Catalytic enhancement of human carbonic anhydrase III by replacement of phenylalanine-198 with leucine

Carbonic anhydrase III, a cytosolic enzyme found predominantly in skeletal muscle, has a turnover rate for CO2 hydration 500-fold lower and a KI for inhibition by acetazolamide 700-fold higher (at pH 7.2) than those of red cell carbonic anhydrase II. Mutants of human carbonic anhydrase III were made by replacing three residues near the active site with amino acids known to be at the corresponding positions in isozyme II (Lys-64----His, Arg-67----Asn, and Phe-198----Leu). Catalytic properties were measured by stopped-flow spectrophotometry and 18O exchange between CO2 and water using mass spectrometry. The triple mutant of isozyme III had a turnover rate for CO2 hydration 500-fold higher than wild-type carbonic anhydrase III. The binding constants, KI, for sulfonamide inhibitors of the mutants containing Leu-198 were comparable to those of carbonic anhydrase II. The mutations at residues 64, 67, and 198 were catalytically independent; the lowered energy barrier for the triple mutant was the sum of the energy changes for each of the single mutants. Moreover, the triple mutant of isozyme III catalyzed the hydrolysis of 4-nitrophenyl acetate with a specific activity and pH dependence similar to those of isozyme II. Phe-198 is thus a major contributor to the low CO2 hydration activity, the weak binding of acetazolamide, and the low pKa of the zinc-bound water in carbonic anhydrase III. Intramolecular proton transfer involving His-64 was necessary for maximal turnover.     

Enhancement of the catalytic properties of human carbonic anhydrase III by site-directed mutagenesis

Among the seven known isozymes of carbonic anhydrase in higher vertebrates, isozyme III is the least efficient in catalytic hydration of CO2 and the least susceptible to inhibition by sulfonamides. We have investigated the role of two basic residues near the active site of human carbonic anhydrase III (HCA III), lysine 64 and arginine 67, to determine whether they can account for some of the unique properties of this isozyme. Site-directed mutagenesis was used to replace these residues with histidine 64 and asparagine 67, the amino acids present at the corresponding positions of HCA II, the most efficient of the carbonic anhydrase isozymes. Catalysis by wild-type HCA III and mutants was determined from the initial velocity of hydration of CO2 at steady state by stopped-flow spectrophotometry and from the exchange of 18O between CO2 and water at chemical equilibrium by mass spectrometry. We have shown that histidine 64 functions as a proton shuttle in carbonic anhydrase by substituting histidine for lysine 64 in HCA III. The enhanced CO2 hydration activity and pH profile of the resulting mutant support this role for histidine 64 in the catalytic mechanism and suggest an approach that may be useful in investigating the mechanistic roles of active-site residues in other isozyme groups. Replacing arginine 67 in HCA III by asparagine enhanced catalysis of CO2 hydration 3-fold compared with that of wild-type HCA III, and the pH profile of the resulting mutant was consistent with a proton transfer role for lysine 64. Neither replacement enhanced the weak inhibition of HCA III by acetazolamide or the catalytic hydrolysis of 4-nitrophenyl acetate.     

Buffer enhancement of proton transfer in catalysis by human carbonic anhydrase III

Among the isozymes of carbonic anhydrase, isozyme III is the least efficient in the catalysis of the hydration of CO2 and was previously thought to be unaffected by proton transfer from buffers to the active site. We report that buffers of small size, especially imidazole, increase the rate of catalysis by human carbonic anhydrase III (HCA III) of (1) 18O exchange between HCO3- and water measured by membrane-inlet mass spectrometry and (2) the dehydration of HCO3- measured by stopped-flow spectrophotometry. Imidazole enhanced the rate of release of 18O-labeled water from the active site of wild-type carbonic anhydrase III and caused a much greater enhancement, up to 20-fold, for the K64H, R67H, and R67N mutants of this isozyme. Imidazole had no effect on the rate of interconversion of CO2 and HCO3- at chemical equilibrium. Steady-state measurements showed that the addition of imidazole resulted in increases in the turnover number (kcat) for the hydration of CO2 catalyzed by HCA III and for the dehydration of HCO3- catalyzed by R67N HCA III. These results are consistent with the transfer of a proton from the imidazolium cation to the zinc-bound hydroxide at the active site, a step required to regenerate the active form of enzyme in the catalytic cycle. Like isozyme II of carbonic anhydrase, isozyme III can be enhanced in catalytic rate by the presence of small molecule buffers in solution.     

