Cytosine deaminase (CDA) from E. coli is a member of the amidohydrolase superfamily. The structure of the zinc-activated enzyme was determined in the presence of phosphonocytosine, a mimic of the tetrahedral reaction intermediate. This compound inhibits the deamination of cytosine with a Ki of 52 nM. The zinc and iron containing enzymes were characterized to determine the effect of the divalent cations on activation of the hydrolytic water. Fe-CDA loses activity at low pH with a kinetic pKa of 6.0 and Zn-CDA has a kinetic pKa of 7.3. Mutation of Gln-156 decreased the catalytic activity by more than 5 orders of magnitude, supporting its role in substrate binding. Mutation of Glu-217, Asp-313, and His-246 significantly decreased catalytic activity supporting the role of these three residues in activation of the hydrolytic water molecule and facilitation of proton transfer reactions. A library of potential substrates was used to probe the structural determinants responsible for catalytic activity. CDA was able to catalyze the deamination of isocytosine and the hydrolysis of 3-oxauracil. Large inverse solvent isotope effects were obtained on kcat and kcat/Km, consistent with the formation of a low-barrier hydrogen bond during the conversion of cytosine to uracil. A chemical mechanism for substrate deamination by CDA was proposed.

An enzyme from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pa0142 (gi|9945972) has been identified for the first time that is able to catalyze the deamination of 8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG) to uric acid. 8-Oxoguanine is formed by the oxidation of guanine residues within DNA by reactive oxygen species and this lesion results in the G:C to T:A transversions. The value of kcat/Km for the deamination of 8-oxoG by Pa0142 at pH 8.0 and 30 °C is 2.0 × 104 M−1 s−1. This enzyme can also catalyze the deamination of isocystosine and guanine at rates that are approximately an order of magnitude slower. The three-dimensional structure of a homologous enzyme (gi|44264246) from the Sargasso Sea has been determined by x-ray diffraction methods to a resolution of 2.2Å (PDB code: 3h4u). The enzyme folds as a (β/α)8− barrel and it is a member of the amidohydrolase superfamily with a single zinc in the active site. This enzyme catalyzes the deamination of 8-oxoG with a value of kcat/Km of 2.7 × 105 M−1 s−1. Computational docking of potential high energy intermediates for the deamination reaction to the x-ray crystal structure suggests that the active site binding of 8-oxoG is facilitated by hydrogen bond interactions from a conserved glutamine that follows β-strand 1 with O6, a conserved tyrosine that follows β-strand 2 with N7, and a conserved cysteine residue that follows β-strand 4 with O8. A bioinformatic analysis of available protein sequences suggest that approximately 200 other bacteria possess an enzyme capable of catalyzing the deamination of 8-oxoG.

NagA is a member of the amidohydrolase superfamily and catalyzes the deacetylation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine-6-phosphate. The catalytic mechanism of this enzyme was addressed by the characterization of the catalytic properties of metal-substituted derivatives of NagA from Escherichia coli with a variety of substrate analogs. The reaction mechanism is of interest since NagA from bacterial sources is found with either one or two divalent metal ions in the active site. This observation indicates that there has been a divergence in the evolution of NagA and suggests that there are fundamental differences in the mechanistic details for substrate activation and hydrolysis. NagA from E. coli was inactivated by the removal of the zinc bound to the active site and the apo-enzyme reactivated upon incubation with one equivalent of Zn 2+ , Cd 2+ , Co 2+ , Mn 2+ , Ni 2+ or Fe 2+ . In the proposed catalytic mechanism the reaction is initiated by the polarization of the carbonyl group of the substrate via a direct interaction with the divalent metal ion and His-143. The invariant aspartate found at the end of β-strand 8 in all members of the amidohydrolase superfamily abstracts a proton from the metal-bound water molecule (or hydroxide) to promote the hydrolytic attack on the carbonyl group of the substrate. A tetrahedral intermediate is formed and then collapses with cleavage of the C-N bond after proton transfer to the leaving group amine by Asp-273. The lack of a solvent isotope effect by D 2 O and the absence of any changes to the kinetic constants with increases in solvent viscosity indicate that net product formation is not limited to any significant extent by proton transfer steps or the release of products. N-trifluoroacetyl-D-glucosamine-6-phosphate is hydrolyzed by NagA 26-fold faster than the corresponding N-acetyl derivative. This result is consistent with the formation or collapse of the tetrahedral intermediate as the rate limiting step in the catalytic mechanism of NagA.NagA 1 catalyzes the hydrolytic cleavage of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine-6-phosphate as illustrated in Scheme 1. The deacetylation of this compound provides a source of carbon and nitrogen by preparing this substrate for entry into the glycolytic pathway. This reaction is a key step in the catabolism of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, derived from the degradation of chitin, and is an essential component for the biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharides and peptidoglycans. More recently, the reaction catalyzed by NagA has been shown to be an important step in the recycling of cell wall murein (1-3).The purification of NagA from Escherichia coli was originally reported by White and Pasternak (4). The enzyme oligomerizes as a tetramer and each subunit contains a reactive sulfhydryl group near the active site (5). In the forward reaction, inhibition occurs at high substrate † This work was supported in part by the NIH (GM 71790) and the Robert A. Welch Foundation (A-840). RSH was supported by a Chemical Biology Interface Training Grant (GM 08523). * To whom cor...

NagA catalyzes the hydrolysis of N-acetyl-d-glucosamine-6-phosphate to d-glucosamine-6-phosphate and acetate. X-ray crystal structures of NagA from Escherichia coli were determined to establish the number and ligation scheme for the binding of zinc to the active site and to elucidate the molecular interactions between the protein and substrate. The three-dimensional structures of the apo-NagA, Zn-NagA, and the D273N mutant enzyme in the presence of a tight-binding N-methylhydroxyphosphinyl-d-glucosamine-6-phosphate inhibitor were determined. The structure of the Zn-NagA confirms that this enzyme binds a single divalent cation at the beta-position in the active site via ligation to Glu-131, His-195, and His-216. A water molecule completes the ligation shell, which is also in position to be hydrogen bonded to Asp-273. In the structure of NagA bound to the tight binding inhibitor that mimics the tetrahedral intermediate, the methyl phosphonate moiety has displaced the hydrolytic water molecule and is directly coordinated to the zinc within the active site. The side chain of Asp-273 is positioned to activate the hydrolytic water molecule via general base catalysis and to deliver this proton to the amino group upon cleavage of the amide bond of the substrate. His-143 is positioned to help polarize the carbonyl group of the substrate in conjunction with Lewis acid catalysis by the bound zinc. The inhibitor is bound in the alpha-configuration at the anomeric carbon through a hydrogen bonding interaction of the hydroxyl group at C-1 with the side chain of His-251. The phosphate group of the inhibitor attached to the hydroxyl at C-6 is ion paired with Arg-227 from the adjacent subunit. NagA from Thermotoga maritima was shown to require a single divalent cation for full catalytic activity.