Site-directed mutagenesis of Pro-17 located in the glycine-rich region of adenylate kinase

Proline 17 in the glycine-rich region of adenylate kinase was replaced by Gly (the Gly-mutant) or Val (the Val-mutant) by site-directed mutagenesis. The mutant enzymes were purified to homogeneous states on sodium dodecyl sulfate-gel electrophoresis after solubilization of the proteins from the pellets of cell lysates of Escherichia coli. The apparent Km values of the Gly- and the Val-mutants for AMP increased approximately 7- and 24-fold, respectively, as compared with that of the wild-type enzyme. The apparent Km values for ATP also increased 7- and 42-fold in the Gly- and Val-mutants, respectively. In contrast, Vmax values of both mutant enzymes were comparable to that of the wild-type enzyme. These results suggest that Pro-17 plays an important role for the binding of substrates, but not for catalytic efficiency, although it does not directly interact with substrates. Adenosine diphosphopyridoxal, which specifically modifies Lys-21 in adenylate kinase (Tagaya, M., Yagami, T., and Fukui, T. (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262, 8257-8261), inactivated the wild-type and mutant enzymes at almost the same rates. Interestingly, both mutant enzymes showed higher specificities for adenine nucleotides than the wild-type enzyme. Both mutant enzymes were less resistant than the wild-type enzyme against inactivation at elevated temperatures or by treatment with trypsin. It would appear that most of the properties of the mutant enzymes may be explained on the basis of a need for conformational flexibility of the loop which includes Pro-17 for substrate binding.     

In vitro mutagenesis studies at the arginine residues of adenylate kinase. A revised binding site for AMP in the X-ray-deduced model

Although X-ray crystallographic and NMR studies have been made on the adenylate kinases, the substrate-binding sites are not unequivocally established. In an attempt to shed light on the binding sites for MgATP2- and for AMP2- in human cytosolic adenylate kinase (EC 2.7.4.3, hAK1), we have investigated the enzymic effects of replacement of the arginine residues (R44, R132, R138, and R149), which had been assumed by Pai et al. [Pai, E. F., Sachsenheimer, W., Schirmer, R. H., & Schulz, G. E. (1977) J. Mol. Biol. 114, 37-45] to interact with the phosphoryl groups of AMP2- and MgATP2-. With use of the site-directed mutagenesis method, point mutations were made in the artificial gene for hAK1 [Kim, H. J., Nishikawa, S., Tanaka, T., Uesugi, S., Takenaka, H., Hamada, M., & Kuby, S. A. (1989) Protein Eng. 2, 379-386] to replace these arginine residues with alanyl residues and yield the mutants R44A hAK1, R132A hAK1, R138A hAK1, and R149A hAK1. The resulting large increases in the Km,app values for AMP2- of the mutant enzymes, the relatively small increases in the Km,app values for MgATP2-, and the fact that the R132A, R138A, and R149A mutant enzymes proved to be very poor catalysts are consistent with the idea that the assigned substrate binding sites of Pai et al. (1977) have been reversed and that their ATP-binding site may be assigned as the AMP site.     

Adenylate kinase of Escherichia coli, a component of the phage T4 dNTP synthetase complex

Adenylate kinase, which catalyzes the reversible ATP-dependent phosphorylation of AMP to ADP and dAMP to dADP, can also catalyze the conversion of nucleoside diphosphates to the corresponding triphosphates. Lu and Inouye (Lu, Q., and Inouye, M. (1996) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 93, 5720-5725) showed that an Escherichia coli ndk mutant, lacking nucleoside diphosphate kinase, can use adenylate kinase as an alternative source of nucleoside triphosphates. Bacteriophage T4 can reproduce in an Escherichia coli ndk mutant, implying that adenylate kinase can meet a demand for deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates that increases by up to 10-fold as a result of T4 infection. In terms of kinetic linkage and specific protein-protein associations, NDP kinase is an integral component of T4 dNTP synthetase, a multienzyme complex containing phage-coded enzymes, which facilitates the synthesis of dNTPs and their flow into DNA. Here we asked whether, by similar criteria, adenylate kinase of the host cell is also a specific component of the complex. Experiments involving protein affinity chromatography, immunoprecipitation, optical biosensor measurements, and glutathione S-transferase pulldowns demonstrated direct interactions between adenylate kinase and several phage-coded enzymes, as well as E. coli nucleoside diphosphate kinase. These results identify adenylate kinase as a specific component of the complex. The rate of DNA synthesis after infection of an ndk mutant was found to be about 40% of the rate seen in wild-type infection, implying that complementation of the missing NDP kinase function by adenylate kinase is fairly efficient, but that adenylate kinase becomes rate-limiting for DNA synthesis when it is the sole source of dNTPs.     

