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Published March 4, 1988 | public
Journal Article

Insights into Enzyme Function from Studies on Mutants of Dihydrofolate Reductase

Abstract

Kinetic analysis and protein mutagenesis allow the importance of individual amino acids in ligand binding and catalysis to be assessed. A kinetic analysis has shown that the reaction catalyzed by dihydrofolate reductase is optimized with respect to product flux, which in turn is predetermined by the active-site hydrophobic surface. Protein mutagenesis has revealed that specific hydrophobic residues contribute 2 to 5 kilocalories per mole to ligand binding and catalysis. The extent to which perturbations within this active-site ensemble may affect catalysis is discussed in terms of the constraints imposed by the energy surface for the reaction.

Additional Information

© 1988 American Association for the Advancement of Science. We thank J.-T. Chen, R. Mayer, K. Taira, K. Johnson, J. Andrews, C. Singh, K. Houk, and Y.-D. Wu for their help and involvement in this work. We also thank W. A. Goddard III for use of the computer graphics facility for graphical displays. This work was supported in part by NIH grant GM24129 and DOE-ECUT 49-242-E0403-0-3550. C.A.F. is a NIH postdoctoral fellow.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 19, 2023