D-Amino acid transaminase, a pyridoxalphosphate (PLP) enzyme, is inactivated by its naturalsubstrate,
D-alanine, concomitant with its
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-decarboxylation [Martinez del Pozo, A., Yoshimura, T.,Bhatia,M. B., Futaki, S., Manning, J. M., Ringe, D., and Soda, K. (1992)
Biochemistry 31, 6018-6023; Bhatia,M. B., Martinez del Pozo, A., Ringe, D., Yoshimura, T., Soda, K., andManning, J. M. (1993)
J. Biol.Chem. 268, 17687-17694].
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-Decarboxylation of
D-aspartate to
D-alanine leads also to thisinactivation[Jones, W. M., van Ophem, P. W., Pospischil, M. A., Ringe, D., Petsko,G., Soda, K., and Manning, J.M. (1996)
Protein Sci. 5, 2545-2551]. Using ahigh-performance liquid chromatography-based methodfor the determination of pyridoxo cofactors, we detected a newintermediate closely related to theinactivation by
D-alanine; its formation occurred at thesame rate as the inactivation and upon reactivationit reverted to PLP. Conditions were found under which it wascharacterized by ultraviolet-visible spectralanalysis and mass spectroscopy; it is a pyridoxamine phosphate-likecompound with a C
2 fragment derivedfrom the substrate attached to the C'-4 of the pyridinium ring and ithas a molecular mass of 306 consistentwith this structure. In the presence of
D-serine, slowaccumulation of a quinonoid intermediate is alsorelated to inactivation. The inactivation can be prevented bysalts, which possibly stabilize the protonatedaldimine coenzyme complex. The reduced cofactor, nicotinamideadenine dinucleotide, prevents
D-aspartate-induced inactivation. Both of these eventsalso are related to formation of the novel intermediate.