R67 dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) catalyzes the reduction of dihydrofolate (DHF) to tetrahydrofolate using NADPH as a cofactor. This enzyme is a homotetramer possessing 222 symmetry, and a single active site pore traverses the length of the protein. A promiscuous binding surface can accommodate either DHF or NADPH, thus two nonproductive complexes can form (2NADPH or 2DHF) as well as a productive complex (NADPH⅐DHF). The role of water in binding was monitored using a number of different osmolytes. From isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) studies, binding of NADPH is accompanied by the net release of 38 water molecules. In contrast, from both steady state kinetics and ITC studies, binding of DHF is accompanied by the net uptake of water. Although different osmolytes have similar effects on NADPH binding, variable results are observed when DHF binding is probed. Sensitivity to water activity can also be probed by an in vivo selection using the antibacterial drug, trimethoprim, where the water content of the media is decreased by increasing concentrations of sorbitol. The ability of wild type and mutant clones of R67 DHFR to allow host Escherichia coli to grow in the presence of trimethoprim plus added sorbitol parallels the catalytic efficiency of the DHFR clones, indicating water content strongly correlates with the in vivo function of R67 DHFR.R67 dihydrofolate reductase, a type II DHFR, 2 catalyzes the NADPH-dependent reduction of dihydrofolate (DHF) to tetrahydrofolate. The gene for this enzyme is carried by an R-plasmid, and its presence confers resistance to the antibiotic drug, trimethoprim (TMP). Trimethoprim is a competitive inhibitor of chromosomal DHFR with a picomolar K i (1). Although R67 DHFR is not a good catalyst, it is not inhibited by TMP very well, and thus it allows cell growth in the presence of this antibacterial drug (2, 3). R67 DHFR shares no homology in sequence or structure with chromosomal DHFR and has been proposed to be a good model of a primitive enzyme (4).R67 DHFR is a homotetramer with a single active site pore; the overall structure possesses 222 symmetry as seen in Fig. 1 (5). The symmetry of the active site results in overlapping binding sites for substrate, DHF, and cofactor, NADPH. This can be observed as R67 DHFR binds a total of two ligands as follows: either two NADPH molecules or two folate/DHF molecules or one NADPH plus one folate/DHF molecule (6). The first two complexes are dead-end (binary) complexes, whereas the third is the productive ternary complex. Because of the 222 symmetry, binding to either ligand is unlikely to be optimal.The active site pore of R67 DHFR is unusual in its hourglass shape as well as its large size (2938 Å 3 for apoR67 DHFR with hydrogens added, calculated by CASTp (4, 7)). Because of this large volume, DHF and NADPH cannot occupy all the space in the pore and must use water to mediate some contacts with the protein.How do substrate and cofactor bind to R67 DHFR? From NMR, crystallography, and docking studies, the pteridine ring of DHF/fo...