A comparison of the mechanisms of CO2 hydration by native and Co2+-substituted carbonic anhydrase II

We have measured the pH dependence of kcat and kcat/Km for CO2 hydration catalyzed by both native Zn2+-and metallo-substituted Co2+-bovine carbonic anhydrase II in the absence of inhibitory ions. For the Zn2+-enzyme, the pKa values controlling kcat and kcat/Km profiles are similar, but for the Co2+-enzyme the values are about 0.6 pH units apart. Computer simulations of a metal-hydroxide mechanism of carbonic anhydrase suggest that the data for both native and Co2+-carbonic anhydrase can be accounted for by the same mechanism of action, if we postulate that the substitution of Co2+ for Zn2+ in the active site causes a separation of about 0.6 pH units in the pKa values of His-64 and the metal-bound water molecule. We have also measured the activation parameters for kcat and kcat/Km for Co2+-substituted carbonic anhydrase II-catalyzed CO2 hydration and have compared these values to those obtained previously for the native Zn2+-enzyme. For kcat and kcat/Km we obtain an enthalpy of activation of 4.4 +/- 0.6 and approximately 0 kcal mol-1, respectively. The corresponding entropies of activation are -18 +/- 2 and -27 +/- 2 cal mol-1 K-1.     

Some properties of site-specific mutants of human carbonic anhydrase II having active-site residues characterizing carbonic anhydrase III

Four amino acid residues, His64, Asn67, Leu198 and Val207, in the active site of human carbonic anhydrase II, have been replaced by Lys64, Arg67, Phe198 and Ile207, which are characteristic for the muscle-specific, low-activity isoenzyme form, carbonic anhydrase III. The aim of the investigation has been to test if any of these residues, or a combination of them, is important for the low CO2 hydration activity, low esterase activity, low pKa for the pH/rate profile and low affinity for sulfonamide inhibitors characterizing carbonic anhydrases III. However, no evidence for such critical roles was found. A combination of Lys64 and Arg67 appears to result in a decrease in CO2 hydration activity, but even the quadruple mutant having all four changes is only eight times less active (kcat/Km) than unmodified isoenzyme II, in contrast to isoenzyme III which is nearly 300 times less active than isoenzyme II. The 4-nitrophenyl acetate hydrolase activity of the quadruple mutant is sevenfold lower than that of unmodified isoenzyme II, while the active site of isoenzyme III hardly catalyzes the hydrolysis of this ester at all. The pKa controlling the esterase activity of the quadruple mutant is 6.2, which should be compared to a value of 6.8 for unmodified isoenzyme II, and about 5 for isoenzyme III. While isoenzyme III binds sulfonamide inhibitors 10(3)-10(4) times less strongly than isoenzyme II, only [Asn-67----Arg]isoenzyme II shows a weaker binding of the investigated sulfonamide, dansylamide, but only by a factor of two. Some of the other mutants show enhanced affinities, up to nearly fourfold for the double mutant with Phe198 and Ile207. It is speculated that additional differences between the active sites of isoenzyme II and III might be important for the precise orientations and interactions of the side chains of isoenzyme-III-specific amino acid residues.     

Enhancement of catalytic efficiency by the combination of site-specific mutations in a carbonic anhydrase-related protein.

