Phosphopantetheine adenylyltransferase (PPAT) catalyzes the penultimate step in coenzyme A (CoA) biosynthesis: the reversible adenylation of 4-phosphopantetheine yielding 3-dephospho-CoA and pyrophosphate. Wild-type PPAT from Escherichia coli was purified to homogeneity. N-terminal sequence analysis revealed that the enzyme is encoded by a gene designated kdtB, purported to encode a protein involved in lipopolysaccharide core biosynthesis. The gene, here renamed coaD, is found in a wide range of microorganisms, indicating that it plays a key role in the synthesis of 3-dephospho-CoA. Overexpression of coaD yielded highly purified recombinant PPAT, which is a homohexamer of 108 kDa. Not less than 50% of the purified enzyme was found to be associated with CoA, and a method was developed for its removal. A steady state kinetic analysis of the reverse reaction revealed that the mechanism of PPAT involves a ternary complex of enzyme and substrates. Since purified PPAT lacks dephospho-CoA kinase activity, the two final steps of CoA biosynthesis in E. coli must be catalyzed by separate enzymes.Coenzyme A (CoA) 1 is an essential cofactor in numerous biosynthetic, degradative, and energy-yielding metabolic pathways and is involved in the control of several key reactions in intermediary metabolism (1). CoA also donates the 4Ј-phosphopantetheinyl cofactor to the acyl carrier protein of the fatty acid synthase complex (2).The synthesis of CoA occurs in five steps which, utilize pantothenate (vitamin B 5 ), cysteine, and ATP (for review, see Ref.3). In all systems studied, the rate of CoA biosynthesis appears to be regulated by feedback inhibition of the first enzyme of the pathway, pantothenate kinase (4 -7). In vitro studies of pantothenate kinase from Escherichia coli showed that (a) CoA and, to a lesser extent, its acyl thioesters are competitive inhibitors with respect to ATP and (b) the K i values are within the physiological range of intracellular CoA concentrations (6). Studies of the intermediates in CoA biosynthesis have shown that both pantothenate and 4Ј-phosphopantetheine can accumulate in the cell (8). Hence, in addition to control of CoA synthesis on the level of pantothenate kinase, further modulation of flux through the pathway could occur at phosphopantetheine adenylyltransferase (PPAT), which catalyzes the penultimate step in the pathway (Fig. 1), the reversible adenylation of 4Ј-phosphopantetheine to form 3Ј-dephospho-CoA (dPCoA) and pyrophosphate (PP i ). Regulation at this step may control the reutilization of 4Ј-phosphopantetheine arising either from the turnover of the 4Ј-phosphopantetheinyl cofactor of the acyl carrier protein (8) or the cleavage of CoA by a phosphodiesterase (9).Despite the above arguments for a role in the regulation of CoA biosynthesis, PPAT has not been the subject of a detailed study. Enzymes with PPAT activity have been purified from a number of different organisms. In mammals PPAT has been shown to be part of a complex that also includes dPCoA kinase, the effector of the fina...