The overall reaction of ACAC(A,B) proceeds by a two-step mechanism. The first reaction is carried out by BC and involves the ATP-dependent carboxylation of
biotin with
bicarbonate serving as the source of CO2. The carboxyl group is transferred from
biotin to
acetyl-CoA to form
malonyl-CoA in the second reaction, which is catalyzed by CT. In the
active site, the reaction proceeds with extensive interaction of the residues Glu296 and positively charged Arg338 and Arg292 with the substrates. Two Mg2+ are coordinated by the phosphate groups on the
ATP, and are required for ATP binding to the enzyme. Bicarbonate is
deprotonated by Glu296, although in solution, this proton transfer is unlikely as the
pKa of bicarbonate is 10.3. The enzyme apparently manipulates the pKa to facilitate the deprotonation of bicarbonate. The p
Ka of bicarbonate is decreased by its interaction with positively charged side chains of Arg338 and Arg292. Furthermore, Glu296 interacts with the side chain of Glu211, an interaction that has been shown to cause an increase in the apparent pKa. Following deprotonation of bicarbonate, the oxygen of the bicarbonate acts as a
nucleophile and attacks the gamma phosphate on ATP. The carboxyphosphate intermediate quickly decomposes to CO2 and . The deprotonates biotin, creating an enolate, stabilized by Arg338, that subsequently attacks CO2 resulting in the production of carboxybiotin. The carboxybiotin translocates to the carboxyl transferase (CT) active site, where the carboxyl group is transferred to acetyl-CoA. In contrast to the BC domain, little is known about the reaction mechanism of CT. A proposed mechanism is the release of CO2 from biotin, which subsequently abstracts a proton from the methyl group from acetyl-CoA carboxylase. The resulting
enolate attacks CO2 to form malonyl-CoA. In a competing mechanism,
proton abstraction is concerted with the attack of acetyl-CoA. == Function ==