When fold is not important: a common structural framework for adenine and AMP binding in 12 unrelated protein families

ATP is a ligand common to many proteins, yet it is unclear whether common recognition patterns do exist among the many different folds that bind ATP. Previously, it was shown that cAMP-dependent protein kinase, D-Ala:D-Ala ligase and the alpha-subunit of the alpha 2 beta 2 ribonucleotide reductase do share extensive common structural elements for ATP recognition although their folds are different. Here, we have made a survey of structures that bind ATP and compared them with the key features seen in these three proteins. Our survey shows that 12 different fold types share a specific recognition pattern for the adenine moiety, and 8 of these folds have a common structural framework for recognition of the AMP moiety of the ligand. The common framework consists of a tripeptide segment plus three additional residues, which provides similar polar and hydrophobic interactions between the protein and mononucleotide. Consensus interactions are represented by four key hydrogen bonds present in each fold type. Two of these four hydrogen bonds, together with three aliphatic residues, form a specific recognition pattern for the adenine moiety in all 12 folds. These similarities point to a structural-functional requirement shared by these different mononucleotide-binding proteins that represent at this time 28% of the adenine mononucleotide complexes found in the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank.