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Cysteamine dioxygenase (ADO) is a thiol dioxygenase whose study has been stagnated by the ambiguity as to whether or not it possesses an anticipated protein‐derived cofactor. Reported herein is the discovery and elucidation of a Cys‐Tyr cofactor in human ADO, crosslinked between Cys220 and Tyr222 through a thioether (C−S) bond. By genetically incorporating an unnatural amino acid, 3,5‐difluoro‐tyrosine (F₂‐Tyr), specifically into Tyr222 of human ADO, an autocatalytic oxidative carbon–fluorine bond activation and fluoride release were identified by mass spectrometry and¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy. These results suggest that the cofactor biogenesis is executed by a powerful oxidant during an autocatalytic process. Unlike that of cysteine dioxygenase, the crosslinking results in a minimal structural change of the protein and it is not detectable by routine low‐resolution techniques. Finally, a new sequence motif, C‐X‐Y‐Y(F), is proposed for identifying the Cys‐Tyr crosslink.

 

Mononuclear, nonheme iron enzymes are known for their ability to mediate the oxidation of organic molecules in primary and secondary metabolism. One class of such enzymes is the diol dioxygenases that catalyze the oxidative cleavage of aromatic molecules. They come in two varieties, intradiol and extradiol, that add molecular oxygen symmetrically or asymmetrically, respectively. 3-Hydroxyanthranilate 3,4-dioxygenase (HAO) is a type III extradiol dioxygenase found in metabolic pathways related to breaking down tryptophan 2-nitrobenzoic acid. The product of HAO is unstable and either nonenzymatically cyclizes to quinolinic acid (QUIN), an endogenous neurotoxin and the universal precursor for NAD(P) biosynthesis, or is enzymatically processed, ultimately being fully oxidized to CO2 in the citric acid cycle. Elevation of QUIN is associated with neurodegenerative diseases, making HAO biomedically relevant. This article summarizes the history and current state of knowledge of the biochemistry of HAO. Recent studie that utilized X-ray crystallography of the in crystallo reactions coupled with various spectroscopies and activity measurements to elucidate much of the chemical mechanism catalyzed by HAO are highlighted. 

The synthesis of quinolinic acid from tryptophan is a critical step in the de novo biosynthesis of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD⁺) in mammals. Herein, the nonheme iron-based 3-hydroxyanthranilate-3,4-dioxygenase responsible for quinolinic acid production was studied by performing time-resolvedin crystalloreactions monitored by UV-vis microspectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography. Seven catalytic intermediates were kinetically and structurally resolved in the crystalline state, and each accompanies protein conformational changes at the active site. Among them, a monooxygenated, seven-membered lactone intermediate as a monodentate ligand of the iron center at 1.59-Å resolution was captured, which presumably corresponds to a substrate-based radical species observed by EPR using a slurry of small-sized single crystals. Other structural snapshots determined at around 2.0-Å resolution include monodentate and subsequently bidentate coordinated substrate, superoxo, alkylperoxo, and two metal-bound enol tautomers of the unstable dioxygenase product. These results reveal a detailed stepwise O-atom transfer dioxygenase mechanism along with potential isomerization activity that fine-tunes product profiling and affects the production of quinolinic acid at a junction of the metabolic pathway.

 

The kynurenine pathway is the primary route for L-tryptophan degradation in mammals. Intermediates and side products of this pathway are involved in immune response and neurodegenerative diseases. This makes the study of enzymes, especially those from mammalian sources, of the kynurenine pathway worthwhile. Recent studies on a bacterial version of an enzyme of this pathway, 2-aminomuconate semialdehyde (2-AMS) dehydrogenase (AMSDH), have provided a detailed understanding of the catalytic mechanism and identified residues conserved for muconate semialdehyde recognition and activation. Findings from the bacterial enzyme have prompted the reconsideration of the function of a previously identified human aldehyde dehydrogenase, ALDH8A1 (or ALDH12), which was annotated as a retinal dehydrogenase based on its ability to preferentially oxidize 9-cis-retinal over trans-retinal. Here, we provide compelling bioinformatics and experimental evidence that human ALDH8A1 should be reassigned to the missing 2-AMS dehydrogenase of the kynurenine metabolic pathway. For the first time, the product of the semialdehyde oxidation by AMSDH is also revealed by NMR and high-resolution MS. We found that ALDH8A1 catalyzes the NAD+ -dependent oxidation of 2- AMS with a catalytic efficiency equivalent to that of AMSDH from the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens. Substitution of active-site residues required for substrate recognition, binding, and isomerization in the bacterial enzyme resulted in human ALDH8A1 variants with 160-fold increased Km or no detectable activity. In conclusion, this molecular study establishes an additional enzymatic step in an important human pathway for tryptophan catabolism. 

Cysteine dioxygenase (CDO) plays an essential role in sulfur metabolism by regulating homeostatic levels of cysteine. Human CDO contains a post-translationally generated Cys93–Tyr157 cross-linked cofactor. Here, we investigated this Cys–Tyr cross-linking by incorporating unnatural tyrosines in place of Tyr157 via a genetic method. The catalytically active variants were obtained with a thioether bond between Cys93 and the halogen-substituted Tyr157, and we determined the crystal structures of both wild-type and engineered CDO variants in the purely uncross-linked form and with a mature cofactor. Along with mass spectrometry and 19F NMR, these data indicated that the enzyme could catalyze oxidative C–F or C–Cl bond cleavage, resulting in a substantial conformational change of both Cys93 and Tyr157 during cofactor assembly. These findings provide insights into the mechanism of Cys–Tyr cofactor biogenesis and may aid the development of bioinspired aromatic carbon–halogen bond activation. 

3-Hydroxyanthranilate 3,4-dioxygenase (HAO) is an iron-dependent protein that activates O2 and inserts both O atoms into 3- hydroxyanthranilate (3-HAA). An intriguing question is how HAO can rapidly bind O2, even though local O2 concentrations and diffusion rates are relatively low. Here, a close inspection of the HAO structures revealed that substrate- and inhibitor-bound structures exhibit a closed conformation with three hydrophobic loop regions moving toward the catalytic iron center, whereas the ligand-free structure is open. We hypothesized that these loop movements enhance O2 binding to the binary complex of HAO and to 3-HAA. We found that the carboxyl end of 3-HAA triggers the changes in two loop regions and that the third loop movement appears to be driven by an H-bond interaction between Asn-27 and Ile-142. Mutational analyses revealed that N27A, I142A, and I142P variants cannot form a closed conformation, and steady-state kinetic assays indicated that these variants have a substantially higher Km for O2 than wild-type HAO. This observation suggested enhanced hydrophobicity at the iron center resulting from the concerted loop movements after the binding of the primary substrate, which is hydrophilic. Given that O2 is nonpolar, the increased hydrophobicity at the Fe center of the complex appears to be essential for rapid O2 binding and activation, explaining the reason for the 3-HAA–induced loop movements. As substrate binding–induced open-to-closed conformational changes are common, the results reported here may help further our understanding of how oxygen is enriched in the nonheme Fe-dependent dioxygenases.