• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.304-312
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• 1997

Acetolactate synthase(ALS) is the common enzyme in the biosynthetic of valine, leucine, and isoleucine, and is the target of several classes of structually unrelated herbicides, including sulfonylureas, imidazolinones, and triazolopyrimidines. In an effort to develop new and desirable herbicides, we have synthesized 4,6-dimethoxypyrimidine derivatives, and examined their inhibitory activities on pea ALS. The most active compound was found to be K11570 and $IC_{50}$ value for K11570 was 0.2 ${\mu}M.$ The inhibition of pea ALS by K11570 was biphasic, showing increased inhibition with incubation time. The K11570 showed mixed-type inhibition with respect to substrate pyruvate. Dual inhibition analysis of K11570 versus sufonylurea herbicide Ally and feedback inhibitor leucine revealed that three inhibitors were competitive for binding to ALS. The arginine modified enzyme showed decreased inhibition by K11570, sufonylurea Ally, and leucine, in constrast to, tryptophan modification did not affect on the sensitivity of ALS to the inhibitors.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.549-555
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• 2006

Acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS, EC 2.2.1.6 also referred to as acetolactate synthase) catalyzes the first common step in the metabolic pathway leading to biosynthesis of the branched-chain amino acids in plants and microorganisms. Due to its presence in plants, AHAS is a target for the herbicides (sulfonylurea and imidazolinone), which act as potent inhibitors of the enzyme. Recently, we have shown [J. Kim, D.G. Baek, Y.T. Kim, J.D. Choi, M.Y. Yoon, Biochem. J. (2004) 384, 59-68] that the residues in the “mobile loop” 567-582 on the C-termini are involved in the binding/stabilization of the active dimer and ThDP (thiamin diphosphate) binding. In this study, we have demonstrated the role of the W573 in the mobile loop of the C-termini of tobacco AHAS. The substitution of this W573 residue caused significant perturbations in the activation process and in the binding site of ThDP. Position W573 plays a structurally important role in the binding of FAD, maintaining the enzyme active site in the required geometry for catalysis to occur. In here we propose that the tryptophan at position 573 is important for the catalytic process.