Aluminofluoride and beryllofluoride complexes: a new phosphate analogs in enzymology

The action of fluoride ions on G proteins as well as on various ATPases and phosphatases, is related to their complexation with traces of aluminium or beryllium. These fluorometallic complexes act as analogs of phosphate: they bind with high affinity, but reversibly, in phosphate sites or, concomitantly with nucleoside-diphosphate, in nucleoside-triphosphate sites. The beryllofluoride complexes are strictly tetrahedral; they cannot take on the pentavalent conformation adopted by phosphate in transition states hence they interfere with phospho-transfer reaction mechanisms.