Allosteric control of Zymomonas mobilis glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase by phosphoenolpyruvate

The second enzyme of the Entner-Doudoroff glycolytic pathway in Zymomonas mobilis, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, has been found to be inhibited by phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP). In the presence of PEP levels in the micromolar range, the response of the enzyme to glucose 6-phosphate concentration becomes sigmoidal, with a Hill coefficient up to 2. At low ionic strength in the absence of PEP, the response to glucose 6-phosphate concentration is Michaelis-Menten, but at physiological ionic strength and pH, a Hill coefficient of 1.3 to 1.4 was found even in the absence of PEP. Km values for NAD+ and NADP+ are also ionic-strength-dependent, increasing rapidly as salt concentration increases. Some sigmoidicity was also observed for NAD+ in the presence of PEP at low glucose 6-phosphate concentrations. The results can be interpreted in a Monod-Wyman-Changeux model, in which glucose 6-phosphate binds principally to the R-state, PEP to the T-state, and NAD+ to both states. These observations are clearly physiologically significant, and provide an explanation for the control of the balance between glycolytic throughput and ATP consumption in Z. mobilis.