Cloning, expression and characterization of YSA1H, a human adenosine 5′-diphosphosugar pyrophosphatase possessing a MutT motif

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The human homologue of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae YSA1 protein, YSA1H, has been expressed as a thioredoxin fusion protein in Escherichia coli. It is an ADP-sugar pyrophosphatase with similar activities towards ADP-ribose and ADP-mannose. Its activities with ADP-glucose and diadenosine diphosphate were 56% and 20% of that with ADP-ribose respectively, whereas its activity towards other nucleoside 5'-diphosphosugars was typically 2-10%. cADP-ribose was not a substrate. The products of ADP-ribose hydrolysis were AMP and ribose 5-phosphate. K(m) and k(cat) values with ADP-ribose were 60 microM and 5.5 s(-1) respectively. The optimal activity was at alkaline pH (7.4-9.0) with 2.5-5 mM Mg(2+) or 100-250 microM Mn(2+) ions; fluoride was inhibitory, with an IC(50) of 20 microM. The YSA1H gene, which maps to 10p13-p14, is widely expressed in all human tissues examined, giving a 1.4 kb transcript. The 41.6 kDa fusion protein behaved as an 85 kDa dimer on gel filtration. After cleavage with enterokinase, the 24.4 kDa native protein fragment ran on SDS/PAGE with an apparent molecular mass of 33 kDa. Immunoblot analysis with a polyclonal antibody raised against the recombinant YSA1H revealed the presence of a protein of apparent molecular mass 33 kDa in various human cells, including erythrocytes. The sequence of YSA1H contains a MutT sequence signature motif. A major proposed function of the MutT motif proteins is to eliminate toxic nucleotide metabolites from the cell. Hence the function of YSA1H might be to remove free ADP-ribose arising from NAD(+) and protein-bound poly- and mono-(ADP-ribose) turnover to prevent the occurrence of non-enzymic protein glycation.