Ribonuclease active site

However, there are a number of other miscellaneous biological roles played by this complex. The [Co(NH3)6]3+ ion has been shown to inhibit the hammerhead ribozyme by displacing a Mn2+ ion from the active site.576 However, [Co(NH3)6]3+ does not inhibit ribonuclease H (RNase),577 topoisomerase I,578 or hairpin ribozyme,579 which require activation by Mg2+ ions. The conclusions from these studies were that an outer sphere complex formation between the enzyme and Mgaq2+ is occuring rather than specific coordination of the divalent ion to the protein. These results are in contrast to DNase I inhibition by the same hexaammine complex. Inhibition of glucose-induced insulin secretion from pancreatic cells by [Co(NH3)6]3+ has been found.580 Intracellular injection of [Co(NH3)6]3+ into a neurone has been found to cause characteristic changes to the structure of its mitochondria, and this offers a simple technique to label neuronal profiles for examination of their ultrastructures.581... 

Crestfield, A.M., Stein, W.H., and Moore, S. (1963) Alkylation and identification of the histidine residues at the active site of ribonuclease. J. Biol. Chem. 238, 2413-2419. 

In the mechanism of the pancreatic hydrolase ribonuclease, a specialized histidine within the active site acts as a general acid or proton donor to begin cleavage of the phosphodiester linkage of the substrate RNA. 

The pH-rate profile for the action of the enzyme shows a typical pH maximum, with sharply lower rates at either higher or lower pH than the optimum these facts suggest that both an acidic and a basic group are required for activity (Herries, 1960). The two essential histidine residues could serve as these groups if, in the active site, one were protonated and the other present in its basic form. The simultaneous acid-base catalysis would parallel that of the model system (discussed below) of Swain and J. F. Brown. The essential lysine, which binds phosphate, presumably serves to bind a phosphate residue of the ribonucleic acid. These facts led Mathias and coworkers to propose the mechanism for the action of ribonuclease that is shown in (13) (Findlay et al., 1961). 

For ribonuclease A the occurrence of conformational changes and the occurrence of acid-base catalysis has been well documented. The overall mechanism can be envisaged as follows. The enzyme exists in dynamic equilibrium between two forms differing in the structure of the active site groove. The substrate is bound almost as rapidly as it can diffuse to the active site. Binding of the substrate induces a conformational change that... 

Various bacterial ribonucleases as well as the fungal ribonucleases Ty Uj, and U2 (see also Fig. 5-43) have amino acid sequences related to that of RNase A763 764 764a but with distinctly different three-dimensional structures. The active sites contain Glu, His, and Arg side chains. For RNase Ty Glu 58 and His 92 appear to provide acid-base catalysis with assistance from Tyr 38, Arg 77, and His 40.763 765 A glutamate carboxylate also appears to be the catalytic base in the related RNase, called barnase, from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens.766... 

A relative of the kinases is adenylate cyclase, whose role in forming the allosteric effector 3, 5 -cyclic AMP (cAMP) was considered in Chapter 11. This enzyme catalyzes a displacement on Pa of ATP by the 3 -hydroxyl group of its ribose ring (see Eq. 11-8, step a). The structure of the active site is known.905 Studies with ATPaS suggest an in-line mechanism resembling that of ribonuclease (step a, Eq. 12-25). However, it is Mg2+ dependent, does not utilize the two-histidine mechanism of ribonuclease A, and involves an aspartate carboxylate as catalytic base.906 All isoforms of adenylate cyclase are activated by the a subunits of some G proteins (Chapter 11). The structures907 of Gsa and of its complex with adenylate kinase905 have been determined. The Gsa activator appears to serve as an allosteric effector. 

Bovine pancreatic RNase A is a member of a homologous superfamily. In addition, there is a separate family of guanine-specific microbial RNases that have evolved to have a similar active site.192,193 Ribonuclease T1 from Aspergillus oryzae and the 110-residue bamase from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens of Mr 12 392 (see Chapter 19) are the best known examples. One of the histidine residues is replaced by a glutamate in these enzymes. The microbial enzymes are much more amenable to study by protein engineering. 

The first detailed proposal for the mechanism of action of ribonuclease was put forward by Mathias and Rabin and their colleagues (514) An original diagram from their paper is shown in Fig. 28 BIB, 516). It bears a remarkable similarity to the geometry of the active site as defined by the X-ray studies and shown in Fig. 23. For Step 1 the mechanism proposes (1) removal of the proton on the 2 -OH by an imidazole residue in the base form, (2) protonation of the 5 0 of the leaving nucleoside by the other imidazole in the acid form, and (3) attack by the 2 alkoxide on the phosphorus atom to yield the cyclic phosphate. Hydrolysis or alcoholysis of the cyclic phosphate requires the reverse of each of these steps. At the start of step 1, one histidine is in the acidic form and one in the basic form. At the start of step 2 the roles of the two histidine residues are reversed. 

The apparent usefulness of the modeling approach suggested that possible active site interactions important in understanding the mode of action of the well-characterized enzymes, ribonuclease (16) and staphylococcal nuclease (17). may be revealed. Both have been the subject of extensive crystallographic studies (18,19) with suitable inactive substrates in place. We considered the first step of hydrolytic action of ribonuclease (RNase) on the dinucleotide substrate uridylyl-(3 -5 )-adenosine(UpA). Our results (20) on the enzyme mechanism were consistent with the main features summarized by Roberts et al (21). The first step is a transphosphorylation leading to cleavage "oT the phosphodiester... 

Jullien, M., Garel, J-R., Merola, F. and Brochon J.-C. (1986). Quenching by acrylamide and temperature of a fluorescent probe attached to the active site of ribonuclease. European Biophysical Journal, 13, 131-137. 

The surface area of even the smallest enzymes (such as ribonuclease, Mr = 12,000) that is occupied by the chemical groups to which the reactants bind is less than 5 percent of the total area this region is called the active site. 

During last decades the domains C-2 symmetry (the dyad rotation symmetry) of low-B palindrome was established in many enzymes (chymotrypsin, trypsin, aspartyl proteinases, HIV-1 protease, carboxypeptidase A, phospholipase A-2 ribonuclease, etc.) (Lumry, 2002 and references therein). It is proposed that the pair domain closure causes constrain of pretransition state complex that activates cleavage or formation of chemical bonds. Thus control of strong bonds by the cooperation of many matrix or knots bonds takes place. As an example, in the active site of carboxypeptidase A the zinc ion is attached to one of the catalytic domains by histidine 69 and glutamine 72 and connected by hystidine 196 to the second domain. Similar structures were found in the chymotrypsin and pepsin active sites where protons are driven under compression of the domains closure. 

---