The dipeptidyl carboxypeptidase of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis> novablue: overproduction and molecular characterization of the recombinant enzyme

To express Escherichia coli novablue dipeptidyl carboxypeptidase (EcDCP), the gene was amplified by PCR and cloned into the expression plasmid pQE-31 to yield pQE-EcDCP. His₆-tagged EcDCP (His₆-EcDCP) was over-expressed in E. coli M15 (pQE-EcDCP) as a soluble and active form under 0.05 mM IPTG induction at 26°C for 12 h. The recombinant enzyme was purified to homogeneity by Ni²⁺-NTA resin and had a molecular mass of approximately 75 kDa. The temperature and pH optima for His₆-EcDCP were 37°C and 7.0, respectively. In the presence of 200 mM NaCl, His₆-EcDCP was stimulated by 1.5 fold. The K _M and k _cat values of the enzyme for N-benzoyl-l-glycyl-l-histidyl-l-leucine were 1.83 mM and 168.3 s⁻¹, respectively. His₆-EcDCP activity was dramatically inhibited by 10 mM EDTA, 0.25 mM 1.10-phenanthroline, and 2.5 mM DEPC, but it was not affected by Ser, Asp, Lys, and Trp protease inhibitors. Analysis of His₆-EcDCP by circular dichroism revealed that the secondary structures of the enzyme in 30 mM universal buffer (pH 7.0) were 17% α-helix, 35% β-sheet and 47% random coil. Mid point of thermal transition was calculated to be 55°C for the recombinant enzyme.     

Increased <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">d</Emphasis>-allose production by the R132E mutant of ribose-5-phosphate isomerase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Clostridium thermocellum</Emphasis>

Ribose-5-phosphate isomerase from Clostridium thermocellum converted d-psicose to d-allose, which may be useful as a pharmaceutical compound, with no by-product. The 12 active-site residues, which were obtained by molecular modeling on the basis of the solved three-dimensional structure of the enzyme, were substituted individually with Ala. Among the 12 Ala-substituted mutants, only the R132A mutant exhibited an increase in d-psicose isomerization activity. The R132E mutant showed the highest activity when the residue at position 132 was substituted with Ala, Gln, Ile, Lys, Glu, or Asp. The maximal activity of the wild-type and R132E mutant enzymes for d-psicose was observed at pH 7.5 and 80°C. The half-lives of the wild-type enzyme at 60°C, 65°C, 70°C, 75°C, and 80°C were 11, 7.0, 4.2, 1.5, and 0.6 h, respectively, whereas those of the R132E mutant enzymes were 13, 8.2, 5.1, 3.1, and 0.9 h, respectively. The specific activity and catalytic efficiency (k _cat/K _m) of the R132E mutant for d-psicose were 1.4- and 1.5-fold higher than those of the wild-type enzyme, respectively. When the same amount of enzyme was used, the conversion yield of d-psicose to d-allose was 32% for the R132E mutant enzyme and 25% for the wild-type enzyme after 80 min.     

Mutational analysis of the active site residues of a <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">d</Emphasis>-psicose 3-epimerase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Agrobacterium tumefaciens</Emphasis>

d-Psicose 3-epimerase from Agrobacterium tumefacience catalyzes the conversion of d-fructose to d-psicose. According to mutational analysis, the ring at position 112, the negative charge at position 156, and the positive charge at position 215 were essential components for enzyme activity and for binding fructose and psicose. The surface contact area and distance to the bound substrate by molecular modeling suggest that the positive charge of Arg215 was involved in stabilization of cis-endiol intermediate. The distances between the catalytic residues (Glu150 and Glu244) and Mn²⁺ are critical to the catalysis, and the negative charges of the metal-binding residues are important for interaction with metal ion. The kinetic parameters of the D183E and H209A mutants for metal-binding residues with substrate and the near-UV circular dichroism spectra indicate that the metal ion bound to Asp183 and His209 is involved not only in catalysis but also in substrate binding.     

