The long axial cobalt-nitrogen bond first observed in the structure of MCM appears to result from a contribution of the species without upper ligand. The tight binding of the tartrate ion conforms to the requirements of tight control of the reactive intermediates and suggests how the enzyme might use the substrate-binding energy to initiate cleavage of the cobalt-carbon bond. The cofactor does not appear to have a participating role during the radical rearrangement reaction.

In enzyme catalysis, where exquisitely positioned functionality is the sine qua non, atomic coordinates for a Michaelis complex can provide powerful insights into activation of the substrate. We focus here on the initial proton transfer of the isomerization reaction catalyzed by triosephosphate isomerase and present the crystal structure of its Michaelis complex with the substrate dihydroxyacetone phosphate at near-atomic resolution. The active site is highly compact, with unusually short and bifurcated hydrogen bonds for both catalytic Glu-165 and His-95 residues. The carboxylate oxygen of the catalytic base Glu-165 is positioned in an unprecedented close interaction with the ketone and the ␣-hydroxy carbons of the substrate (C. . . O Ϸ 3.0 Å), which is optimal for the proton transfer involving these centers. The electrophile that polarizes the substrate, His-95, has close contacts to the substrate's O1 and O2 (N. . . O < 3.0 and 2.6 Å, respectively). The substrate is conformationally relaxed in the Michaelis complex: the phosphate group is out of the plane of the ketone group, and the hydroxy and ketone oxygen atoms are not in the cisoid configuration. The ammonium group of the electrophilic Lys-12 is within hydrogen-bonding distance of the substrate's ketone oxygen, the bridging oxygen, and a terminal phosphate's oxygen, suggesting a role for this residue in both catalysis and in controlling the flexibility of active-site loop.T riosephosphate isomerase (TIM) catalyzes the isomerization between dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and D-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (GAP). The uphill direction from DHAP to GAP is essential for optimal throughput in the glycolytic pathway. To accomplish this reaction, TIM extracts the pro-R hydrogen from the C1 carbon of DHAP and then stereo-specifically introduces a proton to the C2 carbon ( Fig. 1 a and b; ref. 1). Kinetic isotope effects and isotope ''washout'' experiments suggest that the reaction proceeds through a planar cis-enediol or enediolate intermediate of moderate stability (2, 3), and that the energetic landscape is characterized by several steps of competitive timescales (4). The crucial proton transfers between C1 and C2 atoms of the substrate are most likely carried out by a single base, the side chain carboxylate of Glu-165, whereas His-95 and Lys-12 probably facilitate the transfer of the hydroxyl proton from O1 to O2 (Fig. 1a; ref. 5). Structural studies revealed an ␣͞␤ fold, now known as the TIM-barrel (6-8), and elucidated the geometry of the catalytic residues at the active site and their interactions with the ligands (9).TIM is a textbook case in enzymatic enolization chemistry and has become the subject of landmark spectroscopic and computational studies elucidating the details of the mechanism, the protein motions relevant to chemistry, and the design principles that allow efficient and uphill proton transfer in enzyme active sites. Spectroscopic and mutation studies have focused on the polarization of the substrate by catalytic residues as well as on the...

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Carnitine acyltransferases have crucial roles in the transport of fatty acids for beta-oxidation. Dysregulation of these enzymes can lead to serious diseases in humans, and they are targets for therapeutic development against diabetes. We report the crystal structures of murine carnitine acetyltransferase (CRAT), alone and in complex with its substrate carnitine or CoA. The structure contains two domains. Surprisingly, these two domains share the same backbone fold, which is also similar to that of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase and dihydrolipoyl transacetylase. The active site is located at the interface between the two domains. Carnitine and CoA are bound in deep channels in the enzyme, on opposite sides of the catalytic His343 residue. The structural information provides a molecular basis for understanding the catalysis by carnitine acyltransferases and for designing their inhibitors. Specifically, our structural information suggests that the substrate carnitine may assist the catalysis by stabilizing the oxyanion in the reaction intermediate.

During protein synthesis, the ribosome selects aminoacyl-tRNAs with anticodons matching the mRNA codon present in the A-site of the small ribosomal subunit. The aminoglycoside antibiotic streptomycin disrupts decoding by binding close to the site of codon recognition. Here we use X-ray crystallography to define the impact of streptomycin on the decoding site of the Thermus thermophilus 30S ribosomal subunit in complexes with cognate or near-cognate anticodon stem-loop analogs (ASLs) and mRNA. Our crystal structures display a significant local distortion of 16S rRNA induced by streptomycin, including the crucial bases A1492 and A1493 that participate directly in codon recognition. Consistent with kinetic data, we observe that streptomycin stabilizes the near-cognate ASL complex, while destabilizing the cognate ASL complex. These data reveal how streptomycin disrupts the recognition of cognate ASLs and yet improves recognition of a near-cognate ASL.