scholarly journals Assessment of enzyme active site positioning and tests of catalytic mechanisms through X-ray–derived conformational ensembles

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (52) ◽  
pp. 33204-33215
Author(s):  
Filip Yabukarski ◽  
Justin T. Biel ◽  
Margaux M. Pinney ◽  
Tzanko Doukov ◽  
Alexander S. Powers ◽  
...  

How enzymes achieve their enormous rate enhancements remains a central question in biology, and our understanding to date has impacted drug development, influenced enzyme design, and deepened our appreciation of evolutionary processes. While enzymes position catalytic and reactant groups in active sites, physics requires that atoms undergo constant motion. Numerous proposals have invoked positioning or motions as central for enzyme function, but a scarcity of experimental data has limited our understanding of positioning and motion, their relative importance, and their changes through the enzyme’s reaction cycle. To examine positioning and motions and test catalytic proposals, we collected “room temperature” X-ray crystallography data for Pseudomonas putida ketosteroid isomerase (KSI), and we obtained conformational ensembles for this and a homologous KSI from multiple PDB crystal structures. Ensemble analyses indicated limited change through KSI’s reaction cycle. Active site positioning was on the 1- to 1.5-Å scale, and was not exceptional compared to noncatalytic groups. The KSI ensembles provided evidence against catalytic proposals invoking oxyanion hole geometric discrimination between the ground state and transition state or highly precise general base positioning. Instead, increasing or decreasing positioning of KSI’s general base reduced catalysis, suggesting optimized Ångstrom-scale conformational heterogeneity that allows KSI to efficiently catalyze multiple reaction steps. Ensemble analyses of surrounding groups for WT and mutant KSIs provided insights into the forces and interactions that allow and limit active-site motions. Most generally, this ensemble perspective extends traditional structure–function relationships, providing the basis for a new era of “ensemble–function” interrogation of enzymes.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filip Yabukarski ◽  
Justin T Biel ◽  
Margaux M Pinney ◽  
Tzanko Doukov ◽  
Alexander S Powers ◽  
...  

AbstractHow enzymes achieve their enormous rate enhancements remains a central question in biology, and our understanding to date has impacted drug development, influenced enzyme design, and deepened our appreciation of evolutionary processes. While enzymes position catalytic and reactant groups in active sites, physics requires that atoms undergo constant motion. Numerous proposals have invoked positioning or motions as central for enzyme function, but a scarcity of experimental data has limited our understanding of positioning and motion, their relative importance, and their changes through the enzyme’s reaction cycle. To examine positioning and motions and test catalytic proposals, we collected “room temperature” X-ray crystallography data for P. putida ketosteroid isomerase (KSI), and we obtained conformational ensembles for this and a homologous KSI from multiple PDB crystal structures. Ensemble analyses indicated limited change through KSI’s reaction cycle. Active site positioning was on the 1-1.5 Å scale, and was not exceptional compared to non-catalytic groups. The KSI ensembles provided evidence against catalytic proposals invoking oxyanion hole geometric discrimination between the ground state and transition state or highly precise general base positioning. Instead, increasing or decreasing positioning of KSI’s general base reduced catalysis, suggesting optimized Ångstrom-scale conformational heterogeneity that allows KSI to efficiently catalyze multiple reaction steps. Ensemble analyses of surrounding groups for WT and mutant KSIs provided insights into the forces and interactions that allow and limit active site motions. Most generally, this ensemble perspective extends traditional structure–function relationships, providing the basis for a new era of “ensemble–function” interrogation of enzymes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aron Broom ◽  
Rojo V. Rakotoharisoa ◽  
Michael C. Thompson ◽  
Niayesh Zarifi ◽  
Erin Nguyen ◽  
...  

Abstract The creation of artificial enzymes is a key objective of computational protein design. Although de novo enzymes have been successfully designed, these exhibit low catalytic efficiencies, requiring directed evolution to improve activity. Here, we use room-temperature X-ray crystallography to study changes in the conformational ensemble during evolution of the designed Kemp eliminase HG3 (kcat/KM 146 M−1s−1). We observe that catalytic residues are increasingly rigidified, the active site becomes better pre-organized, and its entrance is widened. Based on these observations, we engineer HG4, an efficient biocatalyst (kcat/KM 103,000 M−1s−1) containing key first and second-shell mutations found during evolution. HG4 structures reveal that its active site is pre-organized and rigidified for efficient catalysis. Our results show how directed evolution circumvents challenges inherent to enzyme design by shifting conformational ensembles to favor catalytically-productive sub-states, and suggest improvements to the design methodology that incorporate ensemble modeling of crystallographic data.


Author(s):  
Aron Broom ◽  
Rojo V. Rakotoharisoa ◽  
Michael C. Thompson ◽  
Niayesh Zarifi ◽  
Erin Nguyen ◽  
...  

