Studies on the Mechanism of Glutamine Synthesis: Evidence for the Formation of Enzyme- bound Activated Glutamic Acid*

Although several enzymatic reactions are now known in which activation of a carboxyl group is associated with cleavage of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate (Pi), the mechanisms of these are not yet understood. Perhaps the most extensively studied enzyme of this group is that which catalyzes the synthesis of glutamine from glutamic acid and ammonia according to the following equation (1).