Allosteric enzymes control

Within glycolysis, the main allosteric control is exercised by phosphofructokinase, a complicated enzyme unusual in that its activity is stimulated by one of its products (ADP) and inhibited by one of its substrates (ATP). One further point about this enzyme which will be important to us later, in Aspergillus spp., elevated levels of ammonium ions relieve phosphofructokinase of inhibition by titrate. 

Fructose 2,6-bisphosphate is formed by phosphorylation of fructose 6-phosphate by phosphofructoki-nase-2. The same enzyme protein is also responsible for its breakdown, since it has fructose-2,6-hisphos-phatase activity. This hifrmctional enzyme is under the allosteric control of fructose 6-phosphate, which stimulates the kinase and inhibits the phosphatase. Hence, when glucose is abundant, the concentration of fructose 2,6-bisphosphate increases, stimulating glycolysis by activating phosphofructokinase-1 and inhibiting... 

Some enzymes are controlled by both allosterism and covalent modification often brought about by hormone stimulation of the cell. Allosteric effects will take effect immediately because the enzyme is responding to local intracellular conditions of substrate or coenzyme concentrations, but covalent effects because they are driven by hormonal stimulation may take a little longer to have an impact but will be part of a coordinated response in several tissues of the body sensitive to the hormone. 

Clearly, it would not be advantageous for synthesis and degradation to occur simultaneously, especially as they occur in the same cell compartment, the cytosol. Reciprocal control, that is when one enzyme is On the other is Off, is achieved via reversible phosphorylation of the key controlling enzyme and allosteric control (see Table 6.2 and Section 3.2.2). However, it is probable that both enzymes retain some residual activity at most times. 

In a very broad overview of the structural categories one can state several statistical correlations with type of function. Hemes are almost always bound by helices, but never in parallel a//3 structures. Relatively complex enzymatic functions, especially those involving allosteric control, are occasionally antiparallel /3 but most often parallel a//3. Binding and receptor proteins are most often antiparallel /3, while the proteins that bind in those receptor sites (i.e., hormones, toxins, and enzyme inhibitors) are most apt to be small disulfide-rich structures. However, there are exceptions to all of the above generalizations (such as cytochrome cs as a nonhelical heme protein or citrate synthase as a helical enzyme), and when one focuses on the really significant level of detail within the active site then the correlation with overall tertiary structure disappears altogether. For almost all of the dozen identifiable groups of functionally similar proteins that are represented by at least two known protein structures, there are at least... 

The regulation of ribonucleotide reductase is complex. The substrate-specificity and activity of the enzyme are controlled by two allosteric binding sites (a and b) in the R1 subunits. ATP and dATP increase or reduce the activity of the reductase by binding at site a. Other nucleotides interact with site b, and thereby alter the enzyme s specificity. 

A. Many metabolic pathways are regulated by allosteric control of key enzymes catalyzing the rate-limiting step of the pathway (Figure 5-1). 

What is the minimum size of synzymes And is there any control effect observed that is analogous to the allosteric control of enzyme activities ... 

Allosteric regulation can be considerably more complex. An example is the remarkable set of allosteric controls exerted on glutamine synthetase of E. coli (Fig. 22-6). Six products derived from glutamine serve as negative feedback modulators of the enzyme, and the overall effects of these and other modulators are more than additive. Such regulation is called concerted inhibition. 

In allosteric enzymes, the activity of the enzyme is modulated by a non-covalently bound metabolite at a site on a protein other than the catalytic site. Normally, this results in a conformational change, which makes the catalytic site inactive or less active. Covalent modulated enzymes are interconverted between active and inactive forms by the action of other enzymes, some of which are modulated by allosteric-type control. Both of these control mechanisms are responsive to changes in cell conditions and typically the response time in allosteric control is a matter of seconds as compared with minutes in covalent modulation. A third type of control, the control of enzyme synthesis at the transcription stage of protein synthesis (see Appendix 5.6), can take several hours to take effect. 

Allosteric Enzymes Typically Exhibit a Sigmoidal Dependence on Substrate Concentration The Symmetry Model Provides a Useful Framework for Relating Conformational Transitions to Allosteric Activation or Inhibition Phosphofructokinase Allosteric Control of Glycolysis Is Consistent with the Symmetry Model Aspartate Carbamoyl Transferase Allosteric Control of Pyrimidine Biosynthesis Glycogen Phosphorylase Combined Control by Allosteric Effectors and Phosphorylation... 

A second enzyme on the pathway to dTTP that is subject to allosteric control is deoxycytidylate deaminase, which supplies dUMP for thymidylate synthesis. The enzyme in mammalian cells, yeast, and bacteriophage T2-infected E. coli. is allosterically activated by dCTP (hydroxymethyl dCTP for the phage enzyme) and inhibited by dTTP. 

Many of the enzymes participating in de novo synthesis of deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates, as well as those responsible for interconversion of deoxyribonucleotides, increase in activity when cells prepare for DNA synthesis. The need for increased DNA synthesis occurs under three circumstances (1) when the cell proceeds from the G0, or resting, stage of the cell cycle to the S, or synthetic or replication, stage (fig. 23.26) (2) when it performs repair after extensive DNA damage and (3) after infection of quiescent cells with virus. When cells leave G0, for example, enzymes such as thymidylate synthase and ribonucleotide reductase, increase as well as the corresponding mRNAs. These increases in enzyme amount supplement allosteric controls that increase the activity of each enzyme molecule. Corresponding decreases in amounts of these enzymes and their mRNAs occur when DNA synthesis is completed. 

Covalent modification requires an enzyme to control an enzyme. Allosterism requires only a binding site on an enzyme that interacts (via an equilibrium) with a particular small molecule. 

Allosteric control involves the reversible binding of a compound to an allosteric site referred to as a regulatory site on the enzyme. These compounds may be either one of the compounds involved in the metabolic pathway (feedback regulators) or a compound that is not a product of the metabolic pathway. In both cases, the binding usually results in conformational changes, which either activate or deactivate the enzyme. Proenzymes also act as a form of enzyme control. 

Inhibition of DNA synthesis is brought about by the action of dTTP as an allosteric inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase (Reichard et al., 1961 Moore and Hurlbert, 1966 Brown and Reichard, 1969 Rummer et al., 1978). This enzyme is responsible for reducing all four ribonucleoside diphosphates (NDP) to the corresponding de-oxyribonucleoside diphosphates (dNDP). It is subject to a complex allosteric control which has been most studied with the bacterial enzyme. Most studies with the mammalian enzyme show it to be similar to the bacterial enzyme (Fig.11.7). 

We will learn to produce mimics of enzyme clusters, imitating natural clusters such as gene transcription assemblies. We will learn to produce artificial enzymes that show induced fit, and allosteric control by analogs of hormones. Then we will move to mimics of cells themselves, with their components of many enzymes, to achieve chemical processes more complex than those done by a single enzyme. The biochemistry of life is impressive, but the role of chemistry is not just to admire it. As humans were impelled to invent ways to fly after observing birds, we will learn to create a new area of chemistry - biomimetic reaction chemistry - adding both to our understanding and to our practical abilities. 

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