Direct Brønsted analysis of the restoration of activity to a mutant enzyme by exogenous amines.

A true Brønsted analysis of proton transfer in an enzyme mechanism is made possible by the chemical rescue of an inactive mutant of aspartate aminotransferase, where the endogenous general base, Lys258, is replaced with Ala by site-directed mutagenesis. Catalytic activity is restored to this inactive mutant by exogenous amines. The eleven amines studied generate a Brønsted correlation with beta of 0.4 for the transamination of cysteine sulfinate, when steric effects are included in the regression analysis. Localized mutagenesis thus allows the classical Brønsted analysis of transition-state structure to be applied to enzyme-catalyzed reactions.