PMID: 18250335 , Related PDB id: 3BEF

Authors:

Gandhi PS, Chen Z, Mathews FS, Di Cera E

Title:

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

Journal:

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Feb 12;105(6):1832-7. 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.