Active site analysis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">cis</Emphasis>-epoxysuccinate hydrolase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nocardia tartaricans</Emphasis> using homology modeling and site-directed mutagenesis

Cis-epoxysuccinate hydrolase (CESH, EC 3.3.2.3) from Nocardia tartaricans is known to catalyze the opening of an epoxide ring of cis-epoxysuccinate (CES), thereby converting it to corresponding vicinal diol, l(+)-tartaric acid. An attempt has been made to build a 3D homology model of CESH to investigate the structure–function relationship, and also to understand the mechanism of the enzymatic reaction. Using a combination of molecular-docking simulation and multiple sequence alignment, a set of putative residues that are involved in the CESH catalysis has been identified. Functional roles of these putative active-site residues were further evaluated by site-directed mutagenesis. Interestingly, the mutants D18A, D18E, Q20E, T22A, R55E, N134D, K164A, H190A, H190N, H190Q, D193A, and D193E resulted in complete loss of activity, whereas the mutants Y58F, T133A, S189A, and Y192D retained partial enzyme activity. Furthermore, the active-site residues responsible for the opening of CES were analyzed, and the mechanism underlying the catalytic triad involved in l(+)-tartaric acid biosynthesis was proposed.     

Cloning,sequencing, overexpression and characterization of <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-rhamnose isomerase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus pallidus</Emphasis> Y25 for rare sugar production

The l-rhamnose isomerase gene (L -rhi) encoding for l-rhamnose isomerase (l-RhI) from Bacillus pallidus Y25, a facultative thermophilic bacterium, was cloned and overexpressed in Escherichia coli with a cooperation of the 6×His sequence at a C-terminal of the protein. The open reading frame of L -rhi consisted of 1,236 nucleotides encoding 412 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular mass of 47,636 Da, showing a good agreement with the native enzyme. Mass-produced l-RhI was achieved in a large quantity (470 mg/l broth) as a soluble protein. The recombinant enzyme was purified to homogeneity by a single step purification using a Ni-NTA affinity column chromatography. The purified recombinant l-RhI exhibited maximum activity at 65°C (pH 7.0) under assay conditions, while 90% of the initial enzyme activity could be retained after incubation at 60°C for 60 min. The apparent affinity (K _m) and catalytic efficiency (k _cat/K _m) for l-rhamnose (at 65°C) were 4.89 mM and 8.36 × 10⁵ M⁻¹ min⁻¹, respectively. The enzyme demonstrated relatively low levels of amino acid sequence similarity (42 and 12%), higher thermostability, and different substrate specificity to those of E. coli and Pseudomonas stutzeri, respectively. The enzyme has a good catalyzing activity at 50°C, for d-allose, l-mannose, d-ribulose, and l-talose from d-psicose, l-fructose, d-ribose and l-tagatose with a conversion yield of 35, 25, 16 and 10%, respectively, without a contamination of by-products. These findings indicated that the recombinant l-RhI from B. pallidus is appropriate for use as a new source of rare sugar producing enzyme on a mass scale production.     

Heterologous expression and characterization of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus coagulans</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-arabinose isomerase

Bacillus coagulans has been of great commercial interest over the past decade owing to its strong ability of producing optical pure l-lactic acid from both hexose and pentose sugars including l-arabinose with high yield, titer and productivity under thermophilic conditions. The l-arabinose isomerase (L-AI) from Bacillus coagulans was heterologously over-expressed in Escherichia coli. The open reading frame of the L-AI has 1,422 nucleotides encoding a protein with 474 amino acid residues. The recombinant L-AI was purified to homogeneity by one-step His-tag affinity chromatography. The molecular mass of the enzyme was estimated to be 56 kDa by SDS-PAGE. The enzyme was most active at 70°C and pH 7.0. The metal ion Mn²⁺ was shown to be the best activator for enzymatic activity and thermostability. The enzyme showed higher activity at acidic pH than at alkaline pH. The kinetic studies showed that the K _m, V _max and k _cat/K _m for the conversion of l-arabinose were 106 mM, 84 U/mg and 34.5 mM⁻¹min⁻¹, respectively. The equilibrium ratio of l-arabinose to l-ribulose was 78:22 under optimal conditions. l-ribulose (97 g/L) was obtained from 500 g/l of l-arabinose catalyzed by the enzyme (8.3 U/mL) under the optimal conditions within 1.5 h, giving at a substrate conversion of 19.4% and a production rate of 65 g L⁻¹ h⁻¹.     

Mobilization of sulfane sulfur from cysteine desulfurases to the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Azotobacter vinelandii</Emphasis> sulfurtransferase RhdA

Mobilization of the l-cysteine sulfur for the persulfuration of the rhodanese of Azotobacter vinelandii, RhdA, can be mediated by the A. vinelandii cysteine desulfurases, IscS and NifS. The amount of cysteine was higher in mutant strains lacking rhdA (MV474) than in wild type. The diazotrophic growth of MV474 was impaired. Taking into account the functional results about rhodanese-like proteins and RhdA itself, it is suggested that RhdA-dependent modulation of l-cysteine levels must deal with a redox-related process.     

