Adenylate kinase-catalyzed phosphoryl transfer couples ATP utilization with its generation by glycolysis in intact muscle.

We previously suggested that an importance of adenylate kinase (AdK) in skeletal muscle is to function as a high energy phosphoryl transfer system regulating ATP generation in correspondence with its consumption by specific cellular processes. The present experiments are intended to define the ATP-generating system coupled to and regulated by AdK-catalyzed phosphotransfer in skeletal muscle and also to examine the relationship between AdK- and creatine kinase (CK)-catalyzed phosphotransfer. Rates of phosphoryl transfer catalyzed by AdK were assessed in intact, isolated rat diaphragm by determining rates of AMP phosphorylation with endogenously generated [gamma-18O]ATP under conditions of altered anaerobic and aerobic ATP production. AdK-catalyzed phosphoryl transfer rates accelerated incrementally up to 12-fold in direct proportion to stimulated contractile frequency in parallel with equivalent increases in rates of ATP generation by lactate producing glycolysis. Stoichiometric equivalent increases of AdK-catalyzed phosphotransfer and anaerobic ATP production also occurred up to more than 20-fold when oxidative phosphorylation was impaired by either O2 deprivation or treatment with KCN or p-(trifluoromethoxy)-phenylhydrazone. These enhanced rates of AMP phosphorylation were balanced by virtually identically increased rates of AdK-catalyzed generation of AMP. This AMP was traced to arise from AdK-catalyzed phosphotransfer involving ADP generated by a muscle ATPase. Increased AdK-catalyzed phosphotransfer paired with the apparent compensatory increase in ATP generation by anaerobic glycolysis in oxygen-deprived muscle occurred coincident with diminished rates of CK-catalyzed phosphoryl transfer indicative of a pairing between oxidatively produced ATP and CK-catalyzed phosphotransfer. A metabolic model consistent with these results and conforming to the Mitchell general principle of vectorial ligand conduction is suggested.