The acid precipitate of the ubiquitin activating enzyme after reaction with ATP and ubiquitin contains one enzyme equivalent of ubiquitin adenylate in which the carboxyl-terminal glycine of ubiquitin and AMP are in an acyl-phosphate linkage. The recovered ubiquitin adenylate has the catalytic properties proposed for it as a reaction intermediate. Thus, upon reaction with fresh enzyme in the absence of Mg2+ or ATP, the product complex, E-ubiquitin . AMP-ubiquitin, is formed. This complex is capable of generating ubiquitin-protein isopeptide derivatives when added to a reticulocyte fraction that catalyzes protein conjugation. This reproduces the effect previously shown to require ubiquitin, ATP, and Mg2+. In the presence of activating enzyme, ubiquitin adenylate is converted to ATP and free ubiquitin in a step requiring PPi and Mg2+. On the basis of studies of [32P]PPi/nucleoside triphosphate exchange, the activating enzyme could be used to generate 2'-deoxy-AMP-, 2'-deoxy-IMP-, and 2'-deoxy-GMP-ubiquitin but not pyrimidine nucleotide-ubiquitin derivatives. The enzyme shows a modest preference for the pro-S diastereomers of adenosine 5'-O-(1-thiotriphosphate) and adenosine 5'-O-(2-thiotriphosphate). Inorganic phosphate, arsenate, methyl phosphate, and tripolyphosphate, but not nucleoside triphosphates, can serve as alternate substrates in place of PPi in the reverse of ubiquitin adenylate formation. Therefore, the enzyme catalyzes the unusual reaction ATP + Pi in equilibrium ADP + PPi in the presence of ubiquitin.

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Thiols such as dithiothreitol (DTT) are known to allow recycling of the ubiquitin activating enzyme presumably due to attack by thiol on E-ubiquitin forming E + DTT-ubiquitin. It is now reported that the resulting ubiquitin thiol ester is extremely susceptible to hydrolysis, giving rise to free ubiquitin that can then also recycle in the activating enzyme reaction. The instability of ubiquitin thiol esters in this system is caused by a ubiquitin carboxy-terminal thiolesterase activity found as a minor contaminant of the activating enzyme. This activity of rabbit reticulocytes has been extensively purified, and some of its properties are reported. The enzyme, which also cleaves carboxy-terminal adenosine 5'-phosphate-ubiquitin, is inhibited by free ubiquitin at micromolar concentrations. The ubiquitin-specific esterase probably functions to hydrolyze glutathione and other thiol esters of ubiquitin that would be formed spontaneously from activated ubiquitin in cells.

Using 3T[14C]malate it was possible to show intermolecular T-transfer to unlabeled fumarate. The rate of dissociation of ET derived from the malate was not rapid, only about as fast as required for KMcat. Because of the slow dissociation of ET derived from T-malate, the awkward complex ET-malate is readily formed. As shown by the effect of added malate on the partition of ET, otherwise captured by fumarate, ET.malate must be functional. Its rate of dissociation to E.M determines the V/Km value of malate. Hydrogen dissociation of the complex ET.F was linearly related to the concentration and basicity of the buffer provided, varying from < 10% to > 60% of the overall rate with alkyl phosphonates. Partition of EH.F to free malate or fumarate occurs in a ratio approximately 2:1 at both low and high buffer. This agrees well with the comparison of the equilibrium exchange rates: malate with [18O]water to malate with [14C]-fumarate [Hansen, J.N., Dinovo, E.C., & Boyer, P.D. (1969) J. Biol. Chem. 244, 6270-6279]. Therefore, the abstracted hydroxyl group is fully exchanged from the enzyme when the bound hydrogen and fumarate return to malate and must be much more accessible to the medium than the abstracted proton. The fact that buffer increases the rate of proton transfer to the medium in the central complex makes it appear that a proton relay connects the active site donor with a remote site that interfaces with the ultimate proton source, water.