A proposal for the catalytic mechanism in phospholipase C based on interaction energy and distance geometry calculations.

The non-specific phospholipase C from Bacillus cereus preferentially hydrolyses phosphatidylcholine but is also active against phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylethanolamine and at a much lower level, sphingomyelin. A minimal substrate model containing all required structural and configurational elements of a high affinity substrate was docked into the active site. The enzyme-substrate attachment points were from molecular interaction energy calculations using the program GRID and from a previous phosphate inhibitor complex structure. Available conformational space for the substrate was sampled by distance geometry calculations using the program DGEOM. This investigation clearly identifies the attacking nucleophile, a catalytically favourable orientation of the phosphate group in its tetra-, as well as its penta-, coordinated state and a crucial stabilizing environment for the alkoxide intermediate. Based on this information a complete catalytic cycle is proposed.