Pyruvate allosteric effectors

Acetyl-CoA is a potent allosteric effector of glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. It allosterically inhibits pyruvate kinase (as noted in Chapter 19) and activates pyruvate carboxylase. Because it also allosterically inhibits pyruvate dehydrogenase (the enzymatic link between glycolysis and the TCA cycle), the cellular fate of pyruvate is strongly dependent on acetyl-CoA levels. A rise in... 

Fig. 9. A schematic drawing of a possible mechanism for the reaction catalyzed by the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. The three enzymes Elf E2, and E3 are located so that lipoic acid covalently linked to E2 can rotate between the active sites containing thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) and pyruvate (Pyr) on Elt CoA on E2, and FAD on E3. Acetyl-CoA and GTP are allosteric effectors of E, and NAD+ is an inhibitor of the overall reaction.

In bacteria and green plants PEP carboxylase (Eq. 13-53), a highly regulated enzyme, is responsible for synthesizing oxaloacetate. In animal tissues pyruvate carboxylase (Eq. 14-3) plays the same role. The latter enzyme is almost inactive in the absence of the allosteric effector acetyl-CoA. For this reason, it went undetected for many years. In the presence of high concentrations of acetyl-CoA the enzyme is fully activated and provides for synthesis of a high enough concentration of oxaloacetate to permit the cycle to function. Even so, the oxaloacetate concentration in mitochondria is low, only 0.1 to 0.4 x 10-6 M (10-40 molecules per mitochondrion), and is relatively constant.65 79... 

Figure 10.4 The abolition of positive cooperativity on the binding of allosteric effectors to some enzymes. Note the dramatic increases in activity at low substrate concentrations on the addition of adenosine monophosphate to isocitrate dehydrogenase, of deoxycytosine diphosphate to deoxythymidine kinase, and of fructose 1,6-diphosphate to pyruvate kinase this shows how the activity may be switched on by an allosteric effector (PEP = phosphoenolpyruvate). [From J. A. Hathaway and D. E. Atkinson, J. Biol. Chem. 238,2875 (1963) R. Okazaki and A. Kornbcrg, J. Biol. Chem. 239,275 (1964) R. Haeckel, B. Hess, W. Lauterhom, and K.-H. Wurster, Hoppe-Seyler s Z. Physiol. Chem. 349, 699 (1968).]...

Figure 16.21. Control of the Catalytic Activity of Pyruvate Kinase. Pyruvate kinase is regulated by allosteric effectors and covalent modification.

The activity of pyruvate carboxylase is dependent upon the positive allosteric effector... 

C. The activity of regulatory enzymes such as fructose-1,6-bisphos-phatase, hexokinase, phosphofructokinase 1, and pyruvate kinase are frequently controlled by binding allosteric effectors. These allosteric enzymes usually exhibit sigmoidal kinetics. Lactate dehydrogenase is not controlled by allosteric effectors and therefore would be expected to exhibit Michaelis-Menten kinetics. 

The enzyme pyruvate kinase (PK), one of the sites of ADP phosphorylation in glycolysis, provides a good example of adaptation via alteration of enzyme properties. This is because it is modified by the binding of allosteric effectors, it is phosphorylated in the liver and it binds regulatory proteins in the muscle. The reaction catalyzed by PK is as follows ... 

The enzyme is a homodimeric protein of A/r 170,000 and contains no known organic or metal ion cofactors. The enzyme is readily inactivated by oxygen and interconverts between active and inactive forms in vivo (173, 174). The activation process occurs under conditions of anaerobiosis and is catalyzed by an Fe(ll)-dependent activating enzyme (Mr 30,000) (775). Elegant studies on the in vitro activation of PFL by Knappe and co-workers (176, 177) have revealed that a complex activation cocktail is required, which includes the activating enzyme, pyruvate, or oxamate as allosteric effectors, S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), and flavodoxin (775) or photoreduced 5-deazariboflavin (178). A possible role for a B12 derivative in the activation or catalytic reaction for PFL is not likely in light of the observation that E. coli 113-3, a methionine/B auxotroph, pos-... 

