Active site glucose-6-phosphate isomerase

Glucose-phosphate isomerase is one of the best studied enzymes catalyzing the interconversion of aldo- and ketohexose phosphates. An active site carboxyl group is a possible candidate for the base catalyzing the intramolecular proton transfer reaction. The affinity label 1,2-anhydro-D-mannitol 6-phosphate (8) inactivates the enzyme by forming an ester linkage between C-l of the affinity label and an active site carboxyl of a glutamic acid residue (98). 

Polarisation of the substrate carbonyl group appears to be achieved in yet a third way by mammalian glucose 6-phosphate isomerase, which interconverts glucose and fructose 6-phosphates, The crystal structure of the rabbit enzyme in complex with the reactive intermediate analogue o-arabinohydroxamic acid Ki = 0.2 pM) (in its hydroximic form) reveals a cluster of four water molecules hydrogen bonded to each other, to the counterparts of 01 and 02 of the enediolate intermediate and to an active site arginine. Grotthus mechanisms of proton transfer between the two tautomers of the enediolate probably occur. 

The descending leg of the pH-rate profile for glucose-6-phosphate isomerase indicates that one of the amino acid side chains at the active site of the enz3me has a p value of 9.3. Identify the amino acid side chain. 

Many of the mechanistic aspects of glucose isomerase catalysed aldose-ketose interconversion have been under discussion for some time and are still not fully understood. By comparison with triose phosphate isomerase (TIM, EC 5.3.1.1) and glucose 6-phosphate isomerase (EC 5.3.1.9), the base-catalysed formation of an 1,2-enediol was invoked as the key step of the epimerisation based on the work of Rose and co-workers with tritium-labelled substrates [26]. An unexplained featme of the epimerisation process was that in contrast to isomerisations with triose phosphate isomerase no proton exchange with the medium could be observed with D-xylose isomerase, a fact that was attributed to the phosphate group of the former as a mediator for the exchange process [26]. Subsequently, additional important differences between triose phosphate isomerase and xylose isomerase were recognised. For example, D-xylose isomerase is appar-endy a very slow enzyme catalysing about five molecules per second per active site with an absolute requirement for divalent cations, while TIM does not need co-factors and operates at nearly 1000-fold the speed of D-xylose isomerase at... 

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