To obtain structural insights into the emergence of biological functions from catalytically promiscuous enzymes, we reconstructed an ancestor of catalytically distinct, but evolutionarily related, haloalkane dehalogenases (EC 3.8.1.5) and Renilla luciferase (EC 1.13.12.5). This ancestor has both hydrolase and monooxygenase activities. Its crystal structure solved to 1.39 Å resolution revealed the presence of a catalytic pentad conserved in both dehalogenase and luciferase descendants and a molecular oxygen bound in between two residues typically stabilizing a halogen anion. The differences in the conformational dynamics of the specificity-determining cap domains between the ancestral and descendant enzymes were accessed by molecular dynamics and hydrogen−deuterium exchange mass spectrometry. Stopped-flow analysis revealed that the alkyl enzyme intermediate formed in the luciferase-catalyzed reaction is trapped by blockage of a hydrolytic reaction step. A single-point mutation (Ala54Pro) adjacent to one of the catalytic residues bestowed hydrolase activity on the modern luciferase by enabling cleavage of this intermediate. Thus, a single substitution next to the catalytic pentad may enable the emergence of promiscuous activity at the enzyme class level, and ancestral reconstruction has a clear potential for obtaining multifunctional catalysts.

The biosynthesis of many vitamins and coenzymes has often proved difficult to elucidate due to a combination of low abundance and kinetic lability of the pathway intermediates. Through a serial reconstruction of the cobalamin (vitamin B12) pathway in E. coli, and by His-tagging the terminal enzyme in the reaction sequence, we have observed that many unstable intermediates can be isolated as tightly-bound enzyme-product complexes. Together, these approaches have been used to extract intermediates between precorrin-4 and hydrogenobyrinic acid in their free acid form and permitted the delineation of the overall reaction catalysed by CobL, including the formal elucidation of precorrin-7 as a metabolite. Furthermore, a substrate-carrier protein, CobE, has been identified, which can also be used to stabilize some of the transient metabolic intermediates and enhance their onward transformation. The tight association of pathway intermediates with enzymes provides evidence for a form of metabolite channeling.

Stability is one of the most important characteristics of proteins employed as biocatalysts, biotherapeutics, and biomaterials, and the role of computational approaches in modifying protein stability is rapidly expanding. We have recently identified stabilizing mutations in haloalkane dehalogenase DhaA using phylogenetic analysis but were not able to reproduce the effects of these mutations using force-field calculations. Here we tested four different hypotheses to explain the molecular basis of stabilization using structural, biochemical, biophysical, and computational analyses. We demonstrate that stabilization of DhaA by the mutations identified using the phylogenetic analysis is driven by both entropy and enthalpy contributions, in contrast to primarily enthalpy-driven stabilization by mutations designed by the force-field calculations. Comprehensive bioinformatics analysis revealed that more than half (53%) of 1 099 evolution-based stabilizing mutations would be evaluated as destabilizing by force-field calculations. Thermodynamic integration considers both folded and unfolded states and can describe the entropic component of stabilization, yet it is not suitable for predictive purposes due to its high computational demands. Altogether, our results strongly suggest that energetic calculations should be complemented by a phylogenetic analysis in protein-stabilization endeavors.

Phytases hydrolyse phytate (myo-inositol hexakisphosphate), the principal form of phosphate stored in plant seeds to produce phosphate and lower phosphorylated myo-inositols. They are used extensively in the feed industry, and have been characterised biochemically and structurally with a number of structures in the PDB. They are divided into four distinct families: histidine acid phosphatases (HAP), β-propeller phytases, cysteine phosphatases and purple acid phosphatases and also split into three enzyme classes, the 3-, 5- and 6-phytases, depending on the position of the first phosphate in the inositol ring to be removed. We report identification, cloning, purification and 3D structures of 6-phytases from two bacteria, Hafnia alvei and Yersinia kristensenii, together with their pH optima, thermal stability, and degradation profiles for phytate. An important result is the structure of the H. alvei enzyme in complex with the substrate analogue myo-inositol hexakissulphate. In contrast to the only previous structure of a ligand-bound 6-phytase, where the 3-phosphate was unexpectedly in the catalytic site, in the H. alvei complex the expected scissile 6-phosphate (sulphate in the inhibitor) is placed in the catalytic site.

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