The alternative<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps"> d</Emphasis>-galactose degrading pathway of<Emphasis Type="Italic"> Aspergillus nidulans</Emphasis> proceeds via<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps"> l</Emphasis>-sorbose

The catabolism of d-galactose in yeast depends on the enzymes of the Leloir pathway. In contrast, Aspergillus nidulans mutants in galactokinase (galE) can still grow on d-galactose in the presence of ammonium—but not nitrate—ions as nitrogen source. A. nidulans galE mutants transiently accumulate high (400 mM) intracellular concentrations of galactitol, indicating that the alternative d-galactose degrading pathway may proceed via this intermediate. The enzyme degrading galactitol was identified as l-arabitol dehydrogenase, because an A. nidulans loss-of-function mutant in this enzyme (araA1) did not show NAD⁺-dependent galactitol dehydrogenase activity, still accumulated galactitol but was unable to catabolize it thereafter, and a double galE/araA1 mutant was unable to grow on d-galactose or galactitol. The product of galactitol oxidation was identified as l-sorbose, which is a substrate for hexokinase, as evidenced by a loss of l-sorbose phosphorylating activity in an A. nidulans hexokinase (frA1) mutant. l-Sorbose catabolism involves a hexokinase step, indicated by the inability of the frA1 mutant to grow on galactitol or l-sorbose, and by the fact that a galE/frA1 double mutant of A. nidulans was unable to grow on d-galactose. The results therefore provide evidence for an alternative pathway of d-galactose catabolism in A. nidulans that involves reduction of the d-galactose to galactitol and NAD⁺-dependent oxidation of galactitol by l-arabitol dehydrogenase to l-sorbose.     

Cloning and characterization of a novel <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-arabinose isomerase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus licheniformis</Emphasis>

Based on analysis of the genome sequence of Bacillus licheniformis ATCC 14580, an isomerase-encoding gene (araA) was proposed as an l-arabinose isomerase (L-AI). The identified araA gene was cloned from B. licheniformis and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. DNA sequence analysis revealed an open reading frame of 1,422 bp, capable of encoding a polypeptide of 474 amino acid residues with a calculated isoelectric point of pH 4.8 and a molecular mass of 53,500 Da. The gene was overexpressed in E. coli, and the protein was purified as an active soluble form using Ni–NTA chromatography. The molecular mass of the purified enzyme was estimated to be ~53 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and 113 kDa by gel filtration chromatography, suggesting that the enzyme is a homodimer. The enzyme required a divalent metal ion, either Mn²⁺or Co²⁺, for enzymatic activity. The enzyme had an optimal pH and temperature of 7.5 and 50°C, respectively, with a k _cat of 12,455 min⁻¹ and a k _cat/K _m of 34 min⁻¹ mM⁻¹ for l-arabinose, respectively. Although L-AIs have been characterized from several other sources, B. licheniformis L-AI is distinguished from other L-AIs by its wide pH range, high substrate specificity, and catalytic efficiency for l-arabinose, making B. licheniformis L-AI the ideal choice for industrial applications, including enzymatic synthesis of l-ribulose. This work describes one of the most catalytically efficient L-AIs characterized thus far.     

Catalytic mechanism of fungal homoserine transacetylase

Homoserine transacetylase is a required catalyst in the biochemical pathway that metabolizes Asp to Met in fungi. The enzyme from the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe activates the hydroxyl group of L-homoserine by acetylation from acetyl coenzyme A. This enzyme is unique to fungi and some bacteria and presents an important new target for drug discovery. Steady-state kinetic parameters provide evidence that this enzyme follows a ping-pong mechanism. Proton inventory was consistent with a single-proton transfer, and pH studies suggested the participation of at least one residue with a pKa value of 6.4-6.6, possibly a His or Asp/Glu in catalysis. Protein sequence alignments indicate that this enzyme belongs to the alpha/beta-hydrolase fold superfamily of enzymes, indicating the involvement of an active-site nucleophile and possibly a canonical catalytic triad. We constructed site-specific mutants and identified Ser163, Asp403, and His432 as the likely active-site residues of a catalytic triad based on steady-state kinetics and genetic complementation of a yeast null mutant. Moreover, unlike the wild-type enzyme, inactive site mutants were not capable of producing an acetyl-enzyme intermediate. Homoserine transacetylase therefore catalyzes the acetylation of L-homoserine via a covalent acyl-enzyme intermediate through an active-site Ser. These results form the basis of future exploitation of this enzyme as an antimicrobial target.     

