Metabolism of 32-hydroxy-24,25-dihydrolanosterol by purified cytochrome P-45014DM from yeast. Evidence for contribution of the cytochrome to whole process of lanosterol 14 alpha-demethylation

Metabolism of 32-hydroxy-24,25-dihydrolanosterol (lanost-8-ene-3 beta,32-diol), a posturated intermediate of the 14 alpha-demethylation (removal of C-32) of 24,25-dihydrolanosterol (lanost-8-en-3 beta-ol), by a reconstituted system consisting of yeast cytochrome P-450 which catalyzes lanosterol 14 alpha-demethylation (cytochrome P-45014DM) (Yoshida, Y., and Aoyama, Y. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 1655-1660 and Aoyama, Y., Yoshida, Y., and Sato, R. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 1661-1666) and NADPH-cytochrome P-450 reductase was studied. The reconstituted system converted both 32-hydroxy-24,25-dihydrolanosterol and 24,25-dihydrolanosterol to 4,4-dimethyl-5 alpha-cholesta-8,14-dien-3 beta-ol, the 14 alpha-demethylated product of the latter. The metabolism of these compounds was inhibited by a low concentration of ketoconazole which is a potent cytochrome P-45014DM inhibitor. Affinity of cytochrome P-45014DM for 32-hydroxy-24,25-dihydrolanosterol was about 20 times higher than for 24,25-dihydrolanosterol and the cytochrome metabolized the former about 4 times faster than the latter under the experimental conditions. Spectral analysis suggested that the 32-hydroxyl group of 32-hydroxy-24,25-dihydrolanosterol interacted with the heme iron of the oxidized cytochrome and this interaction might support the high affinity of this compound for the cytochrome. These lines of evidence indicate that 32-hydroxy-24,25-dihydrolanosterol is the intermediate of the 14 alpha-demethylation of 24,25-dihydrolanosterol by cytochrome P-45014DM. It is also clear that the cytochrome catalyzes further metabolism of the 32-hydroxylated intermediate to the 14 alpha-demethylated product with higher efficiency than the 32-hydroxylation of the substrate. Cytochrome P-45014DM is thus classified as lanosterol C14-C32 lyase.     

Cloning of a Vero toxin (VT2) gene from a VT2-converting phage isolated from Escherichia coli 0157: H7

Abstract A Vero toxin (VT2 or Shiga-like toxin II)-converting phage was isolated from Escherichia coli 0157: H7 strain J-2. Nontoxigenic E. coli C600 produced VT2 when lysogenized with the toxin-converting phage. Eco RI fragments of the phage DNA were ligated with Eco RI-digested pBR322 or pUC118 and were transformed into E. coli MC1061 or MV1184. Transformants exhibiting VT2 production commonly contained a 4.6 kb Eco RI fragment. It was found that a 2.3 kb Kpn I- Sph I fragment coded VT2 production and that this fragment hybridized weakly with the 2.1 kb fragment encoding VT1.     

Freeze denaturation of enzymes and its prevention with additives

Freeze inactivation of LDH, MDH, ADH, G-6-PDH, and PK and its prevention with additives such as sodium glutamate and albumin were studied. LDH, MDH, ADH, G-6-PDH, and PK, each lost their activity during frozen storage at -20 degrees C. The speed of the inactivation differed in each. The stability of the enzymes increased with the increase of the enzyme concentration. Sodium glutamate and albumin prevented the freeze inactivation. While the activity of the LDH solution frozen without additives was almost lost during a day of frozen storage, those frozen with either glutamate (0.2 M) or albumin (0.1%) added decreased less quickly. The residual activity after 1 day was 50% the initial prefreeze value for the former and 10% for the latter, respectively. Combined use of glutamate and albumin prevented the inactivation the best and maintained the initial activity almost completely over 6 weeks. The enzymes tested lost some part of their activity when their solutions were diluted by the media. This inactivation was prevented to a significant extent by the addition of sodium glutamate and/or albumin to the diluting media.     

Spectral properties of a novel cytochrome P-450 of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant SG1. A cytochrome P-450 species having a nitrogenous ligand trans to thiolate

An altered cytochrome P-450 (SG1 P-450) was partially purified from Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant SG1 which is defective in lanosterol 14 alpha-demethylation. Oxidized SG1 P-450 showed a Soret peak at 422 nm and the alpha peak was lower than the beta peak. This spectrum was considerably different from those of known low-spin P-450s, indicating a unique ligand structure of SG1 P-450. The absorption spectrum of ferric SG1 P-450 was superimposable on that of the imidazole complex of ferric P-450, suggesting the presence of a nitrogenous ligand such as histidine of the apoprotein at the 6th coordination position. SG1 P-450 was immunochemically indistinguishable from cytochrome P-450 of S. cerevisiae catalyzing lanosterol 14 alpha-demethylation (P-45014DM) but had no lanosterol 14 alpha-demethylase activity.     

