The MgATP binding site of adenylate kinase, located by a combination of NMR and x-ray diffraction, is near three protein segments, five to seven amino acids in length, that are homologous in sequence to segments found in other nucleotide-binding phosphotransferases, such as myosin and Fl-ATPase, ras p21 and transducin GTPases, and cAMPdependent and src protein kinases, suggesting equivalent mechanistic roles of these segments in all of these proteins. Segment 1 is a glycine-rich flexible loop that, on adenylate kinase, may control access to the ATP-binding site by changing its conformation. Segment 2 is an a-helix containing two hydrophobic residues that interact with the adenine-ribose moiety of ATP, and a lysine that may bind to the j8-and y-phosphates of ATP. Segment 3 is a hydrophobic strand of parallel a6-pleated sheet, terminated by a carboxylate, that flanks the triphosphate binding site. The various reported mutations of ras p21 that convert it to a transforming agent all appear to involve segment 1, and such substitutions may alter the properties of p21 by hindering a conformational change at this segment. In F1-ATPase, the flexible loop may, by its position, control both the accessibility and the ATP/ADP equilibrium constant on the enzyme.Adenylate kinase catalyzes the reversible transfer of a phosphoryl group from MgATP to AMP.MgATP + AMP MgADP + ADP.[1]The enzyme has been purified from many sources, the x-ray structure of the porcine muscle enzyme has been reported at 3 A resolution (1), and amino acid sequences have been determined for muscle adenylate kinase from pig (2), human (3), calf, and rabbit (4). It was noted by Walker et al. (5) that two portions of the adenylate kinase sequence had homologous counterparts in the sequences of several ATPases. One of these homologous segments was later found to be present in p21, the GTPase that is the product of the ras oncogene (6-8). The recent finding that a mutation in this segment is the basis of the transforming ability of this protein (9, 10) has amplified the importance of determining the functional role of this segment. We have identified a third homologous region in several of these proteins and have further expanded the list of proteins with sequence homologies to adenylate kinase. Through a series of NMR studies on porcine (11) and rabbit muscle (12) High-field proton NMR was used to study the interaction of metal-ATP substrates with porcine (11) and rabbit muscle adenylate kinase (12), and with a globular peptide fragment of the latter enzyme consisting of residues 1-45 that binds metal-ATP with comparable affinity (13). Paramagnetic effects of B,y-bidentate Cr3+-ATP on the relaxation rates of protons of the enzyme and the peptide were measured and provided a total of eight distances from Cr3+ to the side chains of specific amino acid residues. Time-dependent nuclear tIn some of the proteins of (32).
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