Bisubstrate Enzyme Research Articles

Exploring the interdependence of calcium and chloride activation of O2 evolution in photosystem II

Calcium and chloride are activators of oxygen evolution in photosystem II (PSII), the light-absorbing water oxidase of higher plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Calcium is an essential part of the catalytic Mn4CaO5 cluster that carries out water oxidation and chloride has two nearby binding sites, one of which is associated with a major water channel. The co-activation of oxygen evolution by the two ions is examined in higher plant PSII lacking the extrinsic PsbP and PsbQ subunits using a bisubstrate enzyme kinetics approach. Analysis of three different preparations at pH 6.3 indicates that the Michaelis constant, KM, for each ion is less than the dissociation constant, KS, and that the affinity of PSII for Ca2+ is about ten-fold greater than for Cl−, in agreement with previous studies. Results are consistent with a sequential binding model in which either ion can bind first and each promotes the activation by the second ion. At pH 5.5, similar results are found, except with a higher affinity for Cl− and lower affinity for Ca2+. Observation of the slow-decaying Tyr Z radical, YZ•, at 77 K and the coupled S2YZ• radical at 10 K, which are both associated with Ca2+ depletion, shows that Cl− is necessary for their observation. Given the order of electron and proton transfer events, this indicates that chloride is required to reach the S3 state preceding Ca2+ loss and possibly for stabilization of YZ• after it forms. Interdependence through hydrogen bonding is considered in the context of the water environment that intervenes between Cl− at the Cl−1 site and the Ca2+/Tyr Z region.

Application of 2D-ITC to the Elucidation of the Enzymatic Mechanism of N-Acetylmuramic Acid/N-Acetylglucosamine Kinase (AmgK) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Characterization of the turnover mechanism of bisubstrate enzymes is a tedious task. Molecular tools for studying the enzymatic mechanism are not readily available for all enzymes (e.g., radioactive substrates, substrate-competitive inhibitors, etc.). Wang and Mittermaier recently introduced two-dimensional isothermal titration calorimetry (2D-ITC) for determining the bisubstrate mechanism at high resolution while simultaneously quantifying the kinetic parameters for substrate turnover in a single reporter-free experiment. We demonstrate the utility of 2D-ITC in studying N-acetylmuramic acid/N-acetylglucosamine kinase (AmgK) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This enzyme is involved in cytoplasmic cell-wall-recycling events as a step in the peptidoglycan salvage pathway. Furthermore, AmgK phosphorylates N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylmuramic acid, linking the recycling events to de novo cell-wall synthesis. We document in a 2D-ITC experiment that AmgK follows an ordered-sequential mechanism, where ATP binds first and ADP is released last. We also show that classical enzyme kinetic methods support the results of 2D-ITC and that 2D-ITC could overcome the shortcomings of these classical methodologies. We provide evidence for inhibition of AmgK by the catalytic product ADP, but not by the phosphorylated sugar product. These results provide a full kinetic characterization of the bacterial kinase AmgK. This work highlights 2D-ITC as a versatile tool for the mechanistic evaluation of bisubstrate enzymes, as an alternative for classical methods.

Structure and Cooperativity in Substrate-Enzyme Interactions: Perspectives on Enzyme Engineering and Inhibitor Design.

Enzyme-based synthetic chemistry provides a green way to synthesize industrially important chemical scaffolds and provides incomparable substrate specificity and unmatched stereo-, regio-, and chemoselective product formation. However, using biocatalysts at an industrial scale has its challenges, like their narrow substrate scope, limited stability in large-scale one-pot reactions, and low expression levels. These limitations can be overcome by engineering and fine-tuning these biocatalysts using advanced protein engineering methods. A detailed understanding of the enzyme structure and catalytic mechanism and its structure-function relationship, cooperativity in binding of substrates, and dynamics of substrate-enzyme-cofactor complexes is essential for rational enzyme engineering for a specific purpose. This Review covers all these aspects along with an in-depth categorization of various industrially and pharmaceutically crucial bisubstrate enzymes based on their reaction mechanisms and their active site and substrate/cofactor-binding site structures. As the bisubstrate enzymes constitute around 60% of the known industrially important enzymes, studying their mechanism of actions and structure-activity relationship gives significant insight into deciding the targets for protein engineering for developing industrial biocatalysts. Thus, this Review is focused on providing a comprehensive knowledge of the bisubstrate enzymes' structure, their mechanisms, and protein engineering approaches to develop them into industrial biocatalysts.