Overexpression and purification of the recombinant Ca2+-binding protein, apoaequorin

The small, monomeric Ca2+-binding photoprotein, aequorin, emits blue light by an intramolecular reaction when mixed with Ca2+. The photoprotein is made up of coelenterazine and molecular oxygen, bound noncovalently to apoaequorin (apoprotein). The chemical steps leading to light emission, involving the oxidative degradation of coelenterazine, have been studied extensively, but little is known about the active site and how the molecule catalyzes the oxidation of coelenterazine. The three-dimensional structure of the protein has not been determined and therefore answers to these questions have remained unavailable. The present paper describes a procedure for preparing fairly large amounts of apoaequorin and aequorin for X-ray crystallographic studies. It consists of fusing the apoaequorin cDNA to the signal peptide coding sequence of the outer membrane protein A of Escherichia coli, which is under the control of the lipoprotein promoter. When the cDNA was expressed in E. coli, a large excess of the recombinant protein was produced and released into the culture medium. Purification of the protein was accomplished by acid precipitation and DEAE-cellulose chromatography. The procedure yielded 7.4 mg of recombinant apoaequorin with a purity greater than 95% from 200 ml of culture medium. On regeneration with coelenterazine, the recombinant aequorin was fully active with Ca2+.     

Sequence requirements for cytochrome P-450IIB1 catalytic activity. Alteration of the stereospecificity and regioselectivity of steroid hydroxylation by a simultaneous change of two hydrophobic amino acid residues to phenylalanine

The phenobarbital-inducible P-450 forms IIB1 and IIB2 are identical in sequence except for 14 amino acid differences within the carboxyl-terminal half of the molecule. IIB1 has about a 5-10-fold higher turnover number for most monooxygenase substrates examined although the substrate specificities of both enzymes are virtually identical. Both P-450s oxygenate testosterone to yield the 16 alpha-hydroxy, 16 beta-hydroxy, 17-keto, and 16 beta-hydroxy, 17-keto metabolites as major products. A variant IIB2 cDNA, isolated from an uninduced rat liver lambda gt11 library, and when expressed in Hep G2 cells using a vaccinia virus vector, was found to code for a protein that produced the 16 alpha-hydroxy and 17-keto metabolites of testosterone but no 16 beta-hydroxylated products. Although the published sequences of IIB1 and IIB2 are identical within the N-terminal halves of the proteins, sequence analysis of the variant cDNA revealed two amino acid substitutions in this region; Leu58----Phe and I1e114----Phe. When these two amino acid changes were incorporated into IIB1, via construction of a chimeric cDNA, the resultant expressed enzyme did not catalyze the 16 beta-hydroxylation of testosterone or androstenedione. Formation of the 16 alpha-hydroxy and 17-keto metabolites, however, was only slightly reduced compared with the parent IIB1. A IIB1 protein that possessed only the I1e114----Phe replacement catalyzed the production of all four testosterone metabolites with only slightly different product ratios compared with the parent enzyme. The substrate specificity of a IIB1 variant containing only the Leu58----Phe replacement could not be determined, since that protein did not accumulate in cells infected with the corresponding recombinant vaccinia virus. These data suggest that two distinct amino acid residues located within the amino-terminal fourth of IIB1 and IIB2 can affect substrate orientation at the active site.     

Selective suppression of the catalytic activity of cDNA-expressed cytochrome P4502B1 toward polycyclic hydrocarbons in the microsomal membrane: modification of this effect by specific amino acid substitutions.

Human hepatoma HEPG2 cells were infected with recombinant vaccinia virus vectors containing cDNAs encoding both known and variant rat cytochromes P450 (CYP). CYP2B1 and CYP2B2 cytochromes were equally well expressed (110-140 pmol/mg of microsomal protein) and catalyzed metabolism of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA). Their regioselectivity for DMBA metabolism paralleled that of the respective purified rat liver enzymes and reproduced previously reported regioselective differences between CYP2B1 and CYP2B2 [Wilson et al. (1984) Carcinogenesis 5, 1475-1483]. CYP2A1 and CYP2A2 expressed in HEPG2 microsomes exhibited nearly equal DMBA-metabolizing activities that closely matched that of purified CYP2A1. Although purified rat liver CYP2B1 was 3 times more active than purified rat liver CYP2B2, the expressed recombinant microsomal CYP2B1 (rCYP2B1) was 20 times less active than rCYP2B2, where activity matched that of the purified cytochrome. Microsomal suppression of rCYP2B1 catalytic activity was also observed for benzo[a]pyrene. Specific amino acid substitutions at equivalent positions of the completely homologous NH2-terminal halves of rCYP2B1 and rCYP2B2 changed this suppression effect. Thus, a L58----F, I114----F double mutant exhibited 3 times the normal activity for rCYP2B1 while remaining inhibitory for rCYP2B2. The single substitutions produced very different effects. The L58----F substitution prevented expression of rCYP2B1, while the I114----F substitution was inhibitory for both rCYP2B1 and rCYP2B2 (40 and 70%). A single E282----V mutation produced a stimulation of rCYP2B1 activity comparable to that of the L58----F, I114----F double substitution.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)