Crystal structure of ATP phosphoribosyltransferase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

The N-1-(5'-phosphoribosyl)-ATP transferase catalyzes the first step of the histidine biosynthetic pathway and is regulated by a feedback mechanism by the product histidine. The crystal structures of the N-1-(5'-phosphoribosyl)-ATP transferase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis in complex with inhibitor histidine and AMP has been determined to 1.8 A resolution and without ligands to 2.7 A resolution. The active enzyme exists primarily as a dimer, and the histidine-inhibited form is a hexamer. The structure represents a new fold for a phosphoribosyltransferase, consisting of three continuous domains. The inhibitor AMP binds in the active site cavity formed between the two catalytic domains. A model for the mechanism of allosteric inhibition has been derived from conformational differences between the AMP:His-bound and apo structures.