Direct and indirect roles of His‐418 in metal binding and in the activity of β‐galactosidase (E. coli)

The active site of ß‐galactosidase (E. coli) contains a Mg²⁺ ion ligated by Glu‐416, His‐418 and Glu‐461 plus three water molecules. A Na⁺ ion binds nearby. To better understand the role of the active site Mg²⁺ and its ligands, His‐418 was substituted with Asn, Glu and Phe. The Asn‐418 and Glu‐418 variants could be crystallized and the structures were shown to be very similar to native enzyme. The Glu‐418 variant showed increased mobility of some residues in the active site, which explains why the substitutions at the Mg²⁺ site also reduce Na⁺ binding affinity. The Phe variant had reduced stability, bound Mg²⁺ weakly and could not be crystallized. All three variants have low catalytic activity due to large decreases in the degalactosylation rate. Large decreases in substrate binding affinity were also observed but transition state analogs bound as well or better than to native. The results indicate that His‐418, together with the Mg²⁺, modulate the central role of Glu‐461 in binding and as a general acid/base catalyst in the overall catalytic mechanism. Glucose binding as an acceptor was also dramatically decreased, indicating that His‐418 is very important for the formation of allolactose (the natural inducer of the lac operon).