Identification of triphosphoribosyl-dephospho-CoA as precursor of the citrate lyase prosthetic group

The gamma -subunit of citrate lyase (EC 4.1.3.6) contains the prosthetic group 2'-(5 -phosphoribosyl)-3'-dephospho-CoA and serves as an acyl carrier protein (ACP). We recently showed that in Escherichia coli the proteins CitG and CitX are essential for holo-ACP synthesis and provided evidence that CitG catalyzes the formation of a prosthetic group precursor from ATP and dephospho-CoA, which is subsequently attached via phosphodiester linkage to apo-ACP by CitX. Here we prove that CitG indeed catalyzes the conversion of ATP and dephospho-CoA to adenine and 2'-(5 -triphosphoribosyl)-3'-dephospho-CoA, the predicted precursor of the prosthetic group. Furthermore, this precursor was transferred by CitX to apo-ACP, yielding holo-ACP, Thus, our proposed mechanism for holo-ACP synthesis could be verified, (C) 2000 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.