Rat liver mitochondrial ATP synthase. Effects of mutations in the glycine-rich region of a beta subunit peptide on its interaction with adenine nucleotides

The beta subunit of the rat liver mitochondrial ATP synthase contains a glycine-rich amino acid sequence implicated in binding nucleotides by its similarity to a sequence found in many other nucleotide-binding proteins. A C-terminal three-quarter-length rat liver beta subunit fragment (Glu122 through Ser479), containing this homology region, interacts with adenine nucleotides (Garboczi, D.N., Hullihen, J.H., and Pedersen, P.L. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 15694-15698). Here we directly test the involvement of the glycine-rich region in nucleotide binding by altering its amino acid sequence through mutation or deletion. Twenty-one mutations within the glycine-rich region of the beta subunit cDNA were randomly generated. Wild-type and mutant beta subunit proteins were purified from overexpressing Escherichia coli strains. The mutant proteins were screened for changes in their interaction with 2'(3')-O-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl)adenosine 5'-triphosphate (TNP-ATP), a fluorescent nucleotide analog. Only one mutant protein bearing two amino acid changes (Gly153----Val, Gly156----Arg) exhibited a fluorescence enhancement higher than that of the wild-type "control." Further analysis of this protein revealed a lower affinity for TNP-ATP (Kd = 10 microM) compared with wild type (Kd = 5 microM). In addition, a mutant from which amino acids Gly149-Lys214 had been deleted was prepared. This mutant protein, which lacks the entire glycine-rich region, also displayed a marked reduction in affinity for TNP-ATP (Kd greater than 60 microM). Prior addition of 0.5 mM ATP significantly reduced the binding of TNP-ATP to both the double and deletion mutants. The altered interaction of nucleotide with both glycine-rich region mutants points to the involvement of this region in the binding site. Further, this work shows that a beta subunit protein that lacks the glycine-rich homology region can still interact with nucleotide, indicating that one or more additional regions of this subunit contribute to the nucleotide binding site.     

Effects of mutations of conserved Lys-155 and Thr-156 residues in the phosphate-binding glycine-rich sequence of the F1-ATPase beta subunit of Escherichia coli.

beta Lys-155 in the glycine-rich sequence of the beta subunit of Escherichia coli F1-ATPase has been shown to be near the gamma-phosphate moiety of ATP by affinity labeling (Ida, K., Noumi, T., Maeda, M., Fukui, T., and Futai, M. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 5424-5429). For examination of the roles of beta Lys-155 and beta Thr-156, mutants (beta Lys-155-->Ala, Ser, or Thr; beta Thr-156-->Ala, Cys, Asp, or Ser; beta Lys-155/beta Thr-156-->beta Thr-155/beta Lys-156; and beta Thr-156/beta Val-157-->beta Ala-156/beta Thr-157) were constructed, and their properties were studied extensively. The beta Ser-156 mutant was active in ATP synthesis and had approximately 1.5-fold higher membrane ATPase activity than the wild type. Other mutants were defective in ATP synthesis, had < 0.1% of the membrane ATPase activity of the wild type, and showed no ATP-dependent formation of an electrochemical proton gradient. The mutants had essentially the same amounts of F1 in their membranes as the wild type. Purified mutant enzymes (beta Ala-155, beta Ser-155, beta Ala-156, and beta Cys-156) showed low rates of multisite (< 0.02% of the wild type) and unisite (< 1.5% of the wild type) catalyses. The k1 values of the mutant enzymes for unisite catalysis were lower than that of the wild type: not detectable with the beta Ala-156 and beta Cys-156 enzymes and 10(2)-fold lower with the beta Ala-155 and beta Ser-155 enzymes. The beta Thr-156-->Ala or Cys enzyme showed an altered response to Mg2+, suggesting that beta Thr-156 may be closely related to Mg2+ binding. These results suggest that beta Lys-155 and beta Thr-156 are essential for catalysis and are possibly located in the catalytic site, although beta Thr-156 could be replaced by a serine residue.     