Characterizing Bi-substrate Enzyme Kinetics at High Resolution by 2D-ITC.

There is growing interest in using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) to characterize enzyme kinetics by measuring the heat produced or absorbed by catalysis in real time. Since virtually all chemical reactions are associated with changes in enthalpy, ITC represents a robust and nearly universal experimental approach. Nevertheless, there are technical challenges that limit ITC's applicability. For instance, the full kinetic characterization of enzymes with two substrates (bi-substrate enzymes), which comprise the majority of known examples, requires a series of experiments to be performed as the concentrations of both substrates are varied. This is a time-consuming and expensive process using current ITC methods since many (>5) individual experiments must be performed independently to obtain a sufficient quantity of data. We have developed a new ITC method, which we term 2D-ITC, which maps the reaction velocity as a function of two substrate concentrations in a single, roughly 2 h long experiment. This method provides a level of detail that rivals or exceeds any existing enzyme assay, as a single experiment generates on the order of 7000 catalytic rate measurements. In a proof-of-principle application to rabbit muscle pyruvate kinase (rMPK), the method correctly identified the enzyme's random sequential mechanism and allosteric catalytic suppression by the amino acid phenylalanine (Phe). Unexpectedly, we found that while Phe reduces affinity for the substrate phosphoenolpyruvate, a known phenomenon, it also alleviates inhibition by the reaction product ATP, which had not been reported previously. Given the relative abundance of ATP in the cell, this opposing effect is expected to have a substantial impact on rMPK activity.

Recent advances in development of hetero-bivalent kinase inhibitors.

Identifying a pharmacological agent that targets only one of more than 500 kinases present in humans is an important challenge. One potential solution to this problem is the development of bivalent kinase inhibitors, which consist of two connected fragments, each bind to a dissimilar binding site of the bisubstrate enzyme. The main advantage of bivalent (type V) kinase inhibitors is generating more interactions with target enzymes that can enhance the molecules' selectivity and affinity compared to single-site inhibitors. Earlier type V inhibitors were not suitable for the cellular environment and were mostly used in invitro studies. However, recently developed bivalent compounds have high kinase affinity, high biological and chemical stability invivo. This review summarized the hetero-bivalent kinase inhibitors described in the literature from 2014 to the present. We attempted to classify the molecules by serine/threonine and tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and then each target kinase and its hetero-bivalent inhibitor was assessed in depth. In addition, we discussed the analysis of advantages, limitations, and perspectives of bivalent kinase inhibitors compared with the monovalent kinase inhibitors.

Distinct kinetic mechanisms of H3K4 methylation catalyzed by MLL3 and MLL4 core complexes

The methyltransferases MLL3 and MLL4 primarily catalyze the monomethylation of histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) on enhancers to regulate cell-type-specific gene expression and cell fate transition. MLL3 and MLL4 share almost identical binding partners and biochemical activities, but perform specific and nonredundant functions. The features and functions that distinguish MLL3 and MLL4 remain elusive. Here, we characterize the kinetic mechanisms of MLL3 and MLL4 ternary complexes containing the catalytic SET domain from MLL3 or MLL4 (MLL3SET or MLL4SET), the SPRY domain of ASH2L (ASH2LSPRY), and a short fragment of RBBP5 (RBBP5AS-ABM) to search for possible explanations. Steady-state kinetic analyses and inhibition studies reveal that the MLL3 complex catalyzes methylation in a random sequential bi–bi mechanism. In contrast, the MLL4 complex adopts an ordered sequential bi–bi mechanism, in which the cofactor S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) binds to the enzyme prior to the H3 peptide, and the methylated H3 peptide dissociates from the enzyme before S-adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy) detaches after methylation. Substrate-binding assays using fluorescence polarization (FP) confirm that AdoMet binding is a prerequisite for H3 binding for the MLL4 complex but not for the MLL3 complex. Molecular dynamic simulations reveal that the binding of AdoMet exclusively induces conformational constraints on the AdoMet-binding groove and the H3 substrate-binding pocket of MLL4, therefore stabilizing a specific active conformation to ease entry of the substrate H3. The distinct kinetic mechanisms and conformational plasticities provide important insights into the differential functions of MLL3 and MLL4 and may also guide the development of selective inhibitors targeting MLL3 or MLL4.