A single mutation, involving the replacement of an arginine residue with histidine to reconstruct a zinc-binding site, suffices to change a catalytically inactive murine carbonic anhydrase-related protein (CARP) to an active carbonic anhydrase with a CO2-hydration turnover number of 1.2 x 104 s-1. Further mutations, leading to a more 'carbonic anhydrase-like' active-site cavity, results in increased activity. A quintuple mutant having His94, Gln92, Val121, Val143, and Thr200 (human carbonic anhydrase I numbering system) shows kcat = 4 x 104 s-1 and kcat/Km = 2 x 107 M-1.s-1, greatly exceeding the corresponding values for carbonic anhydrase isozyme III and approaching those characterizing carbonic anhydrase I. In addition, a buffer change from 50 mM Taps/NaOH to 50 mM 1, 2-dimethylimidazole/H2SO4 at pH 9 results in a 14-fold increase in kcat for this quintuple mutant. The CO2-hydrating activity of a double mutant with His94 and Gln92 shows complex pH-dependence, but the other mutants investigated behave as if the activity (kcat/Km) is controlled by the basic form of a single group with pKa near 7.7. In a similar way to human carbonic anhydrase II, the buffer behaves formally as a second substrate in a ping-pong pattern, suggesting that proton transfer between a zinc-bound water molecule and buffer limits the maximal rate of catalysis in both systems at low buffer concentrations. However, the results of isotope-exchange kinetic studies suggest that proton shuttling via His64 is insignificant in the CARP mutant in contrast with carbonic anhydrase II. The replacement of Ile residues with Val in positions 121 or 143 results in measurable 4-nitrophenyl acetate hydrolase activity. The pH-rate profile for this activity has a similar shape to those of carbonic anhydrase I and II. CD spectra of the double mutant with His94 and Gln92 are variable, indicating an equilibrium between a compact form of the protein and a 'molten globule'-like form. The introduction of Thr200 seems to stabilize the protein.     

Histidine 64 is not required for high CO2 hydration activity of human carbonic anhydrase II

To test the hypothesis that histidine 64 in carbonic anhydrase II has a crucial role as a 'proton shuttle group' during catalysis of CO2-HCO3- interconversion, this residue was replaced by lysine, glutamine, glutamic acid and alanine by site-directed mutagenesis. All these variants turned out to have high CO2 hydration activities. The kcat values at pH 8.8 and 25 degrees C were only reduced by 1.5-3.5-fold compared to the unmodified enzyme. These results show that intramolecular proton transfer via His 64 is not a dominating pathway in the catalytic reaction. The variants also catalyze the hydrolysis of 4-nitrophenyl acetate. The pKa values for the activity-controlling group are between 6.8 and 7.0 for all studied forms of the enzyme except the Glu 64 variant which shows a complex pH dependence with the major pKa shifted to 8.4.     

A comparison of the kinetic properties of native bovine muscle carbonic anhydrase and an activated derivative with modified thiol groups

Steady-state and equilibrium kinetic properties of native bovine carbonic anhydrase III (carbonate hydrolyase, EC 4.2.1.1) and a derivative modified with methyl methanethiosulfonate were investigated. The modified enzyme has a markedly increased CO2 hydration activity compared to the native form with a 3-times higher value of kcat and a 6-10-times higher value of kcat/Km. Qualitatively, the activated enzyme shows the same kinetic behavior as native isoenzyme III. This is reflected in similar pH dependences of the kinetic parameters for CO2 hydration, similar solvent hydrogen isotope effects on these parameters, similar deviations from Michaelis-Menten kinetics for the HCO3- dehydration reaction, and similar behavior of the kinetics of CO2/HCO3- exchange at chemical equilibrium as measured by a 13C-NMR magnetization transfer technique. It is concluded that the conversion of -SH groups to -S-S-CH3 moieties does not change the catalytic mechanism, but leads to an increased rate of CO2/HCO3- interconversion as well as to an increased rate of proton transfer between the active site and the reaction medium.     

