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Updated: May 28, 2026

Direct Detection of the Acetate-forming Activity of the Enzyme Acetate Kinase
Published on: December 19, 2011
Structural view of the regulatory subunit of aspartate kinase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Qingzhu Yang1, Kun Yu, Liming Yan
1National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Abstract:
The aspartate kinase (AK) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) catalyzes the biosynthesis of aspartate family amino acids, including lysine, threonine, isoleucine and methionine. We determined the crystal structures of the regulatory subunit of aspartate kinase from Mtb alone (referred to as MtbAKβ) and in complex with threonine (referred to as MtbAKβ-Thr) at resolutions of 2.6 Å and 2.0 Å, respectively. MtbAKβ is composed of two perpendicular non-equivalent ACT domains [aspartate kinase, chorismate mutase, and TyrA (prephenate dehydrogenase)] per monomer. Each ACT domain contains two α helices and four antiparallel β strands. The structure of MtbAKβ shares high similarity with the regulatory subunit of the aspartate kinase from Corynebacterium glutamicum (referred to as CgAKβ), suggesting similar regulatory mechanisms. Biochemical assays in our study showed that MtbAK is inhibited by threonine. Based on crystal structure analysis, we discuss the regulatory mechanism of MtbAK.
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