurium OPRTase. Here, we report the results of mutagenesis and substrate analog studies to investigate the functional roles of these lysines. Together with information from X-ray crystallography [Scapin, G., Grubmeyer, C., & Sacchettini, J. C. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 1287-1294; Scapin, G., Ozturk, D. H., Grubmeyer, C., & Sacchettini, J. C. (1995) Biochemistry 34, 10744-10754], sequence comparisons, and chemical modification [Grubmeyer, C., Segura, E., & Dorfman, R. (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268, 20299-20304], this work permits the assignment of functions of the five conserved lysines. Lys-19 is external to the active site, and its mutation to glutamine had little effect on enzyme activity. Lys-26 forms a hydrogen bond to OMP at the 3'-hydroxyl group, and its mutation produced 3-10-fold decreases in kcat. Lys-73 extends into the active site, and a conformational change allows it to interact with either the 5'-phosphate of OMP or the 2-hydroxyl and alpha-phosphoryl oxygen of PRPP in their respective substrate complexes. Mutation of Lys-73 produced a 50-100-fold decrease in kcat and an 8-12-fold increase in the KM value for PRPP. Mutation of Lys-100 produced a 5-fold decrease in kcat and a 3-fold increase in the KM for PRPP, consistent with its location within the active site, near the pyrophosphate moiety of PRPP.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

A solvent-exposed loop, comprising residues 98-119 of S. typhimurium orotate phosphoribosyltransferase (OPRTase), is at the subunit interface of the dimeric enzyme, and its amino acid side chains potentially contact active sites on either subunit. A portion of the loop (103-107) appears to be mobile on the basis of the X-ray structures of enzyme.OMP [Scapin, G., Grubmeyer, C., & Sacchettini, J. C. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 1287-1294] and enzyme.PRPP.orotate complexes [Scapin, G., Ozturk, D. H., Grubmeyer, C., & Sacchettini, J. C. (1995) Biochemistry 34, 10744-10754]. Lys-103, which is essential for activity [Ozturk, D. H., Dorfman, R. H. Scapin, G., Sacchettini, J. C., & Grubmeyer, C. (1995) Biochemistry 34, 10755-10763], may thus be functional in the active site formed by the adjacent subunit. Asp-125 is an essential residue that is in the middle of the active site. Equimolar mixtures of the nearly inactive K103A and D125N mutant ORPTase subunits produced approximately 21-23% of the enzymatic activity of the wild-type OPRTase. Heterodimer formation in the complemented mixtures was evidenced by various physical methods. Thus, the active site of OPRTase requires Asp-125 from one subunit and Lys-103 from the adjacent subunit. As predicted from the three-dimensional structure, increased activity resulting from complementation was also observed with mixtures of the K103A mutant and the poorly active K73A and K73Q mutants but not with mixtures of D125N and either K73A or K73Q mutants. Neither K103A nor D125N mutants exhibited negative complementation with the wild-type enzyme. A K103A/D125N double mutant enzyme was also constructed and was able to inactivate wild-type enzyme.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Bovine liver glutamate dehydrogenase reacts with 8-[(4-bromo-2,3-dioxobutyl)thio]adenosine 5'-diphosphate (8-BDB-TA-5'-DP) and 5'-triphosphate (8-BDB-TA-5'-TP) to yield enzyme with about 1 mol of reagent incorporated/mol of enzyme subunit. The modified enzyme is catalytically active but has decreased sensitivity to inhibition by GTP, reduced extent of activation by ADP, and diminished inhibition by high concentrations of NADH. Since modified enzyme, like native glutamate dehydrogenase, reversibly binds more than 1 mol each of ADP and GTP, it is unlikely that 8-BDB-TA-5'-TP reacts directly within either the ADP or GTP regulatory sites. The rate constant for reaction of enzyme exhibits a nonlinear dependence on reagent concentration with KD = 89 microM for 8-BDB-TA-5'-TP and 240 microM for 8-BDB-TA-5'-DP. The ligands ADP and GTP alone and NADH alone produce only small decreases in the rate constant for the reaction of enzyme with 8-BDB-TA-5'-TP, but the combined addition of 5 mM NADH + 200 microM GTP reduces the reaction rate constant more than 10-fold and the reagent incorporation to about 0.1 mol/mol of enzyme subunit. These results suggest that 8-BDB-TA-5'-TP reacts as a nucleotide affinity label in the region of the GTP-dependent NADH regulatory site of bovine liver glutamate dehydrogenase.