Studies on adenosine triphosphate transphosphorylases. Human isoenzymes of adenylate kinase: isolation and physicochemical comparison of the crystalline human ATP-AMP transphosphorylases from muscle and liver

Procedures are described for the isolation, in crystalline form, of the adenylate kinases from autopsy samples of human muscle and from human liver. Weight average molecular weights were determined by sedimentation equilibrium to be 22,000 (+/- 700) and 25,450 (+/- 160) for the human muscle and liver isoenzymes, respectively. By sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, their molecular weights were estimated to be 21,700 and 26,500 for the muscle and liver enzymes, respectively. Both isoenzymes are accordingly monomeric proteins in their native state. Amino acid analyses are reported here for the normal human liver, calf liver, and rabbit liver adenylate kinases and compared with the normal human muscle, calf muscle, and rabbit muscle myokinases. The liver types as a group and the muscle types as a group show a great deal of homology, but some distinct differences are evident between the liver and muscle enzyme groups, especially in the number of residues of His, Pro, half-cystine, and the presence of tryptophan in the liver enzymes. The normal human liver adenylate kinase, as isolated in this report, has proved to be similar in its properties, if not identical, to the adenylate kinase isolated directly from human liver mitochondria (Hamada, M., Sumida, M., Okuda, H., Watanabe, T., Nojima, M., and Kuby, S. A. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 13120-13128). Therefore, the liver-type adenylate kinase may be considered a mitochondrial type.     

Mapping of the adenosine 5'-triphosphate binding site of type II calmodulin-dependent protein kinase

The specificity of the ATP-binding site of the type II calmodulin-dependent protein kinase was probed with 25 analogues of ATP modified at various positions of the molecule. The analogues were compared by their ability to compete with ATP in the protein kinase reaction. The result of this comparison indicates that the enzyme is most sensitive to modifications at, or replacement of, the purine moiety. Changes at the triphosphate chain are much better tolerated, although the enzyme exhibited a selective sensitivity to changes in the conformation of this group. The smallest contribution to the specificity of ATP binding appears to be made by the ribose ring. The Ki values obtained for a subset of these analogues were compared to those previously reported for phosphorylase b kinase and the cyclic nucleotide dependent protein kinases [Flockhart, D. A., Freist, W., Hoppe, J., Lincoln, T. M., & Corbin, J. D. (1984) Eur. J. Biochem. 140, 289-295]. A striking similarity in the responses of these protein kinases to modifications of the ATP molecule suggests that the type II calmodulin-dependent protein kinase is related to these enzymes. Support for this conclusion was provided, recently, through comparisons of the deduced primary structures of the alpha and beta subunits of the type II calmodulin-dependent protein kinase with the protein sequences of the catalytic subunits of phosphorylase b kinase and cAMP-dependent protein kinase [Hanley, R. M., Means, A. R., Ono, T., Kemp, B. E., Burgin, K. E., Waxham, N., & Kelly, P. T. (1987) Science (Washington, D.C.) 237, 293-297; Bennett, M. K., & Kennedy, M. B. (1987) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84, 1794-1798], which indicated areas of extensive homology.     

