1H and 31P Fourier transform magnetic resonance studies of the conformation of enzyme-bound propionyl coenzyme A on the transcarboxylase.

The relaxation rates of the carbon-bound protons and of the three assigned phosphorus resonances of propionyl-CoA were measured in solutions of free propionyl-CoA and of the transcarboxylase-propionyl-CoA complex. In free propionyl-CoA, analysis of the 1/T1 values of 15 protons at 100 and 220 MHz and of 1/T1 and 1/T2 of the three phosphorus atoms at 40.5 MHz indicated free rotation of the propionyl region (taur approximately 3 x 10(-11) sec) but hindered motion of the remainder of the molecule with correlation times of 1-3. 5 x 10(-10) sec, approaching the tumbling time of the entire molecule (taur - 6 x 10(-10) sec. The correlation times of the three phosphorus atoms were indistinguishable from those of their nearest neighbor protons. The effects of three homogeneous enzyme preparations with varying contents of Zn(II), Co(II), and Cu(II) on 1/T1 of 12 protons and 3 phosphorus atoms of prionyl-CoA were analyzed with the help of simultaneous equations to yield the individual contributions at the three metal sites. Only diamagnetic effects were detected on the relaxation rates of the three phosphorus atoms. From the diamagnetic effects it was calculated that the motions of the prionyl side chain and of the terminal pantetheine methylene protons were hindered on the enzyme by an order of magnitude (taur approximately 6 x 10(-10) sec) and that the phosphorus atoms were hindered by two orders of magnitude (taur approximately 1 x 10(-8) sec) over the taur values found in free propionyl-CoA, but that these taur values remained well below that of the entire protein molecule (taur =6 x 10(-7) sec)...