The kinetics of acylation and deacylation of penicillin acylase from Escherichia coli ATCC 11105: evidence for lowered pKa values of groups near the catalytic centre.

Penicillin G acylase catalysed the hydrolysis of 4-nitrophenyl acetate with a kcat of 0.8 s-1 and a Km of 10 microM at pH 7.5 and 20 degreesC. Results from stopped-flow experiments fitted a dissociation constant of 0.16 mM for the Michaelis complex, formation of an acetyl enzyme with a rate constant of 32 s-1 and a subsequent deacylation step with a rate constant of 0.81 s-1. Non-linear Van't Hoff and Arrhenius plots for these parameters, measured at pH 7.5, may be partly explained by a conformational transition affecting catalytic groups, but a linear Arrhenius plot for the ratio of the rate constant for acylation relative to KS was consistent with energy-compensation between the binding of the substrate and catalysis of the formation of the transition state. At 20 degreesC, the pH-dependence of kcat was similar to that of kcat/Km, indicating that formation of the acyl-enzyme did not affect the pKa values (6.5 and 9.0) of an acidic and basic group in the active enzyme. The heats of ionization deduced from values of pKa for kcat, which measures the rate of deacylation, are consistent with alpha-amino and guanidinium groups whose pKa values are decreased in a non-polar environment. It is proposed that, for catalytic activity, the alpha-amino group of the catalytic SerB1 and the guanidinium group of ArgB263 are required in neutral and protonated states respectively.