Chemical modification of E. coli glutamine synthetase

Thiourea trioxide partially inactivates E. coli glutamine synthetase (GS) (∼25%) by reacting only with lysine residues, producing homoarginine. Thiourea dioxide totally inactivates GS by reacting with both lysine and histidine residues. The K/sub m/ values for thiourea trioxide modified enzyme are 0.21 mM for ATP and 10 mM for glutamate which are about threefold higher than for native GS. Using [14C] thiourea trioxide, 2.3 +/- 0.2 moles of reagent were incorporated per monomer. The same number of homoarginine residues were found by amino acid analysis. Modification of GS with hydroxylamine results in total inactivation resulting from reaction with histidine. Fluorescence titrations indicate that substrate binding to the modified enzyme is weaker than to the native enzyme. EPR spectra of bound Mn2+ indicate that metal ion binding is unaffected by hydroxylamine modification. However, metal ion binding is weaker to the modified enzyme. Protection from hydroxylamine inactivation is observed with ATP + Glutamate, AMPPNP + Glutamate, and MgCl2