Inhibition of the recBC enzyme of Escherichia coli by specific binding of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate to DNA binding site.

Pyridoxal 5'-phosphate rapidly abolished the DNA-hydrolyzing activities as well as DNA-dependent ATP-ase activity of the recBC enzyme of Escherichia coli. Pyridoxal also had an inhibitory effect on the enzyme but less effective than that of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate. Pyridoxamine 5'-phosphate, pyridoxamine, or pyridoxine had no effect on the activities of the enzyme. The inhibition was rapidly reversed by dilution but could be made irreversible by reduction with sodium borohydride prior to dilution. This suggests the formation of Schiff base between pyridoxal 5'-phosphate and an epsilon-amino group of a lysine residue which is essential for the enzyme activity. Pyridoxal 5'-phosphate is a competitive inhibitor of DNA substrate but not of ATP. Furthermore, the presence of DNA substrate protected the enzyme from inactivation by the reduction but the presence of ATP showed no effect. Thus, the recBC enzyme appears to have an essential lysine residue at or near the DNA binding site of the enzyme, and the enzyme possesses two independent catalytic sites, such as a DNA binding site and an ATP binding site.