Pyruvate kinase and it’s role in cellular metabolism

Instead of an in-class final exam, you will write a final paper for this class. That paper will be a research report on an enzyme involved in cellular metabolism.
That enzyme could be directly involved in a metabolic pathway that we did or did not cover in class or a protein involved in the regulation of cellular
metabolism. Make sure you choose an enzyme for which the structure has been solved. The paper needs to contain at least three sections.
1. Introduction – In the introduction you will give background on the metabolic pathway or regulatory network in which the enzyme functions. What are the
inputs and outputs of the pathway? Where does it function in the cell? When does it function? Where is your enzyme within the pathway/regulatory network?
2. Body – In the body of the paper, you will describe what is known about the enzyme you have chosen. Make sure you cover the following topics.
Tertiary structure of the enzyme. What are the important parts of the structure? How does the structure determine the enzyme’s function? What are the
different domains? What are their functions? How does the enzyme interact with its substrate? How does the enzyme interact with any regulator molecules?
Enzyme function. What does the enzyme do? What is its mechanism? If known, what are the kcat and Km for the enzyme?
Enzyme regulation. How is the enzyme regulated? Is it post-translationally modified? How does that affect its function?
Mutations. What are the results of mutations in the enzyme? Are they associated with a particular disease? Cell death? How do they affect the metabolic
pathway or regulatory network the enzyme is in?