The crystal structures of Thermus thermophilus CMP kinase complexed with a phosphoryl group acceptor and donor.

Nucleoside monophosphate kinases play crucial roles in biosynthesis and regeneration of nucleotides. These are bi-substrate enzymes that catalyze reversible transfers of a phosphoryl group between ATP and nucleoside monophosphate. These enzymes are comprised of the CORE domain, the NMP-binding domain, and the LID domain. Large conformational rearrangement of the three domains occurs during the catalytic cycle. Although many structures of CMP kinase have been determined, only limited structural information has been available on the conformational changes along the reaction pathway. We determined five crystal structures of CMP kinase of Thermus thermophilus HB8 in ligand-free form and the CMP "open", CMP "closed", ADP-CDP-Gd3+-, and CDP-bound forms at resolutions of 1.7, 2.2, 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7 Å, respectively. The ligand-free form was in an open conformation, whereas the structures of the CMP "closed", ADP-CDP-Gd3+-, and CDP-bound forms were in a closed conformation, in which the shift of the NMP-binding domain and LID domain caused closure of the substrate-binding cleft. Interestingly, the CMP "open" form was in an open conformation even with CMP bound, implying intrinsic conformational fluctuation. The structure of the ADP-CDP complex is the first structure of CMP kinase with a phosphoryl group donor and an acceptor. Upon simultaneous binding of ADP and CDP, the side chains of several residues in the LID domain moved toward the nucleotides without global open−closed conformational changes compared to those in the CMP "closed" and CDP complexes. These global and local conformational changes may be crucial for the substrate recognition and catalysis. The terminal phosphate groups of ADP and CDP had similar geometry to those of two ADP in AMP kinase, suggesting common catalytic mechanisms to other nucleoside monophosphate kinases. Our findings are expected to contribute to detailed understanding of the reaction mechanism of CMP kinase.

X-ray crystallography–based structural elucidation of enzyme-bound intermediates along the 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase reaction coordinate

1-Deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate synthase (DXPS) uses thiamine diphosphate (ThDP) to convert pyruvate and d-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (d-GAP) into 1-deoxy-d-xylulose 5-phosphate (DXP), an essential bacterial metabolite. DXP is not utilized by humans; hence, DXPS has been an attractive antibacterial target. Here, we investigate DXPS from Deinococcus radiodurans (DrDXPS), showing that it has similar kinetic parameters Kmd-GAP and Kmpyruvate (54 ± 3 and 11 ± 1 μm, respectively) and comparable catalytic activity (kcat = 45 ± 2 min-1) with previously studied bacterial DXPS enzymes and employing it to obtain missing structural data on this enzyme family. In particular, we have determined crystallographic snapshots of DrDXPS in two states along the reaction coordinate: a structure of DrDXPS bound to C2α-phosphonolactylThDP (PLThDP), mimicking the native pre-decarboxylation intermediate C2α-lactylThDP (LThDP), and a native post-decarboxylation state with a bound enamine intermediate. The 1.94-Å-resolution structure of PLThDP-bound DrDXPS delineates how two active-site histidine residues stabilize the LThDP intermediate. Meanwhile, the 2.40-Å-resolution structure of an enamine intermediate-bound DrDXPS reveals how a previously unknown 17-Å conformational change removes one of the two histidine residues from the active site, likely triggering LThDP decarboxylation to form the enamine intermediate. These results provide insight into how the bi-substrate enzyme DXPS limits side reactions by arresting the reaction on the less reactive LThDP intermediate when its cosubstrate is absent. They also offer a molecular basis for previous low-resolution experimental observations that correlate decarboxylation of LThDP with protein conformational changes.