Expression and characterization of the biofilm-related and carnosine-hydrolyzing aminoacylhistidine dipeptidase from Vibrio alginolyticus

The biofilm-related and carnosine-hydrolyzing aminoacylhistidine dipeptidase (pepD) gene from Vibrio alginolyticus was cloned and sequenced. The recombinant PepD protein was produced and biochemically characterized and the putative active-site residues responsible for metal binding and catalysis were identified. The recombinant enzyme, which was identified as a homodimeric dipeptidase in solution, exhibited broad substrate specificity for Xaa-His and His-Xaa dipeptides, with the highest activity for the His-His dipeptide. Sequence and structural homologies suggest that the enzyme is a member of the metal-dependent metallopeptidase family. Indeed, the purified enzyme contains two zinc ions per monomer. Reconstitution of His.Tag-cleaved native apo-PepD with various metal ions indicated that enzymatic activity could be optimally restored when Zn2+ was replaced with other divalent metal ions, including Mn2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+ and Cd2+, and partially restored when Zn2+ was replaced with Mg2+. Structural homology modeling of PepD also revealed a 'catalytic domain' and a 'lid domain' similar to those of the Lactobacillus delbrueckii PepV protein. Mutational analysis of the putative active-site residues supported the involvement of His80, Asp119, Glu150, Asp173 and His461 in metal binding and Asp82 and Glu149 in catalysis. In addition, individual substitution of Glu149 and Glu150 with aspartic acid resulted in the partial retention of enzymatic activity, indicating a functional role for these residues on the catalysis and zinc ions, respectively. These effects may be necessary either for the activation of the catalytic water molecule or for the stabilization of the substrate-enzyme tetrahedral intermediate. Taken together, these results may facilitate the design of PepD inhibitors for application in antimicrobial treatment and antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy.     

Identification and Characterization of a Putative Dihydroorotase,KPN01074, from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Klebsiella pneumoniae</Emphasis>

Dihydroorotase (DHO; EC 3.5.2.3) is an essential metalloenzyme in the biosynthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides. Here, we identified and characterized DHO from the pathogenic bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp). The activity of KpDHO toward l-dihydroorotate was observed with K _m = 0.04 mM and V _max = 8.87 μmol/(mg min). Supplementing the standard growth medium with Co²⁺, Mn²⁺, Mg²⁺, or Ni²⁺ increased enzyme activity. The catalytic activity of KpDHO was inhibited with Co²⁺, Zn²⁺, Mn²⁺, Cd²⁺, Ni²⁺, and phosphate ions. Substituting the putative metal binding residues His17, His19, Lys103, His140, His178, and Asp251 with Ala completely abolished KpDHO activity. However, the activity of the mutant D251E was fourfold higher than that of the wild-type protein. On the basis of these biochemical and mutational analyses, KpDHO (KPN01074) was identified as type II DHO.     

Analysis of essential histidine residues of maize branching enzymes by chemical modification and site-directed mutagenesis

Incubation of maize branching enzyme, mBEI and mBEII, with 100 μM diethylpyrocarbonate (DEPC) rapidly inactivated the enzymes. Treatment of the DEPC-inactivated enzymes with 100–500 mM hydroxylamine restored the enzyme activities. Spectroscopic data indicated that the inactivation of BE with DEPC was the result of histidine modification. The addition of the substrate amylose or amylopectin retarded the enzyme inactivation by DEPC, suggesting that the histidine residues are important for substrate binding. In maize BEII, conserved histidine residues are in catalytic regions 1 (His320) and 4 (His508). His320 and His508 were individually replaced by Ala via site-directed mutagenesis to probe their role in catalysis. Expression of these mutants inE. coli showed a significant decrease of the activity and the mutant enzymes hadK _m values 10 times higher than the wild type. Therefore, residues His320 and His508 do play an important role in substrate binding.     

