Members of the casein kinase-1 family of protein kinases play an essential role in cell regulation and disease pathogenesis. Unlike most protein kinases, they appear to function as constitutively active enzymes. As a result, selective pharmacological inhibitors can play an important role in dissection of casein kinase-1-dependent processes. To address this need, new small molecule inhibitors of casein kinase-1 acting through ATP-competitive and ATP-noncompetitive mechanisms were isolated on the basis of in vitro screening. Here we report the crystal structure of 3-[(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl) methylidenyl]-indolin-2-one (IC261), an ATP-competitive inhibitor with differential activity among casein kinase-1 isoforms, in complex with the catalytic domain of fission yeast casein kinase-1 refined to a crystallographic R-factor of 22.4% at 2.8 Å resolution. The structure reveals that IC261 stabilizes casein kinase-1 in a conformation midway between nucleotide substrate liganded and nonliganded conformations. We propose that adoption of this conformation by casein kinase-1 family members stabilizes a delocalized network of side chain interactions and results in a decreased dissociation rate of inhibitor.

We present a kinetic analysis of the EcoRI DNA N6-adenosine methyltransferase (Mtase). The enzyme catalyzes the S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet)-dependent methylation of a short, synthetic 14 base pair DNA substrate and plasmid pBR322 DNA substrate with kcat/Km values of 0.51 X 10(8) and 4.1 X 10(8) s-1 M-1, respectively. The Mtase is thus one of the most efficient biocatalysts known. Our data are consistent with an ordered bi-bi steady-state mechanism in which AdoMet binds first, followed by DNA addition. One of the reaction products, S-adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy), is an uncompetitive inhibitor with respect to DNA and a competitive inhibitor with respect to AdoMet. Thus, initial DNA binding followed by AdoHcy binding leads to formation of a ternary dead-end complex (Mtase-DNA-AdoHcy). We suggest that the product inhibition patterns and apparent order of substrate binding can be reconciled by a mechanism in which the Mtase binds AdoMet and noncanonical DNA randomly but that recognition of the canonical site requires AdoMet to be bound. Pre-steady-state and isotope partition analyses starting with the binary Mtase-AdoMet complex confirm its catalytic competence. Moreover, the methyl transfer step is at least 10 times faster than catalytic turnover.

We have characterized Escherichia coli DNA adenine methyltransferase, a critical regulator of bacterial virulence. Steady-state kinetics, product inhibition, and isotope exchange studies are consistent with a kinetic mechanism in which the cofactor S-adenosylmethionine binds first, followed by sequence-specific DNA binding and catalysis. The enzyme has a fast methyl transfer step followed by slower product release steps, and we directly demonstrate the competence of the enzyme cofactor complex. Methylation of adjacent GATC sites is distributive with DNA derived from a genetic element that controls the transcription of the adjacent genes. This indicates that the first methylation event is followed by enzyme release. The affinity of the enzyme for both DNA and S-adenosylmethionine was determined. Our studies provide a basis for further structural and functional analysis of this important enzyme and for the identification of inhibitors for potential therapeutic applications.Bacterial DNA methyltransferases generate N 4 -methylcytosine, C 5 -methylcytosine, and N 6 -methyladenosine in an S-adenosylmethionine-dependent reaction (1). Bacterial DNA methylation plays critical roles, including DNA repair, phage protection, gene regulation, and DNA replication, in diverse biological pathways. The majority of DNA methyltransferases form one-half of a restriction-modification system that protects the host bacteria against bacteriophage infection. Together with cognate restriction endonucleases, which generally cleave a short palindromic sequence, these restriction-modification systems provide the foundation for many recombinant DNA manipulations; the endonucleases and methyltransferases have provided many structural and mechanistic insights into the process of sequence-specific DNA recognition and modification.Not all DNA methyltransferases have an endonuclease partner or at least one which is known. Thus, DNA adenine methyltransferase (DAM, 1 methylates the adenine in GATC) in ␥-proteobacteria (2, 3), and the cell cycle-regulated methyltransferase (CcrM, methylates the adenine in GANTC) in ␣-proteobacteria (3, 4) are involved in post-replicative mismatch repair, DNA replication timing, cell cycle regulation, and the control of gene expression. DAM and CcrM have been identified as new targets for antibiotic development (5) because some pathogenic bacteria are either avirulent or not viable when the corresponding genes are removed. DNA adenine methylation regulates the pili formation genes in Escherichia coli and Salmonella, providing one of the first and clearest examples of epigenetic gene regulation (2). This DNA-mediated gene regulation involves differentially methylated GATC sites, which represent a small minority of the ϳ5,000 -20,000 GATC sites found in a typical bacterial genome.E. coli DAM is a functional monomer of 278 amino acids (6). Our present understanding of how this enzyme functions is based largely on a small number of reports (6 -10). Herman and Modrich (6) first characterized the enzyme with plasmid DNA, ...

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