Mathematical study of a memory induced biochemical system

In this work, to study the effect of memory on a bi-substrate enzyme kinetic reaction, we have introduced an approach to fractionalize the system, considering it as a threecompartmental model. Solutions of the fractionalized system are compared with the corresponding integer-order model. The equilibrium points of the fractionalized system are derived analytically. Their stability properties are discussed from numerical aspect. We determine the changes of the substances due to the changes of &#x201C memory effect &#x201D. The effect is discussed critically from the perspective of product formation. We have also analyzed the memory induced system with a control measure in view of optimizing the product. Our numerical result reveals that the solutions of the fractionalized system, when it is free from memory, are in good agreement with the integer-order system. It is noticed that the effect of memory influences the reaction in the forward direction and assists in yielding the product more quickly. However, an extensive use of memory makes the system slower, but introduction of a control input makes the reaction faster. It is possible to overcome the slowness of the reaction due to the undue effect of memory by appropriate use of a control measure.

Bisubstrate Kinetics of Glutathione S-Transferase: A Colorimetric Experiment for the Introductory Biochemistry Laboratory

Most biochemical transformations involve more than one substrate. Bisubstrate enzymes catalyze multiple chemical reactions in living systems and include members of the transferase, oxidoreductase, and ligase enzyme classes. Working knowledge of bisubstrate enzyme kinetic models is thus of clear importance to the practicing biochemist. However, such models are infrequently explored in the undergraduate biochemistry laboratory. This deficiency suggests the need for well-defined, tractable, and economical methods for characterization of bisubstrate enzyme activity. The application of an established real-time colorimetric assay to investigate kinetic parameters of glutathione transfer by glutathione S-transferase is described. The reported method relies on commercially available materials and uses experimental conditions that are suited to application in the introductory biochemistry laboratory. Investigation of bisubstrate kinetic parameters was performed as part of a three-week laboratory experiment that em...

The relevance of Ki calculation for bi-substrate enzymes illustrated by kinetic evaluation of a novel lysine (K) acetyltransferase 8 inhibitor

Histone acetyltransferases (HATs) are important mediators of epigenetic post-translational modifications of histones that play important roles in health and disease. A disturbance of these modifications can result in disease states, such as cancer or inflammatory diseases. Inhibitors of HATs (HATi) such as lysine (K) acetyltransferase 8 (KAT8), could be used to study the epigenetic processes in diseases related to these enzymes or to investigate HATs as therapeutic targets. However, the development of HATi is challenged by the difficulties in kinetic characterization of HAT enzymes and their inhibitors to enable calculation of a reproducible inhibitory potency. In this study, a fragment screening approach was used, enabling identification of 4-amino-1-naphthol, which potently inhibited KAT8. The inhibitor was investigated for enzyme inhibition using kinetic and calorimetric binding studies. This allowed for calculation of the Ki values for both the free enzyme as well as the acetylated intermediate. Importantly, it revealed a striking difference in binding affinity between the acetylated enzyme and the free enzyme, which could not be revealed by the IC50 value. This shows that kinetic characterization of inhibitors and calculation of Ki values is crucial for determining the binding constants of HAT inhibitors. We anticipate that more comprehensive characterization of enzyme inhibition, as described here, is needed to advance the field of HAT inhibitors.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae Atf1p is an alcohol acetyltransferase and a thioesterase in vitro.

The alcohol‐O‐acyltransferases are bisubstrate enzymes that catalyse the transfer of acyl chains from an acyl‐coenzyme A (CoA) donor to an acceptor alcohol. In the industrial yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae this reaction produces acyl esters that are an important influence on the flavour of fermented beverages and foods. There is also a growing interest in using acyltransferases to produce bulk quantities of acyl esters in engineered microbial cell factories. However, the structure and function of the alcohol‐O‐acyltransferases remain only partly understood. Here, we recombinantly express, purify and characterize Atf1p, the major alcohol acetyltransferase from S. cerevisiae. We find that Atf1p is promiscuous with regard to the alcohol cosubstrate but that the acyltransfer activity is specific for acetyl‐CoA. Additionally, we find that Atf1p is an efficient thioesterase in vitro with specificity towards medium‐chain‐length acyl‐CoAs. Unexpectedly, we also find that mutating the supposed catalytic histidine (H191) within the conserved HXXXDG active site motif only moderately reduces the thioesterase activity of Atf1p. Our results imply a role for Atf1p in CoA homeostasis and suggest that engineering Atf1p to reduce the thioesterase activity could improve product yields of acetate esters from cellular factories. © 2017 The Authors. Yeast published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A facile method to determine intrinsic kinetic parameters of ω-transaminase displaying substrate inhibition

