Recent studies have demonstrated that carbon-oxygen (CH···O) hydrogen bonds have important roles in S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) recognition and catalysis in methyltransferases. Here, we investigate noncovalent interactions that occur between the AdoMet sulfur cation and oxygen atoms in methyltransferase active sites. These interactions represent sulfur-oxygen (S···O) chalcogen bonds in which the oxygen atom donates a lone pair of electrons to the σ antibonding orbital of the AdoMet sulfur atom. Structural, biochemical, and computational analyses of an asparagine mutation in the lysine methyltransferase SET7/9 that abolishes AdoMet S···O chalcogen bonding reveal that this interaction enhances substrate binding affinity relative to the product S-adenosylhomocysteine. Corroborative quantum mechanical calculations demonstrate that sulfonium systems form strong S···O chalcogen bonds relative to their neutral thioether counterparts. An inspection of high-resolution crystal structures reveals the presence of AdoMet S···O chalcogen bonding in different classes of methyltransferases, illustrating that these interactions are not limited to SET domain methyltransferases. Together, these results demonstrate that S···O chalcogen bonds contribute to AdoMet recognition and can enable methyltransferases to distinguish between substrate and product.

Calmodulin (CaM) is a key mediator of calcium-dependent signalling and is subject to regulatory post-translational modifi cations, including trimethylation of Lys-115. In this paper, we identify a class I, non-SET domain protein methyltransferase, calmodulin-lysine N -methyltransferase (EC 2.1.1.60). A polypeptide chosen from a fraction enriched in calmodulin methyltransferase activity was trypsinized and analysed by tandem mass spectrometry. The amino-acid sequence obtained identifi ed conserved, homologous proteins of unknown function across a wide range of species, thus implicating a broad role for lysine methylation in calcium-dependent signalling. Encoded by c2orf34, the human homologue is a component of two related multigene deletion syndromes in humans. Human, rat, frog, insect and plant homologues were cloned and Escherichia coli -recombinant proteins catalysed the formation of a trimethyllysyl residue at position 115 in CaM, as verifi ed by product analyses and mass spectrometry.

Both the large (LS) and small (SS) subunits of Rubisco are subject to a plethora of co- and post-translational modifications. With the exceptions of LS carbamylation and SS transit sequence processing, the remaining modifications, including deformylation, acetylation, methylation, and N-terminal proteolytic processing of the LS, are still biochemically and/or functionally undefined although they are found in nearly all forms of Rubisco from vascular plants. A collection of relatively unique enzymes catalyse these modifications, and several have been characterized in other organisms. Some of the observed modifications in the LS and SS clearly suggest novel changes in enzyme specificity and/or activity, and others have common features with other co- and post-translationally modifying enzymes. With the possible exception of Lys14 methylation in the LS, processing of both the LS and SS of Rubisco is by default an ordered process sequentially leading up to the final forms observed in the holoenzyme. An overview of the nature of structural modifications in the LS and SS of Rubisco is presented, and, where possible, the nature of the enzymes catalysing these modifications (either through similarity with other known enzymes or through direct enzymological characterization) is described. Overall, there are a distinct lack of functional and mechanistic observations for modifications in Rubisco and thus represent many potentially productive avenues for research.

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SET domain protein lysine methyltransferases (PKMT) are a structurally unique class of enzymes that catalyze the specific methylation of lysine residues in a number of different substrates. Especially histone-specific SET domain PKMTs have received widespread attention because of their roles in the regulation of epigenetic gene expression and the development of some cancers. Rubisco large subunit methyltransferase (RLSMT) is a chloroplastlocalized SET domain PKMT responsible for the formation of trimethyl-lysine-14 in the large subunit of Rubisco, an essential photosynthetic enzyme. Here, we have used cryoelectron microscopy to produce an 11-Å density map of the Rubisco-RLSMT complex. The atomic model of the complex, obtained by fitting crystal structures of Rubisco and RLSMT into the density map, shows that the extensive contact regions between the 2 proteins are mainly mediated by hydrophobic residues and leucine-rich repeats. It further provides insights into potential conformational changes that may occur during substrate binding and catalysis. This study presents the first structural analysis of a SET domain PKMT in complex with its intact polypeptide substrate.electron microscopy ͉ LSMT ͉ SET domain ͉ single particle S ET [SU(VAR)3-9, E(Z), and TRX] domain protein lysine methyltransferases (PKMTs) are a structurally unique class of enzymes that catalyze the formation of site-specific methylated lysine residues in a number of different polypeptide substrates including cytochrome c (1, 2), histones (3), ribosomal proteins (3, 4), p53 (5), TAF10 (6), ␥-tocopherol methyltransferase (7), and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) (8). All SET domain PKMTs have a unique and conserved structural motif that contains separate binding sites for the target protein substrate and the methyl donor, Sadenosylmethionine (AdoMet) (9). The mechanisms by which these enzymes achieve site-specific methylation is of great interest and histone-specific SET domain protein methyltransferases (HKMTs) have received widespread attention because of their roles in the regulation of epigenetic gene expression and the development of some cancers (9, 10). The specificity of several SET domain PKMTs has been examined through structural and biochemical analyses of ternary complexes with bound polypeptide substrates, but all of these studies used short synthetic polypeptide mimetics of the intact polypeptide substrate and therefore do not account for the potential influence of areas outside the immediate residues flanking the target lysine methylation site (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). Rubisco large subunit methyltransferase (RLSMT) is a chloroplast-localized SET domain PKMT responsible for the formation of trimethyl-lysine-14 in the large subunit of Rubisco (8,17), an essential photosynthetic enzyme with a hexadecameric structure and large molecular mass (Ϸ534 kDa). Detailed information is available regarding the structure, catalytic mechanism, active site residues, and the kinetic reaction mechanism for pea RLSMT (7,8,17,18)...