Comparison of 18O exchange and pH stop-flow assays for carbonic anhydrase

The hydration velocity of CO2 (0.002 M) catalyzed by bovine carbonic anhydrase (BCA) was measured at 25 degrees C and pH 7.4 by three different techniques: two initial-rate (steady-state) stop-flow methods, one using a glass pH electrode (in Hannover, method 1) and one using spectrophotometric measurements of a pH indicator (in Philadelphia, method 2), and an exchange method in which the disappearance of C18O16O from a bicarbonate solution was determined at equilibrium (in Philadelphia, method 3). The Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) and the inhibition constants for chloride (Ki,Cl) and ethoxzolamide (Ki,ez) were the same for methods 1, 2, and 3. The turnover numbers were 270,000, 400,000, and 555,000 s-1 by methods 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Values for CO2 hydration velocity measured by methods 2 and 3 on the same solution of BCA at the same time were the same. Km, maximal reaction velocity (Vmax), Ki,ez, and Ki,Cl obtained from normal human hemolysate at 37 degrees C and pH 7.2 by methods 2 and 3 were the same. Km and Vmax of the carbonic anhydrase isozyme CA III of homogenate from rabbit soleus were also identical by methods 1 and 3. According to Michaelis-Menten theory, the values of Km and Vmax obtained by method 3 should have been significantly smaller than those obtained by methods 1 and 2. We conclude that the catalytic step itself is apparently not rate limiting under physiological conditions and that method 3 can be used to obtain Michaelis-Menten characteristics of carbonic anhydrase.     

Inhibition of the hydration of CO2 catalyzed by carbonic anhydrase III from cat muscle

Using stopped flow methods, we have measured the steady state rate constants and the inhibition by N3- and I- of the hydration of CO2 catalyzed by carbonic anhydrase III from cat muscle. Also, using fluorescence quenching of the enzyme at 330 nm, we have measured the binding of the sulfonamide chlorzolamide to cat carbonic anhydrase III. Inhibition by the anions was uncompetitive at pH 6.0 and was mixed at higher values of pH. The inhibition constant of azide was independent of pH between 6.0 and 7.5 with a value of KIintercept = 2 X 10(-5) M; the binding constant of chlorzolamide to cat carbonic anhydrase III was also independent of pH in the range of 6.0 to 7.5 with a value Kdiss = 2 X 10(-6) M. Both of these values increased as pH increased above 8. There was a competition between chlorzolamide and the anions N-3 and OCN- for binding sites on cat carbonic anhydrase III. The pH profiles for the kinetic constants and the uncompetitive inhibition at pH 6.0 can be explained by an activity-controlling group in cat carbonic anhydrase III with a pKa less than 6. Moreover, the data suggest that like isozyme II, cat isozyme III is limited in rate by a step occurring outside the actual interconversion of CO2 and HCO3- and involving a change in bonding to hydrogen exchangeable with solvent water.     

Cloning, expression and some properties of alpha-carbonic anhydrase from Helicobacter pylori

The alpha-carbonic anhydrase gene from Helicobacter pylori strain 26695 has been cloned and sequenced. The full-length protein appears to be toxic to Escherichia coli, so we prepared a modified form of the gene lacking a part that presumably encodes a cleavable signal peptide. This truncated gene could be expressed in E. coli yielding an active enzyme comprising 229 amino acid residues. The amino acid sequence shows 36% identity with that of the enzyme from Neisseria gonorrhoeae and 28% with that of human carbonic anhydrase II. The H. pylori enzyme was purified by sulfonamide affinity chromatography and its circular dichroism spectrum and denaturation profile in guanidine hydrochloride have been measured. Kinetic parameters for CO2 hydration catalyzed by the H. pylori enzyme at pH 8.9 and 25 degrees C are kcat=2.4x10(5) s(-1), KM=17 mM and kcat/KM=1.4x10(7) M(-1) x s(-1). The pH dependence of kcat/KM fits with a simple titration curve with pK(a)=7.5. Thiocyanate yields an uncompetitive inhibition pattern at pH 9 indicating that the maximal rate of CO2 hydration is limited by proton transfer between a zinc-bound water molecule and the reaction medium in analogy to other forms of the enzyme. The 4-nitrophenyl acetate hydrolase activity of the H. pylori enzyme is quite low with an apparent catalytic second-order rate constant, k(enz), of 24 M(-1) x s(-1) at pH 8.8 and 25 degrees C. However, with 2-nitrophenyl acetate as substrate a k(enz) value of 665 M(-1) x s(-1) was obtained under similar conditions.     

