Time-dependent 31P saturation transfer in the phosphoglucomutase reaction. Characterization of the spin system for the Cd(II) enzyme and evaluation of rate constants for the transfer process.

Time-dependent 31P saturation-transfer studies were conducted with the Cd2+-activated form of muscle phosphoglucomutase to probe the origin of the 100-fold difference between its catalytic efficiency (in terms of kcat) and that of the more efficient Mg2+-activated enzyme. The present paper describes the equilibrium mixture of phosphoglucomutase and its substrate/product pair when the concentration of the Cd2+ enzyme approaches that of the substrate and how the nine-spin 31P NMR system provided by this mixture was treated. It shows that the presence of abortive complexes is not a significant factor in the reduced activity of the Cd2+ enzyme since the complex of the dephosphoenzyme and glucose 1,6-bisphosphate, which accounts for a large majority of the enzyme present at equilibrium, is catalytically competent. It also shows that rate constants for saturation transfer obtained at three different ratios of enzyme to free substrate are mutually compatible. These constants, which were measured at chemical equilibrium, can be used to provide a quantitative kinetic rationale for the reduced steady-state activity elicited by Cd2+ relative to Mg2+ [cf. Ray, W.J., Post, C.B., & Puvathingal, J.M. (1989) Biochemistry (following paper in this issue)]. They also provide minimal estimates of 350 and 150 s-1 for the rate constants describing (PO3-) transfer from the Cd2+ phosphoenzyme to the 6-position of bound glucose 1-phosphate and to the 1-position of bound glucose 6-phosphate, respectively. These minimal estimates are compared with analogous estimates for the Mg2+ and Li+ forms of the enzyme in the accompanying paper.