Enzymatic activity is ultimately defined by the structure, chemistry and dynamics of the Michaelis complex. There exist a large number of experimentally determined structures between enzymes and substrates or substrate analogues or inhibitors. However, transient, short-lived encounter and equilibrium structures also play fundamental roles during enzymatic reaction cycles. Such structures are inherently difficult to study with conventional experimental techniques. The enzyme adenylate kinase undergoes major conformational rearrangements in response to binding of its substrates ATP and AMP. ATP is sandwiched between two binding surfaces in the closed and active enzyme conformation. Thus, ade-nylate kinase harbors two spatially distant surfaces in the substrate free open conformation of which one is responsible for the initial interaction with ATP. Here, we have performed primarily nuclear magnetic resonance experiments on Escherichia coli adenylate kinase (AKeco) variants that enabled identification of the site responsible for the initial ATP interaction. This allowed a characterization of the structural topology of an initial equilibrium complex between AKeco and ATP. Based on the results it is suggested that the ATP binding mechanism to AKeco is a mixture between "induced fit" and "conformational selection" models. It is shown that ATP is activated in the initial enzyme bound complex since it displays an appreciable rate of non-productive ATP hydrolysis. In summary our results provide novel structural and functional insights into adenylate kinase catalysis.