Studies on the adenylate kinase isozymes from the serum and erythrocyte of normal and Duchenne dystrophic patients. Isolation, physicochemical properties, and several comparisons with the Duchenne dystrophic aberrant enzyme

Two species of adenylate kinase isozymes (ATP:AMP phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.4.3) from human Duchenne dystrophic serum were separated by Blue Sepharose CL-6B affinity column chromatography. One of these species was the "aberrant" adenylate kinase isozyme, found specifically in the Duchenne type of this disease (Hamada, M., Okuda, H., Oka, K., Watanabe, T., Ueda, K., Nojima, M., Kuby, S.A., Manship, M., Tyler, F., and Ziter, F. (1981) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 660, 227-237). The separated aberrant form possessed a molecular size of 98,000 (+/- 1,500), whereas the normal serum species of the enzyme was 87,000 (+/- 1,600) by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, by gel filtration, and by sedimentation equilibrium. The sedimentation coefficient of each species was found to be 5.8 S for the aberrant form and 5.6 S for the normal form, respectively. The subunit size (Mr = 24,700) of the aberrant enzyme in 8 M urea proved to be very similar to that of the normal human liver enzyme (Hamada, M., Sumida, M., Okuda, H., Watanabe, T., Nojima, M., and Kuby, S.A. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 13120-13128), and the normal species subunit (Mr = 21,700) was found to be very similar to that of the normal human muscle enzyme (Kuby, S.A., Fleming, G., Frischat, A., Cress, M.C., and Hamada, M. (1983) J. Biol. Chem. 258, 1901-1907). Both species were tetrameric enzymes in the serum. The amino acid composition for the normal species was similar to that for the muscle-type enzyme, and that for the aberrant species was similar to the liver enzyme, but with some notable exceptions in both cases. Thus, the normal species had no tryptophan and two half-cystine residues/subunit; whereas, there was 1 tryptophan and 4 half-cystine residues/subunit of the aberrant molecule. The amino acid composition of both serum isozymes when compared to their respective muscle or liver-type enzyme differed mainly in the content of Glu, Asp, His, Leu, Ile, Gly. Kinetic properties of the two forms of human serum adenylate kinase were studied at limiting concentrations of both ADP3- and MgADP- in the reverse reaction and of AMP2- and MgATP2- in the forward reaction. The type of reaction mechanism compatible with the data was a two-substrate random quasiequilibrium type of mechanism without independent binding of the substrates and with a rate-limiting step largely at the interconversion of the ternary complexes.     

Isolation of Escherichia coli mutants with elevated levels of membrane enzymes. A trans-acting mutation controlling diglyceride kinase

We have developed a rapid autoradiographic colony assay for detecting mutants with elevated levels of certain biosynthetic enzymes. Four Escherichia coli strains in which the specific activity of the membrane enzyme diglyceride kinase is increased 5-10-fold have been obtained with this approach. The mutant kinase has the same thermal denaturation profile and subcellular localization as the wild type. Five other membrane enzymes involved in phospholipid bilayer assembly are unaffected. In one of these strains (GK-1) the mutation (dgkR-1) responsible for the elevated kinase has been mapped at a new site near minute 92, while the previously identified structural gene (dgk) lies near minute 90. When the structural gene for the kinase (dgk) is cloned on a multi-copy vector-like ColE1, the kinase can be overproduced 5-10-fold on the basis of gene dosage (Lightner, V. A., Larson, T. J., Tailleur, P., Kantor, G. D., Raetz, C. R. H., Bell, R. M., and Modrich, P. (1980) J. Biol. Chem. 255, 9413-9420). Introduction of such hybrid plasmids into a mutant harboring dgkR-1 leads to a multiplicative (rather than additive) effect, resulting in specific activities of diglyceride kinase that are 35-75-fold higher than normal. These results show that dgkR-1 is a trans-acting mutation and suggest the existence of novel regulatory proteins (or metabolites) that direct the expression of certain membrane enzymes.     

