Mutants of orotidine 5′-monophosphate decarboxylase containing all possible single (Q215A, Y217F, R235A), double and triple substitutions of the side chains that interact with the phosphodianion group of the substrate orotidine 5′-monophosphate have been prepared. Essentially the entire effect of these mutations on the decarboxylation of the truncated neutral substrate 1-(β-D-erythrofuranosyl)orotic acid that lacks a phosphodianion group is expressed as a decrease in the third-order rate constant for activation by phosphite dianion. The results are consistent with a model in which phosphodianion binding interactions are utilized to stabilize a rare closed enzyme form that exhibits a high catalytic activity for decarboxylation.

The reaction catalyzed by orotidine 5’-monophosphate decarboxylase (OMPDC) is accompanied by exceptional values for the rate enhancement [kcat/knon = 7.1 × 1016] and catalytic proficiency [(kcat/KM)/knon = 4.8 × 1022 M−1]. Although a stabilized vinyl carbanion/carbene intermediate is located on the reaction coordinate, the structural strategies by which the reduction in the activation energy barrier is realized remain incompletely understood. This laboratory recently reported that “substrate destabilization” by Asp 70 in the OMPDC from Methanothermobacter thermoautotrophicus (MtOMPDC) lowers the activation energy barrier by ~5 kcal/mol (contributing ~2.7 × 103 to the rate enhancement) [K. K. Chan, B. M. Wood, A. A. Fedorov, E. V. Fedorov, H. J. Imker, T. L. Amyes, J. P. Richard, S. C. Almo, and J. A. Gerlt (2009) Biochemistry 48, 5518–31]. We now report that substitutions of hydrophobic residues in a pocket proximal to the carboxylate group of the substrate (Ile 96, Leu 123, and Val 155) with neutral hydrophilic residues decrease the value of kcat by as much as 400-fold but have minimal effect on the value of kex for exchange of H6 of the FUMP product analog with solvent deuterium; we hypothesize that this pocket destabilizes the substrate by preventing hydration of the substrate carboxylate group. We also report that substitutions for Ser 127 that is proximal to O4 of the orotate ring decrease the value of kcat/KM, with the S127P substitution that eliminates hydrogen-bonding interactions with O4 producing a 2.5 × 106-fold reduction in the value of kcat/KM; this effect is consistent with delocalization of the negative charge of the carbanionic intermediate on O4 to produce an anionic carbene intermediate and thereby provide a structural strategy for stabilization of the intermediate. These observations provide additional information on the identities of the active site residues that contribute to the rate enhancement and, therefore, insights into the structural strategies for catalysis.

The binding of a ligand to orotidine 5’-monophosphate decarboxylase (OMPDC) is accompanied by a conformational change from an open, inactive conformation (Eo) to a closed, active conformation (Ec). As the substrate traverses the reaction coordinate to form the stabilized vinyl carbanion/carbene intermediate, interactions are enforced that destabilize the carboxylate group of the substrate as well as stabilize the intermediate (in the Ec•S‡ complex). Focusing on the OMPDC from Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus, the “remote” 5’-phosphate group of the substrate activates the enzyme 2.4 × 108-fold; the activation is equivalently described by an intrinsic binding energy (IBE) of 11.4 kcal/mol. We studied residues in the activation that 1) directly contact the 5’-phosphate group; 2) participate in a hydrophobic cluster near the base of the active site loop that sequesters the bound substrate from solvent; and 3) form hydrogen-bonding interactions across the interface between the “mobile” and “fixed” half-barrel domains of the (β/α8-barrel structure. Our data support a model in which the IBE provided by the 5’-phosphate group is used to enable interactions both near the N-terminus of the active site loop and across the domain interface that stabilize both the Ec•S and Ec•S‡ complexes relative to the Eo•S complex. The conclusion that the IBE of the 5’-phosphate group provides stabilization of both the Ec•S and Ec•S‡ complexes, not just the Ec•S‡ complex, is central to understanding the structural origins of enzymatic catalysis as well as the requirements for the de novo design of enzymes that catalyze novel reactions.

The serine protease thrombin plays multiple roles in many important physiological processes, especially coagulation, where it functions as both a pro- and anti-coagulant. The polyanionic glycosaminoglycan heparin modulates thrombin’s activity through binding at exosite II. Sucrose octasulfate (SOS) is often used as a surrogate for heparin, but it is not known whether it is an effective heparin mimic in its interaction with thrombin. We have characterized the interaction of SOS with thrombin in solution and determined a crystal structure of their complex. SOS binds thrombin with a Kd of ~1.4 μM, comparable to that of the much larger polymeric heparin measured under the same conditions. Non-ionic (hydrogen bonding) interactions make a larger contribution to thrombin binding of SOS than to heparin. SOS binding to exosite II inhibits thrombin’s catalytic activity with high potency but with low efficacy. Analytical ultracentrifugation shows that bovine and human thrombins are monomers in solution in the presence of SOS, in contrast to their complexes with heparin, which are dimers. In the x-ray crystal structure, two molecules of SOS are bound non-equivalently to exosites II of a thrombin dimer, in contrast to the 1:2 stoichiometry of the heparin-thrombin complex, which has a different monomer association mode in the dimer. SOS and heparin binding to exosite II of thrombin differ on both chemical and structural levels and, perhaps most significantly, in thrombin inhibition. These differences may offer paths to the design of more potent exosite II binding, allosteric small molecules as modulators of thrombin function.

Stunning advances in the structural biology of multicomponent biomolecular complexes (MBCs) have ushered in an era of intense, structure-guided mechanistic and functional studies of these complexes. Nonetheless, existing methods to site-specifically conjugate MBCs with biochemical and biophysical labels are notoriously impracticable and/or significantly perturb MBC assembly and function. To overcome these limitations, we have developed a general, multiplexed method in which we genomically encode non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) into multiple, structure-informed, individual sites within a target MBC; select for ncAA-containing MBC variants that assemble and function like the wildtype MBC; and site-specifically conjugate biochemical or biophysical labels to these ncAAs. As a proof-of-principle, we have used this method to generate unique single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET) signals reporting on ribosome structural dynamics that have thus far remained inaccessible to smFRET studies of translation.