Effect of sodium cholate on the catalytic and structural properties of phosphorylase b

Sodium cholate at millimolar concentration is able to induce activity in rabbit muscle phosphorylase b in the absence of AMP. The maximum activation of the enzyme in presence of 7 mM sodium cholate was 24% of that achieved by 1 mM AMP. Other bile salts tested showed a negligible activating effect. The Ka for AMP was lowered fivefold by 5 mM of the steroid detergent, while the cooperative binding of the nucleotide was abolished. Phosphorylase b', a modified form of phosphorylase in which the phosphorylation site has been removed by limited tryptic attack, presented an activation profile similar to that of phosphorylase b. In contrast, phosphorylase a was inhibited by the bile salt, while the activity of liver phosphorylase b was not significantly affected. Modification of the AMP site of the enzyme with 2,3-butanedione could not inhibit sodium-cholate-induced activity. tert-Butanol, an organic solvent activator of phosphorylase b, was found to enhance the activity induced by sodium cholate. The interaction of sodium cholate and phosphorylase b was also followed by difference spectroscopy using a fluorescein isothiocyanate--phosphorylase b conjugate. Furthermore, measurements of electron spin resonance demonstrated that the mobility of a spin-label bound at buried--NH2 groups of phosphorylase b decreases cooperatively with increasing bile salt concentration.     

Interaction of aliphatic amines with glycogen phosphorylase

A number of aliphatic amines was shown to stimulate AMP-dependent activity of phosphorylase b. The extent of stimulation depends on the molecular structure of amines. For linear amines, the longer the linear chain, the greater the stimulation observed. High concentrations of amines were able to induce a small activation of phosphorylase b in the absence of AMP. Kinetic studies of phosphorylase b indicated that the presence of n-hexylamine (a) results in lowering Km values for AMP and glucose 1-phosphate, (b) increases maximal velocity of the enzyme, and (c) modifies the glucose 6-phosphate, ATP, caffeine, and glucose binding sites of the enzyme by increasing the inhibition constants for these inhibitors. In contrast, the activity of phosphorylase b' is not altered by n-hexylamine. This fact suggests the possibility that amines interact with the N-terminal tail of phosphorylase b chain.     

Spin-labelled AMP - an activator of phosphorylase.

1. A spin-labelled AMP derivative and its diamagnetic analogue activate phosphorylase b in the same way, but do not activate phosphorylase a. 2. The electron-spin-resonance spectra of the spin-labelled AMP derivative bound to phosphorylase b and a have "powderlike" characteristics indicating that the spin label is immobilised on the protein. From changes in the electron-spin-resonance spectrum of spin-labelled AMP as phosphorylase b or a is added, the dissociation constants were calculated. 3. The interactions of spin-labelled AMP and the diamagnetic analogue with phosphorylase b and a have been monitored by observing changes in the spectral properties of fluorescent and spin-label probes covalently attached to the enzyme. 4. The dissociation constants of spin-labelled AMP and phosphorylase b or a are 175 +/- 25 muM and 15 +/- 5 muM respectively. Similar dissociation constants are obtained for the diamagnetic analogue. The effect of these AMP derivatives on the covalently attached probe groups and on phosphorylase activity is compared to the effect of AMP and IMP.     

The stimulation of liver phosphorylase b by AMP, fluoride and sulfate. A technical note on the specific determination of the a and b forms of liver glycogen phosphorylase.

1. The activity of liver phosphorylase b from several mammalian species has been studied. The enzyme from rat or mouse has a higher activity than the rabbit enzyme, which is itself more active than pig liver phosphorylase b. 2 The activity of liver phosphorylase b is influenced by anions and by AMP, and these effects are influenced by pH. Fluoride, which is currently added to the assay mixture of phosphorylase a in crude preparations, is about as active as sulfate as a stimulator of phosphorylase b. 3. When assayed at pH 6.1 and in the presence of 0.15 M NaF, the activity of rat liver phosphorylase b reaches 25% of that of the a enzyme; if 1 mM AMP is also present, this value rises to 50%. 4. Methods are described that allow the determination of liver phosphorylase a without interference of b, and the determination of total phosphorylase (a+b) in rat liver.     