It is usually time-consuming to determine intrinsic kinetic parameters of bisubstrate enzymes, especially when experimental kinetic data deviate from a linear Lineweaver-Burk plot due to complex inhibition patterns. A typical example is ω-transaminase (ω-TA) which is an industrially important enzyme for asymmetric synthesis of chiral amines. ω-TA catalyzes transfer of an amino group between a donor (D) and an acceptor (A) via a ping-pong bi-bi mechanism and often displays substrate inhibitions by reactive amino acceptors, which leads one to prefer to determine apparent kinetic parameters rather than intrinsic ones despite limited applicability for precise understanding of enzyme properties. Here, we developed a new method to determine intrinsic kinetic parameters of ω-TA by double-reciprocal analysis using only two sets of kinetic data. First, linear regression of 1/initial rate (vi) against 1/[A] was carried out with one set of kinetic data measured at a fixed [D] while [A] lay far below the concentration range under the influence of substrate inhibition. Second, another linear regression of 1/[D] vs 1/vi was conducted with one set of kinetic data obtained at a fixed [A] within a substantial substrate inhibition range. The resulting four equations obtained from the y-intercepts and slopes of the two regression lines were used for determination of four intrinsic kinetic parameters, i.e. turnover number (kcat), substrate inhibition constant (KSI) for A and Michaelis constants (KM) for D and A. To evaluate reliability of the intrinsic parameters, a validity test was taken by comparing experimental and computational results for the maximum point on a concave-down substrate inhibition curve. Once the intrinsic parameters were determined for a substrate pair, intrinsic parameters for other substrates were simply assessed by constituting a new substrate pair with the kinetically characterized substrate and carrying out linear regression with one set of kinetic data. Our method is expected to be applicable to a wide range of bisubstrate enzymes for facile determination of intrinsic kinetic parameters including KSI.

Predicting in vivo oxygen consumption rate from ETS activity and bisubstrate enzyme kinetics in cultured marine zooplankton

Oxygen consumption rates (\(R_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }}\)) in the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis and the mysid Leptomysis lingvura during both well-fed conditions and starvation have been modeled using the electron transport system (ETS) activity, bisubstrate kinetics and intracellular concentration of substrates. Furthermore, the influence of the food quality on the respiratory metabolism and metabolite levels has been explored. The highest values of most of the variables both in rotifers and mysids were mainly found on organisms grown on the lipid-rich diet, although no differences were determined between treatments in the response to starvation. Time courses of the \(R_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }}\) and the concentration of pyridine and adenine nucleotides evidenced a sharp decrease during food shortage and a fast recovery with food restoration, whereas the potential respiration (Φ) remained fairly constant. In general, the modeled \(R_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }}\) (\(V_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }}\)) predicted with a high degree of success in the in vivo \(R_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }}\), even though it yielded relatively lower values. Nonetheless, the correlation of the measured \(R_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }}\) with \(V_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }}\) during starvation was much better than with the \(R_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }}\) estimated from ETS measurements and a fixed \(R_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }}\)/Φ ratio. Finally, the observed relationship between the measured \(R_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }}\) and the adenine nucleotide ADP suggests that the contribution of this nucleotide should be included in future applications of this model.

Histone acetyltransferases: challenges in targeting bi-substrate enzymes.

