Structure of coenzyme A-disulfide reductase from Staphylococcus aureus at 1.54 A resolution

Coenzyme A (CoASH) replaces glutathione as the major low molecular weight thiol in Staphylococcus aureus; it is maintained in the reduced state by coenzyme A-disulfide reductase (CoADR), a homodimeric enzyme similar to NADH peroxidase but containing a novel Cys43-SSCoA redox center. The crystal structure of S. aureus CoADR has been solved using multiwavelength anomalous dispersion data and refined at a resolution of 1.54 A. The resulting electron density maps define the Cys43-SSCoA disulfide conformation, with Cys43-S(gamma) located at the flavin si face, 3.2 A from FAD-C4aF, and the CoAS- moiety lying in an extended conformation within a cleft at the dimer interface. A well-ordered chloride ion is positioned adjacent to the Cys43-SSCoA disulfide and receives a hydrogen bond from Tyr361'-OH of the complementary subunit, suggesting a role for Tyr361' as an acid-base catalyst during the reduction of CoAS-disulfide. Tyr419'-OH is located 3.2 A from Tyr361'-OH as well and, based on its conservation in known functional CoADRs, also appears to be important for activity. Identification of residues involved in recognition of the CoAS-disulfide substrate and in formation and stabilization of the Cys43-SSCoA redox center has allowed development of a CoAS-binding motif. Bioinformatics analyses indicate that CoADR enzymes are broadly distributed in both bacterial and archaeal kingdoms, suggesting an even broader significance for the CoASH/CoAS-disulfide redox system in prokaryotic thiol/disulfide homeostasis.     

Automated forward and reverse ratcheting of DNA in a nanopore at 5-Å precision

An emerging DNA sequencing technique uses protein or solid-state pores to analyze individual strands as they are driven in single-file order past a nanoscale sensor. However, uncontrolled electrophoresis of DNA through these nanopores is too fast for accurate base reads. Here, we describe forward and reverse ratcheting of DNA templates through the α-hemolysin nanopore controlled by phi29 DNA polymerase without the need for active voltage control. DNA strands were ratcheted through the pore at median rates of 2.5-40 nucleotides per second and were examined at one nucleotide spatial precision in real time. Up to 500 molecules were processed at ～130 molecules per hour through one pore. The probability of a registry error (an insertion or deletion) at individual positions during one pass along the template strand ranged from 10% to 24.5% without optimization. This strategy facilitates multiple reads of individual strands and is transferable to other nanopore devices for implementation of DNA sequence analysis.     

Peroxiredoxins as molecular triage agents, sacrificing themselves to enhance cell survival during a peroxide attack

In this issue of Molecular Cell, Day et?al. (2012) reveal a surprising benefit of peroxiredoxin inactivation at high H(2)O(2), showing that in Schizosaccharomyces pombe turning off peroxide defenses preserves the pool of reduced thioredoxin for repairing proteins vital to survival.     

Catalytic cycle of human glutathione reductase near 1 A resolution

Efficient enzyme catalysis depends on exquisite details of structure beyond those resolvable in typical medium- and high-resolution crystallographic analyses. Here we report synchrotron-based cryocrystallographic studies of natural substrate complexes of the flavoenzyme human glutathione reductase (GR) at nominal resolutions between 1.1 and 0.95 Å that reveal new aspects of its mechanism. Compression in the active site causes overlapping van der Waals radii and distortion in the nicotinamide ring of the NADPH substrate, which enhances catalysis via stereoelectronic effects. The bound NADPH and redox-active disulfide are positioned optimally on opposite sides of the flavin for a 1,2-addition across a flavin double bond. The new structures extend earlier observations to reveal that the redox-active disulfide loop in GR is an extreme case of sequential peptide bonds systematically deviating from planarity—a net deviation of 53° across five residues. But this apparent strain is not a factor in catalysis, as it is present in both oxidized and reduced structures. Intriguingly, the flavin bond lengths in oxidized GR are intermediate between those expected for oxidized and reduced flavin, but we present evidence that this may not be due to the protein environment but instead due to partial synchrotron reduction of the flavin by the synchrotron beam. Finally, of more general relevance, we present evidence that the structures of synchrotron-reduced disulfide bonds cannot generally be used as reliable models for naturally reduced disulfide bonds.     

