Thesis advisor: Evan R. Kantrowitz / Thesis advisor: Mary F. Roberts / Living organisms depend on enzymes for the synthesis using small molecule precursors of cellular building blocks. For example, the amino acid aspartate is synthesized in one step by the amination of oxaloacetate, an intermediate compound produced in the citric acid cycle, exclusively by means of an aminotransferase enzyme. Therefore, function of this aminotransferase is critical to produce the amino acid. In the Kantrowitz Lab, we seek to understand the molecular rational for the function of enzymes that control rates for the biosynthesis of cellular building blocks. If one imagines the above aspartate-synthesis example as a single running conveyer belt, any oxaloacetate that finds its way onto that belt will be chemically transformed to give aspartate. We can extend this notion of a conveyer belt to any enzyme. Therefore, the rate at which the belt moves dictates the rate of synthesis. Now imagine many, many conveyer belts lined in a row to give analogy to a biosynthesis pathway requiring more than one enzyme for complete chemical synthesis. This is such the case for the biosynthesis of nucleotides and glucose. Nature has developed clever tricks to exquisitely control the rate of product output but means of altering the rate of one or some of the belts in the line of many, without affecting the rate of others. This type of biosynthetic rate regulation is termed allostery. Studies described in this dissertation will address questions of allosteric processes and the chemistry performed by two entirely different enzymes and biosynthetic pathways. The first enzyme of interest is fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase) and its role in the biosynthesis of glucose. Following FBPase introduction in Chapter One, Chapter Two describes the minimal atomic scaffold necessary in a new class of allosteric type 2 diabetes drug molecules to effect catalytic inhibition of <italic>Homo sapiens</italic> FBPase. Following, is the second enzyme of interest, aspartate transcarbamoylase (ATCase) and its role in the biosynthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides. Succeeding ATCase introduction in Chapter Three, Chapter Four describes a body of work exclusively about the catalysis by ATCase. This work was inspired by the human form of the enzyme following the human genome project completion providing data that show likely <italic>Homo sapiens</italic> ATCase is not allosterically regulated. Chapter Five describes work on a allosterically-regulated, mutant ATCase and provides a biochemical model for the molecular rational for the catalytic inhibition upon cytidine triphosphate (CTP) binding to the allosteric site. The experimental techniques used for answering research questions were enzyme X-ray crystallography, <italic>in silico</italic> docking, kinetic assay experiments, genetic sub-cloning and genetic mutation. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_101781 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Harris, Katharine Morse |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. |
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