As for many enzymes, the enzymatic pathway of triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) includes the partially rate determining motion of an active site loop (loop 6, residues 166-176), which must remain closed during chemistry but must open just before product release. The motion of this loop was monitored using laser induced temperature-jump relaxation spectroscopy at nanosecond to millisecond time resolution. Trp168 in the hinge of the mobile loop served as a fluorophore reporter in a mutant of the yeast enzyme. The opening rate was studied as a function of the concentration of glycerol 3-phosphate, a substrate surrogate. Monoexponential kinetics were observed; assuming a simple two-step ligand release mechanism involving an encounter complex intermediate, the time scales of loop opening and closing were derived. The opening rate of the loop at 25 degrees C was determined to be 2500 +/- 1000 s(-1), in remarkable agreement with solution and solid state NMR measurements. The closing rate at the same temperature was 46,700 +/- 1800 s(-1). The rates were also studied as a function of the sample temperature following the jump. Enthalpies of activation of the loop motion, DeltaH(close) and DeltaH(open), were estimated to be 13.8 and 14.1 kcal/mol, respectively. The enthalpy of dissociation estimated from the kinetic studies is in reasonable agreement with steady-state values. Moreover, the enthalpy was dissected, for the first time, into components associated with ion binding and with protein conformational change. The enthalpy of the release reaction appeared to have a substantial contribution from the dissociation of the ligand from the encounter complex, found to be endothermic at 6 kcal/mol. In contrast, the population ratio of the open to closed loop conformations is found to favor the closed conformation but to be substantially less temperature dependent than the release step. Preliminary data of other ligands show that G3P behavior resembles that of the substrate but differs from 2-phosphoglycolate, a tight binding inhibitor, and phosphate. This study represents one of the first detailed comparisons between NMR and fluorescence based probes of protein motion and results in good agreement between the methods. The data in aggregate support a model in which the rate of the loop opening for TIM is dependent on the ligand and results in opening rates in the presence of the product that are comparable to enzymatic throughput, kcat.

We examine here the dynamics of forming the Michaelis complex of the enzyme lactate dehydrogenase by characterizing the binding kinetics and thermodynamics of oxamate (a substrate mimic) to the binary lactate dehydrogenase/NADH complex over multiple timescales, from nanoseconds to tens of milliseconds. To access such a wide time range, we employ standard stopped-flow kinetic approaches (slower than 1 ms) and laser-induced temperature-jump relaxation spectroscopy (10 ns-10 ms). The emission from the nicotinamide ring of NADH is used as a marker of structural transformations. The results are well explained by a kinetic model that has binding taking place via a sequence of steps: the formation of an encounter complex in a bimolecular step followed by two unimolecular transformations on the microsecond/millisecond timescales. All steps are well described by single exponential kinetics. It appears that the various key components of the catalytically competent architecture are brought together as separate events, with the formation of strong hydrogen bonding between active site His(195) and substrate early in binding and the closure of the catalytically necessary protein surface loop over the bound substrate as the final event of the binding process. This loop remains closed during the entire period that chemistry takes place for native substrates; however, motions of other key molecular groups bringing the complex in and out of catalytic competence appear to occur on faster timescales. The on-enzyme K(d) values (the ratios of the microscopic rate constants for each unimolecular step) are not far from one. Either substantial, approximately 10-15%, transient melting of the protein or rearrangements of hydrogen bonding and solvent interactions of a number of water molecules or both appear to take place to permit substrate access to the protein binding site. The nature of activating the various steps in the binding process seems to be one overall involving substantial entropic changes.

The Yersinia protein tyrosine phosphatase (YopH) contains a loop of ten amino acids (the WPD loop) that covers the entrance of the active site of the enzyme during substrate binding. In this work the substrate mimicking competitive inhibitor p-nitrocatechol sulfate (PNC) is used as a probe of the active site. The dynamics of the WPD loop was determined by subjecting an equilibrated system containing YopH, PNC, and YopH bound to PNC to a laser induced temperature jump, and subsequently following the change in equilibrium due to the perturbation. Using this methodology the dynamics associated with substrate binding in YopH have been determined. These results indicate that substrate binding is coupled to the WPD loop motion, and WPD loop dynamics occur in the sub-millisecond time scale. The significance of these dynamic results is interpreted in terms of the catalytic cycle of the enzyme.

Although the importance of atomic motion to how proteins function has been conjectured for several decades, the characterization of protein dynamics on multiple time scales is scant. This is because of severe experimental and theoretical difficulties, particularly characterizing the nanosecond to millisecond time scales. Here, we apply advanced laser-induced temperature-jump relaxation spectroscopic techniques to examine the kinetics of NADH binding to lactate dehydrogenase over this time scale. The bimolecular rate process, at about 290 micros, is easily observed as are multiple faster events (with relaxation times of 200 ns, 3.5 micros, and 24 micros), revealing a rich dynamical nature of the binding step. The results show that there are multiple structures of bound enzyme-ligand complexes, some of which are likely to be far from the catalytically productive structure. The results have important implications for interpretations of the binding thermodynamics of ligands to LDH and, by extension, to other proteins. The observed processes likely play a role in the dynamics of the chemistry that is catalyzed by lactate dehydrogenase.