This entry includes the N-terminal catalytic domain of aspartokinase (AK) of the bifunctional enzyme AK-homoserine dehydrogenase (HSDH). These aspartokinases are found in bacteria (E. coli AKI-HSDHI, ThrA and E. coli AKII-HSDHII, MetL) and higher plants (Z. mays AK-HSDH). AK and HSDH are the first and third enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway of the aspartate family of amino acids. AK catalyzes the phosphorylation of Asp to P-aspartyl phosphate. HSDH catalyzes the NADPH-dependent conversion of Asp 3-semialdehyde to homoserine. ThrA and MetL are involved in threonine and methionine biosynthesis, respectively. In E. coli, ThrA is subject to allosteric regulation by the end product L-threonine and the native enzyme is reported to be tetrameric. As with bacteria, plant AK and HSDH are feedback inhibited by pathway end products. Maize AK-HSDH is a Thr-sensitive 180kDa enzyme. Arabidopsis AK-HSDH is an alanine-activated, threonine-sensitive enzyme whose ACT domains, located C-terminal to the AK catalytic domain, were shown to be involved in allosteric activation [, , , , , , , ].