Molecular characterization of a novel thermostable mannose-6-phosphate isomerase from Thermus thermophilus

Mannose-6-phosphate isomerase catalyzes the interconversion of mannose-6-phosphate and fructose-6-phosphate. The gene encoding a putative mannose-6-phosphate isomerase from Thermus thermophilus was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The native enzyme was a 29 kDa monomer with activity maxima for mannose 6-phosphate at pH 7.0 and 80 °C in the presence of 0.5 mM Zn²⁺ that was present at one molecule per monomer. The half-lives of the enzyme at 65, 70, 75, 80, and 85 °C were 13, 6.5, 3.7, 1.8, and 0.2 h, respectively. The 15 putative active-site residues within 4.5 Å of the substrate mannose 6-phosphate in the homology model were individually replaced with other amino acids. The sequence alignments, activities, and kinetic analyses of the wild-type and mutant enzymes with amino acid changes at His50, Glu67, His122, and Glu132 as well as homology modeling suggested that these four residues are metal-binding residues and may be indirectly involved in catalysis. In the model, Arg11, Lys37, Gln48, Lys65 and Arg142 were located within 3 Å of the bound mannose 6-phosphate. Alanine substitutions of Gln48 as well as Arg142 resulted in increase of K_m and dramatic decrease of k_cat, and alanine substitutions of Arg11, Lys37, and Lys65 affected enzyme activity. These results suggest that these 5 residues are substrate-binding residues. Although Trp13 was located more than 3 Å from the substrate and may not interact directly with substrate or metal, the ring of Trp13 was essential for enzyme activity.     

The roles of residues Tyr150, Glu272, and His314 in class C β-lactamases

Serine β-lactamases contribute widely to the β-lactam resistance phenomena. Unfortunately, the intimate details of their catalytic mechanism remain elusive and subject to some controversy even though many “natural” and “artificial” mutants of these different enzymes have been isolated. This paper is essentially focused on class C β-lactamases, which contain a Tyr (Tyr150) as the first residue of the second conserved element, in contrast to their class A counterparts, in which a Ser is found in the corresponding position. We have modified this Tyr residue by site-directed mutagenesis. On the basis of the three-dimensional structure of the Enterobacter cloacae P99 enzyme, it seemed that residues Glu272 and His314 might also be important. They were similarly substituted. The modified enzymes were isolated and their catalytic properties determined. Our results indicated that His314 was not required for catalysis and that Glu272 did not play an important role in acylation but was involved to a small extent in the deacylation process. Conversely, Tyr150 was confirmed to be central for catalysis, at least with the best substrates. On the basis of a comparison of data obtained for several class C enzyme mutants and in agreement with recent structural data, we propose that the phenolate anion of Tyr150, in conjunction with the alkyl ammonium of Lys315, acts as the general base responsible for the activation of the active-site Ser64 during the acylation step and for the subsequent activation of a water molecule in the deacylation process. The evolution of the important superfamily of penicillin-recognizing enzymes is further discussed in the light of this proposed mechanism. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Conformational stability of pig citrate synthase and some active-site mutants

The conformational stabilities of native pig citrate synthase (PCS), a recombinant wild-type PCS, and six active-site mutant pig citrate synthases were studied in thermal denaturation experiments by circular dichroism and in urea denaturation experiments by using DTNB to measure the appearance of latent SH groups. His274 and Asp375 are conserved active-site residues in pig citrate synthase that bind to substrates and are implicated in the catalytic mechanism of the enzyme. By site-directed mutagenesis, His274 was replaced with Gly and Arg, while Asp375 was replaced with Gly, Asn, Glu, or Gln. These modifications were previously shown to result in 10(3)-10(4)-fold reductions in enzyme specific activities. The thermal unfolding of pig citrate synthase and the six mutants in the presence and absence of substrates showed large differences in the thermal stabilities of mutant proteins compared to the wild-type pig citrate synthase. The functions of His274 and Asp375 in ligand binding were measured by oxalacetate protection against urea denaturation. These data indicate that active-site mutations that decrease the specific activity of pig citrate synthase also cause an increase in the conformational stability of the protein. These results suggest that specific electrostatic interactions in the active site of citrate synthase are important in the catalytic mechanism in the chemical transformations as well as the conformational flexibility of the protein, both of which are important for the overall catalytic efficiency of the enzyme.     

Probing the antigenicity of E. coli l-asparaginase by mutational analysis

A strategy, termed alanine-scanning mutagenesis, was used to identify the amino acid residues which are critical to the antigenicity of Escherichia coli l-asparaginase (l-ASP). Three continuous alkaline residues, 195RKH197, were mutated to Ala selectively. Four mutant recombinant l-ASPs were constructed and expressed in E. coli, and then purified. The purified mutants showed a single band by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and were more than 95% pure by reverse high-perfomance liquid chromatography. The activities of wild-type and m l-ASPs in the fermentative medium were all about 130 U/mL. The change from 195RKH 197 to 195AAA 197 reduced the antigenicity ofhe enzyme greatly as shown in competition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using polyclonal antibodies raised against the wild-type l-ASP from rabbits. The results show that residues 195RKH197 of E. coli l-ASP are critical to its antigenicity. These authors contributed equally to this work.     

