Enzyme orientation

It would thus appear that it is possible to mark exactly in a great number of carbohydrates the chemical groups which, by establishing contact with complementary groups of the enzyme, orientate the substrate at the enzyme surface. Whereas orientation of the sugar molecule at the surface of the respective catalyst may be regarded as the qualitative factor in enzyme specificity (conditio sine qua non), the ratio... 

Parameters defining the quality of the interface such as enzyme orientation, substrate pocking, hydxuphobitity, change density, and film pressure come into... 

More accurate due to inclusion of some transport processes and enzyme orientation effects... 

Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) estimated surface areas [23], For example, from Figure 5.9, graphite felt electrodes show poor volume-normalized ORR current density compared to carbon nanofibers and multiwaUed carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-based electrodes. However, the results also reveal that CNTs and porous carbon tubes exhibit dramaticaUy lower ORR current densities when normalized to B ET surface area, while graphite felt electrodes perform better, perhaps indicative of agglomeration of the carbon tubes, preventing enzyme adsorption over the entire area. Further research on methods to permit dispersion of nano-tubes, while retaining electrical conductivity and adsorption of enzymes oriented for DET, is warranted. 

Glu 165 acts as the catalytic base. Steric desolvation of the active site increases the pKa of Glu 165 vhen substrate binds. The structure of the enzyme orients the carboxylate group so that proton abstraction is carried out by the more basic syn orbital. 

The biggest limitation of the CoMFA method is the alignment step. The algorithm superimposes the portions of the inhibitors that are of similar stmcture, assuming that they bind with similar orientations in the active site of the enzyme, which is not necessarily the case. Also, because of a problem with alignment, a CoMFA may fail when a few molecules are very dissimilar from all others in the series. Like QSAR, CoMFA does not require a stmcture of the relevant biological receptor, but does require knowledge about a series of inhibitory compounds. 

Figure 2.10 Examples of schematic diagrams of the type pioneered by Jane Richardson. Diagram (a) illustrates the structure of myoglobin in the same orientation as the computer-drawn diagrams of Figures 2.9b-d. Diagram (b), which is adapted from J. Richardson, illustrates the structure of the enzyme triosephosphate isomerase, determined to 2.5 A resolution in the laboratory of David Phillips, Oxford University. Such diagrams can easily be obtained from databases of protein structures, such as PDB, SCOP or CATH, available on the World Wide Web.

Figure 4.7 Two of the enzymatic activities involved in the biosynthesis of tryptophan in E. coli, phosphoribosyl anthranilate (PRA) isomerase and indoleglycerol phosphate (IGP) synthase, are performed by two separate domains in the polypeptide chain of a bifunctional enzyme. Both these domains are a/p-barrel structures, oriented such that their active sites are on opposite sides of the molecule. The two catalytic reactions are therefore independent of each other. The diagram shows the IGP-synthase domain (residues 48-254) with dark colors and the PRA-isomerase domain with light colors. The a helices are sequentially labeled a-h in both barrel domains. Residue 255 (arrow) is the first residue of the second domain. (Adapted from J.P. Priestle et al., Proc.

Even though these enzymes have no absolute specificity, many of them show a preference for a particular side chain before the scissile bond as seen from the amino end of the polypeptide chain. The preference of chymotrypsin to cleave after large aromatic side chains and of trypsin to cleave after Lys or Arg side chains is exploited when these enzymes are used to produce peptides suitable for amino acid sequence determination and fingerprinting. In each case, the preferred side chain is oriented so as to fit into a pocket of the enzyme called the specificity pocket. 

Figure 18.12 The electron-density map is interpreted by fitting into it pieces of a polypeptide chain with known stereochemistry such as peptide groups and phenyl rings. The electron density (blue) is displayed on a graphics screen in combination with a part of the polypeptide chain (red) in an arbitrary orientation (a). The units of the polypeptide chain can then be rotated and translated relative to the electron density until a good fit is obtained (b). Notice that individual atoms are not resolved in such electron densities, there are instead lumps of density corresponding to groups of atoms. [Adapted from A. Jones Methods Enzym. (eds. H.W. Wyckoff, C.H. Hirs, and S.N. Timasheff) 115B 162, New York Academic Press, 1985.]...

This idea also helps to explain some of the mystery surrounding the enormous catalytic power of enzymes In enzyme catalysis, precise orientation of catalytic residues comprising the active site is necessary for the reaction to occur substrate binding induces this precise orientation by the changes it causes in the protein s conformation. 

Destabilization of the ES complex can involve structural strain, desolvation, or electrostatic effects. Destabilization by strain or distortion is usually just a consequence of the fact (noted previously) that the enzyme is designed to bind the transition state more strongly than the substrate. When the substrate binds, the imperfect nature of the fit results in distortion or strain in the substrate, the enzyme, or both. This means that the amino acid residues that make up the active site are oriented to coordinate the transition-state structure precisely, but will interact with the substrate or product less effectively. 

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