The kinetics of the reaction of nitrophenyl phosphates with alkaline phosphatase from Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase. Kinetic studies with the tetrameric enzyme

1. The stability of the tetrameric form of Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase was examined by analytical ultracentrifugation. 2. The stopped-flow technique was used to study the hydrolysis of nitrophenyl phosphates by the alkaline phosphatase tetramer at pH7.5 and 8.3. In both cases transient product formation was observed before the steady state was attained. Both transients consisted of the liberation of 1mol of nitrophenol/2mol of enzyme subunits within the dead-time of the apparatus. The steady-state rates were identical with those observed with the dimer under the same conditions. 3. The binding of 2-hydroxy-5-nitrobenzyl phosphonate to the alkaline phosphatase tetramer was studied by the temperature-jump technique. The self-association of two dimers to form the tetramer is linked to a conformation change within the dimer. This accounts for the differences between the transient phases in the reactions of the dimer and the tetramer with substrate. 4. Addition of P(i) to the alkaline phosphatase tetramer caused it to dissociate into dimers. The tetramer is unable to bind this ligand. It is suggested that the tetramer undergoes a compulsory dissociation before the completion of its first turnover with substrate. 5. On the basis of these findings a mechanism is proposed for the involvement of the alkaline phosphatase tetramer in the physiology of E. coli.

Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase. Relaxation spectra of ligand binding

The temperature-jump technique was used to study the binding equilibrium between the Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase dimer and 2-hydroxy-5-nitrobenzyl phosphonate in 0.1m-tris buffer, pH8.0. Three partially discrete relaxations were observed, two of which could be related to the bimolecular associations of ligand with different conformations of the enzyme and the third to the interconversion of these states. Relaxation spectra were also used to analyse the changes in the mechanism of ligand binding to alkaline phosphatase caused by increase in ionic strength. The relaxation spectrum observed after the addition of P(i) to the equilibrium mixture of phosphonate and enzyme was also studied. Difference spectroscopy indicated that both of these ligands were bound to the alkaline phosphatase dimer at the same time. These results are related to the catalytic mechanism of this enzyme, with particular reference to the role of two identical subunits in a dimeric enzyme that exhibits only one active site functioning in catalysis at any given time.

Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase. An analysis of transient kinetics

1. The hydrolysis of 2,4-dinitrophenyl phosphate by Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase at pH5.5 was studied by the stopped-flow technique. The rate of production of 2,4-dinitrophenol was measured both in reactions with substrate in excess of enzyme and in single turnovers with excess of enzyme over substrate. It was found that the step that determined the rate of the transient phase of this reaction was an isomerization of the enzyme occurring before substrate binding. 2. No difference was observed between the reaction after mixing a pre-equilibrium mixture of alkaline phosphatase and inorganic phosphate, with 2,4-dinitrophenyl phosphate at pH5.5 in the stopped-flow apparatus, and the control reaction in which inorganic phosphate was pre-equilibrated with the substrate. Since dephosphorylation is the rate-limiting step of the complete turnover at pH5.5, this observation suggests that alkaline phosphatase can bind two different ligands simultaneously, one at each of the active sites on the dimeric enzyme, even though only one site is catalytically active at any given time. 3. Kinetic methods are outlined for the distinction between two pathways of substrate binding, which include an isomerization either of the free enzyme or of the enzyme-substrate complex.

A substate-induced conformation change in the reaction of alkaline phosphatase from Escherichia coli

1. Benzyl phosphonates were prepared and their potentialities as chromophoric reagents for the exploration of the substrate-binding site of Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase were investigated. 4-Nitrobenzylphosphonate is a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme. 2-Hydroxy-5-nitrobenzylphosphonate changes its spectrum on binding to the enzyme. This spectral change is reversed when the phosphonate is displaced from the enzyme by substrate. 2. The kinetics of the reaction of 2-hydroxy-5-nitrophenylphosphonate were studied by the stopped-flow and the temperature-jump techniques. It was found that the combination of the phosphonate with the enzyme occurred in two successive and reversible steps: enzyme-phosphonate complex-formation followed by rearrangement of the complex. The spectral change is associated with the rearrangement. At pH8 in 1m-sodium chloride at 22 degrees the rate constant is 167sec.(-1) for the rearrangement of the initially formed binary complex and is 18sec.(-1) for the reverse process. 3. It has previously been proposed that the reactions of phosphatase with its substrates include a distinct step between enzyme-substrate combination and chemical catalysis. The rate constant involved could be predicted but not measured from experiments with substrates. The value for the rate constant measured from the rate of the enzyme-phosphonate rearrangement is in excellent agreement with the predicted value. A model for the reaction mechanism is proposed that includes a conformation change in response to phosphate ester binding before phosphate transfer from substrate to enzyme.

Studies on alkaline phosphatase. Transient-state and steady-state kinetics of Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase

1. The transient-state and steady-state phases of the reaction between Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase and 4-methylumbelliferyl phosphate were investigated by using a fluorimetric stopped-flow technique. 2. At low substrate concentration (5mum) in the pH range 3.8-6.3 there was an initial rapid liberation of up to 1mole of 4-methylumbelliferone/mole of enzyme. 3. At very low substrate concentration (0.1mum) in the pH range 4.9-5.9 an initial lag in 4-methylumbelliferone production was observed, from which values for k(+1) and k(-1) could be obtained. 4. The pH profiles for the rates of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation are quite different, and it is postulated that an ionizing group which determines the conformation during the phosphorylation step is not involved in the dephosphorylation step. 5. The binding constants for substrate and P(i) are similar throughout the pH range 4-8. The ionization of substrate or P(i) appeared to have no marked effect on the binding.