Crystal structures of pyrrolidone-carboxylate peptidase I from Deinococcus radiodurans reveal the mechanism of L-pyroglutamate recognition

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-316
Author(s):  
Richa Agrawal ◽  
Rahul Singh ◽  
Ashwani Kumar ◽  
Amit Kumar ◽  
Ravindra D. Makde

Pyrrolidone-carboxylate peptidase (PCP) catalyzes the removal of an unusual amino acid, L-pyroglutamate (pG), from the N-termini of peptides and proteins. It has implications in the functional regulation of different peptides in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. However, the pG-recognition mechanism of the PCP enzyme remains largely unknown. Here, crystal structures of PCP I from Deinococcus radiodurans (PCPdr) are reported in pG-free and pG-bound forms at resolutions of 1.73 and 1.55 Å, respectively. Four protomers in PCPdr form a tetrameric structure. The residues responsible for recognizing the pG residue are mostly contributed by a flexible loop (loop A) that is present near the active site. These residues are conserved in all known PCPs I, including those from mammals. Phe9 and Phe12 of loop A form stacking interactions with the pyrrolidone ring of pG, while Asn18 forms a hydrogen bond to OE of pG. The main chain of a nonconserved residue, Leu71, forms two hydrogen bonds to NH and OE of pG. Thus, pG is recognized in the S1 substrate subsite of the enzyme by both van der Waals and polar interactions, which provide specificity for the pG residue of the peptide. In contrast to previously reported PCP I structures, the PCPdr tetramer is in a closed conformation with an inaccessible active site. The structures show that the active site can be accessed by the substrates via disordering of loop A. This disordering could also prevent product inhibition by releasing the bound pG product from the S1 subsite, thus allowing the enzyme to engage a fresh substrate.

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte A. Softley ◽  
Krzysztof M. Zak ◽  
Mark J. Bostock ◽  
Roberto Fino ◽  
Richard Xu Zhou ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Multidrug resistance among Gram-negative bacteria is a major global public health threat. Metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) target the most widely used antibiotic class, the β-lactams, including the most recent generation of carbapenems. Interspecies spread renders these enzymes a serious clinical threat, and there are no clinically available inhibitors. We present the crystal structures of IMP-13, a structurally uncharacterized MBL from the Gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa found in clinical outbreaks globally, and characterize the binding using solution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. The crystal structures of apo IMP-13 and IMP-13 bound to four clinically relevant carbapenem antibiotics (doripenem, ertapenem, imipenem, and meropenem) are presented. Active-site plasticity and the active-site loop, where a tryptophan residue stabilizes the antibiotic core scaffold, are essential to the substrate-binding mechanism. The conserved carbapenem scaffold plays the most significant role in IMP-13 binding, explaining the broad substrate specificity. The observed plasticity and substrate-locking mechanism provide opportunities for rational drug design of novel metallo-β-lactamase inhibitors, essential in the fight against antibiotic resistance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Zeug ◽  
Nebojsa Markovic ◽  
Cristina V. Iancu ◽  
Joanna Tripp ◽  
Mislav Oreb ◽  
...  

AbstractHydroxybenzoic acids, like gallic acid and protocatechuic acid, are highly abundant natural compounds. In biotechnology, they serve as critical precursors for various molecules in heterologous production pathways, but a major bottleneck is these acids’ non-oxidative decarboxylation to hydroxybenzenes. Optimizing this step by pathway and enzyme engineering is tedious, partly because of the complicating cofactor dependencies of the commonly used prFMN-dependent decarboxylases. Here, we report the crystal structures (1.5–1.9 Å) of two homologous fungal decarboxylases, AGDC1 from Arxula adenivorans, and PPP2 from Madurella mycetomatis. Remarkably, both decarboxylases are cofactor independent and are superior to prFMN-dependent decarboxylases when heterologously expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The organization of their active site, together with mutational studies, suggests a novel decarboxylation mechanism that combines acid–base catalysis and transition state stabilization. Both enzymes are trimers, with a central potassium binding site. In each monomer, potassium introduces a local twist in a β-sheet close to the active site, which primes the critical H86-D40 dyad for catalysis. A conserved pair of tryptophans, W35 and W61, acts like a clamp that destabilizes the substrate by twisting its carboxyl group relative to the phenol moiety. These findings reveal AGDC1 and PPP2 as founding members of a so far overlooked group of cofactor independent decarboxylases and suggest strategies to engineer their unique chemistry for a wide variety of biotechnological applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dariusz Czernecki ◽  
Pierre Legrand ◽  
Mustafa Tekpinar ◽  
Sandrine Rosario ◽  
Pierre-Alexandre Kaminski ◽  
...  

AbstractBacteriophages have long been known to use modified bases in their DNA to prevent cleavage by the host’s restriction endonucleases. Among them, cyanophage S-2L is unique because its genome has all its adenines (A) systematically replaced by 2-aminoadenines (Z). Here, we identify a member of the PrimPol family as the sole possible polymerase of S-2L and we find it can incorporate both A and Z in front of a T. Its crystal structure at 1.5 Å resolution confirms that there is no structural element in the active site that could lead to the rejection of A in front of T. To resolve this contradiction, we show that a nearby gene is a triphosphohydolase specific of dATP (DatZ), that leaves intact all other dNTPs, including dZTP. This explains the absence of A in S-2L genome. Crystal structures of DatZ with various ligands, including one at sub-angstrom resolution, allow to describe its mechanism as a typical two-metal-ion mechanism and to set the stage for its engineering.


1991 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin E. M. Noble ◽  
Rik K. Wierenga ◽  
Anne-Marie Lambeir ◽  
Fred R. Opperdoes ◽  
Andy-Mark W. H. Thunnissen ◽  
...  

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