Ribonucleotide reductase from Escherichia coli catalyzes the conversion of nucleotides to deoxynucleotides. Multiple cysteins have been postulated to play a key role in this process. To test the role of various cysteines in nucleotide reduction, a variety of single and double mutants of the R1 subunit were prepared: C754S, C759S, C754-759S, C462S, C462A, C230S, and C292S. Due to the expression system, each mutant contains small amounts of contaminating wt-R1 (estimated to be 1.5-3% based on activity). An epitope tagging method in conjunction with anion exchange chromatography was used to partially resolve the mutant R1 from the wt-R1. The interaction of these mutants with the normal substrate was studied, which allowed a model to be proposed in which five cysteines of the R1 subunit of RDPR play a role in catalysis. C754S and C759S R1s catalyze CDP formation at rates similar to wt-R1 when DTT is used as a reductant. However, when thioredoxin (TR)/thioredoxin reductase (TRR)/NADPH is used as reductant, the rates of dNDP production are similar to those expected for contaminating wt-R1 present as a heterodimer with the mutant. The impaired nature of these mutants with respect to reduction by TR suggests that their function is to transfer reducing equivalents from TR to the active site disulfide of R1 produced during NDP reduction. Single-turnover experiments, designed to avoid the problem of contaminating wt-R1, also support this role for C754 and C759. The double serine mutant of 754 and 759 has catalytic activity with DTT that is one-third the rate of wt-R1 with thioredoxin. C225 and C462 are thought to be the active site cysteines oxidized concomitantly with NDP reduction. Conversion of these cysteines to serines results in R1 mutants which convert the normal substrate into a mechanism-based inhibitor. C462SR1 upon incubation with R2 and [3'-3H,U-14C]UDP results in uracil release, 3H2O production, 3H,14C-labeled protein which has an absorbance change at 320 nm, and slow loss of the tyrosyl radical on R2. The isotope effect (kH/k3H) on 3' carbon-hydrogen bond cleavage is 1.7. This sequence of events is independent of the reductant, consistent with the postulate that C462 is an active site thiol. The C462AR1 has properties similar to C462SR1. Several additional mutant R1s, C230SR1, and C292SR1 were shown to have activities similar to wt-R1 with both TR/TRR/NADPH and DTT.
The enzyme 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase (ACPC deaminase) from a pseudomonad is a pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) linked catalyst which fragments the cyclopropane substrate to alpha-ketobutyrate and ammonia [Honma, M., & Shimomura, T. (1978) Agric. Biol. Chem. 42, 1825]. Enzymatic incubations in D2O yield alpha-ketobutyrate with one deuterium at the C-4 methyl group and one deuterium at one of the C-3 prochiral methylene hydrogens. Stereochemical analysis of the location of the C-3 deuteron was accomplished by in situ enzymatic reduction to (2S)-2-hydroxybutyrate with L-lactate dehydrogenase and conversion to the phenacyl ester. The C-3 hydrogens of the (2S)-2-hydroxybutyryl moiety are fully resolved in a 250-MHz NMR spectrum. Absolute assignment of 3S and 3R loci was obtained with phenacyl (2S,3S)-2-hydroxy[3-2H]butyrate generated enzymatically by D-serine dehydratase action on D-threonine. ACPC deaminase shows a stereoselective outcome with a 3R:3S deuterated product ratio of 72:28. 2-Vinyl-ACPC is also a fragmentation substrate with exclusive regiospecific cleavage to yield the straight-chain keto acid product 2-keto-5-hexenoate. The D isomer of vinylglycine is processed to alpha-ketobutyrate and ammonia at 8% the Vmax of ACPC, while L-vinylglycine is not a substrate. It is likely that ACPC and D-vinylglycine yield a common intermediate--the vinylglycine-PLP-p-quinoid adduct--which is then protonated sequentially at C-4 and then C-3 to account for the observed deuterium incorporation. The D isomers of beta-substituted alanines (fluoroalanine, chloroalanine, and O-acetyl-D-serine) partition between catalytic elimination and enzyme inactivation. Each shows a different partition ratio, arguing against the common aminoacrylyl-PLP as the inactivating species.
L-Propargylglycine, a naturally occurring gamma, delta-acetylenic alpha-amino acid, induces mechanism-based inactivation of two pyridoxal phosphate dependent enzymes of methionine metabolism: (1) cystathionine gamma-synthease, which catalyzes a gamma-replacement reaction in methionine biosynthesis, and (2) methionine gamma-lyase, which catalyzes a gamma-elimination reaction in methionine breakdown. Biphasic pseudo-first-order inactivation kinetics were observed for both enzymes. Complete inactivation is achieved with a minimum molar ratio ([propargylglycine]/[enzyme monomer]) of 4:1 for cystathionine gamma-synthase and of 8:1 for methionine gamma-lyase, consistent with a small number of turnovers per inactivation event. Partitioning ratios were determined directly from observed primary kinetic isotope effects. [alpha-2H]Propargylglycine displays kH/kD values of about 3 on inactivation half-times. [alpha-3H]-Propargylglycine gives release of tritium to solvent nominally stoichiometric with inactivation but, on correction for the calculated tritium isotope discrimination, partition ratios of four and six turnovers per monomer inactivated are indicated for cystathionine gamma-synthase and methionine gamma-lyase, respectively. The inactivation stoichiometry, using [alpha-14C]-propargylglycine, is four labels per tetramer of cystathionine gamma-synthase but usually only two labels per tetramer of methionine gamma-lyase (half-of-the-sites reactivity). Two-dimensional urea isoelectrofocusing/NaDodSO4 electrophoresis suggests (1) that both native enzymes are alpha 2 beta 2 tetramers where the subunits are distinguishable by charge but not by size and (2) that, while each subunit of a cystathionine gamma-synthase tetramer becomes modified by propargylglycine, only one alpha and one beta subunit may be labeled in an inactive alpha 2 beta 2 tetramer of methionine gamma-lyase. Steady-state spectroscopic analyses during inactivation indicated that modified cystathionine gamma-synthase may reprotonate C2 of the enzyme--inactivator adduct, so that the cofactor is still in the pyridoxaldimine oxidation state. Fully inactivated methionine gamma-lyase has lambda max values at 460 and 495 nm, which may represent conjugated pyridoximine paraquinoid that does not reprotonate at C2 of the bound adduct. Either species could arise from Michael-type addition of an enzymic nucleophile to an electrophilic 3,4-allenic paraquinoid intermediate, generated initially by propargylic rearrangement upon a 4,5-acetylenic pyridoximine structure, as originally proposed for propargylglycine inactivation of gamma-cystathionase [Abeles, R., & Walsh, C. (1973) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 95, 6124]. It is reasonable that cystathionine gamma-synthase is the major in vivo target for this natural acetylenic toxin, the growth-inhibitory effects of which are reversed by methionine.
Ribonucleotide reductase (RDPR) from Escherichia coli is composed of two subunits, R1 and R2, both of which are required to catalyze the conversion of nucleotides to deoxynucleotides. This reduction process is accompanied by oxidation of two cysteines within the active site to a disulfide. One of these putative active site cysteines, C225, has been mutated to a serine, and the properties of this mutant (C225SR1) have been investigated in detail. Incubation of C225SR1 and R2 with [3'-3H,U-14C]UDP results in time-dependent inactivation of the enzyme! This inactivation is accompanied by production of 2.4 uracils, 3H2O, and 3H,14C-labeled protein with an absorbance change at 320 nm. There is an isotope effect (kH/k3H) on uracil production of 3.2. In addition, the tyrosyl radical on R2 is reduced. The observation of 3H2O, indicative of 3' carbon-hydrogen bond cleavage and loss of the tyrosyl radical, provides a direct test of our mechanistic hypothesis that cleavage of this bond occurs concomitantly with tyrosyl radical reduction. Incubation of [3'-2H]UDP with C225SR1 and R2 resulted in a V and V/K isotope effect on loss of the radical of 2.0 and 2.0, respectively. These studies provide the first direct evidence for protein radical involvement in catalysis. Reduction of the tyrosyl radical on R2 is accompanied by a stoichiometric cleavage of the R1 polypeptide into two new polypeptides of 26 and 61 kDa. The 26-kDa polypeptide is the N-terminus of R1, and hence cleavage of the polypeptide is occurring in the region of the mutation. The N-terminus of the 61-kDa polypeptide is blocked.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The B1 subunit of Escherichia coli ribonucleotide reductase (EC 1.17.4.1) has been overexpressed using the pT7-5/pGP1-2 system developed by Tabor and Richardson [Tabor, S. & Richardson, C. (1985) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 82, 1074USA 82, -1078. This method has allowed the preparation of two mutant B1 subunits in which two of the four thiols postulated to be within the active site of the enzyme, The same studies of Lin et al. (4) revealed that two additional cysteines, residues 225 and 230, are spatially close to these C-terminal cysteines. Of the seven sequences of B1 elucidated thus far, only Cys-225 of the four cysteines identified is conserved.In addition, single turnover experiments using prereduced RDPR and CDP in the absence of external reductant resulted in production of three dCDPs rather than the two anticipated from the generally accepted model of B1B2 (8). Thelander (8) also reported production of three dCDPs in a similar experiment with the first two dCDPs being produced more rapidly than the third.To account for these results, a model was proposed in which two sets of thiols are involved in catalysis per B1 protomer. Cys-225 and Cys-230 were proposed to serve as a shuttle for electrons between thioredoxin and the active site thiols, Cys-754 and Cys-759 (Fig. 1). This model predicts that four dCDPs could be produced under single-turnover conditions, and the observation of three dCDPs was rationalized as resulting from incomplete prereduction of the cysteines in B1. This model also predicts that, under single-turnover conditions, a change in Cys-754 or Cys-759 to serine would prevent dCDP production whereas a change in either Cys-225 or Cys-230 should allow production of two dCDPs (4).Studies utilizing the mechanism-based inhibitor 2'-chloro-2'-deoxyuridine 5'-diphosphate (CIUDP) also make predictions concerning the function of the redox-active thiols (9,10). If the reduction process is impaired, but the general acid catalysis function of one of the thiols is retained, then the normal substrate CDP will be converted into a mechanismbased inhibitor (Fig. 2). The postulated role of the thiols has been investigated using site-directed mutagenesis.
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