Aspartate carbamoyltransferase

Aspartate carbamoyltransferase (also known as aspartate transcarbamoylase or ATCase) catalyzes the first step in the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway (EC 2.1.3.2). Aspartate carbamoyltransferase (also known as aspartate transcarbamoylase or ATCase) catalyzes the first step in the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway (EC 2.1.3.2). In E. coli, the enzyme is a multi-subunit protein complex composed of 12 subunits (300 kDa in total). The composition of the subunits is C6R6, forming 2 trimers of catalytic subunits (34 kDa) and 3 dimers of regulatory subunits (17 kDa). The particular arrangement of catalytic and regulatory subunits in this enzyme affords the complex with strongly allosteric behaviour with respect to its substrates. The enzyme is an archetypal example of allosteric modulation of fine control of metabolic enzyme reactions. ATCase does not follow Michaelis-Menten kinetics, but lies between the low-activity, low-affinity 'tense' or T and the high-activity, high-affinity 'relaxed' or R states. The binding of substrate to the catalytic subunits results in an equilibrium shift towards the R state, whereas binding of CTP to the regulatory subunits results in an equilibrium shift towards the T state. Binding of ATP to the regulatory subunits results in an equilibrium shift towards the R state. ATCase is a highly regulated enzyme that catalyses the first committed step in pyrimidine biosynthesis, the condensation of l-aspartate and carbamoyl phosphate to form N-carbamyl-L-aspartate and inorganic phosphate. ATCase controls the rate of pyrimidine biosynthesis by altering its catalytic velocity in response to cellular levels of both pyrimidines and purines. The end-product of the pyrimidine pathway, CTP, decreases catalytic velocity, whereas ATP, the end-product of the parallel purine pathway, increases catalytic velocity. (The discussion of structure, catalytic center, and allosteric site that follows is based on the prokaryotic version of ATCase, to be specific, from E. coli.) Early studies demonstrated that ATCase consists of two different kinds of polypeptide chains, which have different roles. The catalytic subunits catalyze the carbamylation of the amino group of aspartate but do not have regulatory properties, while the regulatory subunits do not have any catalytic activity but contain the regulatory sites for effector binding. The ATCase holoenzyme is made of two catalytic trimers that are in contact and held together by three regulatory dimers, so the native form of the enzyme contains six chains of each type, with a total molecular weight of 310 kDa. Each of the catalytic domains is composed of two structural domains, the aspartate domain, which contains most of the residues responsible for binding aspartate, and the carbamoyl phosphate domain, which contains most of the residues that bind to carbamoyl phosphate. Each regulatory domain is also composed of two domains, the allosteric domain, which has the binding site for the nucleotide effectors, and the zinc domain, consisting of four cysteine residues clustered in its C-terminal region. These residues coordinate a zinc atom that is not involved in any catalytic property, but has been shown to be essential for the association of regulatory and catalytic subunits. The three-dimensional arrangement of the catalytic and regulatory subunits involves several ionic and hydrophobic stabilizing contacts between amino acid residues. Each catalytic chain is in contact with three other catalytic chains and two regulatory chains. Each regulatory monomer is in contact with one other regulatory chain and two catalytic chains. In the unliganded enzyme, the two catalytic trimers are also in contact.