Tyrosine-activating enzyme and

The molecular interaction between the activating enzyme and the amino acid is not known, but it probably varies with the type of activating enzyme. Some enzymes (. g., the alanine-activating enzyme) are unaffected by paramercuric benzoate, but others, like the tryptophan-activating enzyme, appear to be SH enzymes the activity of which depends on the presence of free SH groups in the molecule. Potassium ions are known to activate the tyrosine enzyme. 

The properties of the purified enzyme correspond closely to the properties observed in crude preparations (see above) and also agree with the properties of the purified enzymes specific for other amino acids (listed in Table IV, as far as they have been determined. In addition to Mg, the tyrosine activating enzyme (133) has a requirement for K+. To these properties ought to be added the ability to transfer the activated amino acid pnto a specific polynucleotide acceptor (158). 

The dopamine is then concentrated in storage vesicles via an ATP-dependent process. Here the rate-limiting step appears not to be precursor uptake, under normal conditions, but tyrosine hydroxylase activity. This is regulated by protein phosphorylation and by de novo enzyme synthesis. The enzyme requites oxygen, ferrous iron, and tetrahydrobiopterin (BH. The enzymatic conversion of the precursor to the active agent and its subsequent storage in a vesicle are energy-dependent processes. 

Phenylalanine is hydroxylated to tyrosine and then sequentially to 4-hydroxyphenyl-pyruvate and by dioxygenation and rearrangement to 2,5-dihydroxyphenylpyruvate (Figure 3.16) (Arias-Barrau et al. 2004). Hydroxylation involves 6,7-dimethyltetrahydro-biopterin that is converted into the 4a-carbinolamine (Song et al. 1999). Copper is not a component of the active enzyme, although there is some disagreement on whether or not Fe is involved in the reaction for the hydroxylase from Chromobacterium violaceum (Chen and Frey 1998). 

Lequea et al. used the activity of tyrosine apodecarboxylase to determine the concentration of the enzyme cofactor pyridoxal 5 -phosphate (vitamin B6). The inactive apoenzyme is converted to the active enzyme by pyridoxal 5 -phosphate. By keeping the cofactor the limiting reagent in the reaction by adding excess apoenzyme and substrate, the enzyme activity is a direct measure of cofactor concentration. The enzymatic reaction was followed by detecting tyramine formation by LCEC. The authors used this method to determine vitamin B6 concentrations in plasma samples. 

The regulation of phosphorylation of tyrosine hydroxylase is affected by stimuli that increase Ca2+ or cAMP concentrations in neurons, including nerve impulse conduction and certain neurotransmitters in well-defined regions of the nervous system, in the adrenal medulla and in cultured pheochromocytoma cells. In addition, tyrosine hydroxylase phosphorylation is stimulated by nerve growth factor in certain cell types, possibly via the activation of ERKs. These changes in the phosphorylation of tyrosine hydroxylase have been shown to correlate with changes in the catalytic activity of the enzyme and in the rate of catecholamine biosynthesis. 

N-Nitrosamines have been shown to be inhibitors of cysteine-containing enzymes. For example, dephostatin and other N-methyl-N-nitrosoanilines (1) were found to be inhibitors of the protein tyrosin phosphatases, papain and caspase [90,91]. Inhibition results from the S-nitrosation of the critical cysteine residues in the active sites of the enzymes by the nitrosamines. Compounds 6 and 7 have been found to inhibit thrombus formation in arterioles and venules of rats [92], while N-nitrosamide 9 exhibited vasodilation and mutagenicity as a result of NO release [93]. 

After formation of an O-coordinated ketyl radical anion and a cis coordinated tyrosin via hydrogen abstraction, a rapid intramolecular one-electron redox reaction occurs with release of the product aldehyde and formation of the fully reduced active site containing a Cu(I) ion, which then reacts with 02 to give H202 and the active enzyme. The above sequence represents Nature s mechanistic blueprint for coordination chemists. 

An outline mechanism for tyrosine activation has been proposed (Fersht, 1975 Fersht et al., 1975a,b Ward and Fersht, 1988a) on the basis of conventional kinetic and binding studies, and this is shown in (49). For the aminoacylation step, some aspects of the reaction are still not known such as the point at which AMP is displaced, but the currently preferred mechanism (Fersht and Jakes, 1975 Ward and Fersht, 1988b) is that given in (50). This is compatible with the observed kinetics which show that two moles of tyrosine bind in each enzyme turnover during which one molecule of Tyr-tRNA appears. 

Table 18 Values of and for wild-type and mutant enzymes in tyrosine activation [see (47) and (49)]. 

One of the important consequences of studying catalysis by mutant enzymes in comparison with wild-type enzymes is the possibility of identifying residues involved in catalysis that are not apparent from crystal structure determinations. This has been usefully applied (Fersht et al., 1988) to the tyrosine activation step in tyrosine tRNA synthetase (47) and (49). The residues Lys-82, Arg-86, Lys-230 and Lys-233 were replaced by alanine. Each mutation was studied in turn, and comparison with the wild-type enzyme revealed that each mutant was substantially less effective in catalysing formation of tyrosyl adenylate. Kinetic studies showed that these residues interact with the transition state for formation of tyrosyl adenylate and pyrophosphate from tyrosine and ATP and have relatively minor effects on the binding of tyrosine and tyrosyl adenylate. However, the crystal structures of the tyrosine-enzyme complex (Brick and Blow, 1987) and tyrosyl adenylate complex (Rubin and Blow, 1981) show that the residues Lys-82 and Arg-86 are on one side of the substrate-binding site and Lys-230 and Lys-233 are on the opposite side. It would be concluded from the crystal structures that not all four residues could be simultaneously involved in the catalytic process. Movement of one pair of residues close to the substrate moves the other pair of residues away. It is therefore concluded from the kinetic effects observed for the mutants that, in the wild-type enzyme, formation of the transition state for the reaction involves a conformational change to a structure which differs from the enzyme structure in the complex with tyrosine or tyrosine adenylate. The induced fit to the transition-state structure must allow interaction with all four residues simultaneously. 

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