Histone acetyltransferases (HATs) are epigenetic enzymes that install acetyl groups onto lysine residues of cellular proteins such as histones, transcription factors, nuclear receptors, and enzymes. HATs have been shown to play a role in diseases ranging from cancer and inflammatory diseases to neurological disorders, both through acetylations of histone proteins and non-histone proteins. Several HAT inhibitors, like bi-substrate inhibitors, natural product derivatives, small molecules, and protein–protein interaction inhibitors, have been developed. Despite their potential, a large gap remains between the biological activity of inhibitors in in vitro studies and their potential use as therapeutic agents. To bridge this gap, new potent HAT inhibitors with improved properties need to be developed. However, several challenges have been encountered in the investigation of HATs and HAT inhibitors that hinder the development of new HAT inhibitors. HATs have been shown to function in complexes consisting of many proteins. These complexes play a role in the activity and target specificity of HATs, which limits the translation of in vitro to in vivo experiments. The current HAT inhibitors suffer from undesired properties like anti-oxidant activity, reactivity, instability, low potency, or lack of selectivity between HAT subtypes and other enzymes. A characteristic feature of HATs is that they are bi-substrate enzymes that catalyze reactions between two substrates: the cofactor acetyl coenzyme A (Ac-CoA) and a lysine-containing substrate. This has important—but frequently overlooked—consequences for the determination of the inhibitory potency of small molecule HAT inhibitors and the reproducibility of enzyme inhibition experiments. We envision that a careful characterization of molecular aspects of HATs and HAT inhibitors, such as the HAT catalytic mechanism and the enzyme kinetics of small molecule HAT inhibitors, will greatly improve the development of potent and selective HAT inhibitors and provide validated starting points for further development towards therapeutic agents.

Enzyme kinetics and inhibition of histone acetyltransferase KAT8

Lysine acetyltransferase 8 (KAT8) is a histone acetyltransferase (HAT) responsible for acetylating lysine 16 on histone H4 (H4K16) and plays a role in cell cycle progression as well as acetylation of the tumor suppressor protein p53. Further studies on its biological function and drug discovery initiatives will benefit from the development of small molecule inhibitors for this enzyme. As a first step towards this aim we investigated the enzyme kinetics of this bi-substrate enzyme. The kinetic experiments indicate a ping-pong mechanism in which the enzyme binds Ac-CoA first, followed by binding of the histone substrate. This mechanism is supported by affinity measurements of both substrates using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). Using this information, the KAT8 inhibition of a focused compound collection around the non-selective HAT inhibitor anacardic acid has been investigated. Kinetic studies with anacardic acid were performed, based on which a model for the catalytic activity of KAT8 and the inhibitory action of anacardic acid (AA) was proposed. This enabled the calculation of the inhibition constant Ki of anacardic acid derivatives using an adaptation of the Cheng–Prusoff equation. The results described in this study give insight into the catalytic mechanism of KAT8 and present the first well-characterized small-molecule inhibitors for this HAT.

"Phylogenetic and evolutionary analysis of functional divergence among Gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) subfamilies".

Backgroundγ-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) is a bi-substrate enzyme conserved in all three domains of life. It catalyzes the cleavage and transfer of γ-glutamyl moiety of glutathione to either water (hydrolysis) or substrates like peptides (transpeptidation). GGTs exhibit great variability in their enzyme kinetics although the mechanism of catalysis is conserved. Recently, GGT has been shown to be a virulence factor in microbes like Helicobacter pylori and Bacillus anthracis. In mammalian cells also, GGT inhibition prior to chemotherapy has been shown to sensitize tumors to the therapy. Therefore, lately both bacterial and eukaryotic GGTs have emerged as potential drug targets, but the efforts directed towards finding suitable inhibitors have not yielded any significant results yet. We propose that delineating the residues responsible for the functional diversity associated with these proteins could help in design of species/clade specific inhibitors.ResultsIn the present study, we have carried out phylogenetic analysis on a set of 47 GGT-like proteins to address the functional diversity. These proteins segregate into various subfamilies, forming separate clades on the tree. Sequence conservation and motif prediction studies show that even though most of the highly conserved residues have been characterized biochemically in previous studies, a significant number of novel putative sites and motifs are discovered that vary in a clade specific manner. Many of the putative sites predicted during the functional divergence type I and type II analysis, lie close to the known catalytic residues and line the walls of the substrate binding cavity, reinforcing their role in modulating the substrate specificity, catalytic rates and stability of this protein.ConclusionThe study offers interesting insights into the evolution of GGT-like proteins in pathogenic vs. non-pathogenic bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. Our analysis delineates residues that are highly specific to each GGT subfamily. We propose that these sites not only explain the differences in stability and catalytic variability of various GGTs but can also aid in design of specific inhibitors against particular GGTs. Thus, apart from the commonly used in-silico inhibitor screening approaches, evolutionary analysis identifying the functional divergence hotspots in GGT proteins could augment the structure based drug design approaches.ReviewersThis article was reviewed by Andrei Osterman, Christine Orengo, and Srikrishna Subramanian. For complete reports, see the Reviewers’ reports sectionElectronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13062-015-0080-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Biochemical characterization of uronate dehydrogenases from three Pseudomonads, Chromohalobacter salixigens, and Polaromonas naphthalenivorans

