PDK3

tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, and thus is one of the major enzymes responsible for the regulation of glucose metabolism. The enzymatic activity of PDH is regulated by a phosphorylation/dephosphorylation cycle, and phosphorylation results in inactivation of PDH. The protein encoded by this gene is one of the four pyruvate dehydrogenase kinases that inhibits the PDH complex by phosphorylation of the E1 alpha subunit. This gene is predominantly expressed in the heart and skeletal muscles. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene.^[6]

C-terminal domain that are crucial for this interaction.^[7] Structural studies have indicated that L2 binding stimulates activity by disrupting the closed conformation, or ATP lid, to remove product inhibition.^[8] The PDK3 subunits are in one of two conformations; one subunit exists as an “open” subunit, while the other subunit is “closed”. The open subunit is the configuration most crucial to the putative substrate-binding cleft, as it is where the target peptide can access the active center. The closed subunit blocks this target peptide because of a neighboring unwound alpha helix. Additionally, the ATP-binding loop in one PDK3 subunit adopts an open conformation, implying that the nucleotide loading into the active site is mediated by the inactive "pre-insertion" binding mode. This asymmetric complex represents a physiological state in which binding of a single L2-domain activates one of the PDHK subunits while inactivating another.^[9]

PDK1, PDK2, PDK3, and PDK4.^[10] The PDK3 protein is primarily found in the kidney, brain, and testis.^[11]