scholarly journals Introducing a New Bond-Forming Activity in an Archaeal DNA Polymerase by Structure-Guided Enzyme Redesign

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tushar Aggarwal ◽  
William A Hansen ◽  
Jonathan Hong ◽  
Abir Ganguly ◽  
Darrin M York ◽  
...  

DNA polymerases have evolved to feature a highly conserved activity across the tree of life: formation of, without exception, phosphodiester linkages that create the repeating sugar-phosphate backbone of DNA. Can this linkage selectivity observed in nature be overcome by design to produce non-natural nucleic acids? Here, we report that structure-guided redesign of an archaeal DNA polymerase (9°N) enables a new polymerase activity that is undetectable in the wild type enzyme: catalyzing the formation of N3′→P5′ phosphoramidate linkages in the presence of 3′-amino-2′,3′-dideoxynucleoside 5′-triphosphate (3′-NH2-ddNTP) building blocks. Replacing a highly conserved metal-binding aspartate in the 9°N active site (Asp-404) with asparagine was key to the emergence of this unnatural enzyme activity. Molecular dynamics simulations provided insights into how a single substitution could enhance the productive positioning of the 3′-amino nucleophile in the active site. Further remodeling of the protein-nucleic acid interface with substitutions in the finger subdomain led to a quadruple-mutant variant (9°N-NRQS) that incorporated 3′-NH2-ddNTPs into a 3′-amino-primer on various DNA templates. This work presents the first example of an active-site substitution of a metal-binding residue that leads to a novel activity in a DNA polymerase, and sheds light on the molecular basis of substrate fidelity and latent promiscuity in enzymes.

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. BBI.S25626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khadija Amine ◽  
Lamia Miri ◽  
Adil Naimi ◽  
Rachid Saile ◽  
Abderrahmane El Kharrim ◽  
...  

There is some evidence linking the mammalian paraoxonase-1 (PON1) loops (L1 and L2) to an increased flexibility and reactivity of its active site with potential substrates. The aim of this work is to study the structural, dynamical, and functional effects of the most flexible regions close to the active site and to determine the impact of mutations on the protein. For both models, wild-type (PON1wild) and PON1 mutant (PON1mut) models, the L1 loop and Q/R and L/M mutations were constructed using MODELLER software. Molecular dynamics simulations of 20 ns at 300 K on fully modeled PON1wild and PON1mut apoenzyme have been done. Detailed analyses of the root-mean-square deviation and fluctuations, H-bonding pattern, and torsion angles have been performed. The PON1wild results were then compared with those obtained for the PON1mut. Our results show that the active site in the wild-type structure is characterized by two distinct movements of opened and closed conformations of the L1 and L2 loops. The alternating and repetitive movement of loops at specific times is consistent with the presence of 11 defined hydrogen bonds. In the PON1mut, these open-closed movements are therefore totally influenced and repressed by the Q/R and L/M mutations. In fact, these mutations seem to impact the PON1mut active site by directly reducing the catalytic core flexibility, while maintaining a significant mobility of the switch regions delineated by the loops surrounding the active site. The impact of the studied mutations on structure and dynamics proprieties of the protein may subsequently contribute to the loss of both flexibility and activity of the PON1 enzyme.


1991 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 4786-4795
Author(s):  
J S Gibbs ◽  
K Weisshart ◽  
P Digard ◽  
A deBruynKops ◽  
D M Knipe ◽  
...  

Most DNA polymerases are multifunctional proteins that possess both polymerizing and exonucleolytic activities. For Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I and its relatives, polymerase and exonuclease activities reside on distinct, separable domains of the same polypeptide. The catalytic subunits of the alpha-like DNA polymerase family share regions of sequence homology with the 3'-5' exonuclease active site of DNA polymerase I; in certain alpha-like DNA polymerases, these regions of homology have been shown to be important for exonuclease activity. This finding has led to the hypothesis that alpha-like DNA polymerases also contain a distinct 3'-5' exonuclease domain. We have introduced conservative substitutions into a 3'-5' exonuclease active site homology in the gene encoding herpes simplex virus DNA polymerase, an alpha-like polymerase. Two mutants were severely impaired for viral DNA replication and polymerase activity. The mutants were not detectably affected in the ability of the polymerase to interact with its accessory protein, UL42, or to colocalize in infected cell nuclei with the major viral DNA-binding protein, ICP8, suggesting that the mutation did not exert global effects on protein folding. The results raise the possibility that there is a fundamental difference between alpha-like DNA polymerases and E. coli DNA polymerase I, with less distinction between 3'-5' exonuclease and polymerase functions in alpha-like DNA polymerases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (13) ◽  
pp. 7276-7283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor S. Lelyveld ◽  
Wen Zhang ◽  
Jack W. Szostak

