Structural investigations of E. Coli dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase in solution: Small-angle X-ray scattering and molecular docking

Dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase from Escherichia coli (LpD) is a bacterial enzyme that is involved in the central metabolism and shared in common between the pyruvate dehydrogenase and 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complexes. In the crystal structure, E. coli LpD is known to exist as a dimer. The present work is focused on analyzing the solution structure of LpD by small-angle X-ray scattering, molecular docking, and analytical ultracentrifugation. It was shown that in solution LpD exists as an equilibrium mixture of a dimer and a tetramer. The presence of oligomeric forms is determined by the multifunctionality of LpD in the cell, in particular, the required stoichiometry in the complexes