Kinetic and conformational effects of lysine substitutions for arginines 35 and 87 in the active site of staphylococcal nuclease

The high-resolution X-ray crystal structure of staphylococcal nuclease (SNase) suggests that the guanidinium groups of Arg 35 and Arg 87 participate as electrophilic catalysts in the attack of water on the substrate phosphodiester. Both arginine residues have been replaced with "conservative" lysine residues so that both the importance of these residues in catalysis and the effect of changes in electrostatic interactions on active site conformation can be assessed. The catalytic efficiencies of R35K and R87K are decreased by factors of 10(4) and 10(5) relative to wild-type SNase, with R87K showing a very significant reduction in its affinity for both DNA substrate and the competitive inhibitor thymidine 3',5'-bisphosphate (pdTp). The thermal denaturation behavior of both mutant enzymes differs from that of wild type both in the absence and in the presence of the active site ligands Ca2+ and pdTp. Both the 1H NMR chemical shifts and interresidue nuclear Overhauser effects (NOEs) of residues previously assigned to be in the hydrophobic core of SNase are altered in R35K and R87K. These observations, similar to those recently reported by our laboratories for substitutions for Glu 43 [Hibler, D. W., Stolowich, N. J., Reynolds, M. A., Gerlt, J. A., Wilde, J. A., & Bolton, P. H. (1987) Biochemistry 26, 6278; Wilde, J. A., Bolton, P. H., Dell'Acqua, M., Hibler, D. W., Pourmotabbed, T., & Gerlt, J. A. (1988) Biochemistry 27, 4127], suggest that lysine substitutions are not conservative in SNase and disrupt the conformation of the active site.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Phosphorylation of human CTP synthetase 1 by protein kinase C: identification of Ser(462) and Thr(455) as major sites of phosphorylation

Phosphorylation of human CTP synthetase 1 by mammalian protein kinase C was examined. Using purified Escherichia coli-expressed CTP synthetase 1 as a substrate, protein kinase C activity was time- and dose-dependent and dependent on the concentrations of ATP and CTP synthetase 1. The protein kinase C phosphorylation of the recombinant enzyme was accompanied by a 95-fold increase in CTP synthetase 1 activity. Phosphopeptide mapping and phosphoamino acid analyses showed that CTP synthetase 1 was phosphorylated on multiple serine and threonine residues. The induction of PKC1(R398A)-encoded protein kinase C resulted in a 50% increase for human CTP synthetase 1 phosphorylation in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ura7Delta ura8Delta mutant lacking yeast CTP synthetase activity. Synthetic peptides that contain the protein kinase C motif for Ser(462) and Thr(455) were substrates for mammalian protein kinase C, and S462A and T455A mutations resulted in decreases in the extent of CTP synthetase 1 phosphorylation that occurred in vivo. Phosphopeptide mapping analysis of S. cerevisiae-expressed CTP synthetase 1 mutant enzymes phosphorylated with mammalian protein kinase C confirmed that Ser(462) and Thr(455) were phosphorylation sites. The S. cerevisiae-expressed and purified S462A mutant enzyme exhibited a 2-fold reduction in CTP synthetase 1 activity, whereas the purified T455A mutant enzyme exhibited a 2-fold elevation in CTP synthetase 1 activity (Choi, M.-G., and Carman, G.M. (2006) J. Biol. Chem. 282, 5367-5377). These data indicated that protein kinase C phosphorylation at Ser(462) stimulates human CTP synthetase 1 activity, whereas phosphorylation at Thr(455) inhibits activity.     

Slippery Substrates Impair ATP-dependent Protease Function by Slowing Unfolding

ATP-dependent proteases are responsible for most energy-dependent protein degradation across all species. Proteases initially bind an unstructured region on a substrate and then translocate along the polypeptide chain, unfolding and degrading protein domains as they are encountered. Although this process is normally processive, resulting in the complete degradation of substrate proteins to small peptides, some substrates are released prematurely. Regions of low sequence complexity within the substrate such as the glycine-rich region (GRR) from p105 or glycine-alanine repeats (GAr) from the EBNA1 (Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen-1) protein, can trigger partial degradation and fragment release. Loss of processivity could be due to inability to hold on to the substrate (faster release) or inability to unfold and degrade a substrate domain (slower unfolding). I previously showed that the GRR slows domain unfolding by the proteasome (Kraut, D. A., Israeli, E., Schrader, E. K., Patil, A., Nakai, K., Nanavati, D., Inobe, T., and Matouschek, A. (2012) ACS Chem. Biol. 7, 1444–1453). In contrast, a recently published study concluded that GArs increase the rate of substrate release from ClpXP, a bacterial ATP-dependent protease (Too, P. H., Erales, J., Simen, J. D., Marjanovic, A., and Coffino, P. (2013) J. Biol. Chem. 288, 13243–13257). Here, I show that these apparently contradictory results can be reconciled through a reanalysis of the ClpXP GAr data. This reanalysis shows that, as with the proteasome, low complexity sequences in substrates slow their unfolding and degradation by ClpXP, with little effect on release rates. Thus, despite their evolutionary distance and limited sequence identity, both ClpXP and the proteasome share a common mechanism by which substrate sequences regulate the processivity of degradation.     