Substrate specificity of a recombinant ribose-5-phosphate isomerase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Streptococcus pneumoniae</Emphasis> and its application in the production of <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-lyxose and <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-tagatose

A putative ribose-5-phosphate isomerase (RpiB) from Streptococcus pneumoniae was purified with a specific activity of 26.7 U mg⁻¹ by Hi-Trap Q HP anion exchange and Sephacryl S-300 HR 16/60 gel filtration chromatographies. The native enzyme existed as a 96-kDa tetramer with activity maxima at pH 7.5 and 35°C. The RpiB exhibited isomerization activity with l-lyxose, l-talose, d-gulose, d-ribose, l-mannose, d-allose, l-xylulose, l-tagatose, d-sorbose, d-ribulose, l-fructose, and d-psicose and exhibited particularly high activity with l-form monosaccharides such as l-lyxose, l-xylulose, l-talose, and l-tagatose. With l-xylulose (500 g l⁻¹) and l-talose (500 g l⁻¹) substrates, the optimum concentrations of RpiB were 300 and 600 U ml⁻¹, respectively. The enzyme converted 500 g l⁻¹ l-xylulose to 350 g l⁻¹ l-lyxose after 3 h, and yielded 450 g l⁻¹ l-tagatose from 500 g l⁻¹ l-talose after 5 h. These results suggest that RpiB from S. pneumoniae can be employed as a potential producer of l-form monosaccharides.     

Mutagenesis of tyrosine residues within helix VII in subunit I of the cytochrome <Emphasis Type="Italic">cbb</Emphasis><Subscript>3</Subscript> oxidase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rhodobacter capsulatus</Emphasis>

The cbb ₃-type oxidases are members of the heme-copper oxidase superfamily, distant by sequence comparisons, but sharing common functional characteristics. The cbb ₃ oxidases are missing an active-site tyrosine residue that is absolutely conserved in all A and B-type heme-copper oxidases. This tyrosine is known to play a critical role in the catalytic mechanisms of A and B-type oxidases. The absence of this tyrosine in the cbb ₃ oxidases raises the possibility that the cbb ₃ oxidases utilize a different catalytic mechanism from that of the other members of the superfamily, or have this conserved residue in different helices. Recently sequence comparisons indicate that, a tyrosine residues that might be analogous to the active-site tyrosine in other oxidases are present in the cbb ₃ oxidases but these tyrosines originates from a different transmembrane helix within the protein. In this research, three conserved tyrosine residues, Y294, Y308 and Y318, in helix VII were substituted for phenylalanine. Y318F mutant in the Rhodobacter capsulatus oxidase resulted in a fully assembled enzyme with nativelike structure and activity, but Y294F mutant is not assembled and have a catalytic activity. On the other hand, Y308F mutant is fully assembled enzyme with nativelike structure, but lacking catalytic activity. This result indicates that Y308 should be crucial in catalytic activity of the cbb ₃ oxidase of R. capsulatus. These findings support the assumption that all of the heme-copper oxidases utilize the same catalytic mechanism and provide a residue originates from different places within the primary sequence for different members of the same superfamily.     

Contribution of conserved Glu255 and Cys289 residues to catalytic activity of recombinant aldehyde dehydrogenase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus licheniformis</Emphasis>

Based on the sequence homology, we have modeled the three-dimensional structure of Bacillus licheniformis aldehyde dehydrogenase (BlALDH) and identified two different residues, Glu255 and Cys289, that might be responsible for the catalytic function of the enzyme. The role of these residues was further investigated by site-directed mutagenesis and biophysical analysis. The expressed parental and mutant proteins were purified by nickel-chelate chromatography, and their molecular masses were determined to be approximately 53 kDa by SDS-PAGE. As compared with the parental BlALDH, a dramatic decrease or even complete loss of the dehydrogenase activity was observed for the mutant enzymes. Structural analysis showed that the intrinsic fluorescence and circular dichroism spectra of the mutant proteins were similar to the parental enzyme, but most of the variants exhibited a different sensitivity towards thermal- and guanidine hydrochloride-induced denaturation. These observations indicate that residues Glu255 and Cys289 play an important role in the dehydrogenase activity of BlALDH, and the rigidity of the enzyme has been changed as a consequence of the mutations.