Effect of polymyxins on glycogen phosphorylase

AMP-dependent activity of glycogen phosphorylase b is stimulated by the polymyxins A, B, D, and E. Kinetic studies indicate that these cyclic peptide antibiotics at low concentrations greatly enhance AMP-activation of the enzyme. The presence of polymyxins in the assay system leads to (a) partial desensitization of allosteric interactions toward AMP, (b) lowering of K_m for the substrates glucose-1-phosphate and glycogen, and (c) reversal of the glucose-6-phosphate inhibition. in contrast to phosphorylase b, neither AMP-phosphorylase b′ system nor phosphorylase a (with or without AMP) is considerably activated by polymyxins.     

The amino-terminal tail of glycogen phosphorylase is a switch for controlling phosphorylase conformation, activation, and response to ligands

Glycogen phosphorylase is a muscle enzyme which metabolizes glycogen, producing glucose-1-phosphate, which can be used for the production of ATP. Phosphorylase activity is regulated by phosphorylation/dephosphorylation, and by the allosteric binding of numerous effectors. In this work, we have studied 10 site-directed mutants of glycogen phosphorylase (GP) in its amino-terminal regulatory region to characterize any changes that the mutations may have made on its structure or function. All of the GP mutants had normal levels of activity in the presence of the allosteric activator AMP. Some of the mutants were observed to have altered AMP-binding characteristics, however. R16A and R16E were activated at very low AMP concentration and crystallized at low temperature, like the phosphorylated form of GP, phosphorylase a, and unlike the dephospho-form, phosphorylase b. This indicates that even without phosphorylation, the structures of these mutants are more like phosphorylase a than phosphorylase b. These mutants were also very poorly phosphorylated in the presence of the inhibitor glucose, while phosphorylase b was phosphorylated normally with this inhibitor present. In contrast to R16A and R16E, four other mutants behaved like phosphorylase b after phosphorylation. R69E was only partially activated by phosphorylation, and I13G, R43E, and R43E/R69E were completely inactive after phosphorylation. We propose a model for the many functions of the amino terminus to explain the many varied effects of these mutations.     

The hormonal control of activity of skeletal muscle phosphorylase kinase. Amino-acid sequences at the two sites of action of adenosine-3':5'-monophosphate-dependent protein kinase.

Two tryptic phosphopeptides containing the sites on the alpha and beta subunits of phosphorylase kinase which are phosphorylated by protein kinase, dependent on adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate (cyclic AMP), have been isolated and their amino acid sequences have been determined. 32P-labelled phosphorylase kinase, containing 1.9 mol phosphate per mol enzyme, was digested with an equimolar quantity of trypsin for 2.5 min at pH 7.0, 20 degrees C. This treatment released nearly all the 32P radioactivity associated with the beta subunit as trichloroacetic-acid-soluble material. Only a small proportion of the 32P radioactivity associated with the alpha subunit was solubilised, the remainder being removed in the trichloroacetic acid pellet. The beta-subunit tryptic phosphopeptide was completely resolved from traces of the alpha-subunit phosphopeptide by gel filtration on Sephadex G-25. Further purification by peptide mapping separated the phosphopeptide into four components, each derived from the same nine-amino-acid segment of the betachain, which was found to possess the sequence: Gln-Ser-Gly-Ser(P)-Val-Ile-Tyr-Pro-Leu-Lys. The four components were produced by the partial cyclisation of the N-terminal glutaminyl residue, and by the presence of two alleles for the beta subunit in the rabbit population, which led to a valine-isoleucine ambiguity. The alpha-subunit phosphopeptide was liberated from the trichloroacetic acid pellet by redigestion with trypsin. It was the largest component in the digest which remained soluble in 5% trichloroacetic acid, and obtained in a highly purified form by a single filtration on Sephadex G-50. The peptide comprised 39 amino acids of which nine were serine and three were threonine residues. Only one residue, the serine at position three from the amino terminus, was phosphorylated. The amino-terminal sequence of the peptide was shown to be: Arg-Leu-Ser(P)-Ile-Ser-Thr-Glu-Ser-Glx-Pro-Asx-Gly. The sequences confirm the stoichiometry of the reaction and the absolute specificity of cyclic-AMP-dependent protein kinase for just two of the 200 serine residues in the enzyme. These results and an inspection of the rate of phosphorylation of a number of skeletal muscle proteins, including each enzyme of the glycolytic pathway, lead to the conclusion that cyclic-AMP-dependent protein kinase is an extremely specific enzyme. The molecular basis of this specificity is discussed.     