Carbonic anhydrase in human platelets.

The carbonic anhydrase activity of human platelets was investigated by measuring the kinetics of CO2 hydration in supernatants of platelet lysates by using a pH stopped-flow apparatus. An average carbonic anhydrase concentration of 2.1 microM was determined for pellets of human platelets. Analysis of the kinetic properties of this carbonic anhydrase yielded a Km value of 1.0 mM, a catalytic-centre activity kcat. of 130000 s-1 and an inhibition constant Ki towards ethoxzolamide of 0.3 nM. From these values, CO2 hydration inside platelets is estimated to be accelerated by a factor of 2500. When platelet lysates were subjected to affinity chromatography, only the high-activity carbonic anhydrase II could be eluted from the affinity column, whereas the carbonic anhydrase isoenzyme I, which is known to occur in high concentrations in human erythrocytes, appeared to be absent.     

The catalytic mechanism of carbonic anhydrase. Hydrogen-isotope effects on the kinetic parameters of the human C isoenzyme.

1. The steady-state kinetics of the interconversion of CO2 and HCO3 catalyzed by human carbonic anhydrase C was studied using 1H2O and 2H2O as solvents. The pH-independent parts of the parameters k(cat) and Km are 3-4 times larger in 1H2O than in 2H2O for both directions of the reaction, while the ratios k(cat)/Km show much smaller isotope effects. With either CO2 or HCO3 as substrate the major pH dependence is observed in k(cat), while Km appears independent of pH. The pKa value characterizing the pH-rate profiles is approximately 0.5 unit larger in 2H2O than in 1H2O. 2. The hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl acetate catalyzed by human carbonic anhudrase C is approximately 35% faster in 2H2O than in 1H2O. In both solvents the pKa values of the pH-rate profiles are similar to those observed for the CO2-HCO3 interconversion. 3. It is tentatively proposed that the rate-limiting step at saturating concentrations of CO2 or HCO3 is an intramolecular proton transfer between two ionizing groups in the active site. It cannot be decided whether the transformation between enzyme-bound CO2 and HCO3 involves a proton trnasfer or not.     

Structural and functional differences between carbonic anhydrase isoenzymes I and II as studied by site-directed mutagenesis

Site-specific mutagenesis has been used to replace amino acid residues in the active site of human carbonic anhydrase II with residues characterizing carbonic anhydrases I. Previous studies of [Thr200----His]isoenzyme II [Behravan, G., Jonsson, B.-H. & Lindskog, S. (1990) Eur. J. Biochem. 190, 351-357] showed that His200 is important for the specific catalytic properties of isoenzymes I. In this paper some properties of two single mutants, Asn62----Val and Asn67----His, as well as a double mutant, Asn67----His/Thr200----His, are described. The results show that neither Val62 nor His67 give rise to isoenzyme-I-like properties, while the double mutant behaves like the single mutant with His200. At pH 8.9, the variant with Val62 has a higher value of kcat/Km for CO2 hydration than unmodified isoenzyme II, whereas the variant with His67 has an enhanced kcat value. The replacement of Asn62 with Val results in a 20% increase of the 4-nitrophenyl acetate hydrolase activity. For the double mutant, the esterase activity is quite close to that calculated on the assumption that the effects of the two single mutations on the free energy of activation are additive.     

