Ra. Collins et al., A SUBUNIT INTERFACE MUTANT OF YEAST PYRUVATE-KINASE REQUIRES THE ALLOSTERIC ACTIVATOR FRUCTOSE-1,6-BISPHOSPHATE FOR ACTIVITY, Biochemical journal, 310, 1995, pp. 117-123
A variant form of yeast pyruvate kinase (EC 2.7.1.40) with Ser-384 mut
ated to proline has been engineered in order to study the allosteric p
roperties of this enzyme. Both the mutant and wildtype enzymes were ov
erexpressed in a strain of yeast in which the genomic copy of the pyru
vate kinase gene had been disrupted by an insertion of the Ura3 gene.
Both enzymes were purified to homogeneity and their kinetic properties
characterized. The wild-type enzyme displays sigmoid kinetics with re
spect to phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) concentration, and is activated by
the allosteric effector fructose 1,6-bisphosphate with concomitant red
uction in co-operativity. In contrast, the mutant was found to be depe
ndent on the presence of the effector for catalytic activity and was i
nactive in its absence. The fully activated mutant enzyme had a k(cat.
) 1.6 times greater than that of the wild-type enzyme. The mutation in
troduced into the enzyme is in an intersubunit contact which is known
to be critical for the allosteric properties of the enzyme, and is far
removed from the active site. The major effect of the mutation seems
to be to stabilize the low-affinity T state of the apoenzyme, although
k(cat.) is also affected. The S-0.5 for PEP and S-0.5 for ADP of the
wild-type enzyme were 0.22 +/- 0.004 and 0.15 +/- 0.01 mM respectively
(means +/- S.E.M.). In the activated mutant enzyme, these kinetic par
ameters increased to 0.67 +/- 0.03 and 0.43 +/- 0.03 mM respectively.
The cooperativity between ADP-binding sites was altered in the mutant
enzyme, with the Hill coefficient (h) for ADP increasing to 1.65 +/- 0
.07 in the presence of the effector, compared with a value of 1.01 +/-
0.07 for the wild-type enzyme under the same conditions. CD spectrosc
opy revealed the secondary structure of the mutant enzyme to be little
different from that of the wild-type enzyme, indicating that the two
enzymes have similar secondary structures in solution. Precise tertiar
y and quaternary structures such as intersubunit and interdomain inter
actions may be modified. An improved purification procedure has been d
evised that allows large quantities of enzyme to be rapidly prepared.