Dynamic equilibrium between closed and partially closed states of the bacterial Enzyme I unveiled by solution NMR and X-ray scattering.
Venditti, V., Schwieters, C.D., Grishaev, A., Clore, G.M.(2015) Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112: 11565-11570
- PubMed: 26305976 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1515366112
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
2N5T - PubMed Abstract: 
Enzyme I (EI) is the first component in the bacterial phosphotransferase system, a signal transduction pathway in which phosphoryl transfer through a series of bimolecular protein-protein interactions is coupled to sugar transport across the membrane. EI is a multidomain, 128-kDa homodimer that has been shown to exist in two conformational states related to one another by two large (50-90°) rigid body domain reorientations. The open conformation of apo EI allows phosphoryl transfer from His189 located in the N-terminal domain α/β (EIN(α/β)) subdomain to the downstream protein partner bound to the EIN(α) subdomain. The closed conformation, observed in a trapped phosphoryl transfer intermediate, brings the EIN(α/β) subdomain into close proximity to the C-terminal dimerization domain (EIC), thereby permitting in-line phosphoryl transfer from phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) bound to EIC to His189. Here, we investigate the solution conformation of a complex of an active site mutant of EI (H189A) with PEP. Simulated annealing refinement driven simultaneously by solution small angle X-ray scattering and NMR residual dipolar coupling data demonstrates unambiguously that the EI(H189A)-PEP complex exists in a dynamic equilibrium between two approximately equally populated conformational states, one corresponding to the closed structure and the other to a partially closed species. The latter likely represents an intermediate in the open-to-closed transition.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Laboratory of Chemical Physics, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-0520; Department of Chemistry, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011;