Fine tuning of the catalytic properties of carbonic anhydrase. Studies of a Thr200----His variant of human isoenzyme II

The active sites of carbonic anhydrases I contain a unique histidine residue at sequence position 200. To test the hypothesis that His200 is essential for the isoenzyme-specific catalytic and inhibitor-binding properties of carbonic anhydrases I, a variant of human carbonic anhydrase II, having His200 for Thr200, was prepared by oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis. The variant has a circular dichroic spectrum that is indistinguishable from that of the parent enzyme. The kinetics of CO2 hydration and HCO3- dehydration has been investigated. The results show that the amino acid substitution has led to changes of catalytic parameters as well as Ki values for anion inhibition in the expected directions towards the values for isoenzyme I. However, the maximal 4-nitrophenyl acetate hydrolase activity of the variant is higher than for any naturally occurring carbonic anhydrase studied so far. A detailed analysis of the kinetic observations suggests that the modification has resulted in a change of the step that limits the maximal rate of CO2 hydration at saturating buffer concentrations. This rate-limiting step is an intramolecular proton transfer in unmodified isoenzyme II and, presumably, HCO3- dissociation in the variant and in human isoenzyme I. A free-energy profile for the dominating pathway of CO2 hydration at high pH was constructed. The results suggest that the major effect of His200 is a stabilization of the enzyme-HCO3- complex by about 7.5 kJ/mol (variant) and 6.1 kJ/mol (human isoenzyme I) relative to unmodified isoenzyme II, while proton transfer between the metal site and the reaction medium is only marginally affected by the amino acid replacement.     

Purification and characterization of carbonic anhydrase from the saliva of the rat

Carbonic anhydrase purified from the saliva of the rat had kinetic properties identical with those of carbonic anhydrase II from rat red cells, but its molecular properties were distinctly different from the type II isozyme. Kinetic parameters were measured under steady state conditions by stopped-flow spectrophotometry and under equilibrium conditions by an 18O exchange method. The turnover number kcat for hydration of CO2 was 6.5 X 10(4) s-1 and the Michaelis constant was 4.2 mM at pH 7.5 and 25 degrees C, values which are equal to the steady state constants for red cell carbonic anhydrase II from the rat. Inhibition of the salivary isozyme by sulfanilamide (Ki = 3.7 microM) was nearly as efficient as inhibition of the erythrocyte isozyme II (Ki = 1.1 microM). The molecular weight for the salivary isozyme was 46,000 and the isoelectric point was 5.5. Salivary carbonic anhydrase had high mannose oligosaccharide components as measured by concanavalin A binding. The amino acid composition for the salivary isozyme was not similar to rat type II, but it was similar to that reported for membrane-bound carbonic anhydrase from bovine lung (Whitney, P.L., and Briggle, T.V. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 12056-12059). These observations suggest to us that salivary carbonic anhydrase is a secretory product.     

Activation parameters for the carbonic anhydrase II-catalyzed hydration of CO2

We have determined the activation parameters of kcat and kcat/Km for the carbonic anhydrase II-catalyzed hydration of CO2. The enthalpy and entropy of activation for kcat is 7860 +/- 120 cal mol-1 and -3.99 +/- 0.42 cal mol-1 K-1, respectively, for the human enzyme. Results for the bovine enzyme were statistically indistinguishable from those of the human enzyme. The entropy of activation of kcat for the human enzyme was further decomposed into partially compensating electrostatic(es) (delta S*es = +15.1 cal mol-1 K-1) and nonelectrostatic(nes) (delta S*nes = -19.1 cal mol-1 K-1) terms. Computer simulations of a formal kinetic mechanism for carbonic anhydrase II-catalyzed CO2 hydration show that 82% of the temperature effect on kcat can be attributed to the temperature effect on the intramolecular proton transfer step. The reported activation parameters are consistent with a substantial enzyme or active site solvent conformational change in the transition state of the intramolecular proton transfer step, and is consistent with the mechanism of proton transfer proposed by Venkatasubban and Silverman (Venkatasubban, K. S., and Silverman, D. N. (1980) Biochemistry 19, 4984-4989).     