Regulatory interactions of the calmodulin-binding, inhibitory, and autophosphorylation domains of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II

Two peptide analogs of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMK-(peptides)) were synthesized and used to probe interactions of the various regulatory domains of the kinase. CaMK-(281-289) contained only Thr286, the major Ca2+-dependent autophosphorylation site of the kinase (Schworer, C. M., Colbran, R. J., Keefer, J. R. & Soderling, T. R. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 13486-13489), whereas CaMK-(281-309) contained Thr286 together with the previously identified calmodulin binding and inhibitory domains (Payne, M. E., Fong, Y.-L., Ono, T., Colbran, R. J., Kemp, B. E., Soderling, T. R. & Means, A. R. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 7190-7195). CaMK-(281-309), but not CaMK-(281-289), bound calmodulin and was a potent inhibitor (IC50 = 0.88 +/- 0.7 microM using 20 microM syntide-2) of exogenous substrate (syntide-2 or glycogen synthase) phosphorylation by a completely Ca2+/calmodulin-independent form of the kinase generated by limited proteolysis with chymotrypsin. This inhibition was completely relieved by the inclusion of Ca2+/calmodulin in excess of CaMK-(281-309) in the assays. CaMK-(281-289) was a good substrate (Km = 11 microM; Vmax = 3.15 mumol/min/mg) for the proteolyzed kinase whereas phosphorylation of CaMK-(281-309) showed nonlinear Michaelis-Menton kinetics, with maximal phosphorylation (0.1 mumol/min/mg) at 20 microM and decreased phosphorylation at higher concentrations. The addition of Ca2+/calmodulin to assays stimulated the phosphorylation of CaMK-(281-309) by the proteolyzed kinase approximately 10-fold but did not affect the phosphorylation of CaMK-(281-289). A model for the regulation of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II is proposed based on the above observations and results from other laboratories.     

NMR studies of the AMP-binding site and mechanism of adenylate kinase

NMR has previously been used to determine the conformation of enzyme-bound MgATP and to locate the MgATP-binding site on adenylate kinase [Fry, D. C., Kuby, S. A., & Mildvan, A. S. (1985) Biochemistry 24, 4680-4694]. To determine the conformation and location of the other substrate, AMP, distances have been measured from Cr3+AMPPCP, a linear competitive inhibitor with respect to MgATP, to six protons and to the phosphorus atom of AMP on adenylate kinase, with the paramagnetic probe-T1 method. Time-dependent nuclear Overhauser effects (NOEs) have been used to measure five interproton distances on enzyme-bound AMP. These distances were used to determine the conformation of bound AMP in addition to its position with respect to metal-ATP. Enzyme-bound AMP exhibits a high anti-glycosyl torsional angle (chi = 110 +/- 10 degrees), a 3'-endo,2'-exo ribose pucker (delta = 105 +/- 10 degrees), and gauche-trans orientations about the C4'-C5' bond (gamma = 180 +/- 10 degrees) and the C5'-O5' bond (beta = 170 +/- 20 degrees). The distance from Cr3+ to the phosphorus of AMP is 5.9 +/- 0.3 A, indicating a reaction coordinate distance of approximately 3 A, which is consistent with an associative SN2 mechanism for the phosphoryl transfer. Ten intermolecular NOEs, from protons of the enzyme to those of AMP, were detected, indicating the proximity of at least three hydrophobic amino acids to bound AMP. These constraints, together with the conformation of AMP and the intersubstrate distances, were used to position AMP into the X-ray structure of adenylate kinase. The AMP binding site is found to be near (less than or equal to 4 A from) Leu-116, Arg-171, Val-173, Val-182, and Leu-190; all of these residues have been found to be invariant in muscle-type rabbit, calf, human, porcine [Kuby, S. A., Palmieri, R. H., Frischat, A., Fischer, A. H., Wu, L. H., Maland, L., & Manship, M. (1984) Biochemistry 23, 2393-2399], and chicken adenylate kinase [Kishi, F., Maruyama, M., Tanizawa, Y., & Nakazawa, A. (1986) J. Biol. Chem. 261, 2942-2945].     

