Two Zn2+ binding sites were found in the Aeromonas hydrophila AE036 metallo-beta-lactamase. The affinity of the first binding site for Zn2+ ions is so high that the dissociation constant could not be determined, but it is significantly lower than 20 nM. The mono-Zn2+ form of the enzyme exhibits a maximum activity against its carbapenem substrates. The presence of a Zn2+ ion in the second lower affinity binding site results in a loss of enzymatic activity with a Ki value of 46 microM at pH 6.5. The kinetic analysis is in agreement with a noncompetitive inhibition mechanism. The Zn content of the A. hydrophila enzyme is also strongly pH-dependent. With an external Zn2+ ion concentration of 0.4 microM, occupancy of the higher affinity site by metal ions is lower than 10% at pH 5 and 10. The affinity for the second binding site seems to increase from pH 6 to 7.5. Fluorescence emission and circular dichroism spectra revealed slight conformational changes upon titration of the apoenzyme by Zn2+ ions, resulting in the successive saturation of the first and second binding sites. Differential scanning calorimetry transitions and intrinsic fluorescence emission spectra in the presence of increasing concentrations of urea demonstrate that the catalytic zinc strongly stabilizes the conformation of the enzyme whereas the di-Zn enzyme is even more resistant to thermal and urea denaturation than the mono-Zn enzyme. The Zn2+ dependency of the activity of this metallo-beta-lactamase thus appears to be very different from that of the homologous Bacteroides fragilis enzyme for which the presence of two Zn2+ ions per molecule of protein appears to result in maximum activity.

When expressed by pathogenic bacteria, Zn2؉ -␤-lactamases induce resistance to most ␤-lactam antibiotics. A possible strategy to fight these bacteria would be a combined therapy with non-toxic inhibitors of Zn 2؉ -␤-lactamases together with standard antibiotics. For this purpose, it is important to verify that the inhibitor is effective under all clinical conditions. We have investigated the correlation between the number of zinc ions bound to the Zn 2؉ -␤-lactamase from Bacillus cereus and hydrolysis of benzylpenicillin and nitrocefin for the wild type and a mutant where cysteine 168 is replaced by alanine. It is shown that both the mono-Zn 2؉ (mononuclear) and di-Zn 2؉ (binuclear) Zn 2؉ -␤-lactamases are catalytically active but with different kinetic properties. The mono-Zn2؉ -␤-lactamase requires the conserved cysteine residue for hydrolysis of the ␤-lactam ring in contrast to the binuclear enzyme where the cysteine residue is not essential. Substrate affinity is not significantly affected by the mutation for the mononuclear enzyme but is decreased for the binuclear enzyme. These results were derived from kinetic studies on two wild types and the mutant enzyme with benzylpenicillin and nitrocefin as substrates. Thus, targeting drug design to modify this residue might represent an efficient strategy, the more so if it also interferes with the formation of the binuclear enzyme.

The specific substitution, using highly selective techniques, of catalytic and/or noncatalytic zinc ions by cobaltous ions in horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase (EC 1 .I .1.1) has been studied with dissolved, crystalline and agarose-immobilised enzyme, in order to examine the effect of protein structure on the specificity of the metal exchange. The different binding sites can be clearly distinguished by the absorption spectra of their cobalt derivatives.In solution an anaerobic column chromatographic method made it possible to exchange half of the zinc in the enzyme by cobalt ions in a much shorter time than previous procedures. By raising the temperature in the exchange step, even the slowly exchanging zinc ions were substituted by cobalt, yielding products similar to cobalt alcohol dehydrogenases described earlier.Treatment of crystal suspensions of the enzyme with chelating agents (preferentially dipicolinic acid) gave an inactive protein with two zinc ions remaining bound. The enzyme could be reactivated by treatment of the crystalline protein with 5 mM zinc or cobaltous ions or by dialysis of dissolved inactive protein against 20 pM zinc or 1 mM cobaltous ions. Higher metal concentrations led to denaturation but the inactive protein could be crystallized from solution and then reactivated completely at higher metal concentrations. The preparation and absorption spectrum show that cobalt is bound specifically at the catalytic sites. Since metal substitution at these sites critically depends on the maintenance of the correct tertiary and quaternary structure, these must be preserved in the crystal lattice and partially altered in solution when the catalytic zinc ions are removed (or when excess of metal ions is applied), thus demonstrating the structure-stabilizing r61e of the catalytic metal ions.The enzyme immobilised on agarose, with unchanged content of active sites Eur. J . Biochem. 41, 475-4841, was treated like the crystal suspensions. Although half of the zinc was removed, some activity remained. After reactivation with cobaltous ions, a loss of about 30% active sites was measured. Thus the apparently homogeneous bound enzyme was rather heterogeneous in the properties of its catalytic metal binding sites. These results are taken as further proof for the dependence of the metal substitution on the proper tertiary and quaternary structure which is strained by multiple interactions in the covalently immobilised enzyme.Ahhreviations. Tes, 2-{ [tris(hydroxymethyl)methyl]amino}etha-nesulfonic acid; Tris: Tris(hydroxymethy1)-aminomethane; Mes, 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid. The differently substituted metallo-alcohol dehydrogenases are named as follows. The metal ions are differentiated as catalytic and noncatalytic by the characters (c) and (n) after the chemical symbol, i.e. Zn(c)zZn(n)~-enzyme = native enzyme; H4Zn(n)z-enzyme = enzyme depleted of the catalytic zinc ions; Zn(c)2Co(n)z-enzyme = enzyme substituted at the noncatalytic binding sites ('green hybrid' enzyme) ; CO(C)ZZn(n)2-enzyme = enzyme ...