Structural topology and activation of an initial adenylate kinase-substrate complex

Enzymatic activity is ultimately defined by the structure, chemistry, and dynamics of the Michaelis complex. A large number of experimentally determined structures between enzymes and substrates, substrate analogues, or inhibitors exist. However, transient, short-lived encounter and equilibrium structures also play fundamental roles during enzymatic reaction cycles. Such structures are inherently difficult to study with conventional experimental techniques. The enzyme adenylate kinase undergoes major conformational rearrangements in response to binding of its substrates, ATP and AMP. ATP is sandwiched between two binding surfaces in the closed and active enzyme conformation. Thus, adenylate kinase harbors two spatially distant surfaces in the substrate free open conformation, of which one is responsible for the initial interaction with ATP. Here, we have performed primarily nuclear magnetic resonance experiments on Escherichia coli adenylate kinase (AK(eco)) variants that allowed identification of the site responsible for the initial ATP interaction. This allowed a characterization of the structural topology of an initial equilibrium complex between AK(eco) and ATP. On the basis of the results, we suggest that the ATP binding mechanism for AK(eco) is a mixture between "induced fit" and "conformational selection" models. It is shown that ATP is activated in the initial enzyme-bound complex because it displays an appreciable rate of nonproductive ATP hydrolysis. In summary, our results provide novel structural and functional insights into adenylate kinase catalysis.