Characterization of two key enzymes for aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in symbiotic archaea

Biosynthesis of L-tyrosine (L-Tyr) and L-phenylalanine (L-Phe) is directed by the interplay of three enzymes. Chorismate mutase (CM) catalyzes the rearrangement of chorismate to prephenate, which can be either converted to hydroxyphenylpyruvate by prephenate dehydrogenase (PD) or to phenylpyruvate by prephenate dehydratase (PDT). This work reports the first characterization of a trifunctional PD-CM-PDT from the smallest hyperthermophilic archaeon Nanoarchaeum equitans and a bifunctional CM-PD from its host, the crenarchaeon Ignicoccus hospitalis. Hexa-histidine tagged proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by affinity chromatography. Specific activities determined for the trifunctional enzyme were 21, 80, and 30 U/mg for CM, PD, and PDT, respectively, and 47 and 21 U/mg for bifunctional CM and PD, respectively. Unlike most PDs, these two archaeal enzymes were insensitive to regulation by L-Tyr and preferred NADP⁺ to NAD⁺ as a cofactor. Both the enzymes were highly thermally stable and exhibited maximal activity at 90 °C. N. equitans PDT was feedback inhibited by L-Phe (K_i = 0.8 µM) in a non-competitive fashion consistent with L-Phe’s combination at a site separate from that of prephenate. Our results suggest that PD from the unique symbiotic archaeal pair encompass a distinct subfamily of prephenate dehydrogenases with regard to their regulation and co-substrate specificity.