Substrate binding specificity

Structure-based molecular modeling is another promising approach to improvement of the prediction of region-specificity of P450 metabolism. De Groot developed pharmacophore models and three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationships either alone or in combination with protein homology models to provide substrate-binding specificity information for CYP jgS. ... 

Cushman, Ondetti, and coworkers (17,18,19) used SQ 20,881 and other peptide analogues to provide an enhanced understanding of the enzymatic properties of ACE. Using knowledge of substrate-binding specificities and the fact that ACE has properties similar to those of pancreatic carboxypeptidases, these researchers developed a hypothetical model of the enzyme active site. Carboxypeptidase A, like ACE, is a zinc-containing exopeptidase. The binding of a substrate to carboxypeptidase A involves three major interactions (Fig. 28.5A). 

Ser-130 This residue is located close to Ser-70 and Lys-73. In the wild-type TEM-1, Lys-73 is linked to Ser-70 (2.7 A), but not to Ser-130 (3.7 A), by a H-bond (34). In the acyl-enzyme complex, however, slight conformational changes bring Ser-130 to a H-bonding distance (2.8 A) with Lys-73 while Ser-70 is distanced (3.3 A). Mutation of Ser-130 to Ala, Gly, or other residues impairs the catalytic function of the enzyme, in particular in the acylation step, and alters the substrate-binding specificities as well (55,56). 

Although FeMo-cofactor is clearly knpHcated in substrate reduction cataly2ed by the Mo-nitrogenase, efforts to reduce substrates using the isolated FeMo-cofactor have been mosdy equivocal. Thus the FeMo-cofactor s polypeptide environment must play a critical role in substrate binding and reduction. Also, the different spectroscopic features of protein-bound vs isolated FeMo-cofactor clearly indicate a role for the polypeptide in electronically fine-tuning the substrate-reduction site. Site-directed amino acid substitution studies have been used to probe the possible effects of FeMo-cofactor s polypeptide environment on substrate reduction (163—169). Catalytic and spectroscopic consequences of such substitutions should provide information concerning the specific functions of individual amino acids located within the FeMo-cofactor environment (95,122,149). 

Figure 11.6 A schematic view of the presumed binding mode of the tetrahedral transition state intermediate for the deacylation step. The four essential features of the serine proteinases are highlighted in yellow the catalytic triad, the oxyanion hole, the specificity pocket, and the unspecific main-chain substrate binding.

Figure 11.9 A diagram of the active site of chymotrypsin with a bound inhibitor, Ac-Pro-Ala-Pro-Tyr-COOH. The diagram illustrates how this inhibitor binds in relation to the catalytic triad, the strbstrate specificity pocket, the oxyanion hole and the nonspecific substrate binding region. The Inhibitor is ted. Hydrogen bonds between Inhibitor and enzyme are striped. (Adapted from M.N.G. James et al., /. Mol. Biol. 144 43-88, 1980.)...

Figure 11.10 Topological diagram of the two domains of chymotrypsin, illustrating that the essential active-site residues are part of the same two loop regions (3-4 and 5-6, red) of the two domains. These residues form the catalytic triad, the oxyanion hole (green), and the substrate binding regions (yellow and blue) including essential residues in the specificity pocket.

Krieger, M., Kay, L.M., Stroud, R.M. Structure and specific binding of trypsin comparison of inhibited derivatives and a model for substrate binding. /. Mol. Biol. 83 209-230, 1974. 

Cleavage occur s at the scissile bond. Residues in the substrate towards the N-terminus are numbered PI, P2, P3, etc, whereas residues towards the C-terminus are numbered PI, P2, P3 etc. Cleavage occurs between PI and P1. For a peptidase with limited specificity, only the residue in PI or PI is important for specificity. A peptidase with an extended substrate binding site will have a preference for residues in other positions. For example cathepsin L prefers substrates with phenylalanine in P2 and arginine in PI. However, this is a preference only, and cathepsin L cleaves substrates after other amino acids. Caspase-3 has a preference for Asp in both P4 and PI, but it is unusual for substrate specificity to extend much further from the scissile bond. The peptidase with the most extended substrate specificity may be mitochondrial intermediate peptidase that removes an octopeptide targeting signal from the N-terminus of cytoplasmically synthesized proteins that are destined for import into the mitochondrial lumen. 

It has often been questioned whether the rates and kinetics of purified enzymes, determined in very dilute solutions with high concentrations of their substrates, but not always of their cofactors, can be extrapolated to the conditions prevailing in the matrix. Much of the mitochondrial water will be bound to protein by hydrogen bonds and electrostatically, but there is also a pool of free water which may only be a fraction of the total water (Gitomer, 1987). The molar concentrations of intermediates of the citrate cycle and of p-oxidation are very low, usually less than those of most enzymes (Srere, 1987 Watmough et al., 1989 Sumegi et al., 1991). The extent to which cofactors and intermediates bind specifically or nonspecifically to enzymes is not known. It is therefore difficult to estimate concentration of these... 

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