scholarly journals Molecular Analysis of a Novel Methanesulfonic Acid Monooxygenase from the Methylotroph Methylosulfonomonas methylovora

1999 ◽  
Vol 181 (7) ◽  
pp. 2244-2251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo de Marco ◽  
Pedro Moradas-Ferreira ◽  
Timothy P. Higgins ◽  
Ian McDonald ◽  
Elizabeth M. Kenna ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Methylosulfonomonas methylovora M2 is an unusual gram-negative methylotrophic bacterium that can grow on methanesulfonic acid (MSA) as the sole source of carbon and energy. Oxidation of MSA by this bacterium is carried out by a multicomponent MSA monooxygenase (MSAMO). Cloning and sequencing of a 7.5-kbp SphI fragment of chromosomal DNA revealed four tightly linked genes encoding this novel monooxygenase. Analysis of the deduced MSAMO polypeptide sequences indicated that the enzyme contains a two-component hydroxylase of the mononuclear-iron-center type. The large subunit of the hydroxylase, MsmA (48 kDa), contains a typical Rieske-type [2Fe–2S] center with an unusual iron-binding motif and, together with the small subunit of the hydroxylase, MsmB (20 kDa), showed a high degree of identity with a number of dioxygenase enzymes. However, the other components of the MSAMO, MsmC, the ferredoxin component, and MsmD, the reductase, more closely resemble those found in other classes of oxygenases. MsmC has a high degree of identity to ferredoxins from toluene and methane monooxygenases, which are enzymes characterized by possessing hydroxylases containing μ-oxo bridge binuclear iron centers. MsmD is a reductase of 38 kDa with a typical chloroplast-like [2Fe–2S] center and conserved flavin adenine dinucleotide- and NAD-binding motifs and is similar to a number of mono- and dioxygenase reductase components. Preliminary analysis of the genes encoding MSAMO from a marine MSA-degrading bacterium, Marinosulfonomonas methylotropha, revealed the presence of msm genes highly related to those found in Methylosulfonomonas, suggesting that MSAMO is a novel type of oxygenase that may be conserved in all MSA-utilizing bacteria.

1998 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony G. Tsolaki ◽  
Pieter Beckers ◽  
Ann E. Wakefield

Isolates of Pneumocystis carinii f. sp.hominis were examined from six individuals who died ofP. carinii pneumonia between 1968 and 1981 and who had underlying immunodeficiencies which were not due to human immunodeficiency virus infection. DNA sequence variation was analyzed in the genes encoding the mitochondrial large subunit rRNA (mt LSU rRNA), the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of the nuclear rRNA, the arom locus, and the mitochondrial small subunit rRNA. No major variations were observed when these isolates were compared to isolates from HIV-infected individuals. A small number of minor differences were detected. A new position at which variation occurred in the mt LSU rRNA was observed in one sample. Three new ITS sequence types were identified. A total of nine different ITS sequence types were found in the six samples. Mixed infection with different ITS sequence types of P. carinii f. sp. hominis was observed in four of the six samples. The ITS locus was the most informative of the four loci for distinguishing among the isolates ofP. carinii f. sp. hominis. The data suggest that isolates of P. carinii f. sp. hominis from before the AIDS pandemic are genetically very similar to those currently found in HIV-infected individuals.


1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (5) ◽  
pp. 1194-1199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juanito V. Parales ◽  
Rebecca E. Parales ◽  
Sol M. Resnick ◽  
David T. Gibson

ABSTRACT Biotransformations with recombinant Escherichia coliexpressing the genes encoding 2-nitrotoluene 2,3-dioxygenase (2NTDO) from Pseudomonas sp. strain JS42 demonstrated that 2NTDO catalyzes the dihydroxylation and/or monohydroxylation of a wide range of aromatic compounds. Extremely high nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence identity exists between the components from 2NTDO and the corresponding components from 2,4-dinitrotoluene dioxygenase (2,4-DNTDO) from Burkholderia sp. strain DNT (formerlyPseudomonas sp. strain DNT). However, comparisons of the substrates oxidized by these dioxygenases show that they differ in substrate specificity, regiospecificity, and the enantiomeric composition of their oxidation products. Hybrid dioxygenases were constructed with the genes encoding 2NTDO and 2,4-DNTDO. Biotransformation experiments with these hybrid dioxygenases showed that the C-terminal region of the large subunit of the oxygenase component (ISPα) was responsible for the enzyme specificity differences observed between 2NTDO and 2,4-DNTDO. The small subunit of the terminal oxygenase component (ISPβ) was shown to play no role in determining the specificities of these dioxygenases.


2019 ◽  
Vol 294 (25) ◽  
pp. 9995-10005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Israel M. Scott ◽  
Gabriel M. Rubinstein ◽  
Farris L. Poole ◽  
Gina L. Lipscomb ◽  
Gerrit J. Schut ◽  
...  

