Deoxyhypusine synthase (DHS) is a transferase enabling the formation of deoxyhypusine, which is the first, rate-limiting step of a unique post-translational modification: hypusination. DHS catalyses the transfer of a 4-aminobutyl moiety of polyamine spermidine to a specific lysine of eukaryotic translation factor 5A (eIF5A) precursor in a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD)-dependent manner. This modification occurs exclusively on one protein, eIF5A, and it is essential for cell proliferation. Malfunctions of the hypusination pathway, including those caused by mutations within the DHS encoding gene, are associated with conditions such as cancer or neurodegeneration. Here, we present a series of high-resolution crystal structures of human DHS. Structures were determined as the apoprotein, as well as ligand-bound states at high-resolutions ranging from 1.41 to 1.69 Å. By solving DHS in complex with its natural substrate spermidine (SPD), we identified the mode of substrate recognition. We also observed that other polyamines, namely spermine (SPM) and putrescine, bind DHS in a similar manner as SPD. Moreover, we performed activity assays showing that SPM could to some extent serve as an alternative DHS substrate. In contrast to previous studies, we demonstrate that no conformational changes occur in the DHS structure upon spermidine-binding. By combining mutagenesis and a light-scattering approach, we show that a conserved “ball-and-chain” motif is indispensable to assembling a functional DHS tetramer. Our study substantially advances our knowledge of the substrate recognition mechanism by DHS and may aid the design of pharmacological compounds for potential applications in cancer therapy.

Reliable sample delivery and efficient use of limited beam time have remained bottlenecks for serial crystallography (SX). Using a high-intensity polychromatic X-ray beam in combination with a newly developed charge-integrating JUNGFRAU detector, we have applied the method of fixed-target SX to collect data at a rate of 1 kHz at a synchrotron-radiation facility. According to our data analysis for the given experimental conditions, only about 3 000 diffraction patterns are required for a high-quality diffraction dataset. With indexing rates of up to 25%, recording of such a dataset takes less than 30 s.

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Prolidase Deficiency (PD) is an autosomal recessive rare disorder caused by loss or reduction of prolidase enzymatic activity due to variants in the PEPD gene. PD clinical features vary among affected individuals: skin ulcerations, recurrent infections, and developmental delay are common. In this study, we describe a 16-year-old boy with a mild PD phenotype comprising chronic eczema, recurrent infections and elevated IgE. Whole exome sequencing analysis revealed three PEPD variants: c.575T>C p.(Leu192Pro) inherited from the mother, and c.692_694del p.(Tyr231del) and c.1409G>A p.(Arg470His), both inherited from the father. The variant p.(Tyr231del) has been previously characterized by high-resolution X-ray structure analysis as altering protein dynamics/flexibility. In order to study the effects of the other two prolidase variants, we performed site directed mutagenesis purification and crystallization studies. A high-resolution X-ray structure could only be obtained for the p.(Arg470His) variant, which showed no significant structural differences in comparison to WT prolidase. On the other hand, the p.(Leu192Pro) variant led to significant protein destabilization. Hence, we conclude that the maternal p.(Leu192Pro) variant was likely causally associated with the proband´s disease, together with the known pathogenic paternal variant p.(Tyr231del). Our results demonstrated the utility of exome sequencing to perform diagnosis in PD cases with mild phenotype.

Glycerol is an organic compound that can be utilized as an alternative source of carbon by various organisms. One of the ways to assimilate glycerol by the cell is the phosphorylative catabolic pathway in which its activation is catalyzed by glycerol kinase (GK) and glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) is formed. To date, several GK crystal structures from bacteria, archaea, and unicellular eukaryotic parasites have been solved. Herein, we present a series of crystal structures of GK from Chaetomium thermophilum (CtGK) in apo and glycerol-bound forms. In addition, we show the feasibility of an ADP-dependent glucokinase (ADPGK)-coupled enzymatic assay to measure the CtGK activity. New structures described in our work provide structural insights into the GK catalyzed reaction in the filamentous fungus and set the foundation for understanding the glycerol metabolism in eukaryotes.

Hypusination is a unique post-translational modification of the eukaryotic translation factor 5A (eIF5A) that is essential for overcoming ribosome stalling at polyproline sequence stretches. The initial step of hypusination, the formation of deoxyhypusine, is catalyzed by deoxyhypusine synthase (DHS), however, the molecular details of the DHS-mediated reaction remained elusive. Recently, patient-derived variants of DHS and eIF5A have been linked to rare neurodevelopmental disorders. Here, we present the cryo-EM structure of the human eIF5A-DHS complex at 2.8 Å resolution and a crystal structure of DHS trapped in the key reaction transition state. Furthermore, we show that disease-associated DHS variants influence the complex formation and hypusination efficiency. Hence, our work dissects the molecular details of the deoxyhypusine synthesis reaction and reveals how clinically-relevant mutations affect this crucial cellular process.

Prolidase catalyzes the cleavage of dipeptides containing proline on their C terminus. The reduction in prolidase activity is the cause of a rare disease named 'Prolidase Deficiency'. Local structural disorder was indicated as one of the causes for diminished prolidase activity. Previous studies showed that heat shock proteins can partially recover prolidase activity in vivo. To analyze this mechanism of enzymatic activity rescue, we compared the crystal structures of selected prolidase mutants expressed in the absence and in the presence of chaperones. Our results confirm that protein chaperones facilitate the formation of more ordered structures by their substrate protein. These results also suggest that the protein expression system needs to be considered as an important parameter in structural studies. Databases The reported crystal structures and their associated structure factor amplitudes were deposited in the Protein Data Bank under the accession codes http://6SRE, http://6SRF, and http://6SRG, respectively.

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