The interplay of ligand binding and quaternary structure in the diverse interactions of dynein light chain LC8

Dynein light chain LC8 is a small, dimeric, and very highly conserved globular protein that is an integral part of the dynein and myosin molecular motors but appears to have a broader role in multiple protein complexes unrelated to molecular motors. LC8 binds to two families of targets: those having a KXTQT sequence fingerprint and those having a GIQVD fingerprint. All known LC8 binding partners containing these fingerprints share a common binding site on LC8 that raises the question of what determines binding specificity. Here, we present the crystal structure of apo-LC8 at 1.7-Å resolution, which, when compared with the crystal structures of several LC8 complexes, gives insight into the mechanism underlying the binding diversity of LC8. Peptide binding is associated with a shift in quaternary structure that expands the hydrophobic binding surface available to the ligand, in addition to changes in tertiary structure and ordering of LC8 around the binding groove. The observed quaternary shift suggests a mechanism by which binding at one of the two identical sites can influence binding at the other. NMR spectra of titrations with peptides from each fingerprint family show evidence of allosteric interaction between the two binding sites, to a differing degree in the two ligand families. Allosteric interaction between the binding sites may be a mechanism to promote simultaneous binding of ligands from the same family, providing a physiological role for the two fingerprints.     

Cysteine pK(a) values for the bacterial peroxiredoxin AhpC

Salmonella typhimurium AhpC is a founding member of the peroxiredoxin family, a ubiquitous group of cysteine-based peroxidases with high reactivity toward hydrogen peroxide, organic hydroperoxides, and peroxynitrite. For all of the peroxiredoxins, the catalytic cysteine, referred to as the peroxidatic cysteine (C(P)), acts as a nucleophile in attacking the peroxide substrate, forming a cysteine sulfenic acid at the active site. Because thiolates are far stronger nucleophiles than thiol groups, it is generally accepted that cysteine-based peroxidases should exhibit pK(a) values lower than an unperturbed value of 8.3-8.5. In this investigation, several independent approaches were used to assess the pK(a) of the two cysteinyl residues of AhpC. Methods using two different iodoacetamide derivatives yielded unperturbed pK(a) values (7.9-8.7) for both cysteines, apparently due to reactivity with the wrong conformation of C(P) (i.e., locally unfolded and flipped out of the active site), as supported by X-ray crystallographic analyses. A functional pK(a) of 5.94 +/- 0.10 presumably reflecting the titration of C(P) within the fully folded active site was obtained by measuring AhpC competition with horseradish peroxidase for hydrogen peroxide; this value is quite similar to that obtained by analyzing the pH dependence of the epsilon(240) of wild-type AhpC (5.84 +/- 0.02) and similar to those obtained for two typical 2-cysteine peroxiredoxins from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (5.4 and 6.0). Thus, the pK(a) value of AhpC balances the need for a deprotonated thiol (at pH 7, approximately 90% of the C(P) would be deprotonated) with the fact that thiolates with higher pK(a) values are stronger nucleophiles.     

Pyridine nucleotide complexes with Bacillus anthracis coenzyme A-disulfide reductase: a structural analysis of dual NAD(P)H specificity

We have recently reported that CoASH is the major low-molecular weight thiol in Bacillus anthracis [Nicely, N. I. , Parsonage, D., Paige, C., Newton, G. L., Fahey, R. C., Leonardi, R., Jackowski, S., Mallett, T. C., and Claiborne, A. (2007) Biochemistry 46, 3234-3245], and we have now characterized the kinetic and redox properties of the B. anthracis coenzyme A-disulfide reductase (CoADR, BACoADR) and determined the crystal structure at 2.30 A resolution. While the Staphylococcus aureus and Borrelia burgdorferi CoADRs exhibit strong preferences for NADPH and NADH, respectively, B. anthracis CoADR can use either pyridine nucleotide equally well. Sequence elements within the respective NAD(P)H-binding motifs correctly reflect the preferences for S. aureus and Bo. burgdorferi CoADRs, but leave questions as to how BACoADR can interact with both pyridine nucleotides. The structures of the NADH and NADPH complexes at ca. 2.3 A resolution reveal that a loop consisting of residues Glu180-Thr187 becomes ordered and changes conformation on NAD(P)H binding. NADH and NADPH interact with nearly identical conformations of this loop; the latter interaction, however, involves a novel binding mode in which the 2'-phosphate of NADPH points out toward solvent. In addition, the NAD(P)H-reduced BACoADR structures provide the first view of the reduced form (Cys42-SH/CoASH) of the Cys42-SSCoA redox center. The Cys42-SH side chain adopts a new conformation in which the conserved Tyr367'-OH and Tyr425'-OH interact with the nascent thiol(ate) on the flavin si-face. Kinetic data with Y367F, Y425F, and Y367,425F BACoADR mutants indicate that Tyr425' is the primary proton donor in catalysis, with Tyr367' functioning as a cryptic alternate donor in the absence of Tyr425'.