Caldicellulosiruptor bescii is an extremely thermophilic, cellulolytic bacterium with a growth optimum at 78 °C and is the most thermophilic cellulose degrader known. It is an attractive target for biotechnological applications, but metabolic engineering will require an in-depth understanding of its primary pathways. A previous analysis of its genome uncovered evidence that C. bescii may have a completely uncharacterized aspect to its redox metabolism, involving a tungsten-containing oxidoreductase of unknown function. Herein, we purified and characterized this new member of the aldehyde ferredoxin oxidoreductase family of tungstoenzymes. We show that it is a heterodimeric glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (GAP) ferredoxin oxidoreductase (GOR) present not only in all known Caldicellulosiruptor species, but also in 44 mostly anaerobic bacterial genera. GOR is phylogenetically distinct from the monomeric GAP-oxidizing enzyme found previously in several Archaea. We found that its large subunit (GOR-L) contains a single tungstopterin site and one iron-sulfur [4Fe-4S] cluster, that the small subunit (GOR-S) contains four [4Fe-4S] clusters, and that GOR uses ferredoxin as an electron acceptor. Deletion of either subunit resulted in a distinct growth phenotype on both C5 and C6 sugars, with an increased lag phase, but higher cell densities. Using metabolomics and kinetic analyses, we show that GOR functions in parallel with the conventional GAP dehydrogenase, providing an alternative ferredoxin-dependent glycolytic pathway. These two pathways likely facilitate the recycling of reduced redox carriers (NADH and ferredoxin) in response to environmental H2 concentrations. This metabolic flexibility has important implications for the future engineering of this and related species.


1999 ◽  
Vol 181 (9) ◽  
pp. 2947-2952 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Claude Hatchikian ◽  
Valérie Magro ◽  
Nicole Forget ◽  
Yvain Nicolet ◽  
Juan C. Fontecilla-Camps

ABSTRACT hydA and hydB, the genes encoding the large (46-kDa) and small (13.5-kDa) subunits of the periplasmic [Fe] hydrogenase from Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 7757, have been cloned and sequenced. The deduced amino acid sequence of the genes product showed complete identity to the sequence of the well-characterized [Fe] hydrogenase from the closely related speciesDesulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough (G. Voordouw and S. Brenner, Eur. J. Biochem. 148:515–520, 1985). The data show that in addition to the well-known signal peptide preceding the NH2 terminus of the mature small subunit, the large subunit undergoes a carboxy-terminal processing involving the cleavage of a peptide of 24 residues, in agreement with the recently reported data on the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme (Y. Nicolet, C. Piras, P. Legrand, E. C. Hatchikian, and J. C. Fontecilla-Camps, Structure 7:13–23, 1999). We suggest that this C-terminal processing is involved in the export of the protein to the periplasm.


1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (17) ◽  
pp. 4380-4386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Martinussen ◽  
Karin Hammer

ABSTRACT The biosynthesis of carbamoylphosphate is catalyzed by the heterodimeric enzyme carbamoylphosphate synthetase. The genes encoding the two subunits of this enzyme in procaryotes are normally transcribed as an operon, but the gene encoding the large subunit (carB) in Lactococcus lactis is shown to be transcribed as an isolated unit. Carbamoylphosphate is a precursor in the biosynthesis of both pyrimidine nucleotides and arginine. By mutant analysis,L. lactis is shown to possess only onecarB gene; the same gene product is thus required for both biosynthetic pathways. Furthermore, arginine may satisfy the requirement for carbamoylphosphate in pyrimidine biosynthesis through degradation by means of the arginine deiminase pathway. The expression of the carB gene is subject to regulation at the level of transcription by pyrimidines, most probably by an attenuator mechanism. Upstream of the carB gene, an open reading frame showing a high degree of similarity to those of glutathione peroxidases from other organisms was identified.


2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (5) ◽  
pp. 1317-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Stein ◽  
Sandeep Kaur-Ghumaan

The origin of the tolerance of a subclass of [NiFe]-hydrogenases to the presence of oxygen was unclear for a long time. Recent spectroscopic studies showed a conserved active site between oxygen-sensitive and oxygen-tolerant hydrogenases, and modifications in the vicinity of the active site in the large subunit could be excluded as the origin of catalytic activity even in the presence of molecular oxygen. A combination of bioinformatics and protein structural modelling revealed an unusual co-ordination motif in the vicinity of the proximal Fe–S cluster in the small subunit. Mutational experiments confirmed the relevance of two additional cysteine residues for the oxygen-tolerance. This new binding motif can be used to classify sequences from [NiFe]-hydrogenases according to their potential oxygen-tolerance. The X-ray structural analysis of the reduced form of the enzyme displayed a new type of [4Fe–3S] cluster co-ordinated by six surrounding cysteine residues in a distorted cubanoid geometry. The unusual electronic structure of the proximal Fe–S cluster can be analysed using the broken-symmetry approach and gave results in agreement with experimental Mößbauer studies. An electronic effect of the proximal Fe–S cluster on the remote active site can be detected and quantified. In the oxygen-tolerant hydrogenases, the hydride occupies an asymmetric binding position in the Ni-C state. This may rationalize the more facile activation and catalytic turnover in this subclass of enzymes.


