Roles for the Two Cysteine Residues of AhpC in Catalysis of Peroxide Reduction by Alkyl Hydroperoxide Reductase from Salmonella typhimurium

Abstract

The catalytic properties of cysteine residues Cys46 and Cys165, which form intersubunit disulfide bonds in the peroxidatic AhpC protein of the alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (AhpR) system from Salmonella typhimurium, have been investigated. The AhpR system, composed of AhpC and a flavoprotein reductase, AhpF, catalyzes the pyridine nucleotide-dependent reduction of organic hydroperoxides and hydrogen peroxide. Amino acid sequence analysis of the disulfide-containing tryptic peptide demonstrated the presence of two identical disulfide bonds per dimer of oxidized AhpC located between Cys46 on one subunit and Cys165 on the other. Mutant AhpC proteins containing only one (C46S and C165S) or no (C46,165S) cysteine residues were purified and shown by circular dichroism studies to exhibit no major disruptions in secondary structure. In NADH-dependent peroxidase assays in the presence of AhpF, the C165S mutant was fully active in comparison with wild-type AhpC, while C46S and C46,165S displayed no peroxidatic activity. In addition, only C165S was oxidized by 1 equiv of hydrogen peroxide, giving a species that was stoichiometrically reducible by NADH in the presence of a catalytic amount of AhpF. Oxidized C165S also reacted rapidly with a stoichiometric amount of the thiol-containing reagent 2-nitro-5-thiobenzoic acid to generate a mixed disulfide, and was susceptible to inactivation by hydrogen peroxide, strongly supporting its identification as a cysteine sulfenic acid (Cys46-SOH). The lack of reactivity of the C46S mutant toward peroxides was not a result of inaccessibility of the remaining thiol as demonstrated by its modification with 5,5′-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid), but could be due to the lack of a proximal active-site base which would support catalysis through proton donation to the poor ROleaving group. Our results clearly identify Cys46 as the peroxidatic center of AhpC and Cys165 as an important residue for preserving the activity of wild-type AhpC by reacting with the nascent sulfenic acid of the oxidized protein (Cys46-SOH) to generate a stable disulfide bond, thus preventing further oxidation of Cys46-SOH by substrate.The alkyl hydroperoxide reductase system from Salmonella typhimurium protects the cell from the toxic effects of reactive oxygen species generated during normal aerobic metabolism and during times of oxidative stress (1-3). The system consists of two proteins, AhpF and AhpC, that together catalyze pyridine nucleotide-dependent reduction of organic hydroperoxides and H 2 O 2 (2, 4-6). The genes encoding these two proteins are located on the same operon and are under the transcriptional control of the global stress regulator OxyR (3, 7). Our previous studies have demonstrated that the 57 kDa AhpF is a thioredoxin reductase-like pyridine nucleotide-dependent protein that contains two redox-active disulfide centers and one FAD per subunit (4-6). The 21 kDa AhpC protein contains two redox-active cystine disulfide bonds per dimer that have been implicated in the reduction of organic hyd...

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