Stationary and Time-resolved Resonance Raman Spectra of His77 and Met95 Mutants of the Isolated Heme Domain of a Direct Oxygen Sensor from Escherichia coli

Abstract

The heme environments of Met 95 and His 77 mutants of the isolated heme-bound PAS domain (Escherichia coli DOS PAS) of a direct oxygen sensing protein from E. coli (E. coli DOS) were investigated with resonance Raman (RR) spectroscopy and compared with the wild type (WT) enzyme. The RR spectra of both the reduced and oxidized WT enzyme were characteristic of six-coordinate low spin heme complexes from pH 4 to 10. The time-resolved RR spectra of the photodissociated CO-WT complex had an iron-His stretching band ( Fe-His ) at 214 cm ؊1 , and the Fe-CO versus CO plot of CO-WT E. coli DOS PAS fell on the line of His-coordinated heme proteins. The photodissociated CO-H77A mutant complex did not yield the Fe-His band but gave a Fe-Im band in the presence of imidazole. The RR spectrum of the oxidized M95A mutant was that of a six-coordinate low spin complex (i.e. the same as that of the WT enzyme), whereas the reduced mutant appeared to contain a fivecoordinate heme complex. Taken Heme-containing signal-transducing proteins (1-3) respond to diatomic molecules, which act as physiological, environmental messengers. This has attracted the attention of biophysical chemists. The O 2 sensing proteins so far identified include FixL (an oxygen-sensing kinase of Rhizobia meliloti) (1, 4), HemAT (an oxygen sensor heme protein discovered from Bacillus subtilis (HemAT-Bs) and Halobacterium salinarium (HemAT-Hs)) (5, 6), PDEA1 (7), and putatively a heme protein from E. coli (designated Escherichia coli DOS) (8). There is only one CO sensor protein known (CooA, a CO-binding transcriptional regulation factor from Rhodospirillum rubrum) (9, 10) and one NO sensor (soluble guanylate cyclase) (11,12). In each case, binding of an external ligand to the heme located in an N-terminal sensory domain transmits a signal to the functional C-terminal domain (either enzymatic or DNA binding). We are curious to know how these proteins recognize a specific diatomic molecule to generate the appropriate physiological response and what kind of structural changes occur to transmit the signal from the sensory domain to the functional domain.The sensory domain of FixL belongs to the large family of signal-transducing PAS domain 1 proteins, whereas those of HemAT, CooA, and soluble guanylate cyclase do not. The PAS domain proteins found in eukarya, archaea, and bacteria contain a partly conserved tertiary structure despite their limited sequence homology (Ͻ15%) and dissimilar cofactors (13). Although structures of three PAS proteins including the human voltage sensor (HERG) (14), the rhizobial oxygen sensor (FixL) (15, 16), and bacterial light sensor (PYP) (17) have been solved, interactions between the sensory domain and the functional domain are not clearly understood. Namely, hydrophobic interactions seem important to regulate the K ϩ channel of HERG, whereas polar interactions in the EF loop of the PAS domain seem to be essential to PYP. In the case of FixL, either a protein conformational change associated with the location of the heme iron (in-pla...

Binding of Oxygen and Carbon Monoxide to a Heme-regulated Phosphodiesterase from Escherichia coli

“…They reported that Ec DOS is a direct O 2 sensor enzyme that takes advantage of its characteristic O 2 binding affinity to modulate catalysis. The association rate constant (k on ) for O 2 (13 M) and CO (10 M) were similar for the isolated PAS domain (14). To date, the corresponding association kinetics and equilibrium constants have not been reported for the fulllength Ec DOS.…”

“…Cloning and expression in E. coli and purification of full-length Ec DOS (amino acids 1-807) and the isolated heme-bound PAS domain (amino acids 1-147) were performed as described previously (1,2). Site-directed cassette mutagenesis was performed using oligonucleotides.…”

“…The FT IR spectrum of the CO complex of the full-length wild-type enzyme was similar to that of the isolated PAS domain. 2 Notably, in addition to the band at 1970 cm Ϫ1 , a band at 1925 cm Ϫ1 was consistently observed in the spectra of the wild-type enzyme and Met-95 mutants. …”

“…The basic physicochemical characteristics and function of this enzyme have been partially elucidated by our group and that of Kitagawa et al. (1,2). PDE activity is dependent on the redox state of Ec DOS in that the enzyme is active only when the heme is in the Fe(II) state.…”

“…In the present study, we report rate and equilibrium constants for O 2 and CO binding to the full-length enzyme in the Fe(II) state, isolated heme-bound PAS domain, and Met-95 * The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C.…”