Structure and function of Salmonella typhimurium orotate phosphoribosyltransferase: protein complementation reveals shared active sites.

A solvent-exposed loop, comprising residues 98-119 of S. typhimurium orotate phosphoribosyltransferase (OPRTase), is at the subunit interface of the dimeric enzyme, and its amino acid side chains potentially contact active sites on either subunit. A portion of the loop (103-107) appears to be mobile on the basis of the X-ray structures of enzyme.OMP [Scapin, G., Grubmeyer, C., & Sacchettini, J. C. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 1287-1294] and enzyme.PRPP.orotate complexes [Scapin, G., Ozturk, D. H., Grubmeyer, C., & Sacchettini, J. C. (1995) Biochemistry 34, 10744-10754]. Lys-103, which is essential for activity [Ozturk, D. H., Dorfman, R. H. Scapin, G., Sacchettini, J. C., & Grubmeyer, C. (1995) Biochemistry 34, 10755-10763], may thus be functional in the active site formed by the adjacent subunit. Asp-125 is an essential residue that is in the middle of the active site. Equimolar mixtures of the nearly inactive K103A and D125N mutant ORPTase subunits produced approximately 21-23% of the enzymatic activity of the wild-type OPRTase. Heterodimer formation in the complemented mixtures was evidenced by various physical methods. Thus, the active site of OPRTase requires Asp-125 from one subunit and Lys-103 from the adjacent subunit. As predicted from the three-dimensional structure, increased activity resulting from complementation was also observed with mixtures of the K103A mutant and the poorly active K73A and K73Q mutants but not with mixtures of D125N and either K73A or K73Q mutants. Neither K103A nor D125N mutants exhibited negative complementation with the wild-type enzyme. A K103A/D125N double mutant enzyme was also constructed and was able to inactivate wild-type enzyme.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)