A solution NMR study showing that active site ligands and nucleotides directly perturb the allosteric equilibrium in aspartate transcarbamoylase.

The 306-kDa aspartate transcarbamoylase is a well studied regulatory enzyme, and it has emerged as a paradigm for understanding allostery and cooperative binding processes. Although there is a consensus that the cooperative binding of active site ligands follows the Monod-Wyman-Changeux (MWC) model of allostery, there is some debate about the binding of effectors such as ATP and CTP and how they influence the allosteric equilibrium between R and T states of the enzyme. In this article, the binding of substrates, substrate analogues, and nucleotides is studied, along with their effect on the R-T equilibrium by using highly deuterated, (1)H,(13)C-methyl-labeled protein in concert with methyl-transverse relaxation optimized spectroscopy (TROSY) NMR. Although only the T state of the enzyme can be observed in spectra of wild-type unliganded aspartate transcarbamoylase, binding of active-site substrates shift the equilibrium so that correlations from the R state become visible, allowing the equilibrium constant (L') between ligand-saturated R and T forms of the enzyme to be measured quantitatively. The equilibrium constant between unliganded R and T forms (L) also is obtained, despite the fact that the R state is "invisible" in spectra, by means of an indirect process that makes use of relations that emerge from the fact that ligand binding and the R-T equilibrium are linked. Titrations with MgATP unequivocally establish that its binding directly perturbs the R-T equilibrium, consistent with the Monod-Wyman-Changeux model. This study emphasizes the utility of modern solution NMR spectroscopy in understanding protein function, even for systems with aggregate molecular masses in the hundreds of kilodaltons.