NAD(+) is an essential metabolite both as a cofactor in energy metabolism and redox homeostasis and as a regulator of cellular processes. In contrast to humans, Mycobacterium tuberculosis NAD(+) biosynthesis is absolutely dependent on the activity of a multifunctional glutamine-dependent NAD(+) synthetase, which catalyzes the ATP-dependent formation of NAD(+) at the synthetase domain using ammonia derived from L-glutamine in the glutaminase domain. Here we report the kinetics and structural characterization of M. tuberculosis NAD(+) synthetase. The kinetics data strongly suggest tightly coupled regulation of the catalytic activities. The structure, the first of a glutamine-dependent NAD(+) synthetase, reveals a homooctameric subunit organization suggesting a tight dependence of catalysis on the quaternary structure, a 40-A intersubunit ammonia tunnel and structural elements that may be involved in the transfer of information between catalytic sites.

Glutamine-dependent NAD+ synthetase is an essential enzyme and a validated drug target in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (mtuNadE). It catalyses the ATP-dependent formation of NAD+ from NaAD+ (nicotinic acid-adenine dinucleotide) at the synthetase active site and glutamine hydrolysis at the glutaminase active site. An ammonia tunnel 40 Å (1 Å=0.1 nm) long allows transfer of ammonia from one active site to the other. The enzyme displays stringent kinetic synergism; however, its regulatory mechanism is unclear. In the present paper, we report the structures of the inactive glutaminase C176A variant in an apo form and in three synthetase-ligand complexes with substrates (NaAD+/ATP), substrate analogue {NaAD+/AMP-CPP (adenosine 5'-[α,β-methylene]triphosphate)} and intermediate analogues (NaAD+/AMP/PPi), as well as the structure of wild-type mtuNadE in a product complex (NAD+/AMP/PPi/glutamate). This series of structures provides snapshots of the ammonia tunnel during the catalytic cycle supported also by kinetics and mutagenesis studies. Three major constriction sites are observed in the tunnel: (i) at the entrance near the glutaminase active site; (ii) in the middle of the tunnel; and (iii) at the end near the synthetase active site. Variation in the number and radius of the tunnel constrictions is apparent in the crystal structures and is related to ligand binding at the synthetase domain. These results provide new insight into the regulation of ammonia transport in the intermolecular tunnel of mtuNadE.

NAD + synthetase is an essential enzyme of de novo and recycling pathways of NAD + biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis but not in humans. This bifunctional enzyme couples the NAD + synthetase and glutaminase activities through an ammonia tunnel but free ammonia is also a substrate. Here we show that the Homo sapiens NAD + synthetase (hsNadE) lacks substrate specificity for glutamine over ammonia and displays a modest activation of the glutaminase domain compared to tbNadE. We report the crystal structures of hsNadE and NAD + synthetase from M. tuberculosis (tbNadE) with synthetase intermediate analogues. Based on the observed exclusive arrangements of the domains and of the intra-or inter-subunit tunnels we propose a model for the inter-domain communication mechanism for the regulation of glutamine-dependent activity and NH 3 transport. The structural and mechanistic comparison herein reported between hsNadE and tbNadE provides also a starting point for future efforts in the development of anti-TB drugs.

We describe here the identification and functional characterization of the enzyme O-GlcNAcase (OGA) as an RNA polymerase II elongation factor. Using in vitro transcription elongation assays, we show that OGA activity is required for elongation in a crude nuclear extract system, whereas in a purified system devoid of OGA the addition of rOGA inhibited elongation. Furthermore, OGA is physically associated with the known RNA polymerase II (pol II) pausing/elongation factors SPT5 and TRIM28-KAP1-TIF1␤, and a purified OGA-SPT5-TIF1␤ complex has elongation properties. Lastly, ChIP-seq experiments show that OGA maps to the transcriptional start site/5 ends of genes, showing considerable overlap with RNA pol II, SPT5, TRIM28-KAP1-TIF1␤, and O-GlcNAc itself. These data all point to OGA as a component of the RNA pol II elongation machinery regulating elongation genome-wide. Our results add a novel and unexpected dimension to the regulation of elongation by the insertion of O-GlcNAc cycling into the pol II elongation regulatory dynamics.RNA polymerase II is the species of polymerase that transcribes the protein-coding genes in the cell. Largely based on in vitro transcription data and bacterial transcriptional regulation, it was thought that the pathway of transcription initiation was the de novo assembly and recruitment of general factors and pol II 4 into a preinitiation complex at promoters. In other words, transcription was solely controlled by whether initiation occurred or not. However, in the late 1980s, a transcriptionally engaged pol II was found on several genes, located roughly at ϩ50 relative to the transcriptional start site (TSS) (1-3). More recently, genome-wide approaches have shown that paused pol II exists on at least 40% of promoters in the genome (4 -9).These data show that the regulation of elongation is a significant and widespread method by which cells regulate gene expression.Biochemically, the establishment of a paused polymerase requires the recruitment of DSIF and NELF to pol II early in elongation to prevent pol II from productive elongation (10 -13). Release of the paused polymerase is achieved with P-TEFb phosphorylation of DSIF and NELF, ejecting NELF from pol II and converting DSIF into a positive elongation factor (14,15). The more recent discoveries of additional factors likely involved in pause establishment and release include human capping enzyme (16), the TFIIH-associated kinase, CDK7 (17, 18), the TFIIH ERCC3 helicase (19), , Integrator (23,24), ELL (25), TFIIS (26), TRIM28-KAP1-TIF1␤ (27, 28), Top1 (29), SEC (30), PAF complex (31, 32), and Gdown1 (33). The plethora of factors suggests that more complicated dynamics are at play in regulating pausing and elongation. Additionally, it is not clear, and indeed difficult to know, whether all of the factors involved in pol II pausing and elongation have been identified. This difficulty is due mostly to the absence of a human cell-based in vitro transcription system that recapitulates a paused polymerase and with which the full complement of...