Subunit assembly and active site location in the structure of glutamate dehydrogenase

The three-dimensional crystal structure of the NAD(+)-linked glutamate dehydrogenase from Clostridium symbiosum has been solved to 1.96 A resolution by a combination of isomorphous replacement and molecular averaging and refined to a conventional crystallographic R factor of 0.227. Each subunit in this multimeric enzyme is organised into two domains separated by a deep cleft. One domain directs the self-assembly of the molecule into a hexameric oligomer with 32 symmetry. The other domain is structurally similar to the classical dinucleotide binding fold but with the direction of one of the strands reversed. Difference Fourier analysis on the binary complex of the enzyme with NAD+ shows that the dinucleotide is bound in an extended conformation with the nicotinamide moiety deep in the cleft between the two domains. Hydrogen bonds between the carboxyamide group of the nicotinamide ring and the side chains of T209 and N240, residues conserved in all hexameric GDH sequences, provide a positive selection for the syn conformer of this ring. This results in a molecular arrangement in which the A face of the nicotinamide ring is buried against the enzyme surface and the B face is exposed, adjacent to a striking cluster of conserved residues including K89, K113, and K125. Modeling studies, correlated with chemical modification data, have implicated this region as the glutamate/2-oxoglutarate binding site and provide an explanation at the molecular level for the B type stereospecificity of the hydride transfer of GDH during the catalytic cycle.