Hydrolases containing two metal ions connected by a bridging ligand catalyze reactions important in carcinogensis, tissue repair, post-translational modification, control and regulation of biochemical pathways, and protein degradation. The aminopeptidase from Aeromonas proteolytica serves as a paradigm for the study of such bridged bimetallic proteases since its three-dimensional structure is known to very high resolution and its catalytic reaction is amenable to spectroscopic examination. Herein, we report the X-ray crystal structure at 1.9 Å resolution of AAP complexed with 1-butaneboronic acid (BuBA). This structure suggests that this complex represents a snapshot of the proteolytic reaction in an arrested form between the Michaelis complex and the transition state. Comparison of the structure with spectroscopic and other data allows us to conclude that the apparently structurally symmetrical dizinc site is actually asymmetric electrostatically
