Metal ion involvement in the allosteric mechanism of Escherichia coli aspartate transcarbamoylase.

ABSTRACT: Escherichia coli aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) allosterically regulates pyrimidine nucleotide biosynthesis. The enzyme is inhibited by CTP and can be further inhibited by UTP, although UTP alone has little or no influence on activity; however, the mechanism for the synergistic inhibition is still unknown. To determine how UTP is able to synergistically inhibit ATCase in the presence of CTP, we determined a series of X-ray structures of ATCase·nucleotide complexes. Analysis of the X-ray structures revealed that (1) CTP and dCTP bind in a very similar fashion, (2) UTP, in the presence of dCTP or CTP, binds at a site that does not overlap the CTP/dCTP site, and (3) the triphosphates of the two nucleotides are parallel to each other with a metal ion, in this case Mg(2+), coordinated bet

SUBMITTER: Cockrell GM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3461825 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature