Rhizobium etli, a nitrogen-fixing bacterial symbiont of legume plants, encodes an essential l-asparaginase (ReAV) with no sequence homology to known enzymes with this activity. High-resolution crystal structures of ReAV show indeed a structurally distinct, dimeric enzyme, with some resemblance to glutaminases and β-lactamases. However, ReAV has no glutaminase or lactamase activity, and at pH 9 its allosteric asparaginase activity is relatively high, with Km for l-Asn at 4.2 mM and kcat of 438 s−1. The active site of ReAV, deduced from structural comparisons and confirmed by mutagenesis experiments, contains a highly specific Zn2+ binding site without a catalytic role. The extensive active site includes residues with unusual chemical properties. There are two Ser-Lys tandems, all connected through a network of H-bonds to the Zn center, and three tightly bound water molecules near Ser48, which clearly indicate the catalytic nucleophile.

Hyp-1, a PR-10-fold protein from Hypericum perforatum, was crystallized in complex with melatonin (MEL). The structure confirms the conserved protein fold and the presence of three unusual ligand binding sites, two of which are internal chambers (1,2), while the third one (3) is formed as an invagination of the protein surface. The MEL ligand in site 1 is well defined while that in site 3 seems to be rotating between the side chains of Lys33 and Tyr150 that act as a molecular vise. The patch of electron density in site 2 does not allow unambiguous modeling of a melatonin molecule but suggests a possible presence of its degradation product. This pattern of ligand occupation is reproducible in repeated crystallization/structure determination experiments. Although the binding of melatonin by Hyp-1 does not appear to be very strong (for example, MEL cannot displace the artificial fluorescence probe ANS), it is strong enough to suggest a physiological role of this interaction. For example, trans-zeatin, which is a common ligand of PR-10 proteins, does not overcompete melatonin for binding to Hyp-1 as it does not affect the crystallization process of the Hyp-1/MEL complex, and among a number of potential natural mediators tested, melatonin was the only one to form a crystalline complex with Hyp-1 with the use of standard crystallization screens. Hyp-1 is the second protein in the Protein Data Bank for which melatonin binding has been demonstrated crystallographically, the first one being human quinone reductase.

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Atomic coordinates and processed structure factors corresponding to the final models of the LlPR-10.2B/melatonin and LlPR-10.2B/melatonin + trans-zeatin complexes have been deposited with the Protein Data Bank (PDB) under the accession codes 5MXB and 5MXW. The corresponding raw X-ray diffraction images have been deposited in the RepOD Repository at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM) of the University of Warsaw, Poland, and are available for download with the following Digital Object Identifiers (DOI): https://doi.org/10.18150/repod.9923638 and https://doi.org/10.18150/repod.6621013.

Glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) releases ammonia in a reversible NAD(P) +-dependent oxidative deamination of glutamate that yields 2-oxoglutarate (2OG). In current perception, GDH contributes to Glu homeostasis and plays a significant role at the junction of carbon and nitrogen assimilation pathways. GDHs are members of a superfamily of ELFV (Glu/Leu/Phe/Val) amino acid dehydrogenases and are subdivided into three subclasses, based on coenzyme specificity: NAD +-specific, NAD + /NADP + dual-specific, and NADP +-specific. We determined in this work that the mitochondrial AtGDH1 isozyme from A. thaliana is NAD +-specific. Altogether, A. thaliana expresses three GDH isozymes (AtGDH1-3) targeted to mitochondria, of which AtGDH2 has an extra EF-hand motif and is stimulated by calcium. Our enzymatic assays of AtGDH1 established that its sensitivity to calcium is negligible. In vivo the AtGDH1-3 enzymes form homo-and heterohexamers of varied composition. We solved the crystal structure of recombinant AtGDH1 in the apo-form and in complex with NAD + at 2.59 and 2.03 Å resolution, respectively. We demonstrate also that both in the apo form and in 1:1 complex with NAD + , it forms D 3-symmetric homohexamers. A subunit of AtGDH1 consists of domain I, which is involved in hexamer formation and substrate binding, and of domain II which binds coenzyme. Most of the subunits in our crystal structures, including those in NAD + complex, are in open conformation, with domain II forming a large (albeit variable) angle with domain I. One of the subunits of the AtGDH1-NAD + hexamer contains a serendipitous 2OG molecule in the active site, causing a dramatic (∼25 •) closure of the domains. We provide convincing evidence that the N-terminal peptide preceding domain I is a mitochondrial targeting signal, with a predicted cleavage site for mitochondrial processing peptidase (MPP) at Leu17-Leu18 that is followed by an unexpected potassium coordination site (Ser27, Ile30). We also identified several MPD [(+/-)-2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol] binding sites with conserved sequence. Although AtGDH1 is insensitive to MPD in our assays, the observation of druggable sites opens a potential for non-competitive herbicide design.

Hyp-1, a pathogenesis-related class 10 (PR-10) protein from H. perforatum, was crystallized in complex with the fluorescent probe 8-anilino-1-naphthalene sulfonate (ANS). The asymmetric unit of the tetartohedrally twinned crystal contains 28 copies of the protein arranged in columns with noncrystallographic sevenfold translational symmetry and with additional pseudotetragonal rotational NCS.

S-adenosyl-l-homocysteine hydrolase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PaSAHase) coordinates one K+ ion and one Zn2+ ion in the substrate binding area. The cations affect the enzymatic activity and substrate binding but the molecular mechanisms of their action are unknown. Enzymatic and isothermal titration calorimetry studies demonstrated that the K+ ions stimulate the highest activity and strongest ligand binding in comparison to other alkali cations, while the Zn2+ ions inhibit the enzyme activity. PaSAHase was crystallized in the presence of adenine nucleosides and K+ or Rb+ ions. The crystal structures show that the alkali ion is coordinated in close proximity of the purine ring and a 23Na NMR study showed that the monovalent cation coordination site is formed upon ligand binding. The cation, bound in the area of a molecular hinge, orders and accurately positions the amide group of Q65 residue to allow its interaction with the ligand. Moreover, binding of potassium is required to enable unique dynamic properties of the enzyme that ensure its maximum catalytic activity. The Zn2+ ion is bound in the area of a molecular gate that regulates access to the active site. Zn2+ coordination switches the gate to a shut state and arrests the enzyme in its closed, inactive conformation.

Translational noncrystallographic symmetry (tNCS) is a pathology of protein crystals in which multiple copies of a molecule or assembly are found in similar orientations. Structure solution is problematic because this breaks the assumptions used in current likelihood-based methods. To cope with such cases, new likelihood approaches have been developed and implemented inPhaserto account for the statistical effects of tNCS in molecular replacement. Using these new approaches, it was possible to solve the crystal structure of a protein exhibiting an extreme form of this pathology with seven tetrameric assemblies arrayed along thecaxis. To resolve space-group ambiguities caused by tetartohedral twinning, the structure was initially solved by placing 56 copies of the monomer in space groupP1 and using the symmetry of the solution to define the true space group,C2. The resulting structure of Hyp-1, a pathogenesis-related class 10 (PR-10) protein from the medicinal herb St John's wort, reveals the binding modes of the fluorescent probe 8-anilino-1-naphthalene sulfonate (ANS), providing insight into the function of the protein in binding or storing hydrophobic ligands.