Site-directed mutagenesis of proline 204 in the 'hinge' region of yeast phosphoglycerate kinase.

Site-specific mutants have been produced in order to investigate the role of proline 204 in the 'hinge' region of yeast phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK). This totally conserved proline has been shown to be the only cis-proline in the high resolution crystal structures of yeast, B. stearothermophilus, T. brucei and T. maritima PGK, and may therefore have a role in the independent folding of the two domains or in the 'hinge' bending of the molecule during catalysis. The residue was replaced by a histidine (Pro204His) and a phenylalanine (Pro204Phe), and the resulting proteins characterised by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), circular dichroism (CD), tryptophan fluorescence emission and kinetic analysis. Although the secondary and tertiary structure of the Pro204His protein is generally similar to that of the wild-type enzyme as assessed by CD, the enzyme is less stable to heat and guanidinium chloride denaturation than the wild-type. In the denaturation experiments two transitions were observed for both the wild-type and the Pro204His mutant, as have been previously reported for yeast PGK [Missiakas, D., Betton, J.M., Minard, P. & Yon, J.M. (1990) Biochemistry 29, 8683-8689]. The first transition is accompanied by an increase in fluorescence intensity leading to a hyperfluorescent state, followed by the second, corresponding to a decrease in fluorescence intensity. However, for the Pro204His mutant, the first transition proceeded at lower concentrations of guanidinium chloride and the second transition proceeded to the same extent as for the wild-type protein, suggesting that sequence-distant interactions are more rapidly disrupted in this mutant enzyme than in the wild-type enzyme, while sequence-local interactions are disrupted in a similar way. The Michaelis constants (K(m)) for both 3-phospho-D-glycerate and ATP are increased only by three or fourfold, which confirms that, as expected, the substrate binding sites are largely unaffected by the mutation. However, the turnover and efficiency of the Pro204His mutant is severely impaired, indicating that the mechanism of 'hinge' bending is hindered. The Pro204Phe enzyme was shown to be significantly less well folded than the wild-type and Pro204His enzymes, with considerable loss of both secondary and tertiary structure. It is proposed that the proline residue at 204 in the 'hinge' region of PGK plays a role in the stability and catalytic mechanism of the enzyme.     

Directed mutagenesis of the strongly conserved aspartate 242 in the beta-subunit of Escherichia coli proton-ATPase

Oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis was used to substitute Asn or Val for residue Asp-242 in the beta-subunit of Escherichia coli F1-ATPase. Asp-242 is strongly conserved in beta-subunits of F1-ATPase enzymes, in a region of sequence which shows homology with numerous nucleotide-binding proteins. By analogy with adenylate kinase (Fry, D.C., Kuby, S.A., and Mildvan, A.S. (1986) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 83, 907-911), beta-Asp-242 of F1-ATPase might participate in catalysis through electrostatic effects on the substrate Mg2+ or through hydrogen bonding to the substrate(s); an acid-base catalytic role is also plausible. The substitutions Asn and Val were chosen to affect the charge, hydrogen-bonding ability, and hydrophobicity of residue beta-Asp-242. Both mutations significantly impaired oxidative phosphorylation rates in vivo and membrane ATPase and ATP-driven proton-pumping activities in vitro. Asn-242 was more detrimental than Val-242. Purified soluble mutant F1-ATPases had normal molecular size and subunit composition, and displayed 7% (beta-Asn-242) and 17% (beta-Val-242) of normal specific Mg-ATPase activity. The relative MgATPase activities of both mutant enzymes showed similar pH dependence to normal. Relative MgATPase and CaATPase activities of normal and mutant enzymes were compared at widely varied pMg and pCa. The mutations had little effect on KM MgATP, but KM CaATP was reduced. The data showed that the carboxyl side-chain of beta-Asp-242 is not involved in catalysis either as a general acid-base catalyst or through direct involvement in any protonation/deprotonation-linked mechanism, nor is it likely to be directly involved in liganding to substrate Mg2+ during the reaction. Specificity constants (kcat/KM) for MgATP and CaATP were reduced in both mutant enzymes, showing that the mutations destabilized interactions between the catalytic nucleotide-binding domain and the transition state.     