The interaction of ligands with chemically modified phosphorylase b.

Phosphorylase b which had been inactivated with 5-diazo1H-tetrazole was specifically labelled with 4-iodoacetamidosalicylic acid (a fluorescent probe) or with N-(1-oxyl-2,2,6,6,-tetramethyl-4-piperidinyl)iodoacetamide (a spin label probe) so that the binding of ligands and accompanying conformational changes could be determined by fluorescence or electron spin resonance changes, respectively. The allosteric effector, AMP, causes conformational changes similar to those caused in the native enzyme. The affinity of binding of phosphate or AMP to the inhibited protein is the same as for the unmodified protein. The heterotropic interactions between glucose-1-phosphate or glycogen and AMP are much less in the inactivated enzyme than in unmodified phosphorylase. Using a light scattering assay, it is shown that the modified enzyme binds to glycogen less strongly than the native protein. Phosphorylase b which had been inactivated by carbodimide in the presence of glycine ethyl ester, resulting in the modification of one or more carboxyl groups, was labelled with the spin label probe described above. The modified enzyme has an affinity for AMP similar to that of the native enzyme. AMP binding to the modified enzyme is tightened by glycogen, weakened by glucose-6-phosphate and is unaffected by glucose-1-phosphate. The actions of 5-diazo-1H-tetrazole and carbodimide on phosphorylase are discussed in the light of the above observation.     

Glycogen phosphorylase and its converter enzymes in haemolysates of normal human subjects and of patients with type VI glycogen-storage disease. A study of phosphorylase kinase deficiency.

1. The properties of phosphorylase a, phosphorylase b, phosphorylase kinase and phosphorylase phosphatase present in a human haemolysate were investigated. The two forms of phosphorylase have the same affinity for glucose 1-phosphate but greatly differ in Vmax. Phosphorylase b is only partially stimulated by AMP, since, in the presence of the nucleotide, it is about tenfold less active than phosphorylase a. In a fresh human haemolysate phosphorylase is mostly in the b form; it is converted into phosphorylase a by incubation at 20degreesC, and this reaction is stimulated by glycogen and cyclic AMP. Once activated, the enzyme can be inactivated after filtration of the haemolysate on Sephadex G-25. This inactivation is stimulated by caffeine and glucose and inhibited by AMP and fluoride. The phosphorylase kinase present in the haemolysate can also be measured by the rate of activation of added muscle phosphorylase b, on addition of ATP and Mg2+. 2. The activity of phosphorylase kinase was measured in haemolysates obtained from a series of patients who had been classified as suffering from type VI glycogenosis. In nine patients, all boys, an almost complete deficiency of phosphorylase kinase was observed in the haemolysate and, when it could be assayed, in the liver. A residual activity, about 20% of normal, was found in the leucocyte fraction, whereas the enzyme activity was normal in the muscle. These patients suffer from the sex-linked phosphorylase kinase deficiency previously described by others. Two pairs of siblings, each time brother and sister, displayed a partial deficiency of phosphorylase kinase in the haemolysate and leucocytes and an almost complete deficiency in the liver. This is considered as being the autosomal form of phosphorylase kinase deficiency. Other patients were characterized by a low activity of total (a+b) phosphorylase and a normal or high activity of phosphorylase kinase in their haemolysate.     

Characteristics of the dephosphorylated form of phosphorylase purified from rat liver and measurement of its activity in crude liver preparations.

The phosphorylated form of liver glycogen phosphorylase (alpha-1,4-glucan : orthophosphate alpha-glucosyl-transferase, EC 2.4.1.1) (phosphorylase a) is active and easily measured while the dephosphorylated form (phosphorylase b), in contrast to the muscle enzyme, has been reported to be essentially inactive even in the presence of AMP. We have purified both forms of phosphorylase from rat liver and studied the characteristics of each. Phosphorylase b activity can be measured with our assay conditions. The phosphorylase b we obtained was stimulated by high concentrations of sulfate, and was a substrate for muscle phosphorylase kinase whereas phosphorylase a was inhibited by sulfate, and was a substrate for liver phosphorylase phosphatase. Substrate binding to phosphorylase b was poor (KM glycogen = 2.5 mM, glucose-1-P = 250 mM) compared to phosphorylase a (KM glycogen = 1.8 mM, KM glucose-1-P = 0.7 mM). Liver phosphorylase b was active in the absence of AMP. However, AMP lowered the KM for glucose-1-P to 80 mM for purified phosphorylase b and to 60 mM for the enzyme in crude extract (Ka = 0.5 mM). Using appropriate substrate, buffer and AMP concentrations, assay conditions have been developed which allow determination of phosphorylase a and 90% of the phosphorylase b activity in liver extracts. Interconversion of the two forms can be demonstrated in vivo (under acute stimulation) and in vitro with little change in total activity. A decrease in total phosphorylase activity has been observed after prolonged starvation and in diabetes.     

