Structural basis for morpheein-type allosteric regulation of Escherichia coli glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase: equilibrium between inactive hexamer and active dimer.
Mouilleron, S., Badet-Denisot, M.A., Pecqueur, L., Madiona, K., Assrir, N., Badet, B., Golinelli-Pimpaneau, B.(2012) J Biol Chem 287: 34533-34546
- PubMed: 22851174 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M112.380378
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
3OOJ - PubMed Abstract: 
The amino-terminal cysteine of glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (GlmS) acts as a nucleophile to release and transfer ammonia from glutamine to fructose 6-phosphate through a channel. The crystal structure of the C1A mutant of Escherichia coli GlmS, solved at 2.5 Å resolution, is organized as a hexamer, where the glutaminase domains adopt an inactive conformation. Although the wild-type enzyme is active as a dimer, size exclusion chromatography, dynamic and quasi-elastic light scattering, native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and ultracentrifugation data show that the dimer is in equilibrium with a hexameric state, in vitro and in cellulo. The previously determined structures of the wild-type enzyme, alone or in complex with glucosamine 6-phosphate, are also consistent with a hexameric assembly that is catalytically inactive because the ammonia channel is not formed. The shift of the equilibrium toward the hexameric form in the presence of cyclic glucosamine 6-phosphate, together with the decrease of the specific activity with increasing enzyme concentration, strongly supports product inhibition through hexamer stabilization. Altogether, our data allow us to propose a morpheein model, in which the active dimer can rearrange into a transiently stable form, which has the propensity to form an inactive hexamer. This would account for a physiologically relevant allosteric regulation of E. coli GlmS. Finally, in addition to cyclic glucose 6-phosphate bound at the active site, the hexameric organization of E. coli GlmS enables the binding of another linear sugar molecule. Targeting this sugar-binding site to stabilize the inactive hexameric state is therefore suggested for the development of specific antibacterial inhibitors.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Laboratoire d'Enzymologie et Biochimie Structurales, Centre de Recherche de Gif, CNRS, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.