Enzyme catalysts will be vital in the development of synthetic biology approaches for converting pectinic monosaccharides from citrus and beet processing waste streams to value-added materials. We describe here the biophysical and mechanistic characterization of uronate dehydrogenases from a wide variety of bacterial sources that convert galacturonic acid, the predominate building block of pectin from these plant sources, and glucuronic acid to their corresponding dicarboxylic acids galactarate and glucarate, the latter being a DOE top value biochemical from biomass. The enzymes from Pseudomonas syringae and Polaromonas naphthalenivorans were found to have the highest reported kcat(glucuronic acid) values, on the order of 220–270s−1. The thermal stability of this enzyme type is described for the first time here, where it was found that the Kt(0.5) value range was >20°C, and the enzyme from Chromohalobacter was moderately thermostable with Kt(0.5)=62.2°C. The binding mechanism for these bi-substrate enzymes was also investigated in initial rate experiments, where a predominately steady-state ordered binding pattern was indicated.

Evaluation of synthase and hemisynthase activities of glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (GlmS, EC 2.6.1.16) catalyzes the first and rate-limiting step in the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway, leading to the synthesis of uridine-5′-diphospho-N-acetyl-d-glucosamine, the major building block for the edification of peptidoglycan in bacteria, chitin in fungi, and glycoproteins in mammals. This bisubstrate enzyme converts d-fructose-6-phosphate (Fru-6P) and l-glutamine (Gln) into d-glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcN-6P) and l-glutamate (Glu), respectively. We previously demonstrated that matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) allows determination of the kinetic parameters of the synthase activity. We propose here to refine the experimental protocol to quantify Glu and GlcN-6P, allowing determination of both hemisynthase and synthase parameters from a single assay kinetic experiment, while avoiding interferences encountered in other assays. It is the first time that MALDI-MS is used to survey the activity of a bisubstrate enzyme.

UDP-Glucuronic Acid Binds First and the Aglycone Substrate Binds Second to Form a Ternary Complex in UGT1A9-Catalyzed Reactions, in Both the Presence and Absence of Bovine Serum Albumin

The presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA) largely modulates the enzyme kinetics parameters of the human UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) 1A9, increasing both the apparent aglycone substrate affinity of the enzyme and its limiting reaction velocity (Drug Metab Dispos 39:2117-2129, 2011). For a better understanding of the BSA effects and an examination of whether its presence changes the catalytic mechanism, we have studied the enzyme kinetics of 4-methylumbelliferone glucuronidation by UGT1A9 in the presence and absence of 0.1% BSA, using bisubstrate enzyme kinetic experiments, in both the forward and reverse directions, as well as product and dead-end inhibition. The combined results strongly suggest that the reaction mechanism of UGT1A9, and presumably other human UGTs as well, involves the formation of a compulsory-order ternary-complex, with UDP-α-d-glucuronic acid (UDPGA) as the first binding substrate. Based on the enzyme kinetic parameters measured for the forward and reverse reactions, the equilibrium constant of the overall reaction was calculated (Keq = 574) and the relative magnitudes of the reaction rate constants were elucidated. The inclusion of BSA in the bisubstrate kinetic experiments quantitatively changed the apparent enzyme kinetic parameters, presumably by removing internal inhibitors that bind to the binary enzyme-UDPGA (E-UDPGA) complex, as well as to the ternary E-UDPGA-aglycone complex. Nevertheless, the underlying compulsory-order ternary-complex mechanism with UDPGA binding first is the same in both the absence and presence of BSA. The results offer a novel understanding of UGT enzyme kinetic mechanism and BSA effects.