Sulphate-stimulate liver glycogen phosphorylase b: new evidence of changes in the conformation of the enzyme

It has been known for same time that sulphate ions stimulate liver glycogen phosphorylase b, both in the presence and in the absence of AMP. In the present paper we describe some observations (like a modified method of purification of the enzyme after sulphate treatment of the animals) suggesting that actual changes of the physical properties of the enzyme occur after intravenous injection of sodium sulphate. In order to avoid formation of phosphorylase a these studies were performed on enzyme from phosphorylase-b-kinase deficient (gsd/gsd) rats.     

Human liver glycogen phosphorylase. Kinetic properties and assay in biopsy specimens.

1.The two forms of glycogen phosphorylase were purified from human liver, and some kinetic properties were examined in the direction of glycogen synthesis. The b form has a limited catalytic capacity, resembling that of the rabbit liver enzyme. It is characterized by a low affinity for glucose 1-phosphate, which is unaffected by AMP, and a low V, which becomes equal to that of the a form in the presence of the nucleotide. Lyotropic anions stimulate phosphorylase b and inhibit phosphorylase a by modifying the affinity for glucose 1-phosphate. Both enzyme forms are easily saturated with glycogen. 2. These kinetic properties have allowed us to design a simple assay method for total (a + b) phosphorylase in human liver. It requires only 0.5 mg of tissue, and its average efficiency is 90% when the enzyme is predominantly in the b form. 3. The assay of total phosphorylase allows the unequivocal diagnosis of hepatic glycogen-storage disease caused by phosphorylase deficiency. One patient with a complete deficiency is reported. 4. The assay of human liver phosphorylase a is based on the preferential inhibition of the b form by caffeine. The a form displays the same activity when measured by either of the two assays.     

Thermodynamics of nucleotides binding to phosphorylase b.

The effects of several chemical modifications in the AMP molecule on its interaction with phosphorylase b are examined by microcalorimetry, equilibrium dialysis, light scattering and ultracentrifuge experiments. In this work we report the results obtained for eight AMP analogues corresponding to different substituents in the puric base or in the ribose, or to different positions of the phosphate. The thermodynamic properties of the interaction between the phosphorylase b and the above mentioned nucleotides are also reported. The following conclusions were obtained: a) Except for IMP and 2'dIMP all the nucleotides studied clearly show two types of binding sites in the enzyme. b) The interaction of the nucleotide with its weaker affinity binding site is highly dependent upon chemical alterations in the puric base. c) Both the amino group in C(6) and the N(1) of the adenine in the AMP seem to play an important role in the conformational transitions induced by the nucleotide on the enzyme. d) The tetramerization of phosphorylase b in the presence of 10(-2) M AMP and in the conditions of the ultracentrifuge experiments is drastically affected by modifications in the ribose-phosphate part of the AMP molecule.     

Site-directed mutants of glycogen phosphorylase are altered in their interaction with phosphorylase kinase

