Protein engineering of the HMG-CoA reductase of Pseudomonas mevalonii. Construction of mutant enzymes whose activity is regulated by phosphorylation and dephosphorylation.

Abstract

The activity of Pseudomonas mevalonii HMG-CoA reductase (EC 1.1.1.88) is not regulated by phosphorylation, presumably due to the absence of a suitable target serine and protein kinase recognition motif. We have engineered P. mevalonii HMG-CoA reductase to a form whose activity, like that of mammalian HMG-CoA reductases, is regulated by phosphorylation/dephosphorylation. We substituted serine for arginine 387, the residue that corresponds to the regulatory serine of the HMG-CoA reductases of higher eukaryotes. A recognition motif for cAMP-dependent protein kinase was added by replacing leucine 384 by histidine (enzyme L384H/R387S) and also valine 391 by leucine (enzyme L384H/R387S/V391L). The activity of P. mevalonii HMG-CoA reductase mutant enzymes L384H/R387S and L384H/R387S/V391L was attenuated by phosphorylation. Restoration of activity accompanied subsequent dephosphorylation catalyzed by lambda protein phosphatase. Incorporation and subsequent release of phosphate paralleled the attenuation and restoration of catalytic activity. Incorporation of 0.5 mol of phosphate per subunit was accompanied by an approximately 50% decrease in initial activity. As in the analogous Syrian hamster mutant enzyme S871D, P. mevalonii mutant enzyme R387D exhibited 10% wild-type activity, suggesting that the attenuation of activity that accompanies phosphorylation results at least in part from the introduction of negative charge. Engineering of P. mevalonii HMG-CoA reductase to forms whose activity is reversibly regulated by phosphorylation/dephosphorylation provides an attractive model for future structure-based mechanistic studies. Solution of the X-ray structure of phosphorylated and dephosphorylated forms of engineered P. mevalonii HMG-CoA reductase should then reveal interactions of the active site phosphoseryl residue that result in attenuation of catalytic activity.