Purification and some properties of carbonic anhydrase from bovine skeletal muscle

Procedures for the purification of bovine muscle carbonic anhydrase (isoenzyme III) are described. The purified enzyme has a molecular weight near 29,000 and contains one Zn2+ ion per molecule. The sedimentation coefficient, s(0)20,w, is 2.8 X 10(-13) s, the isoelectric pH is 8.5, and A280(0.1%) = 2.07 cm-1. The CO2 hydration activity, expressed as kcat/Km, is about 1.5% of that of human isoenzyme I (or B) and about 0.3% of that of human isoenzyme II (or C) at pH 8 and 25 degrees C. The activity is nearly independent of pH between pH 6.0 and 8.6. The muscle enzyme is weakly inhibited by the sulfonamide inhibitor, acetazolamide, whereas some anions, particularly sulfide and cyanate, are efficient inhibitors. Bovine carbonic anhydrase III contains five thiol groups, two of which react readily with Ellman's reagent without effect on the catalytic activity. A reinvestigation of the amino acid sequences of cysteine-containing tryptic peptides has shown that cysteine residues occur at sequence positions 66, 183, 188, 203, and 206.     

Molecular basis of the oxygen exchange from CO2 catalyzed by carbonic anhydrase III from bovine skeletal muscle

The exchange of 18O from CO2 to H2O in aqueous solution is caused by the hydration-dehydration cycle and is catalyzed by the carbonic anhydrases. In our previous studies of 18O exchange at chemical equilibrium catalyzed by isozymes I and II of carbonic anhydrase, we observed simple first-order depletion of 18O from CO2 with the 18O distribution among the species C18O18O, C16O18O, and C16O16O described by the binomial expansion (i.e., a random distribution of 18O). Using membrane-inlet mass spectrometry, we have measured 18O exchange between CO2 and H2O catalyzed by native zinc-containing and cobalt(II)-substituted carbonic anhydrase III from bovine skeletal muscle near pH 7.5. The distributions of 18O in CO2 deviate from the binomial expansion and are accompanied by biphasic 18O-exchange patterns; moreover, we observed regions in which 18O loss from CO2 was faster than 18O loss from HCO3-. These data are interpreted in terms of a model that includes 18O loss from an enzyme-substrate or intermediate complex. We conclude that more than one 18O can be lost from CO2 per encounter with the active site of isozyme III, a process that requires scrambling of oxygens in a bicarbonate-enzyme complex and cycling between intermediate complexes. This suggests that the rate of dissociation of H2(18)O (or 18OH-) from isozyme III is comparable to or faster than substrate and product dissociation.     

Kinetics, anion binding and mechanism of Co(II)-substituted bovine muscle carbonic anhydrase

The binding of N3- to Co(II)-substituted bovine carbonic anhydrase III was measured at various pH values by spectrophotometric titrations. The apparent Ki values were found to increase with pH in the studied range between pH 5.8 and 8.9. The inhibition of CO2 hydration by N-3 was found to be essentially uncompetitive at all investigated pH values (pH 6.3-8.9). The Ki values for the inhibition of kcat are much smaller than those obtained in the spectrophotometric titrations indicating that an enzyme form with a high affinity for N-3, presumably having a metal-bound H2O, accumulates in the steady state at saturating CO2 concentrations. Assuming that the low pH limit of Ki = 9 microM for the inhibition of kcat represents the affinity of N-3 for the Co(II)-OH2 form, a pKa value near 5 can be estimated for Co(II)-bound water from the pH dependence of N-3 binding in the absence of CO2. Measurements of time-resolved absorption spectra during CO2 hydration in the presence of a low N-3 concentration showed the transient appearance of the characteristic spectrum of the enzyme-N-3 adduct clearly demonstrating the accumulation in the steady state of an enzyme form with a high affinity for N-3. In similar experiments without inhibitor the transient formation of a spectral form corresponding to a Co(II)-OH2 species has been demonstrated. This spectral form is rather featureless lacking the absorption maxima at 618 nm and 640 nm characteristic of the Co(II)-OH- species. Our results strongly support the hypothesis that the rate-limiting step in CO2 hydration catalyzed by carbonic anhydrase III is the protolysis of metal-bound water.