Dual divalent cation requirement for activation of pyruvate kinase; essential roles of both enzyme- and nucleotide-bound metal ions.

Rabbit muscle pyruvate kinase requires two divalent cations per active site for catalysis of the enolization of pyruvate in the presence of adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP). One divalent cation is bound directly to the enzyme and forms a second sphere complex with the bound ATP (site 1). The second divalent cation is directly coordinated to the phosphoryl groups of ATP and does not interact with the enzyme (site 2). The essential role of the divalent cation at site 1 is shown by the requirement for Mg2+ or Mn2+ for the enolization of pyruvate in the presence of the substitution inert Cr3+-ATP complex. The rate of detritiation of pyruvate shows a hyperbolic dependence of Mn2+ concentration in the presence of high concentrations of enzyme and Cr3+-ATP. A dissociation constant for Mn2+ from the pyruvate kinase-Mn2+-ATP-Cr3+-pyruvate complex of 1.3 +/- 0.5 muM is determined by the kinetics of detritiation of pyruvate and by parallel Mn2+ binding studies using electron paramagnetic resonance. The essential role of the divalent cation at site 2 is shown by the sigmoidal dependence of the rate of detritiation of pyruvate on Mn2+ concentration in the presence of high concentrations of enzyme and ATP yielding a dissociation constant of 29 +/- 9 muM for Mn2+ from site 2. This value is similar to the dissociation constant of the binary Mn-ATP complex (14 +/- 6 muM) determined under similar conditions. The rate of detritiation of pyruvate is proportional to the concentration of the pyruvate kinase-Mn2+-ATP-Mn2+-pyruvate complex, as determined by parellel kinetic and binding studies. Variation of the nature of the divalent cation at site 1 in the presence of CrATP causes only a twofold change in the rate of detritiation of pyruvate which does not correlate with the pKa of the metal-bound water. Variation of the nature of the divalent cation at both sites in the presence of ATP causes a sevenfold variation in the rate of detritiation or pyruvate that correlates with the pKa of the metal-bound water. The greater rate of enolization observed with CrATP fits this correlation, indicating that the electrophilicity of the nucleotide bound metal (at site 2) determines the rate of enolization of pyruvate.