AbstractThe creation of artificial enzymes is a key objective of computational protein design. Although de novo enzymes have been successfully designed, these exhibit low catalytic efficiencies, requiring directed evolution to improve activity. Here, we used room-temperature X-ray crystallography to study changes in the conformational ensemble during evolution of the designed Kemp eliminase HG3 (kcat/KM 160 M−1s−1). We observed that catalytic residues were increasingly rigidified, the active site became better pre-organized, and its entrance was widened. Based on these observations, we engineered HG4, an efficient biocatalyst (kcat/KM 120,000 M−1s−1) containing active-site mutations found during evolution but not distal ones. HG4 structures revealed that its active site was pre-organized and rigidified for efficient catalysis. Our results show how directed evolution circumvents challenges inherent to enzyme design by shifting conformational ensembles to favor catalytically-productive sub-states, and suggest improvements to the design methodology that incorporate ensemble modeling of crystallographic data.


2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S Oxford ◽  
Patricia Novelli ◽  
Armine Sefton ◽  
Robert Lambkin

The mushroom shaped outer spike protein of influenza, neuraminidase, was first discovered nearly 60 years ago. Its importance in viral replication was soon recognised both at the point of viral release from the cell and also enabling passage of virus through nasal fluid to reach the cell. The enzyme active site was identified by x-ray crystallography, allowing an atomic study of interaction of enzyme with the sialic acid substrate. Analogues could then be identified and synthesized and became a focused target for antivirals. With the current threat of bioterrorism and the potential for the emergence of a new pandemic strain in the near future, efforts are underway to develop more potent second-generation anti-neuraminidase inhibitors with enhanced protective and therapeutic effects. Here we review older and newer neuraminidase inhibitors and the role that they will play in the fight against influenza in its epidemic and pandemic face.


2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1669-1676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Demetres D. Leonidas ◽  
Gayatri B. Chavali ◽  
Anwar M. Jardine ◽  
Songlin Li ◽  
Robert Shapiro ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (a1) ◽  
pp. C1211-C1211
Author(s):  
Joseph Ng ◽  
Ronny Hughes ◽  
Michelle Morris ◽  
Leighton Coates ◽  
Matthew Blakeley ◽  
...  

Soluble inorganic pyrophosphatase (IPPase) catalyzes the hydrolysis of inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi) to form orthophosphate (Pi). The action of this enzyme shifts the overall equilibrium in favor of synthesis during a number of ATP-dependent cellular processes such as in the polymerization of nucleic acids, production of coenzymes and proteins and sulfate assimilation pathways. Two Neutron crystallographic (2.10-2.50Å) and five high-resolution X-ray (0.99Å-1.92Å) structures of the archaeal IPPase from Thermococcus thioreducens have been determined under both cryo and room temperatures. The structures determined include the recombinant IPPase bound to Mg+2, Ca+2, Br-, SO2-2 or PO4-2 involving those with non-hydrolyzed and hydrolyzed pyrophosphate complexes. All the crystallographic structures provide snapshots of the active site corresponding to different stages of the hydrolysis of inorganic pyrophosphate. As a result, a structure-based model of IPPase catalysis is devised showing the enzyme's low-energy conformations, hydration states, movements and nucleophile generation within the active site.


Our understanding of the function of protein molecules was revolutionized in the 1960s by the use of X-ray crystallography to give a three-dimensional picture of their structures at atomic resolution. The structure of myoglobin was rapidly followed by the structure of several hydrolytic enzymes such as lysozyme, carboxypeptidase, ribonuclease, chymotrypsin, and subtilisin; and, not long after, by the much more complicated structure of haemoglobin, composed of four myoglobin-like molecules interacting with each other. The first hydrolytic enzyme structures showed us how enzymes perform biological catalysis by immobilizing their substrates at the enzyme active site, and gave us definite ideas about the specific functions of different parts of the protein molecules. These ideas had to be treated as hypotheses, because there was no direct method to check them. A few particular points could be proved by cunning but tedious experiments.


2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 2430-2439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise J. Gourlay ◽  
Silvia Sommaruga ◽  
Marco Nardini ◽  
Paola Sperandeo ◽  
Gianni Dehò ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 772-779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hirofumi Komori ◽  
Ryosuke Sugiyama ◽  
Kunishige Kataoka ◽  
Kentaro Miyazaki ◽  
Yoshiki Higuchi ◽  
...  

Structural models determined by X-ray crystallography play a central role in understanding the catalytic mechanism of enzymes. However, X-ray radiation generates hydrated electrons that can cause significant damage to the active sites of metalloenzymes. In the present study, crystal structures of the multicopper oxidases (MCOs) CueO fromEscherichia coliand laccase from a metagenome were determined. Diffraction data were obtained from a single crystal under low to high X-ray dose conditions. At low levels of X-ray exposure, unambiguous electron density for an O atom was observed inside the trinuclear copper centre (TNC) in both MCOs. The gradual reduction of copper by hydrated electrons monitored by measurement of the Cu K-edge X-ray absorption spectra led to the disappearance of the electron density for the O atom. In addition, the size of the copper triangle was enlarged by a two-step shift in the location of the type III coppers owing to reduction. Further, binding of O2to the TNC after its full reduction was observed in the case of the laccase. Based on these novel structural findings, the diverse resting structures of the MCOs and their four-electron O2-reduction process are discussed.


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