Enzyme allosteric enzymes

In die metabolic pathway to an amino add several steps are involved. Each step is die result of an enzymatic activity. The key enzymatic activity (usually die first enzyme in the synthesis) is regulated by one of its products (usually die end product, eg die amino add). If die concentration of die amino add is too high die enzymatic activity is decreased by interaction of die inhibitor with the regulatory site of die enzyme (allosteric enzyme). This phenomenon is called feedback inhibition. 

In contrast to the kinetics of isosteric (normal) enzymes, allosteric enzymes such as ACTase have sigmoidal (S-shaped) substrate saturation curves (see p. 92). In allosteric systems, the enzyme s af nity to the substrate is not constant, but depends on the substrate concentration [A]. Instead of the Michaelis constant Km (see p. 92), the substrate concentration at half-maximal rate ([AJo.s) is given. The sigmoidal character of the curve is described by the Hill coef cient h. In isosteric systems, h = 1, and h increases with increasing sigmoid icity. 

Figure 8.14. Kinetics for an Allosteric Enzyme. Allosteric enzymes display a sigmoidal dependence of reaction velocity on substrate concentration. 

Segel, 1. H., Emyme Kinetics Behavior and Analysis of Rapid Equilibrium and Steady-State Enzyme Systems. Wiley-Interscience (1975). This book starts at the same elementary level as Biochemical Calculations and progresses to the modern subjects of steady-state kinetics of mullireac-tant enzymes, allosteric enzymes, isotope exchange, and membrane transport. 

The answer is e. (Murray, pp 48-73. Scrivci, pp 4571-4636. Sack, pp 3-17. Wilson, pp 287-317.) Unlike Michaelis-Menten enzymes, allosteric enzymes exhibit sigmoidal plots when reaction velocity is plotted against substrate concentrations. The enzyme contains both a catalytic site and a regulatory site. The binding of regulatory molecules to the regulatory site... 

Cooperative oligomeric enzymes, allosteric enzymes enzymes composed of several subunits and (fisplaying cooperativity. 

Because of the crucial role of this enzyme in one of the most important bicxrhemical pathways in the cell, its allosteric properties have been studied extensively in solution. Interpretation of these studies in terms of the theory of allosteric enzymes led Monod and coworkers to conclude that ... 

The group of Phil Evans, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK, has determined x-ray structures of bacterial PFK both in the R and the T states. These studies have confirmed the above conclusions and given insight into how an allosteric enzyme accomplishes its complex behavior. 

The basic kinetic properties of this allosteric enzyme are clearly explained by combining Monod s theory and these structural results. The tetrameric enzyme exists in equilibrium between a catalytically active R state and an inactive T state. There is a difference in the tertiary structure of the subunits in these two states, which is closely linked to a difference in the quaternary structure of the molecule. The substrate F6P binds preferentially to the R state, thereby shifting the equilibrium to that state. Since the mechanism is concerted, binding of one F6P to the first subunit provides an additional three subunits in the R state, hence the cooperativity of F6P binding and catalysis. ATP binds to both states, so there is no shift in the equilibrium and hence there is no cooperativity of ATP binding. The inhibitor PEP preferentially binds to the effector binding site of molecules in the T state and as a result the equilibrium is shifted to the inactive state. By contrast the activator ADP preferentially binds to the effector site of molecules in the R state and as a result shifts the equilibrium to the R state with its four available, catalytically competent, active sites per molecule. 

If the kinetics of the reaction disobey the Michaelis-Menten equation, the violation is revealed by a departure from linearity in these straight-line graphs. We shall see in the next chapter that such deviations from linearity are characteristic of the kinetics of regulatory enzymes known as allosteric enzymes. Such regulatory enzymes are very important in the overall control of metabolic pathways. 

Regulatory or allosteric enzymes like enzyme 1 are, in some instances, regulated by activation. That is, whereas some effector molecules such as F exert negative effects on enzyme activity, other effectors show stimulatory, or positive, influences on activity. 

Allosteric enzymes have an oligomeric organization. They are composed of more than one polypeptide chain (subunit) and have more than one S-bind-ing site per enzyme molecule. 

The working hypothesis is that, by some means, interaction of an allosteric enzyme with effectors alters the distribution of conformational possibilities or subunit interactions available to the enzyme. That is, the regulatory effects exerted on the enzyme s activity are achieved by conformational changes occurring in the protein when effector metabolites bind. 

Because this enzyme catalyzes the committed step in fatty acid biosynthesis, it is carefully regulated. Palmitoyl-CoA, the final product of fatty acid biosynthesis, shifts the equilibrium toward the inactive protomers, whereas citrate, an important allosteric activator of this enzyme, shifts the equilibrium toward the active polymeric form of the enzyme. Acetyl-CoA carboxylase shows the kinetic behavior of a Monod-Wyman-Changeux V-system allosteric enzyme (Chapter 15). 

The metabolic control is exercised on certain key regulatory enzymes of a pathway called allosteric enzymes. These are enzymes whose catalytic activity is modulated through non-covalent binding of a specific metabolite at a site on the protein other than the catalytic site. Such enzymes may be allosterically inhibited by ATP or allosterically activated by ATP (some by ADP and/or AMP). 

Fungal chitin synthases are found as integral proteins of the plasma membrane and in chitosomes a divalent cation, Mg(II), is necessary for enzyme activity but neither primers nor a hpid intermediate are required. The substrate and free GlcNAc activate the allosteric enzyme. UDP, the byproduct of the enzymatic activity, is strongly inhibitory to chitin synthase however, it may be metabohzed readily to UMP by a diphosphatase. 