All known polymerases copy genetic material by catalyzing phosphodiester bond formation. This highly conserved activity proceeds by a common mechanism, such that incorporated nucleoside analogs terminate chain elongation if the resulting primer strand lacks a terminal hydroxyl group. Even conservatively substituted 3′-amino nucleotides generally act as chain terminators, and no enzymatic pathway for their polymerization has yet been found. Although 3′-amino nucleotides can be chemically coupled to yield stable oligonucleotides containing N3′→P5′ phosphoramidate (NP) bonds, no such internucleotide linkages are known to occur in nature. Here, we report that 3′-amino terminated primers are, in fact, slowly extended by the DNA polymerase from B. stearothermophilus in a template-directed manner. When its cofactor is Ca2+ rather than Mg2+, the reaction is fivefold faster, permitting multiple turnover NP bond formation to yield NP-DNA strands from the corresponding 3′-amino-2′,3′-dideoxynucleoside 5′-triphosphates. A single active site mutation further enhances the rate of NP-DNA synthesis by an additional 21-fold. We show that DNA-dependent NP-DNA polymerase activity depends on conserved active site residues and propose a likely mechanism for this activity based on a series of crystal structures of bound complexes. Our results significantly broaden the catalytic scope of polymerase activity and suggest the feasibility of a genetic transition between native nucleic acids and NP-DNA.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler J. Doyon ◽  
Kevin Skinner ◽  
Di Yang ◽  
Leena Mallik ◽  
Troy Wymore ◽  
...  

<div> <div> <div> <p>Non-heme iron (NHI) enzymes perform a variety of oxidative rearrangements to advance simple building blocks toward complex molecular scaffolds within secondary metabolite pathways. Many of these transformations occur with selectivity that is unprecedented in small molecule catalysis, spurring an interest in the enzymatic processes which lead to a particular rearrangement. In-depth investigations of NHI mechanisms examine the source of this selectivity and can offer inspiration for the development of novel synthetic transformations. However, the mechanistic details of many NHI-catalyzed rearrangements remain underexplored, hindering full characterization of the chemistry accessible to this functionally diverse class of enzymes. For NHI-catalyzed rearrangements which have been investigated, mechanistic proposals often describe one-electron processes, followed by single electron oxidation from the substrate to the iron(III)-hydroxyl active site species. Here, we examine the ring expansion mechanism employed in fungal tropolone biosynthesis. TropC, an α-ketoglutarate- dependent NHI dioxygenase, catalyzes a ring expansion in the biosynthesis of tropolone natural product stipitatic acid through an under-studied mechanism. Investigation of both polar and radical mechanistic proposals suggests tropolones are constructed through a radical ring expansion. This biosynthetic route to tropolones is supported by X-ray crystal structure data combined with molecular dynamics simulations, alanine-scanning of active site residues, assessed reactivity of putative biosynthetic intermediates, and quantum mechanical (QM) calculations. These studies support a radical ring expansion in fungal tropolone biosynthesis. </p> </div> </div> </div>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler J. Doyon ◽  
Kevin Skinner ◽  
Di Yang ◽  
Leena Mallik ◽  
Troy Wymore ◽  
...  

<div> <div> <div> <p>Non-heme iron (NHI) enzymes perform a variety of oxidative rearrangements to advance simple building blocks toward complex molecular scaffolds within secondary metabolite pathways. Many of these transformations occur with selectivity that is unprecedented in small molecule catalysis, spurring an interest in the enzymatic processes which lead to a particular rearrangement. In-depth investigations of NHI mechanisms examine the source of this selectivity and can offer inspiration for the development of novel synthetic transformations. However, the mechanistic details of many NHI-catalyzed rearrangements remain underexplored, hindering full characterization of the chemistry accessible to this functionally diverse class of enzymes. For NHI-catalyzed rearrangements which have been investigated, mechanistic proposals often describe one-electron processes, followed by single electron oxidation from the substrate to the iron(III)-hydroxyl active site species. Here, we examine the ring expansion mechanism employed in fungal tropolone biosynthesis. TropC, an α-ketoglutarate- dependent NHI dioxygenase, catalyzes a ring expansion in the biosynthesis of tropolone natural product stipitatic acid through an under-studied mechanism. Investigation of both polar and radical mechanistic proposals suggests tropolones are constructed through a radical ring expansion. This biosynthetic route to tropolones is supported by X-ray crystal structure data combined with molecular dynamics simulations, alanine-scanning of active site residues, assessed reactivity of putative biosynthetic intermediates, and quantum mechanical (QM) calculations. These studies support a radical ring expansion in fungal tropolone biosynthesis. </p> </div> </div> </div>


2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (28) ◽  
pp. 9542-9550
Author(s):  
Alfredo J. Hernandez ◽  
Seung-Joo Lee ◽  
Seungwoo Chang ◽  
Jaehun A. Lee ◽  
Joseph J. Loparo ◽  
...  

