Structural identification of the pathway of long-range communication in an allosteric enzyme

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Feb 12;105(6):1832-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0710894105. Epub 2008 Feb 4.

Abstract

Allostery is a common mechanism of regulation of enzyme activity and specificity, and its signatures are readily identified from functional studies. For many allosteric systems, structural evidence exists of long-range communication among protein domains, but rarely has this communication been traced to a detailed pathway. The thrombin mutant D102N is stabilized in a self-inhibited conformation where access to the active site is occluded by a collapse of the entire 215-219 beta-strand. Binding of a fragment of the protease activated receptor PAR1 to exosite I, 30-A away from the active site region, causes a large conformational change that corrects the position of the 215-219 beta-strand and restores access to the active site. The crystal structure of the thrombin-PAR1 complex, solved at 2.2-A resolution, reveals the details of this long-range allosteric communication in terms of a network of polar interactions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Allosteric Regulation
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Binding Sites
  • Catalysis
  • Humans
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutagenesis
  • Protein Conformation
  • Receptor, PAR-1 / genetics
  • Receptor, PAR-1 / metabolism
  • Thrombin / chemistry
  • Thrombin / genetics
  • Thrombin / metabolism*

Substances

  • Receptor, PAR-1
  • Thrombin

Associated data

  • PDB/3BEF