Biotin carboxylase catalyzes the ATP-dependent carboxylation of biotin and is one component of the multienzyme complex acetyl-CoA carboxylase that catalyzes the first committed step in fatty acid synthesis in all organisms. Biotin carboxylase from Escherichia coli, whose crystal structures with and without ATP bound have been determined, has served as a model system for this component of the acetyl-CoA carboxylase complex. The two crystal structures revealed a large conformational change of one domain relative to the other domains when ATP is bound. Unfortunately, the crystal structure with ATP bound was obtained with an inactive site-directed mutant of the enzyme. As a consequence the structure with ATP bound lacked key structural information such as for the Mg 2+ ions and contained altered conformations of key active-site residues. Therefore, nanosecond molecular dynamics studies of the wild-type biotin carboxylase were undertaken to supplant and amend the results of the crystal structures. Specifically, the protein-metal interactions of the two catalytically critical Mg 2+ ions bound in the active site are presented along with a reevaluation of the conformations of active-site residues bound to ATP. In addition, the regions of the polypeptide chain that serve as hinges for the large conformational change were identified. The results of the hinge analysis complemented a covariance analysis that identified the individual structural elements of biotin carboxylase that change their conformation in response to ATP binding.Acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) catalyzes the first committed step in the biosynthesis of long-chain fatty acids. ACC is a biotin-dependent enzyme found in all bacteria, plants, and animals. Since fatty acids are used for membrane biogenesis and energy storage, ACC is a target for antibiotics, 1,2 herbicides, 3 and antiobesity agents. [4][5][6] ACC produces malonyl-CoA from acetyl-CoA, ATP, and bicarbonate, which serves as the source of CO 2 for all biotindependent carboxylases. 7 The reaction mechanism proceeds via two half-reactions (Scheme 1): (1) the first half-reaction is catalyzed by biotin carboxylase (BC), and (2) the second halfreaction is catalyzed by carboxyltransferase (CT). In vivo, the vitamin biotin is covalently attached to a protein called the biotin carboxyl carrier protein (designated as enzyme-biotin in Scheme 1). In mammals, these proteins comprise different domains in a single polypeptide chain. 8 In contrast, in Gramnegative and Gram-positive bacteria biotin carboxylase, carboxyltransferase, and the biotin carboxyl carrier protein are separate proteins. 9 ACC from the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli has been used as a model system for mechanistic investigations because the purified BC and CT components retain their activities, and utilize free biotin as a substrate, thereby simplifying kinetic analysis. 10 Consequently, biotin carboxylase from E. coli has been extensively studied by X-ray crystallography 11,12 and site-directed mutagenesis. [13][14][15][16] Structural...