Biochemistry (Washington) 1989-08-22

Acid dissociation constant and apparent nucleophilicity of lysine-501 of the alpha-polypeptide of sodium and potassium ion activated adenosinetriphosphatase.

K Y Xu

Index: Biochemistry 28(17) , 6894-9, (1989)

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Abstract

A combination of competitive labeling with [3H]acetic anhydride [Kaplan, H., Stevenson, K. J., & Hartley, B. S. (1971) Biochem. J. 124, 289-299] and immunoaffinity chromatography is described that permits the assignment of the acid dissociation constant and the absolute nucleophilicity of individual lysines in a native enzyme. The acid dissociation constant of lysine-501 of the alpha-polypeptide in native (Na+ + K+)-ATPase was determined. This lysine had a normal pKa of 10.4. The rate constant for the reaction of the free base of lysine-501 with acetic anhydride at 10 degrees C is 400 M-1 s-1. This value is only 30% that for a fully accessible lysine in a protein. The lower than normal apparent nucleophilicity suggests that lysine-501 is hindered from reacting with its intrinsic nucleophilicity by the tertiary structure of the enzyme and is consistent with its location within a pocket that forms the active site upon the surface of the native protein.