Site-directed mutagenesis and epitope-mapped monoclonal antibodies define a catalytically important conformational difference between human placental and germ cell alkaline phosphatase.

Placental (PLAP) and germ cell (GCAP) alkaline phosphatases were probed immunologically with a library of 18 murine monoclonal antibodies reacting with different conformational epitopes on PLAP. Three main antigenic domains (I, II and III) were mapped by antibody competition experiments and the relative binding of the antibodies to site-directed PLAP mutants. Relative affinities of each of the antibodies for the wild type (wt) GCAP were 2-3-fold lower than the values found for wt PLAP. Relative affinity was determined for a series of PLAP mutants, in which one, two or three amino acids were substituted for the corresponding wt GCAP residues by site-directed mutagenesis. Substitutions at residues 15, 38, 67, 241 or 254 induced a major decrease in affinity (6-10-fold) primarily for those antibodies reacting within domain I, whereas changes at positions 84 and 297 led to a 2-3-fold enhancement of affinities as measured with antibodies reacting within the three domains. Arg209 was found to constitute the only difference between the S and F allelic phenotypes of PLAP and to structure the epitope for the F/S allotype-discriminating antibodies. Arg241 was found to constitute the epitope for the antibody 17E3 that discriminates between PLAP and GCAP. Mutagenesis at position 68 or 133 had little effect on the overall reactivity with the antibody panel. Substitution in wt PLAP of Glu429 for Gly429 or even for His429 (found at this position in tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase) and Ser429 (found in the intestinal alkaline phosphatase) induced a general decrease in affinities as detected by 16 of the 18 antibodies. The conformational change accompanying mutagenesis of Glu429 in PLAP, is important in view of the recent identification of Gly429 as the major determinant of the unique GCAP inhibition by the uncompetitive inhibitor L-Leu. Relative affinity values determined for the rare L-Leu sensitive heterodimeric FD and SD PLAP phenotypes, suggested that the reactivity pattern of the D homodimer with the antibody panel, would resemble more closely that of wt GCAP than wt PLAP. Our data suggest that the uncompetitive inhibition of GCAP by L-Leu is due to an enzymatically critical conformational change in a loop region proximal to the active site of the enzyme, induced by substitution of a single amino acid residue.