Lipogenesis is controlled by a number of mechanisms, including allosteric effectors, covalent modification, and availability of substrate. Pyruvate is an excellent potential precursor for fatty acids, particularly in the liver. One of the difficulties encountered is that pyruvate can proceed to acetyl CoA in the mitochondrion, however, acetyl CoA in the mitochondrion will not directly produce fatty-acid synthesis because this process occurs in the cytosol. 

The enzyme that catalyzes this reaction is pyruvate carboxylase, an allosteric enzyme found in the mitochondria. Acetyl-CoA is an allosteric effector that activates pyruvate carboxylase. If high levels of acetyl-GoA are present (in other words, if there is more acetyl-GoA than is needed to supply the citric acid cycle), pyruvate (a precursor of acetyl-GoA) can be diverted to gluconeogenesis. (Oxaloacetate from the citric acid cycle can frequendy be a starting point for gluconeogenesis as well.) Magnesium ion (Mg +) and biotin are also required for effective catalysis. We have seen Mg + as a cofactor before, but we have not seen biotin, which requires some discussion. 

The regulation of covalent phosphorylation of acetyl-CoA carboxylase by the allosteric effectors is especially interesting from the point of view that the cellular metabolites could be determinants of the substrate specificity of protein kinases. At present, very little is known as to how the specificity of protein kinase is determined beyond the required primary amino acid sequence. Such metabolite-regulated covalent phosphorylation was shown to exist in the liver pyruvate kinase system 100), and it could be interesting to examine whether such regulation is a general phenomenon of covalent modifiable systems. 

Overexpression of pyruvate kinase and phosphofructokinase did not influence the activities of other enzymes in the pathway, nor did it change intermediary metabolite levels, and as a result, CA production was not increased. The activity of overexpressed phosphofructokinase was decreased through a reduction in the level of fructose 2,6-bisphosphate, a positive allosteric effector of phosphofructokinase. Another study found that overexpression of citrate synthase did not increase the rate of CA production. These studies support the calculations of Torres, who concluded that at least seven glycolytic enzymes needed to be overexpressed to achieve a significant increase in flux toward citrate. - ... 

Pyruvate kinase possesses allosteric sites for numerous effectors. It is activated by AMP and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate and inhibited by ATP, acetyl-CoA, and alanine. (Note that alanine is the a-amino acid counterpart of the a-keto acid, pyruvate.) Furthermore, liver pyruvate kinase is regulated by covalent modification. Flormones such as glucagon activate a cAMP-dependent protein kinase, which transfers a phosphoryl group from ATP to the enzyme. The phos-phorylated form of pyruvate kinase is more strongly inhibited by ATP and alanine and has a higher for PEP, so that, in the presence of physiological levels of PEP, the enzyme is inactive. Then PEP is used as a substrate for glucose synthesis in the pathway (to be described in Chapter 23), instead... 

Pyruvate carboxylase is an allosteric enzyme being activated by its effector, acetyl-CoA. The enzyme contains tightly bound Mn2+ ions, and a covalently attached prosthetic group, biotin. When the mitochondria are in a high-energy state, the concentrations of acetyl-CoA and ATP are relatively high, so the modulator of the enzyme and a source of energy are both available. The oxaloacetate is then converted within mitochondria to malate ... 

The product of this reaction, oxaloacetate, can either enter the gluconeogenic pathway (Chap. 11) by way of malate or condense with acetyl-CoA to yield citrate. Pyruvate carboxylase is an allosteric enzyme, and it is activated by the heterotropic effector, acetyl-CoA. Thus, pyruvate in the mitochondria is the substrate for either pyruvate dehydrogenase or pyruvate carboxylase, the activities of which, in turn, are controlled by reactants associated with the citric acid cycle. The interplay among pyruvate dehydrogenase, pyruvate carboxylase, pyruvate, and the citric acid cycle is shown in Fig. 12-9. 

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