The Salmonella typhimurium prsB mutation was previously mapped at 45 min on the chromosome, and a prsB strain was reported to produce undetectable levels of phosphoribosylpyrophosphate (PRPP) synthetase activity and very low levels of immunologically cross-reactive protein in vitro (N. K. Pandey and R. L. Switzer, J. Gen. Microbiol. 128:1863Microbiol. 128: -1871Microbiol. 128: , 1982. We have shown by P22-mediated transduction that the prsB gene is actually an allele ofprsA, the structural gene for PRPP synthetase, which maps at 35 min. The prsB (renamed prs-100) mutant produces about 20% of the activity and 100% of the cross-reactive material of wild-type strains. prs-100 mutant strains are temperature sensitive, as is the mutant PRPP synthetase in vitro. The prs-100 mutation is a C-to-T transition which results in replacement of Arg-78 in the mature wild-type enzyme by Cys. The mutant PRPP synthetase was purified to greater than 98% purity. It possessed elevated Michaelis constants for both ATP and ribose-5-phosphate, a reduced maximal velocity, and reduced sensitivity to the allosteric inhibitor ADP. The mutant enzyme had altered physical properties and was susceptible to specific cleavage at the Arg-101-to-Ser-102 bond in vivo. It appears that the mutation alters the enzyme's kinetic properties through substantial structural alterations rather than by specific perturbation of substrate binding or catalysis.Phosphoribosylpyrophosphate (PRPP) synthetase catalyzes pyrophosphoryl transfer from ATP to ribose-5-phosphate (Rib-5-P) and is the first step of a highly branched pathway leading to purine, pyrimidine, and pyridine nucleotides and to histidine and tryptophan. PRPP synthetase from Salmonella typhimurium has been the subject of extensive kinetic and mechanistic studies (7,(28)(29)(30). Relatively little is known about the role of specific amino acid residues of the protein in catalysis. However, mutants with altered kinetic properties have been isolated in S. typhimurium (14,20) and Escherichia coli (13). One of these mutant enzymes has been characterized, which has enabled structure-function relationships to be studied (3).Pandey and Switzer (20) isolated an S. typhimurium mutant strain, PS-1, which was reported to have no assayable PRPP synthetase activity and only 2% of the immunologically cross-reactive material present in wild-type strains. This strain was also temperature sensitive; the temperature sensitivity was 88% cotransducible with the PRPP synthetase mutation. The temperature sensitivity and thus the linked PRPP synthetase mutation were mapped at 45 min on the S. typhimurium chromosome (20,23). Subsequently, the structural gene of PRPP synthetase (prsA) was shown to be located at 35 min on the S. typhimurium chromosome (14).