Liver alcohol dehydrogenase conformational change

W. R. Laws and J. D. Shore, Spectral evidence for tyrosine ionization linked to a conformational change in liver alcohol dehydrogenase ternary complexes, J. Biol. Chem. 254, 2582-2584 (1979). 

Branden, C.-l., Ekiund, H. Coenzyme-induc conformational changes and substrate binding in liver alcohol dehydrogenase in Molecular Interactions and Activity in Proteins, Ciba Foundation Symp. 60 (New Kries), pp. 63-80, Ezceipta M Uca, Amsterdam, 1978... 

Tapia and Eklund (1986) carried out a Monte Carlo simulation of the substrate channel of liver alcohol dehydrogenase, based on the X-ray diffraction structure for this enzyme. The addition of substrate and the associated conformation change induce an order—disorder transition for the solvent in the channel. A solvent network, connecting the active-site zinc ion and the protein surface, may provide the basis for a proton relay system. A molecular dynamics simulation of carbonic anhydrase showed two proton relay networks connecting the active-site zinc atom to the surrounding solvent (Vedani et ai, 1989). They remain intact when the substrate, HCOf, is bound. 

The mechanism of this oxidation for the enzyme liver alcohol dehydrogenase is shown for the reaction of 83, where ethanol is bound to the active site of the enzyme to give 84 via proton abstraction and then hydride transfer to generate acetaldehyde (see 85). NAD+ binds to the active site of the enzyme to induce a conformational change (see Chapter 8 for conformation) to close the active site. The oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde (ethanal) is accompanied by reduction of NAD+ to NADH, as shown in the illustration. 

Alcohol oxidation requires release of a proton, which formally comes from the alcohol. In other dehydrogenases such as lactate dehydrogenase, proton release occurs simultaneously with hydride transfer. In liver ADH proton release can be demonstrated, by reaction of the proton with an indicator such as thymol blue or phenol red in stopped-flow spectrophotometry, to be faster than hydride transfer, 270 vs. 150 s and unaffected by use of deuterated substrate, so it occurs before hydride transfer. Binding of the NAD+ nicotinamide ring is accompanied by a conformational change of ADH bringing the catalytic zinc about 0.1 nm closer to the... 

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