Phosphopantetheine adenylyltransferase (PPAT) regulates the key penultimate step in the essential coenzyme A (CoA) biosynthetic pathway. PPAT catalyzes the reversible transfer of an adenylyl group from Mg 2؉ :ATP to 4-phosphopantetheine to form 3-dephospho-CoA (dPCoA) and pyrophosphate. The highresolution crystal structure of PPAT complexed with CoA has been determined. Remarkably, CoA and the product dPCoA bind to the active site in distinct ways. Although the phosphate moiety within the phosphopantetheine arm overlaps, the pantetheine arm binds to the same pocket in two distinct conformations, and the adenylyl moieties of these two ligands have distinct binding sites. Moreover, the PPAT:CoA crystal structure confirms the asymmetry of binding to the two trimers within the hexameric enzyme. Specifically, the pantetheine arm of CoA bound to one protomer within the asymmetric unit displays the dPCoA-like conformation with the adenylyl moiety disordered, whereas CoA binds the twofold-related protomer in an ordered and unique fashion.Coenzyme A (CoA) is synthesized in Escherichia coli in a series of five steps utilizing pantothenate (vitamin B 5 ), cysteine, and ATP (29). Phosphopantetheine adenylyltransferase (PPAT) catalyzes the penultimate step, the reversible transfer of an adenylyl group from ATP to 4Ј-phosphopantetheine (Ppant), yielding 3Ј-dephospho-CoA (dPCoA) and pyrophosphate (21) (Fig. 1). PPAT is the second rate-limiting step in the CoA pathway and together with the first enzyme of the pathway, pantothenate kinase, regulates the cellular CoA content (18). Ppant is derived from the metabolism of pantothenate (17), degradation of CoA (18), or the turnover of the acyl carrier protein prosthethic group (31) and exits from cells when not utilized by PPAT (18). Biochemical regulation of PPAT has not been investigated, although CoA is tightly bound to the purified enzyme (12), suggesting that, like pantothenate kinase, PPAT is feedback regulated by CoA (32).The first structure of enzymes involved in the CoA biosynthetic pathway reported was the crystal structure of E. coli PPAT in complex with dPCoA (14). To investigate the enzyme's reaction mechanism, the high-resolution crystal structures of PPAT in complex with either one of its substrates, ATP or Ppant, were subsequently determined (16). Recently, the crystal structures of E. coli pantothenate kinase in complex with 5Ј-adenylimido-diphosphate or CoA (36) and of the last enzyme in the pathway, dPCoA kinase, (from Haemophilus influenzae [23] and E. coli [24]) have also been determined. The PPAT: dPCoA crystal structure established that the enzyme displays a dinucleotide (or canonical Rossmann) binding fold (30) (Fig. 2). PPAT functions as a hexamer in solution (12), and the crystal structure is consistent with that of a hexamer having point group 32 (14). The asymmetric unit contains a dimer, and the crystallographic triad coincides with the oligomer's threefold axis. Furthermore, the PPAT:dPCoA crystal structure revealed that the PPAT hexamer consists of two...