Glycogen phosphorylase is found in resting muscle as phosphorylase b, which is inactive without AMP. Phosphorylation by phosphorylase kinase (PhK) produces phosphorylase a, which is active in the absence of AMP. PhK is the only kinase that can phosphorylate phosphorylase b, which in turn is the only physiological substrate for PhK. We have explored the reasons for this specificity and how these two enzymes recognize each other by studying site-directed mutants of glycogen phosphorylase. All mutants were assayed for changes in their interaction with a truncated form of the catalytic subunit of phosphorylase kinase, gamma(1-300). Five mutations (R69K, R69E, R43E, R43E/R69E, and E501A), made at sites that interact with the amino terminus in either phosphorylase b or a, showed little difference in phosphorylation by gamma(1-300) compared to wild-type phosphorylase b. Five mutations, made at three sites in the amino-terminal tail of phosphorylase (K11A, K11E, I13G, R16A, and R16E), however, produced decreases in catalytic efficiency for gamma(1-300), compared to that for phosphorylase b. R16E was the poorest substrate for gamma(1-300), giving a 47-fold decrease in catalytic efficiency. The amino terminus, and especially Arg 16, are very important factors for recognition of phosphorylase by gamma(1-300). A specific interaction between Lys 11 of phosphorylase and Glu 110 of gamma(1-300) was also confirmed. In addition, I13G and R16A were able to be phosphorylated by protein kinase A, which does not recognize native phosphorylase.     

Allosteric properties of phosphorylase b

Rabbit skeletal muscle phosphorylase b was separated into two fractions by column chromatography on AMP-Sepharose. The first fraction protein was eluted by glucose-6-phosphate while the second fraction protein was eluted in an AMP concentration gradient. The bulk of the protein eluate was represented by the first fraction protein. Chromatography of phosphorylase b from bovine skeletal muscle under identical conditions also resulted in two fractions, however, with a reverse correlation: the bulk protein of this fraction was eluted by AMP. It was shown that the two phosphorylase b forms eluted by glucose-6-phosphate and AMP differ by their kinetic and physico-chemical properties as well as by the SH-group reactivity. The phosphorylase b forms eluted by the nucleotide were practically uninhibited by glucose-6-phosphate. It can thus be assumed that the equilibrium between the "active" (R) and "inactive" (T) conformations of the protein changes depending on metabolic peculiarities of a given tissue used as a source for enzyme isolation.     

The effect of solvents on nucleotide regulation of glycogen phosphorylase.

The activity of glycogen phosphorylase is controlled by two nucleotide sites. We have found that organic solvents affect the regulatory properties of phosphorylase by altering the binding at these two sites. At the activator site, the Ka for AMP is lowered 10-fold in the presence of 10% 1,2-dimethoxyethane while, at the inhibitor site, the Ki for caffeine is increased 6-fold. The stimulation of activity by organic solvents is highly dependent on the enzyme's activity state. Phosphorylase b, which has a requirement for a nucleotide activator, loses this requirement in the presence of organic solvents, while the active form of the enzyme, phosphorylase a, is only slightly stimulated by organic solvents. The activation profile obtained with rabbit liver phosphorylase suggests that differences in the properties of this enzyme from rabbit muscle phosphorylase might be explained by a change in the relative affinity for AMP at the two nucleotide sites. The results also suggest that 1,2-dimethoxyethane may be useful to determine accurately the activities of different forms of liver phosphorylase.     

Isolation and properties of three forms of phosphorylase and phosphorylase kinase from human skeletal muscle]

Three forms of phosphorylase (I, II and III), two of which (I and II) were active in the presence of AMP and one (III) was active without AMP, were isolated from human skeletal muscles. The pI values for phosphorylases b(I) and b(II) were found to be identical (5.8-5.9). During chromatofocusing a low molecular weight protein (M(r) = 20-21 kDa, pI 4.8) was separated from phosphorylase b(II). This process was accompanied by an increase of the enzyme specific activity followed by its decline. During reconstitution of the complex the activity of phosphorylase b(II) returned to the initial level. Upon phosphorylation the amount of 32P incorporated into phosphorylase b(II) was 2 times as low as compared with rabbit phosphorylase b and human phosphorylase b(I). It may be supposed that in the human phosphorylase b(II) molecule one of the two subunits undergoes phosphorylation in vivo. This form of the enzyme is characterized by a greater affinity for glycogen and a lower sensitivity to allosteric effectors (AMP, glucose-6-phosphate, caffeine) compared with phosphorylase b(I). Thus, among the three phosphorylase forms obtained in this study, form b(II) is the most unusual one, since it is partly phosphorylated by phosphorylase kinase to form a complex with a low molecular weight protein which stabilizes its activity. A partially purified preparation of phosphorylase kinase was isolated from human skeletal muscles. The enzyme activity necessitates Ca2+ (c0.5 = 0.63 microM). At pH 6.8 the enzyme is activated by calmodulin (c0.5 = 15 microM). The enzyme activity ratio at pH 6.8/8.2 is equal to 0.18.     

