The 6-hydroxymethyl group of a hexose is essential for the substrate-induced closure of the cleft in hexokinase.

Yeast hexokinase B (ATP:-hexose 6-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.1) was crystallized in the presence of D-xylose and ADP, and its structure was determined at 7 A resolution. The enzyme is in the 'open' conformation which is characteristic of the enzyme crystallized in the absence of glucose, rather than in the 'closed' conformation that is observed with the glucose complex. That is, the binding of xylose into the large cleft that separates the molecule into two lobes does not cause the cleft to close. We conclude, then, that the glucose 6-hydroxymethyl group (which binds to an aspartic acid and a serine) is essential for the hexose-induced conformational change.