J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 263, Issue 12, 5543-5549, 04, 1988
Competition between nucleoside diphosphates and triphosphates at the catalytic and allosteric sites of phosphorylase kinase
A Cheng and GM Carlson
Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis 38163.
The interactions of nucleotides at the allosteric and catalytic sites of
phosphorylase kinase were examined. Binding of nucleoside triphosphates at
the nucleoside diphosphate allosteric activation site inhibited enzymatic
activity; this was observed with either ATP or GTP. Increasing
concentrations of ADP caused a biphasic response: low concentrations
activated and higher concentrations inhibited. Inhibition was due to the
binding of ADP at the catalytic site, as opposed to an allosteric
inhibitory site. GDP activated at low concentrations, but did not inhibit
even at relatively high concentrations, and is therefore a specific probe
for the allosteric site. Maximal activity of the nonactivated holoenzyme at
pH 6.8 is achieved at an optimal ratio of ATP to ADP, such that the
inhibitory actions of ATP at the allosteric site and of ADP at the
catalytic site are balanced. Various potential molecular mechanisms to
explain the allosteric activation by ADP were examined and ruled out, thus
strengthening our previous conclusion that the activation is predominantly
caused by a conformational transition in the beta subunits directly induced
by the binding of ADP (Cheng, A., Fitzgerald, T. J., and Carlson, G. M.
(1985) J. Biol. Chem. 260, 2535-2542; Trempe, M. R., and Carlson, G. M.
(1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 4333-4340; Cheng, A., Fitzgerald, T. J.,
Bhatnager, D., Roskoski, R., Jr., and Carlson, G. M. (1988) J. Biol. Chem.
263, 5534-5542). The catalytic site exhibited high stereospecificity for
inhibition by the Rp and Sp epimers of adenosine 5'-O-(1-thiodiphosphate),
with the Rp epimer (Ki = 0.5 microM) being 136-fold more effective than its
Sp counterpart. This can readily explain the inability of the Rp epimer to
be an effective allosteric activator.