Inhibition of tryptophan synthase by (1-fluorovinyl)glycine

Tryptophan synthase (alpha 2 beta 2 complex) from Salmonella typhimurium catalyzes the formation of tryptophan from serine and indole. The enzyme is inactivated by (1-fluorovinyl)glycine. Concomitant with enzyme inactivation, the absorbance at 485 nm increases, indicating covalent modification of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate. It is proposed that inactivation involves elimination of HF to form an allene, which reacts with a nucleophile at the active site. The inactivation reaction involves an alpha,beta-elimination, as does the formation of tryptophan from indole and serine. The inactivation occurs with k(in) > 1.3 s-1, which is very close to k(cat) (6.4 s-1) for the formation of tryptophan from indole and serine. The inactive enzyme (alpha 2 beta 2) regains activity with k(off) = 0.005 min-1. Aminoacetone is formed during reaction, and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate is regenerated. Tryptophan synthase also catalyzes the dehydration of serine, or 3-fluoroalanine, to pyruvate in the absence of indole. This reaction involves an alpha,beta-elimination and the intermediate formation of an aminoacrylate adduct with pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, as does the formation of tryptophan. Pyruvate formation proceeds at less than 5% the rate of tryptophan formation. With [2-2H]serine an isotope effect (DVmax = 1.5) is observed. We propose that pyruvate formation is limited by the rate of hydration of the aminoacrylate intermediate and the rate of the abstraction of the serine alpha-hydrogen.