1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 5288-5298 ◽  
Author(s):  
N H Kuldell ◽  
S Buratowski

Biochemical analysis of proteins necessary for transcription initiation by eukaryotic RNA polymerase II (pol II) has identified transcription factor IIE (TFIIE) as an essential component of the reaction. To better understand the role of TFIIE in transcription, we isolated conditional alleles of TFA1, the gene encoding the large subunit of TFIIE in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The mutant Tfa1 proteins fall into two classes. The first class causes thermosensitive growth due to single amino acid substitutions of the cysteines comprising the Zn-binding motif. The second mutant class is made up of proteins that are C-terminally truncated and that cause a cold-sensitive growth phenotype. The behavior of these mutants suggests that Tfa1p possesses at least two domains with genetically distinct functions. The mutations in the Zn-binding motif do not affect the mutant protein's stability at the nonpermissive temperature or its ability to associate with the small subunit of TFIIE. Our studies further determined that wild-type TFIIE can bind to single-stranded DNA in vitro. However, this property is unaffected in the mutant TFIIE complexes. Finally, we have demonstrated the biological importance of TFIIE in pol II-mediated transcription by depleting the Tfa1 protein from the cells and observing a concomitant decrease in total poly(A)+ mRNA.


2002 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 289-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nardia J. Baxter ◽  
Julie Scanlan ◽  
Paolo De Marco ◽  
Ann P. Wood ◽  
J. Colin Murrell

ABSTRACT Marinosulfonomonas methylotropha strain TR3 is a marine methylotroph that uses methanesulfonic acid (MSA) as a sole carbon and energy source. The genes from M. methylotropha strain TR3 encoding methanesulfonate monooxygenase, the enzyme responsible for the initial oxidation of MSA to formaldehyde and sulfite, were cloned and sequenced. They were located on two gene clusters on the chromosome of this bacterium. A 5.0-kbp HindIII fragment contained msmA, msmB, and msmC, encoding the large and small subunits of the hydroxylase component and the ferredoxin component, respectively, of the methanesulfonate monooxygenase, while a 6.5-kbp HindIII fragment contained duplicate copies of msmA and msmB, as well as msmD, encoding the reductase component of methanesulfonate. Both sets of msmA and msmB genes were virtually identical, and the derived msmA and msmB sequences of M. methylotropha strain TR3, compared with the corresponding hydroxylase from the terrestrial MSA utilizer Methylosulfonomonas methylovora strain M2 were found to be 82 and 69% identical. The msmA gene was investigated as a functional gene probe for detection of MSA-utilizing bacteria. PCR primers spanning a region of msmA which encoded a unique Rieske [2Fe-2S] binding region were designed. These primers were used to amplify the corresponding msmA genes from newly isolated Hyphomicrobium, Methylobacterium, and Pedomicrobium species that utilized MSA, from MSA enrichment cultures, and from DNA samples extracted directly from the environment. The high degree of identity of these msmA gene fragments, compared to msmA sequences from extant MSA utilizers, indicated the effectiveness of these PCR primers in molecular microbial ecology.


1998 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1634-1641 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. M. Mannarelli ◽  
C. P. Kurtzman

A PCR system that can quickly and accurately identify 14 species of human pathogenic yeasts was developed. The procedure distinguished between nine species of a closely related clade, Lodderomyces elongisporus, Candida parapsilosis, a newCandida sp., C. sojae, C. tropicalis, C. maltosa, C. viswanathii,C. albicans, and C. dubliniensis and between another five more divergent species, Pichia guilliermondii,C. glabrata, C. zeylanoides, C. haemulonii, and C. haemulonii type II. A rapid DNA extraction procedure that yields purified DNA in about 1 h is also described. The system uses uniform conditions with four primers for each reaction, two 40- to 50-mer universal primers that serve as a positive control and two 23- to 30-mer species-specific primers. Species-specific primers were derived from a 600-nucleotide variable region (D1/D2) at the 5′ end of the large-subunit (26S) ribosomal DNA gene and were generally designed to use mismatches at the 3′ end. Universal primers were developed from conserved nucleotide sequences in the small-subunit (18S) rRNA gene. In this system, a control 1,200- to 1,300-base DNA fragment was produced in all reactions and a smaller 114- to 336-base DNA fragment was produced if the chromosomal DNA from the target species was present. The PCR procedure is rapid and easy to interpret and may be used with mixed cultures.


Author(s):  
M. Boublik ◽  
W. Hellmann ◽  
F. Jenkins

Correlations between structure and function of biological macromolecules have been studied intensively for many years, mostly by indirect methods. High resolution electron microscopy is a unique tool which can provide such information directly by comparing the conformation of biopolymers in their biologically active and inactive state. We have correlated the structure and function of ribosomes, ribonucleoprotein particles which are the site of protein biosynthesis. 70S E. coli ribosomes, used in this experiment, are composed of two subunits - large (50S) and small (30S). The large subunit consists of 34 proteins and two different ribonucleic acid molecules. The small subunit contains 21 proteins and one RNA molecule. All proteins (with the exception of L7 and L12) are present in one copy per ribosome.This study deals with the changes in the fine structure of E. coli ribosomes depleted of proteins L7 and L12. These proteins are unique in many aspects.


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