Tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO) and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) play a central role in tryptophan metabolism and are involved in many cellular and disease processes. Here we report the crystal structure of human TDO (hTDO) in a ternary complex with the substrates L-Trp and O2 and in a binary complex with the product N-formylkynurenine (NFK), defining for the first time the binding modes of both substrates and the product of this enzyme. The structure indicates that the dioxygenation reaction is initiated by a direct attack of O2 on the C2 atom of the L-Trp indole ring. The structure also reveals an exo binding site for L-Trp, located ~42 Å from the active site and formed by residues conserved among tryptophan-auxotrophic TDOs. Biochemical and cellular studies indicate that Trp binding at this exo site does not affect enzyme catalysis but instead it retards the degradation of hTDO through the ubiquitin-dependent proteasomal pathway. This exo site may therefore provide a novel L-Trp-mediated regulation mechanism for cellular degradation of hTDO, which may have important implications in human diseases.

Hepatic tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO) is a cytoplasmic homotetrameric hemoprotein and the rate-limiting enzyme in the irreversible degradation of the essential amino acid L-tryptophan (L-Trp) to N-formylkynurenine, thus controlling the flux of L-Trp into its serotonergic and kynureninic/NAD pathways. TDO has long been recognized to be substrate-inducible via protein stabilization, but the molecular mechanism of this stabilization has remained elusive. Recent elucidation of human TDO (hTDO) crystal structure has identified a high-affinity (Kd ≈ 0.5 µM)Trp-binding exosite in each of its 4 monomeric subunits. Mutation of the Glu105, Trp208 and Arg211 comprising this exosite not only abolished the high-affinity L-Trp binding, but also accelerated the ubiquitin-dependent proteasomal degradation of hTDO. We have further characterized this hTDO degradation by documenting that its ubiquitination by gp78/AMFR and CHIP E2/E3 ligase complexes occurs on external Lys-residues within or vicinal to acidic Asp/Glu and phosphorylated pSer/pThr (DEpSpT)-clusters. Furthermore, we have identified the unstructured hTDO N-and C-termini as imparting relatively high proteolytic instability, as their deletion (DNC) markedly prolonged hTDO t1/2. Additionally, although previous studies reported that upon hepatic heme-depletion, the heme-free apoTDO turns over with a t1/2 ≈ 2.2 h relative to the t1/2 of 7.7 h of holoTDO, mutating the axial heme-ligating His328 to Ala has the opposite effect of prolonging hTDO t1/2. Most importantly, introducing the exosite mutation into the DNC-deleted or H328A-mutant completely abolished their prolonged half-lives irrespective of L-Trp presence or absence, thereby revealing that the exosite is the molecular lynchpin that defines L-Trpmediated TDO induction via protein stabilization.