Evidence for the importance of histidine at the active site of argininosuccinate synthetase from soybean.

Studies to determine the role of histidine in catalysis by L-argininosuccinate synthetase (EC 6. 3. 4. 5) were carried out with the enzyme isolated from soybean cell suspension cultures. These experiments utilized analogues of the substrates citrulline and aspartate to investigate substrate binding, and to determine which portion of the molecule were required for binding at the active site of the enzyme. Photooxidation studies using rose bengal were carried out to define the importance of histidine residues for catalysis. These studies suggest that an active site histidine residue has an important role to play in the formation of argininosuccinate by this enzyme.