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Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase I

carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1, mitochondrial
Identifiers
Symbol CPS1
Entrez 1373
HUGO 2323
OMIM 608307
RefSeq NM_001875
UniProt P31327
Other data
EC number 6.3.4.16
Locus Chr. 2 p

Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase I is a ligase enzyme located in the involved in the production of urea. Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase I (CPS1 or CPSI) transfers an ammonia molecule from glutamine or glutamate to a molecule of bicarbonate that has been phosphorylated by a molecule of ATP. The resulting carbamate is then phosphorylated with another molecule of ATP. The resulting molecule of carbamoyl phosphate leaves the enzyme.

In E. coli CPSI is a heterodimer with a small subunit and a larger subunit with about 382 and 1073 amino acid residues in size, although in mammals (and other vertebrates) the CPSI protein is encoded by a single gene. The small subunit contains one active site for the binding and deamination of glutamine to make ammonia and glutamate. The large subunit contains two active sites, one for the production of carboxyphosphate, and the other for the production of carbamoyl phosphate. Within the large subunit there are two domains (B and C) each with an active site of the ATP-grasp family. Connecting the two subunits is a tunnel of sorts, which directs the ammonia from the small subunit to the large subunit.


The overall reaction that occurs in CPSI is:

2ATP + HCO3 + NH4+ --> 2ADP + Carbamoyl phosphate + Pi

This reaction can be thought of occurring in four distinct steps.

Of these four steps, only step two - the deamination of glutamine to get ammonia - is known to have actively participating amino acid residues, Cys269 and His353. The other three steps mostly utilize amino acid residue to form hydrogen bonds with substrates. A video of a simplified version of this mechanism is available here

It has been found that both ATP-binding sites in the large subunit of CPSI are structurally equivalent. A recent study has investigated the interlinking between these two domains (domain B and domain C) and has found evidence that they are coupled. This ATP-binding domain coupling works in a way such that a molecule of ATP binding at one site (domain C) conformationally allows synthesis at the other domain (domain B). If this is the case, carbamoyl phosphate is, in fact, not formed in step 5 (of the included mechanism below) by ejecting ADP but rather in step 4 by protonating the alcohol group and then kicking it off as water.


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