The roles of glycine residues in the ATP binding site of human brain hexokinase.

Mutants of hexokinase I (Arg539 --> Lys, Thr661 --> Ala, Thr661 --> Val, Gly534 --> Ala, Gly679 --> Ala, and Gly862 --> Ala), located putatively in the vicinity of the ATP binding pocket, were constructed, purified to homogeneity, and studied by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and initial velocity kinetics. The wild-type and mutant enzymes have similar secondary structures on the basis of CD spectroscopy. The mutation Gly679 --> Ala had little effect on the kinetic properties of the enzyme. Compared with the wild-type enzyme, however, the Gly534 --> Ala mutant exhibited a 4000-fold decrease in kcat and the Gly862 --> Ala mutant showed an 11-fold increase in Km for ATP. Glucose 6-phosphate inhibition of the three glycine mutants is comparable to that of the wild-type enzyme. Inorganic phosphate is, however, less effective in relieving glucose 6-phosphate inhibition of the Gly862 --> Ala mutant, relative to the wild-type enzyme and entirely ineffective in relieving inhibition of the Gly534 --> Ala mutant. Although the fluorescence emission spectra showed some difference for the Gly862 --> Ala mutant relative to that of the wild-type enzyme, indicating an environmental alteration around tryptophan residues, no change was observed for the Gly534 --> Ala and Gly679 --> Ala mutants. Gly862 --> Ala and Gly534 --> Ala are the first instances of single residue mutations in hexokinase I that affect the binding affinity of ATP and abolish phosphate-induced relief of glucose 6-phosphate inhibition, respectively.