Zinc inhibition of pyruvate kinase of M-type isozyme.

Inhibitory effect of Zn on the pyruvate kinase of M (muscle)-type isozyme was analyzed for the purpose of elucidating the cytotoxicity of Zn. Zn inhibited pyruvate kinase uncompetitively with respect to the substrate PEP, and competitively with respect to ADP. Quotient velocity plot calculated from the Zn-inhibition curves showed that Zn2+ as a ZnADP complex acted as competitive and uncompetitive inhibitors of the enzyme with respect to the substrate ADP and PEP, respectively: Zn2+ forms a ZnADP complex, which may bind to the ADP-binding site of the free enzyme with the Ki value of 1.4 µM causing competitive inhibition, or to the ADP-site of the enzyme-PEP complex with 2.6 µM resulting in uncompetitive inhibition. The inhibition of pyruvate kinase by Zn2+ may be responsible for the cytotoxicity of this metal by decreasing glycolytic flux.

Functional analysis, overexpression, and kinetic characterization of pyruvate kinase from Plasmodium falciparum.

The important role of pyruvate kinase during malarial infection has prompted the cloning of a cDNA encoding Plasmodium falciparum pyruvate kinase (pfPyrK), using mRNA from intraerythrocytic-stage malaria parasites. The full-length cDNA encodes a protein with a computed molecular weight of 55.6 kDa and an isoelectric point of 7.5. The purified recombinant pfPyrK is enzymatically active and exists as a homotetramer in its active form. The enzyme exhibits hyperbolic kinetics with respect to phosphoenolpyruvate and ADP, with K(m) of 0.19 and 0.12 mM, respectively. pfPyrK is not affected by fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, a general activating factor of pyruvate kinase for most species. Glucose-6-phosphate, an activator of the Toxoplasma gondii enzyme, does not affect pfPyrK activity. Similar to rabbit pyruvate kinase, pfPyrK is susceptible to inactivation by 1mM pyridoxal-5'-phosphate, but to a lesser extent. A screen for inhibitors to pfPyrK revealed that it is markedly inhibited by ATP and citrate. Detailed kinetic analysis revealed a transition from hyperbolic to sigmoidal kinetics for PEP in the presence of citrate, as well as competitive inhibitory behavior for ATP with respect to PEP. Citrate exhibits non-competitive inhibition with respect to ADP with a K(i) of 0.8mM. In conclusion, P. falciparum expresses an active pyruvate kinase during the intraerythrocytic-stage of its developmental cycle that may play important metabolic roles during infection.

Phylogenetic analysis of the putative phosphorylation domain in the pyruvate kinase of Bacillus stearothermophilus.

All sequenced phosphoenolpyruvate synthases (PPS), pyruvate:phosphate dikinases (PPDK) and enzymes I (EI) of the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system comprise the PEP family. Linked to the C terminus of the sequenced pyruvate kinase from Bacillus stearothermophilus (PKBst) is a domain that is homologous to the putative phosphorylation domains of PEP family enzymes. We report sequence and phylogenetic analyses that lead to the following conclusions: (1) the phosphorylation domain of PKBst was derived from a PPS, late in the evolutionary process, after the divergence of PPSs from PPDKs and EIs; (2) this domain is probably functional in phosphoryl transfer; (3) the C-terminal phosphorylation domain in PKBst probably defines a compact domain in all PEP family proteins that is linked to other domains in these proteins via flexible linkers.

Phylogeny congruence analysis and isozyme classification: the pyruvate kinase system.

As the isozymes of pyruvate kinase (PK) are best known in rats, the characteristics of the rat isozymes are generally used to classify the PK isozymes in other species. Given the discrepancies generated by this classification by analogy, we evaluated a classification using a phylogeny congruence analysis of the compositional relatedness of vertebrate PK's. While our phylogenetic analysis confirmed the well established separation of the L and R isozymes from the K and M isozymes, its power became most evident in the identification of non-orthologous (or variant) forms of PK. Our analysis emphasized the uniqueness of chicken liver PK which cannot be classified either as a K or an L isozyme, confirmed that tumors express a variety of forms of PK, and indicated that lungs systematically express PK's which are not orthologous with PK's from other tissues. The determination of orthology by the phylogeny congruence analysis assumes that the structural data from different sources are subject to similar methodological error. However, we cannot reject the possibility that an apparent lack of orthology be due to artifacts during purification and analysis.

Phosphoglycolate synthesis by human erythrocyte pyruvate kinase.

R2-type pyruvate kinase purified monogeneously from human red cells catalyzes the phosphorylation of glycolate (glycolate kinase). Maximum activation of glycolate kinase was observed at 100 microM fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (Fru-1,6-P2) and at 2 mM glucose-1,6-bisphosphate (Glc-1,6-P2). The Km for ATP was 1.1 mM in the absence of Fru-1,6-P2 and 1.5 mM in the presence of 1 mM Fru-1,6-P2. The Km for glycolate was 20 mM in the absence of Fru-1,6-P2 and 5 mM in the presence of 1.0 mM Fru-1,6-P2. The optimum pH was over 10.5. At the physiological concentrations of Fru-1,6-P2, Glc-1,6-P2 and ATP, the glycolate kinase activity is too low to maintain the reported level of phosphoglycolate (approx. 2-5 microM). It is demonstrated that phosphorylation of glycolate by R2-type pyruvate kinase which is predominant in mature red cells plays no physiological role. The questions whether an unknown pathway for phosphoglycolate synthesis exists or whether there is actually phosphoglycolate in red cells are raised.