The putative catalytic bases have,at most,an accessory role in the mechanism of arginine kinase

Arginine kinase is a member of the phosphagen kinase family that includes creatine kinase and likely shares a common reaction mechanism in catalyzing the buffering of cellular ATP energy levels. Abstraction of a proton from the substrate guanidinium by a catalytic base has long been thought to be an early mechanistic step. The structure of arginine kinase as a transition state analog complex (Zhou, G., Somasundaram, T., Blanc, E., Parthasarathy, G., Ellington, W. R., and Chapman, M. S. (1998) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 95, 8449-8454) showed that Glu-225 and Glu-314 were the only potential catalytic residues contacting the phosphorylated nitrogen. In the present study, these residues were changed to Asp, Gln, and Val or Ala in several single and multisite mutant enzymes. These mutations had little impact on the substrate binding constants. The effect upon activity varied with reductions in kcat between 3000-fold and less than 2-fold. The retention of significant activity in some mutants contrasts with published studies of homologues and suggests that acid-base catalysis by these residues may enhance the rate but is not absolutely essential. Crystal structures of mutant enzymes E314D at 1.9 A and E225Q at 2.8 A resolution showed that the precise alignment of substrates is subtly distorted. Thus, pre-ordering of substrates might be just as important as acid-base chemistry, electrostatics, or other potential effects in the modest impact of these residues upon catalysis.     

Structure and function of a family 10 beta-xylanase chimera of Streptomyces olivaceoviridis E-86 FXYN and Cellulomonas fimi Cex

The catalytic domain of xylanases belonging to glycoside hydrolase family 10 (GH10) can be divided into 22 modules (M1 to M22; Sato, Y., Niimura, Y., Yura, K., and Go, M. (1999) Gene (Amst.) 238, 93-101). Inspection of the crystal structure of a GH10 xylanase from Streptomyces olivaceoviridis E-86 (SoXyn10A) revealed that the catalytic domain of GH10 xylanases can be dissected into two parts, an N-terminal larger region and C-terminal smaller region, by the substrate binding cleft, corresponding to the module border between M14 and M15. It has been suggested that the topology of the substrate binding clefts of GH10 xylanases are not conserved (Charnock, S. J., Spurway, T. D., Xie, H., Beylot, M. H., Virden, R., Warren, R. A. J., Hazlewood, G. P., and Gilbert, H. J. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 32187-32199). To facilitate a greater understanding of the structure-function relationship of the substrate binding cleft of GH10 xylanases, a chimeric xylanase between SoXyn10A and Xyn10A from Cellulomonas fimi (CfXyn10A) was constructed, and the topology of the hybrid substrate binding cleft established. At the three-dimensional level, SoXyn10A and CfXyn10A appear to possess 5 subsites, with the amino acid residues comprising subsites -3 to +1 being well conserved, although the +2 subsites are quite different. Biochemical analyses of the chimeric enzyme along with SoXyn10A and CfXyn10A indicated that differences in the structure of subsite +2 influence bond cleavage frequencies and the catalytic efficiency of xylooligosaccharide hydrolysis. The hybrid enzyme constructed in this study displays fascinating biochemistry, with an interesting combination of properties from the parent enzymes, resulting in a low production of xylose.