Active site properties of monomeric triosephosphate isomerase (monoTIM) as deduced from mutational and structural studies.

MonoTIM is a stable monomeric variant of the dimeric trypanosomal enzyme triose phosphate isomerase (TIM) with less, but significant, catalytic activity. It is known that in TIM, three residues, Lys 13 (loop 1), His 95 (loop 4), and Glu 167 (loop 6) are the crucial catalytic residues. In the wild-type TIM dimer, loop 1 and loop 4 are very rigid because of tight interactions with residues of the other subunit. Previous structural studies indicate that Lys 13 and His 95 have much increased conformational flexibility in monoTIM. Using site-directed mutagenesis, it is shown here that Lys 13 and His 95 are nevertheless essential for optimal catalysis by monoTIM: monoTIM-K13A is completely inactive, although it can still bind substrate analogues, and monoTIM-H95A is 50 times less active. The best inhibitors of wild-type TIM are phosphoglycolohydroxamate (PGH) and 2-phosphoglycolate (2PG), with KI values of 8 microM and 26 microM, respectively. The affinity of the monoTIM active site for PGH has been reduced approximately 60-fold, whereas for 2PG, only a twofold weakening of affinity is observed. The mode of binding, as determined by protein crystallographic analysis of these substrate analogues, shows that, in particular, 2PG interacts with Lys 13 and His 95 in a way similar but not identical to that observed for the wild-type enzyme. This crystallographic analysis also shows that Glu 167 has the same interactions with the substrate analogues as in the wild type. The data presented suggest that, despite the absence of the second subunit, monoTIM catalyzes the interconversion of D-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate and dihydroxyacetone phosphate via the same mechanism as in the wild type.