Key residues in the allosteric transition of Bacillus stearothermophilus pyruvate kinase identified by site-directed mutagenesis.

The structural gene for pyruvate kinase from Bacillus stearothermophilus has been cloned in Escherichia coli and sequenced. The open reading frame from the ATG start codon to the TAG stop codon is 1482 base-pairs and encodes a peptide of relative molecular mass 52,967. In the expression vector pKK223-3, containing the synthetic tac promoter, the gene is overexpressed in E. coli cells to an estimated level of 30% total soluble cell protein. A purification procedure for the overexpressed protein has been established. The construction and characterization of a pair of mutant proteins has given insight into the structural basis of allosteric regulation in the tetrameric enzyme. Substituting tryptophan for tyrosine at position 466 (mutant Trp466-->Tyr) resulted in an activated form of the enzyme, having a reduced K1/2 for the substrate phosphoenolpyruvate. We propose that the characteristics of this mutant might be the result of bulk removal releasing steric inhibition to the formation of an interdomain salt bridge between Asp356 and Arg444. The regulatory behaviour of the double mutant produced by making the additional substitution aspartate for glutamate at position 356 (Trp466-->Tyr/Asp356-->Glu) corroborates this. The position of the salt bridge is such that it might be pivotal to the conformation of a pocket that is proposed to open up when the active R-conformation is adopted. We suggest that the mechanism of activation of B. stearothermophilus pyruvate kinase by ribose-5-phosphate might hinge on an interaction with, or indirectly through, residue Trp466, removing it from the vicinity of the potential salt bridge between Asp356 and Arg444 and thus effecting a closing together of the protein structure concomitant with an opening up of the pocket region.