Functional Amino Acid Residues of Recombinant Tobacco Acetolactate Synthase

Acetolactate synthase (ALS) is the common enzyme in the biosynthetic pathways leading to leucine, valine, and isoleucine. Tobacco ALS was expressed in E. coli and purified to homogeneity. The recombinant tobacco ALS was inactivated by thiol-specific reagents, N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) and 5,5'-dithio-bis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB). Inactivation of the ALS by NEM followed pseudo-first order kinetics and was first order with respect to the modifier. The substrate pyruvate protected the enzyme against the inactivation by NEM and DTNB. Extrapolation to complete inactivation of the enzyme by DTNB showed modification of approximately 2 out of 4 total cysteinyl residues (or 2 cysteinyl and 1 cysteinyl residues), with approximately 1 residue protected by pyruvate. The tobacco ALS was also inactivated by the tryptophanspecific reagent, N-bromosuccinimide (NBS), and was similarly protected by pyruvate. The kinetics of the inactivation was first-order with respect to NBS. The present data suggest that cysteinyl and tryptophanyl residues play a key role in the catalytic function of the enzyme.