Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P17174 (aspartate aminotransferase)
 14,872 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The activity of enzymes of glycine and alanine synthesis (glutamate-pyruvate aminotransferase, aspartate-beta-decarboxylase, threonine aldolase, serine hydroxymethyltransferase, alanine-glyoxylate aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase) is studied in haemolymph, fat body, fibroin and sericine divisions of silk gland of silkworm Bombyx mori at terminal period of larva development. Alanine-glyoxylate aminotransferase activity in fibroin division of silk gland (34,6 mu mole of glycine/mg of protein/min-10(-3)), alanine aminotransferase--in sericine division (36,0 mu mole of alanine/mg of protein/min-10(-3)) aspartate aminotransferase 27,3 mu mole of glutamic acid/mg of protein/min-10(-3)) and alanine aminotransferase (35,8 mu mole of alanine/mg of protein/min-10(-3)) on fat body. The ratio of alanine-glyoxylate aminotransferase/glutamate-pyruvate aminotransferase activities in posterior division of silk gland is near to glycine/alanine ratio in silk fibroin. The character of the enzymes activity in silkworm tissues correlates with the silk formation rate.
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PMID:[Glycine and alanine synthesis enzymes in the tissues of the silkworm during its development]. 99 78

L-Threonine acetaldehyde-lyase (threonine aldolase, TA) is a pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent (PLP) enzyme that catalyzes conversion of L-threonine or L-allo-threonine to glycine and acetaldehyde in a secondary glycine biosynthetic pathway. X-ray structures of Thermatoga maritima TA have been determined as the apo-enzyme at 1.8 A resolution and bound to substrate L-allo-threonine and product glycine at 1.9 and 2.0 A resolution, respectively. Despite low pairwise sequence identities, TA is a member of aspartate aminotransferase (AATase) fold family of PLP enzymes. The enzyme forms a 222 homotetramer with the PLP cofactor bound via a Schiff-base linkage to Lys199 within a domain interface. The structure reveals bound calcium and chloride ions that appear to contribute to catalysis and oligomerization, respectively. Although L-threonine and L-allo-threonine are substrates for T. maritima TA, enzymatic assays revealed a strong preference for L-allo-threonine. Structures of the external aldimines with substrate/product reveal a pair of histidines that may provide flexibility in substrate recognition. Variation in the threonine binding pocket may explain preferences for L-allo-threonine versus L-threonine among TA family members.
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PMID:X-ray structures of threonine aldolase complexes: structural basis of substrate recognition. 1226 13

Understanding the role of specific amino acid residues in the molecular mechanism of a protein's function is one of the most challenging problems in modern biology. A systematic bioinformatic analysis of protein families and superfamilies can help in the study of structure-function relationships and in the design of improved variants of enzymes/proteins, but represents a methodological challenge. The pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes are catalytically diverse and include the aspartate aminotransferase superfamily which implements a common structural framework known as type fold I. In this work, the recently developed bioinformatic online methods Mustguseal and Zebra were used to collect and study a large representative set of the aspartate aminotransferase superfamily with high structural, but low sequence similarity to l-threonine aldolase from Aeromonas jandaei (LTAaj), in order to identify conserved positions that provide general properties in the superfamily, and to reveal family-specific positions (FSPs) responsible for functional diversity. The roles of the identified residues in the catalytic mechanism and reaction specificity of LTAaj were then studied by experimental site-directed mutagenesis and molecular modelling. It was shown that FSPs determine reaction specificity by coordinating the PLP cofactor in the enzyme's active centre, thus influencing its activation and the tautomeric equilibrium of the intermediates, which can be used as hotspots to modulate the protein's functional properties. Mutagenesis at the selected FSPs in LTAaj led to a reduction in a native catalytic activity and increased the rate of promiscuous reactions. The results provide insight into the structural basis of catalytic promiscuity of the PLP-dependent enzymes and demonstrate the potential of bioinformatic analysis in studying structure-function relationship in protein superfamilies.
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PMID:Bioinformatic analysis of the fold type I PLP-dependent enzymes reveals determinants of reaction specificity in l-threonine aldolase from Aeromonas jandaei. 2992 80