Skip to main content
. 2005 Jan 7;102(3):553–558. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0408210101

Table 1. Steady-state kinetic properties of E. coli AHAS isozyme II and some derivatives.

Specific act, Km for pyruvate, kcat/Km, K0.5 for ThDP,
Construct* units/mg mM kcat, s-1 M-1·s-1 R Vb/Va§ μM
WT 20 5.2 23.3 4,490 56 ± 7 1.0 0.63
His′-WT 17 6 19.8 3,305 59 ± 3 1.0 1.2
His′-Met250Ala 2.6 36 3.03 84 56 8.0 1.2
His′-Trp464Leu 11.9 11.2 13.9 1,240 3.0 ± 0.2 1.0 1.7
His′-Arg276Lys 2.8 38 3.27 85 28 4.0 2
*

The WT AHAS and the mutated enzymes were expressed and purified either as the natural holoenzyme (4) or as a protein with an N-terminal hexahistidine fusion (His′-) (11). Some of this data has appeared in a previous publication (11)

These kinetic parameters were determined in steady-state experiments using the colorimetric assay for acetoin (17), with 100 mM pyruvate as the sole substrate, in the presence of 0.1 M KPi buffer (pH 7.6) containing 10 mM MgCl2, 0.1 mM ThDP, and 75 μM FAD, except for variation of the relevant reactant. kcat is defined as the turnover rate per site, assuming two sites in the 138-kDa heterotetramer. The parameters have experimental uncertainties of 5–10%

R is the substrate specificity for 2-ketobutyrate as second substrate, (AHB formed)/(AL formed) = R × [2-ketobutyrate]/[pyruvate], and was determined by measuring AHB and AL formation simultaneously (8) in a competition experiment with varying 2-ketobutyrate and 50 mM pyruvate, in 0.1 M KPi buffer (pH 7.6) containing 10 mM MgCl2, 0.1 mM ThDP, and 75 μM FAD (11)

§

Vb/Va is the ratio between the rate of AL formation with 50 mM pyruvate as sole substrate and the extrapolated rate of AHB formation in the presence of 50 mM pyruvate at saturation with 2-ketobutyrate. The experimental uncertainty in Vb/Va is 10–15%