Alanine racemase

Function

Alanine racemase (AR) catalyzes the racemization of L-alanine to D-alanine. AR uses pyridoxal-5’-phosphate (PLP) as a cofactor. PLP binds to a lysine residue of AR. AR participates in alanine and aspartate metabolism. ^[1]

Disease

The antibiotic D-cycloserine is an effective inhibitor of AR.

Relevance

The D-alanine produced by AR is used for peptidoglycan biosynthesis. Peptidoglycans are found in cell walls of bacteria hence AR inhibitors are tested as antimicrobial drugs.

Structural highlights

AR uses 2 catalytic bases for the reaction: from different monomers.^[1] Water molecules are shown as red spheres. .

3D Structures of alanine racemase

Alanine racemase 3D structures

Structure of alanine racemase dimer complex with phosphopyridoxyl-alanine (in magenta) (PDB entry 1l6g)

Drag the structure with the mouse to rotate

ReferencesReferences

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Watanabe A, Yoshimura T, Mikami B, Hayashi H, Kagamiyama H, Esaki N. Reaction mechanism of alanine racemase from Bacillus stearothermophilus: x-ray crystallographic studies of the enzyme bound with N-(5'-phosphopyridoxyl)alanine. J Biol Chem. 2002 May 24;277(21):19166-72. Epub 2002 Mar 8. PMID:11886871 doi:10.1074/jbc.M201615200

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Michal Harel, Alexander Berchansky

[Ad-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Watanabe A, Yoshimura T, Mikami B, Hayashi H, Kagamiyama H, Esaki N. Reaction mechanism of alanine racemase from Bacillus stearothermophilus: x-ray crystallographic studies of the enzyme bound with N-(5'-phosphopyridoxyl)alanine. J Biol Chem. 2002 May 24;277(21):19166-72. Epub 2002 Mar 8. PMID:11886871 doi:10.1074/jbc.M201615200

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