Substances that do not target the active site but display inhibition by allosteric mechanisms are associated with a lower risk of unwanted interference with related cellular enzymes. Allosteric inhibition of the viral polymerase is employed in the case of HIV-1 nonnucleosidic RT inhibitors (NNRTl, see chapter by Zimmermann et al., this volume) bind outside the RT active site and act by blocking a conformational change of the enzyme essential for catalysis. A potential disadvantage of targeting regions distant from the active site is that these may be subject to a lower selective pressure for sequence conservation than the active site itself, which can lower the threshold for escape of the virus by mutation. 

The lack of structural similarity between a feedback inhibitor and the substrate for the enzyme whose activity it regulates suggests that these effectors are not isosteric with a substrate but allosteric ( occupy another space ). Jacques Monod therefore proposed the existence of allosteric sites that are physically distinct from the catalytic site. Allosteric enzymes thus are those whose activity at the active site may be modulated by the presence of effectors at an allosteric site. This hypothesis has been confirmed by many lines of evidence, including x-ray crystallography and site-directed mutagenesis, demonstrating the existence of spatially distinct active and allosteric sites on a variety of enzymes. 

To refer to the kinetics of allosteric inhibition as competitive or noncompetitive with substrate carries misleading mechanistic implications. We refer instead to two classes of regulated enzymes K-series and V-se-ries enzymes. For K-series allosteric enzymes, the substrate saturation kinetics are competitive in the sense that is raised without an effect on V. For V-series allosteric enzymes, the allosteric inhibitor lowers... 

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase is an allosteric enzyme and is activated by citrate, which increases in concentration in the well-fed state and is an indicator of a plentiful supply of acetyl-CoA. Citrate converts the enzyme from an inactive dimer to an active polymeric form, having a molecular mass of several milhon. Inactivation is promoted by phosphorylation of the enzyme and by long-chain acyl-CoA molecules, an example of negative feedback inhibition by a product of a reaction. Thus, if acyl-CoA accumulates because it is not esterified quickly enough or because of increased lipolysis or an influx of free fatty acids into the tissue, it will automatically reduce the synthesis of new fatty acid. Acyl-CoA may also inhibit the mitochondrial tricarboxylate transporter, thus preventing activation of the enzyme by egress of citrate from the mitochondria into the cytosol. 

When the initial LA concentration is large, the quantity of substrate transferred to the aqueous phase allows the lipoxygenation to progress. This reaction consumes LA and produces HP, which favor the transfer of residual substrate between the two phases. Then catalysis and transfer have a reciprocal influence on each other. We demonstrated that the use of a non-allosteric enzyme in a compartmentalized medium permits the simulation of a co-operativity phenomenon. The optimal reaction rate in the two-phase system is reached for a high initial LA concentration 14 mM. Inhibition by substrate excess is observed in two-phase medium. 

When binding of a substrate molecule at an enzyme active site promotes substrate binding at other sites, this is called positive homotropic behavior (one of the allosteric interactions). When this co-operative phenomenon is caused by a compound other than the substrate, the behavior is designated as a positive heterotropic response. Equation (6) explains some of the profile of rate constant vs. detergent concentration. Thus, Piszkiewicz claims that micelle-catalyzed reactions can be conceived as models of allosteric enzymes. A major factor which causes the different kinetic behavior [i.e. (4) vs. (5)] will be the hydrophobic nature of substrate. If a substrate molecule does not perturb the micellar structure extensively, the classical formulation of (4) is derived. On the other hand, the allosteric kinetics of (5) will be found if a hydrophobic substrate molecule can induce micellization. 

Allosteric enzymes have sites other than the catalytic or active site which are associated with the activation and inhibition of the enzyme. 

Allosteric enzymes show various activation and inhibition effects which are competitive in nature and related to conformational changes in the structure of the enzyme. Such allosteric enzymes are often crucial enzymes in metabolic pathways and exert control over the whole sequence of reactions. The name allostery refers to the fact that inhibition of the enzyme is by substances that are not similar in shape to the substrate. 

Figure 8.9 Allosteric enzymes. The binding of an activator stabilizes the enzyme in an active form while the binding of an inhibitor distorts the active site, causing a loss of activity.

In addition to the binding of substrate (or in some cases co-substrates) at the active site, many enzymes have the capacity to bind regulatory molecules at sites which are usually spatially far removed from the catalytic site. In fact, allosteric enzymes are invariably multimeric (i.e. have a quaternary structure) and the allosteric (regulatory) sites are on different subunits of the protein to the active site. In all cases, the binding of the regulatory molecules is non covalent and is described in kinetic terms as noncompetitive inhibition. 

A Michaelis-Menten type graph for an allosteric enzyme shows not the usual hyperbolic shape as shown in Section 1.4, but a sigmoidal relationship between [S] and activity. 

One of the best known and well described allosteric enzymes is phosphofructo-kinase-1 (PFK-1). The interconversion offfuctose-6-phosphate (F-6-P) andF-l,6-bisP is a pivotal step in glycolysis and gluconeogenesis (Figure 3.4). 

PFK-1 is a classic example of a tetrameric allosteric enzyme. Each of the four subunits has two ATP binding sites one is the active site where ATP is co-substrate and the other is an inhibitory allosteric site. ATP may bind to the substrate (active) site when the enzyme is in either the R (active) or T (inhibited) form. The other co-substrate, F-6-P binds only to the enzyme in the R state. AMP may also bind to the R form and in so doing stabilises the protein in that active conformation permitting ATP and F-6-P to bind. 

Study the graph below which shows (a) the response of a typical allosteric enzyme in the absence of an inhibitor and (b) the same enzyme in the presence of an inhibitor. 

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