Abstract
Kinetic studies of L-Alanine dehydrogenase from Bacillus subtilis-catalyzed reactions in the presence of $Zn^{2+}$ were carried out. The substrate (L-alanine) saturation curve is hyperbolic in the absence of the metal ion but it becomes sigmoidal when $Zn^{2+}$ is added to the reaction mixture indicating the positive cooperative binding of the substrate in the presence of zinc ion. The cooperativity of substrate binding depends on the xinc ion concentration: the Hill coefficients ($n_H$) varied from 1.0 to 1.95 when the zinc ion concentration varied from 0 to $60\;{\mu}m$. The inhibition of AlaDH by $Zn^{2+}$ is reversible and noncompetitive with respect to $NAD^+$ ($K_i\;=\;5.28{\times}10^{-5}\;M$). $Zn^{2+}$ itself binds to AlaDH with positive cooperativity and the cooperativity is independent of substrate concentration. The Hill coefficients of substrate biding in the presence of $Zn^{2+}$ are not affected by the enzyme concentration indicating that $Zn^{2+}$ binding does not change the polymerization-depolymerization equilibria of the enzyme. Among other metal ions, $Zn^{2+}$ appears to be a specific reversible inhibitor inducing conformational change through the intersubunit interaction. These results indicate that $Zn^{2+}$ is an allosteric competitive inhibitor and substrate being a non-cooperative per se, excludes the $Zn^{2+}$ from its binding site and thus exhibits positive cooperativity. The allosteric mechanism of AlaDh from Bacillus subtilis is consistent with both MWC and Koshland's allosteric model.