Pyruvate dehydrogenase

lipoamide Lipoamide is a trivial name for 6,8-dithiooctanoic amide. It is the functional form of lipoic acid, i.e the carboxyl group is attached to protein via an amine with an amide linkage. Illustrative of the biochemical role of lipoamide is in the conve ...

kinase isozyme 3, mitochondrial is an

enzyme An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...

that in humans is encoded by the ''PDK3''

gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...

. It codes for an

isozyme In biochemistry, isozymes (also known as isoenzymes or more generally as multiple forms of enzymes) are enzymes that differ in amino acid sequence but catalyze the same chemical reaction. Isozymes usually have different kinetic parameters (e.g. di ...

pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase Pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (also pyruvate dehydrogenase complex kinase, PDC kinase, or PDK; ) is a kinase enzyme which acts to inactivate the enzyme pyruvate dehydrogenase by phosphorylating it using ATP. PDK thus participates in the regula ...

.The pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex is a nuclear-encoded mitochondrial multienzyme complex that catalyzes the overall conversion of

pyruvate Pyruvic acid (CH3COCOOH) is the simplest of the alpha-keto acids, with a carboxylic acid and a ketone functional group. Pyruvate, the conjugate base, CH3COCOO−, is an intermediate in several metabolic pathways throughout the cell. Pyruvic ...

acetyl-CoA Acetyl-CoA (acetyl coenzyme A) is a molecule that participates in many biochemical reactions in protein, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. Its main function is to deliver the acetyl group to the citric acid cycle (Krebs cycle) to be oxidation, o ...

and CO₂. It provides the primary link between

glycolysis Glycolysis is the metabolic pathway that converts glucose () into pyruvic acid, pyruvate and, in most organisms, occurs in the liquid part of cells (the cytosol). The Thermodynamic free energy, free energy released in this process is used to form ...

and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, and thus is one of the major enzymes responsible for the regulation of

glucose metabolism Glucose is a sugar with the molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and ...

. The enzymatic activity of PDH is regulated by a

phosphorylation In biochemistry, phosphorylation is described as the "transfer of a phosphate group" from a donor to an acceptor. A common phosphorylating agent (phosphate donor) is ATP and a common family of acceptor are alcohols: : This equation can be writ ...

/dephosphorylation cycle, and phosphorylation results in inactivation of PDH. The protein encoded by this gene is one of the four pyruvate dehydrogenase kinases that inhibits the PDH complex by phosphorylation of the E1 alpha subunit. This gene is predominantly expressed in the heart and skeletal muscles.

Alternatively spliced Alternative splicing, alternative RNA splicing, or differential splicing, is an alternative RNA splicing, splicing process during gene expression that allows a single gene to produce different splice variants. For example, some exons of a gene ma ...

transcript variants encoding different

isoforms A protein isoform, or "protein variant", is a member of a set of highly similar proteins that originate from a single gene and are the result of genetic differences. While many perform the same or similar biological roles, some isoforms have uniqu ...

have been found for this gene.

Structure

The structure of the PDK3/L2 complex has been elucidated, and there are several key features. When the L2 domain binds to PDK3, it induces a “cross-tail” conformation in PDK3, thereby stimulating activity. There are three crucial residues, Leu-140, Glu-170, and Glu-179, in the

C-terminal The C-terminus (also known as the carboxyl-terminus, carboxy-terminus, C-terminal tail, carboxy tail, C-terminal end, or COOH-terminus) is the end of an amino acid chain (protein or polypeptide), terminated by a free carboxyl group (-COOH). When t ...

domain that are crucial for this interaction. Structural studies have indicated that L2 binding stimulates activity by disrupting the closed conformation, or ATP lid, to remove product inhibition. The PDK3 subunits are in one of two conformations; one subunit exists as an “open” subunit, while the other subunit is “closed”. The open subunit is the configuration most crucial to the putative substrate-binding cleft, as it is where the target peptide can access the active center. The closed subunit blocks this target peptide because of a neighboring unwound

alpha helix An alpha helix (or α-helix) is a sequence of amino acids in a protein that are twisted into a coil (a helix). The alpha helix is the most common structural arrangement in the Protein secondary structure, secondary structure of proteins. It is al ...

. Additionally, the ATP-binding loop in one PDK3 subunit adopts an open conformation, implying that the nucleotide loading into the active site is mediated by the inactive "pre-insertion" binding mode. This asymmetric complex represents a physiological state in which binding of a single L2-domain activates one of the PDHK subunits while inactivating another. Thus, the L2-domains likely act not only as the structural anchors but also modulate the catalytic cycle of PDK3.

Function

The Pyruvate Dehydrogenase (PDH) complex must be tightly regulated due to its central role in general metabolism. Within the complex, there are three serine residues on the E1 component that are sites for phosphorylation; this phosphorylation inactivates the complex. In humans, there have been four

isozymes In biochemistry, isozymes (also known as isoenzymes or more generally as multiple forms of enzymes) are enzymes that differ in amino acid sequence but catalyze the same chemical reaction. Isozymes usually have different kinetic parameters (e.g. di ...

of Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Kinase that have been shown to phosphorylate these three sites:

PDK1 Pyruvate dehydrogenase lipoamide kinase isozyme 1, mitochondrial is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''PDK1'' gene. It codes for an isozyme of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK). Pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) is a part of a mitochondri ...

PDK2 Pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase isoform 2 (PDK2) also known as pyruvate dehydrogenase lipoamide kinase isozyme 2, mitochondrial is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''PDK2'' gene. PDK2 is an isozyme of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase. Struc ...

, PDK3, and

PDK4 Pyruvate dehydrogenase lipoamide kinase isozyme 4, mitochondrial (PDK4) is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''PDK4'' gene. It codes for an isozyme of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase. This gene is a member of the PDK/BCKDK protein kinase ...

. The PDK3 protein is primarily found in the kidney, brain, and testis.

Regulation

As the primary regulators of a crucial step in the central metabolic pathway, the pyruvate dehydrogenase family is tightly regulated itself by a myriad of factors. PDK3, in conjunction with PDK2 and PDK4, are primary targets of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta/beta ( PPAR beta/delta), with PDK3 having five elements that respond to these receptors.

Structure

Function

Regulation

References

Further reading