Bacteriophage T7 encodes its own DNA polymerase, the product of gene 5 (gp5). In isolation, gp5 is a DNA polymerase of low processivity. However, gp5 becomes highly processive upon formation of a complex with Escherichia coli thioredoxin, the product of the trxA gene. Expression of a gp5 variant in which aspartate residues in the metal-binding site of the polymerase domain were replaced by alanine is highly toxic to E. coli cells. This toxicity depends on the presence of a functional E. coli trxA allele and T7 RNA polymerase-driven expression but is independent of the exonuclease activity of gp5. In vitro, the purified gp5 variant is devoid of any detectable polymerase activity and inhibited DNA synthesis by the replisomes of E. coli and T7 in the presence of thioredoxin by forming a stable complex with DNA that prevents replication. On the other hand, the highly homologous Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I containing an engineered gp5 thioredoxin-binding domain did not exhibit toxicity. We conclude that gp5 alleles encoding inactive polymerases, in combination with thioredoxin, could be useful as a shutoff mechanism in the design of a bacterial cell-growth system.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
zhen liu ◽  
Carla Calvó-Tusell ◽  
Andrew Z. Zhou ◽  
kai chen ◽  
Marc Garcia-Borràs ◽  
...  

<p>Whereas enzymatic asymmetric carbene N–H insertion is a powerful method for preparation of chiral amines in principle, it has suffered from limited enantioselectivity in practice. In this work, we demonstrate that engineered cytochrome P450 enzymes can catalyze this abiological C–N bond-forming reaction with excellent activity and selectivity (up to 32,100 TTN, >99% yield and 98% e.e.) to prepare a series of bioactive <i>α</i>-amino lactones, which have not been accessed previously using a carbene insertion strategy. The enzymes are dual-function catalysts, effecting both carbene transfer and enantioselective proton-transfer catalysis, in a single active site. To gain insight into the mechanism of the enzymatic transformation, especially in the asymmetric protonation step, we performed extensive molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Computational studies uncover the important roles of active-site residues that enable high activity and selectivity through interacting with the carbene intermediate and the amine substrate, and directing water molecules for selective proton transfer.<br></p><p></p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
zhen liu ◽  
Carla Calvó-Tusell ◽  
Andrew Z. Zhou ◽  
kai chen ◽  
Marc Garcia-Borràs ◽  
...  

<p>Whereas enzymatic asymmetric carbene N–H insertion is a powerful method for preparation of chiral amines in principle, it has suffered from limited enantioselectivity in practice. In this work, we demonstrate that engineered cytochrome P450 enzymes can catalyze this abiological C–N bond-forming reaction with excellent activity and selectivity (up to 32,100 TTN, >99% yield and 98% e.e.) to prepare a series of bioactive <i>α</i>-amino lactones, which have not been accessed previously using a carbene insertion strategy. The enzymes are dual-function catalysts, effecting both carbene transfer and enantioselective proton-transfer catalysis, in a single active site. To gain insight into the mechanism of the enzymatic transformation, especially in the asymmetric protonation step, we performed extensive molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Computational studies uncover the important roles of active-site residues that enable high activity and selectivity through interacting with the carbene intermediate and the amine substrate, and directing water molecules for selective proton transfer.<br></p><p></p>


1991 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 4786-4795 ◽  
Author(s):  
J S Gibbs ◽  
K Weisshart ◽  
P Digard ◽  
A deBruynKops ◽  
D M Knipe ◽  
...  

Most DNA polymerases are multifunctional proteins that possess both polymerizing and exonucleolytic activities. For Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I and its relatives, polymerase and exonuclease activities reside on distinct, separable domains of the same polypeptide. The catalytic subunits of the alpha-like DNA polymerase family share regions of sequence homology with the 3'-5' exonuclease active site of DNA polymerase I; in certain alpha-like DNA polymerases, these regions of homology have been shown to be important for exonuclease activity. This finding has led to the hypothesis that alpha-like DNA polymerases also contain a distinct 3'-5' exonuclease domain. We have introduced conservative substitutions into a 3'-5' exonuclease active site homology in the gene encoding herpes simplex virus DNA polymerase, an alpha-like polymerase. Two mutants were severely impaired for viral DNA replication and polymerase activity. The mutants were not detectably affected in the ability of the polymerase to interact with its accessory protein, UL42, or to colocalize in infected cell nuclei with the major viral DNA-binding protein, ICP8, suggesting that the mutation did not exert global effects on protein folding. The results raise the possibility that there is a fundamental difference between alpha-like DNA polymerases and E. coli DNA polymerase I, with less distinction between 3'-5' exonuclease and polymerase functions in alpha-like DNA polymerases.


Biochemistry ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 1063-1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramya Parasuram ◽  
Timothy A. Coulther ◽  
Judith M. Hollander ◽  
Elise Keston-Smith ◽  
Mary Jo Ondrechen ◽  
...  

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