The ammonium sulfate activation of phosphorylase b

The ammonium sulfate activation of phosphorylase b has been studied. Ammonium sulfate, when present in high concentrations, induces properties of phosphorylase a in phosphorylase b, such as an enhanced affinity for AMP, a reversal of the glucose-6-P inhibition and enzyme tetramerization. The data are consistent with the interpretation that sulfates bind to the Ser-14 site and the sulfate-protein interactions at this site are responsible for activation of phosphorylase b.     

The interplay between covalent and non-covalent regulation of glycogen phosphorylase. The role of different effectors of phosphorylase b on the phosphorylase b to a conversion rate.

Glycogen phosphorylase b is converted to glycogen phosphorylase a, the covalently activated form of the enzyme, by phosphorylase kinase. Glc-6-P, which is an allosteric inhibitor of phosphorylase b, and glycogen, which is a substrate of this enzyme, are already known to have respectively an inhibiting and activating effect upon the rate of conversion from phosphorylase b to phosphorylase a by phosphorylase kinase. In the former case, this effect is due to the binding of glucose-6-phosphate to glycogen phosphorylase b. In order to investigate whether or not the rate of conversion of glycogen phosphorylase b to phosphorylase a depends on the conformational state of the b substrate, we have tested the action of the most specific effectors of glycogen phosphorylase b activity upon the rate of conversion from phosphorylase b to phosphorylase a at 0 degrees C and 22 degrees C : AMP and other strong activators, IMP and weak activators, Glc-6-P, glycogen. Glc-1-P and phosphate. AMP and strong activators have a very important inhibitory effect at low temperature, but not at room temperature, whereas the weak activators have always a very weak, if even existing, inhibitory effect at both temperatures. We confirmed the very strong inhibiting effect of Glc-6-P at both temperatures, and the strong activating effect of glycogen. We have shown that phosphate has a very strong inhibitory effect, whereas Glc-1-P has an activating effect only at room temperature and at non-physiological concentrations. The concomitant effects of substrates and nucleotides have also been studied. The observed effects of all these ligands may be either direct ones on phosphorylase kinase, or indirect ones, the ligand modifying the conformation of phosphorylase b and its interaction with phosphorylase kinase. Since we have no control experiments with a peptidic fragment of phosphorylase b, the interpretation of our results remains putative. However, the differential effects observed with different nucleotides are in agreement with the simple conformational scheme proposed earlier. Therefore, it is suggested that phosphorylase kinase recognizes differently the different conformations of glycogen phosphorylase b. In agreement with such an explanation, it is shown that the inhibiting effect of AMP is mediated by a slow isomerisation which has been previously ascribed to a quaternary conformational change of glycogen phosphorylase b. The results presented here (in particular, the important effect of glycogen and phosphate) are also discussed in correlation with the physiological role of the different ligands as regulatory signals in the in vivo situation where phosphorylase is inserted into the glycogen particle.     

Crystallization of pig skeletal phosphorylase b. Purification, physical and catalytic characterization

A new method for purification and crystallization of pig skeletal muscle phosphorylase b is presented. The ease of crystallization in the presence of 1 mM AMP and 1 mM spermine has permitted the study of some physical, chemical and enzymatic properties of the enzyme. The crystalline pig phosphorylase b gave a single band on SDS polyacrylamide gels of the same mobility as rabbit muscle phosphorylase subunit. Ultracentrifugation experiments showed that pig phosphorylase b exists in a dimeric form (S20,w = 8.4 S). No association occurred at 20 degrees C under conditions where rabbit phosphorylase b can be tetramerized; pig phosphorylase b was only 30% associated from dimer to tetramer at 13 degrees C. Pig phosphorylase b is highly stable to freezing and its specific activity did not change appreciably upon prolonged storage in the cold. Pig and rabbit phosphorylases b have comparable Vmax and Km values towards the substrate and the activator. However, there is an essential difference between the two enzymes in that pig phosphorylase b is not significantly inhibited by glucose 6-phosphate, which is a powerful inhibitor of the rabbit enzyme. Two different crystal forms of pig phosphorylase b were obtained which are small for X-ray diffraction studies. Diffusion of spermine into tetragonal crystals of rabbit phosphorylase b resulted in a difference Fourier synthesis at 3 A resolution that showed no strong indication of specific binding.