• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.721-725
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• 2004

Acetohydroxy acid synthase (AHAS) is one of several enzymes that require thiamine diphosphate and a divalent cation as essential cofactors. The active site contains several conserved ionizable groups and all of these appear to be important as judged by the fact that mutation diminishes or abolishes catalytic activity. Recently, we have shown [Yoon, M.-Y., Hwang, J.-H., Choi, M.-K., Baek, D.-K., Kim, J., Kim, Y.-T., Choi, J.-D. FEBS Letters 555 (2003), 185-191] that the activity is pH-dependent due to changes in $V_{max}$ and V/$K_m$. Data were consistent with a mechanism in which substrate was selectively catalyzed by the enzyme with an unprotonated base having a pK 6.48, and a protonated group having a pK of 8.25 for catalysis. Here, we have in detail studied the pH dependence of the kinetic parameters of the cofactors (ThDP, FAD, $Mg^{2+}$) in order to obtain information about the chemical mechanism in the active site. The $V_{max}$ of kinetic parameters for all cofactors was pH-dependent on the basic side. The pK of ThDP, FAD and $Mg^{2+}$ was 9.5, 9.3 and 10.1, respectively. The V/$K_m$ of kinetic parameters for all cofactors was pH-dependent on the acidic and on the basic side. The pK of ThDP, FAD and $Mg^{2+}$ was 6.2-6.4 on the acidic side and 9.0-9.1 on the basic side. The well-conserved histidine mutant (H392) did not affect the pH-dependence of the kinetic parameters. The data are discussed in terms of the acid-base chemical mechanism.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.3782-3784
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• 2010

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.916-920
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• 2005

Acetohydroxy acid synthase catalyzes the first common step in the biosynthesis of branched chain amino acids. AHAS plays two distinct metabolic roles, and is designated as anabolic AHAS and catabolic AHAS, depending on its function. Anabolic AHAS is FAD-dependent, while its catabolic counterpart is not. In this work, a conserved motif was identified in the $\beta$-domain of anabolic AHASs, but not in catabolic AHAS ($_{372}RFDDR_{376}$). In order to determine the functions of this motif, we replaced the motif with the corresponding sequence in FAD-independent AHAS, SPVEY. None of these three mutants (SPV, SPVE, and SPVEY) was detected with bound FAD. However, two of these mutants (SPVE and SPVEY) were active at a low level of specific activity. Although they exhibited pyruvate- and ThDP- dependent characteristics, the activity of the two active mutants appears to be FAD-independent. The SPVEY mutant was completely insensitive to the three tested herbicides, even at extremely high concentrations and is also somewhat more thermolabile than the wild type enzyme. The data provided in this work suggest that the RFDDR motif is a possible determinant of the FAD-dependent and herbicide-resistant properties of tobacco AHAS. The SPVEY mutant appears to exhibit catabolic AHAS-like activity.