Magnetic resonance study of the three-dimensional structure of creatine kinase-substrate complexes. Implications for...

The paramagnetic effects of the bound manganese ion and of a covalently attached spin label on proton nuclear spin relaxation rates have been used to calculate distances for a structural model of the MnADP and creatine complexed to creatine kinase from rabbit muscle. The nucleotide and guanidino substrates are so aligned on the enzyme that the transferable phosphoryl group on one substrate is in apposition to the acceptor moiety on the second substrate. The divalent metal ion is most probably liganded to the alpha and beta phosphates of the nucleotide substrate, both in the abortive MnADP-creatine-enzyme complex and in the active MnATP-creatine-enzyme complex. The metal ion-formate distance approximately 5 A in the Mn(II)ADP-formate-creatine-enzyme complex and less than 5 A in the Co(II)ADP-formate-creatine-enzyme complex is consistent with the suggestion that the monovalent anion is binding at the site normally occupied by the transferable phosphoryl group, thus producing a complex which mimics the transition state. Although only an upper limit of the distance from Mn(II) to the guanidino substrate could be determined in the presence of formate, it could be concluded that the disposition of the guanidino substrate changes upon addition of formate, since the relative distances of the methyl and methylene group are inverted. The effect of formate and nitrate on increasing the residence time of creatine in the MnADP-creatine-enzyme complex as determined by NMR provides evidence that the complexes observed by NMR are identical with those involved in the catalytic mechanism, since a parallel effect of formate and nitrate is observed in the kinetics of the enzymatic reaction, where the dissociation constant of creatine from the abortive quaternary complex decreases in the presence of the anions as had been determined from their inhibition of the forward reaction (Milner-White, E.J., and Watts, D.C. (1971) Biochem. J. 122, 727-740). Although the guanidino substrate is not directly liganded to the divalent metal ion, the electron paramagnetic resonance spectrum of manganese in the transition state analog complexes, i.e. nitrate-ADP-guanidino substrate-enzyme, is strongly dependent on catalytic activity of the guanidino substrate. The structural differences observed by EPR among transition state analog complexes with various guanidino substrates were not reflected in distances from Mn(II) to the guanidino substrate, which were 10% and 0.3% as active as creatine. Within the experimental error of 1 A, the distances were the same. The enzyme or the enzyme-substrate complexes may be considered to exist in a number of structurally distinct conformations in equilibrium based on the EPR spectra and on the anomalous temperature-dependence of the relaxation rates of the formate proton of the transition state analog complexes...