Mechanisms of monovalent cation action in enzyme catalysis: the tryptophan synthase alpha-, beta-, and alpha beta-reactions.

The alpha-subunit of the tryptophan synthase bienzyme complex catalyzes the formation of indole from the cleavage of 3-indolyl-D-glyceraldehyde 3'-phosphate, while the beta-subunit utilizes L-serine and the indole produced at the alpha-site to form tryptophan. The replacement reaction catalyzed by the beta-subunit requires pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) as a cofactor. The beta-reaction occurs in two stages: in stage I, the first substrate, L-Ser, reacts with the enzyme-bound PLP cofactor to form an equilibrating mixture of the L-Ser Schiff base, E(Aex1), and the alpha-aminoacrylate Schiff base intermediate, E(A-A); in stage II, this intermediate reacts with the second substrate, indole, to form tryptophan. Monovalent cations (MVCs) are effectors of these processes Woehl, E., and Dunn, M. F. (1995) Biochemistry 34, 9466-9476]. Herein, detailed kinetic dissections of stage II are described in the absence and in the presence of MVCs. The analyses presented complement the results of the preceding paper Woehl, E., and Dunn, M. F. (1999) Biochemistry 38, XXXX-XXXX], which examines stage I, and confirm that the chemical and conformational processes in stage I establish the presence of two slowly interconverting conformations of E(A-A) that exhibit different reactivities in stage II. The pattern of kinetic isotope effects on the overall activity of the beta-reaction shows an MVC-mediated change in rate-limiting steps. In the absence of MVCs, the reaction of E(A-A) with indole becomes the rate-limiting step. In the presence of Na+ or K+, the conversion of E(Aex1) to E(A-A) is rate limiting, whereas some third process not subject to an isotope effect becomes rate determining for the NH4+-activated enzyme. The combined results from the preceding paper and from this study define the MVC effects, both for the reaction catalyzed by the beta-subunit and for the allosteric communication between the alpha- and beta-sites. Partial reaction-coordinate free energy diagrams and simulation studies of MVC effects on the proposed mechanism of the beta-reaction are presented.