Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Characterization of a reactive lysine residue in the Pichia jadinii enzyme reveals a limited structural variation in a functionally significant segment.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase from the yeast Pichia jadinii has a reactive lysine residue in a segment of amino acid sequence Ile-Asp-His-Tyr-Leu-Gly-Lys*-Glu-Met-Val-Lys. This structure differs from that of other characterized glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenases, but outside yeasts the segment is invariant in known mammalian, insect and bacterial forms. Thus, limited structural variation is now defined within yeasts for a part of the protein otherwise strictly conserved, and for which stringent structural requirements probably relate to enzymic mechanisms.