Site-directed mutants of cytochrome P-450cam (the cytochrome P-450 that acts as the terminal monooxygenase in the d-camphor monooxygenase system), in which threonine-252 had been changed to alanine, valine, or serine, were employed to study the role of the hydroxy amino acid in the monooxygenase reaction. The mutant enzymes were expressed in Escherichia coli and were purified by a conventional method. All the mutant enzymes in the presence of d-camphor exhibited optical absorption spectra almost indistinguishable from those of the wild-type enzyme in their ferric, ferrous, oxygenated, and carbon monoxide ferrous forms. In a reconstituted system with putidaredoxin and its reductase, the alanine enzyme consumed O2 at a rate (1100 per min per heme) comparable to that of the wild-type enzyme (1330 per min per heme), whereas the amount of exo-5-hydroxycamphor formed was less than 10% of that formed by the wild-type enzyme. About 85% of the O2 consumed was recovered as H2O2. The valine enzyme also exhibited an oxidase activity to yield H2O2 accompanied by a relative decrease in the monooxygenase activity. On the other hand, the serine enzyme exhibited essentially the same monooxygenase activity as that of the wild-type enzyme. Thus, uncoupling of O2 consumption from the monooxygenase function was produced by the substitution of an amino acid without a hydroxyl group. When binding of O2 to the ferrous forms was examined, the alanine and valine enzymes formed instantaneously an oxygenated form, which slowly decomposed to the ferric form with rates of 5.5 and 3.2 x 10(-3) sec-1 for the former and latter enzymes, respectively. Since these rates were too slow to account for the overall rates of O2 consumption, the formation of H2O2 was considered to proceed not by way of this route but through the decomposition of a peroxide complex formed by reduction of the oxygenated form by reduced putidaredoxin. Based on these findings, a possible mechanism for oxygen activation in this monooxygenase reaction has been discussed.

Trp108 of chicken lysozyme is in van der Waals contact with Glu35, one of two catalytic carboxyl groups. The role of Trp108 in lysozyme function and stability was investigated by using mutant lysozymes secreted from yeast. By the replacement of Trp108 with less hydrophobic residues, Tyr (W108Y lysozyme) and Gln (W108Q lysozyme), the activity, saccharide binding ability, stability, and pKa of Glu35 were all decreased with a decrease in the hydrophobicity of residue 108. Namely, at pH 5.5 and 40 degrees C, the activities of W108Y and W108Q lysozymes against glycol chitin were 17.3 and 1.6% of that of wild-type lysozyme, and their dissociation constants for the binding of a trimer of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine were 7.4 and 309 times larger than that of wild-type lysozyme, respectively. For the reversible unfolding at pH 3.5 and 30 degrees C, W108Y and W108Q lysozymes were less stable than wild-type lysozyme by 1.4 and 3.6 kcal/mol, respectively. As for the pKa of Glu35, the values for W108Y and W108Q lysozymes were found to be lower than that for wild-type lysozyme by 0.2 and by 0.6 pKa unit, respectively. The pKa of Glu35 in lysozyme was also decreased from 6.1 to 5.4 by the presence of 1-3 M guanidine hydrochloride, or to 5.5 by the substitution of Asn for Asp52, another catalytic carboxyl group. Thus, both the hydrophobicity of Trp108 and the electrostatic interaction with Asp52 are equally responsible for the abnormally high pKa (6.1) of Glu35, compared with that (4.4) of a normal glutamic acid residue.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

No abstract

To determine the orthology of sterol 14-demethylase (P45014DM), the only known P450 enzyme distributed widely in eukaryotes with a conserved metabolic role, the full-length amino acid sequences of rat and human P45014DMs were determined from the cloned cDNA sequences, and compared with those of the corresponding fungal proteins (CYP51). The amino acid identity value between given pairs of P45014DMs ranged from 93% (human/rat) to 39% (human or rat/Saccharomyces cerevisiae). All the P45014DMs formed a single cluster in a phylogenetic tree constructed from representative P450 protein sequences currently available. The nearest neighbors to the P45014DM cluster in the phylogenetic tree were CYP7 (cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase) and CYP8 (prostacyclin synthase), and the divergence point of fungal and mammalian P45014DMs was clearly more recent than that of P45014DM and CYP7/CYP8. These lines of evidence show that fungal and mammalian P45014DMs are really orthologous. This is the first example of orthologous P450s occurring in distinct kingdoms. P45014DM may be an ancient P450 which arose before the divergence of major eukaryotic branches and has been conserved throughout evolution. The amino acid identity value (93%) between human and rat P45014DMs was comparable to those observed for some housekeeping enzymes. In addition, a processed pseudogene of P45014DM was found in a rat genomic DNA library, suggesting the expression of P45014DM in germ line cells. These facts suggest that P45014DM may be a housekeeping enzyme essential for the viability of mammals.

No abstract