Structures of the PutA peripheral membrane flavoenzyme reveal a dynamic substrate-channeling tunnel and the quinone-binding site

Physiological implications of arginine metabolism in plants

Nitrogen is a limiting resource for plant growth in most terrestrial habitats since large amounts of nitrogen are needed to synthesize nucleic acids and proteins. Among the 21 proteinogenic amino acids, arginine has the highest nitrogen to carbon ratio, which makes it especially suitable as a storage form of organic nitrogen. Synthesis in chloroplasts via ornithine is apparently the only operational pathway to provide arginine in plants, and the rate of arginine synthesis is tightly regulated by various feedback mechanisms in accordance with the overall nutritional status. While several steps of arginine biosynthesis still remain poorly characterized in plants, much wider attention has been paid to inter- and intracellular arginine transport as well as arginine-derived metabolites. A role of arginine as alternative source besides glutamate for proline biosynthesis is still discussed controversially and may be prevented by differential subcellular localization of enzymes. Apparently, arginine is a precursor for nitric oxide (NO), although the molecular mechanism of NO production from arginine remains unclear in higher plants. In contrast, conversion of arginine to polyamines is well documented, and in several plant species also ornithine can serve as a precursor for polyamines. Both NO and polyamines play crucial roles in regulating developmental processes as well as responses to biotic and abiotic stress. It is thus conceivable that arginine catabolism serves on the one hand to mobilize nitrogen storages, while on the other hand it may be used to fine-tune development and defense mechanisms against stress. This review summarizes the recent advances in our knowledge about arginine metabolism, with a special focus on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and pinpoints still unresolved critical questions.

First evidence for substrate channeling between proline catabolic enzymes: a validation of domain fusion analysis for predicting protein-protein interactions

Proline dehydrogenase (PRODH) and Δ(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylate (P5C) dehydrogenase (P5CDH) catalyze the four-electron oxidation of proline to glutamate via the intermediates P5C and l-glutamate-γ-semialdehyde (GSA). In Gram-negative bacteria, PRODH and P5CDH are fused together in the bifunctional enzyme proline utilization A (PutA) whereas in other organisms PRODH and P5CDH are expressed as separate monofunctional enzymes. Substrate channeling has previously been shown for bifunctional PutAs, but whether the monofunctional enzymes utilize an analogous channeling mechanism has not been examined. Here, we report the first evidence of substrate channeling in a PRODH-P5CDH two-enzyme pair. Kinetic data for the coupled reaction of PRODH and P5CDH from Thermus thermophilus are consistent with a substrate channeling mechanism, as the approach to steady-state formation of NADH does not fit a non-channeling two-enzyme model. Furthermore, inactive P5CDH and PRODH mutants inhibit NADH production and increase trapping of the P5C intermediate in coupled assays of wild-type PRODH-P5CDH enzyme pairs, indicating that the mutants disrupt PRODH-P5CDH channeling interactions. A dissociation constant of 3 μm was estimated for a putative PRODH-P5CDH complex by surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Interestingly, P5CDH binding to PRODH was only observed when PRODH was immobilized with the top face of its (βα)8 barrel exposed. Using the known x-ray crystal structures of PRODH and P5CDH from T. thermophilus, a model was built for a proposed PRODH-P5CDH enzyme channeling complex. The structural model predicts that the core channeling pathway of bifunctional PutA enzymes is conserved in monofunctional PRODH-P5CDH enzyme pairs.

High-resolution structures of cholesterol oxidase in the reduced state provide insights into redox stabilization

Cholesterol oxidase (CO) is a flavoenzyme that catalyzes the oxidation and isomerization of cholesterol to cholest-4-en-3-one. The reductive half reaction occurs via a hydride transfer from the substrate to the FAD cofactor. The structures of CO reduced with dithionite under aerobic conditions and in the presence of the substrate 2-propanol under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions are presented. The 1.32 Å resolution structure of the dithionite-reduced enzyme reveals a sulfite molecule covalently bound to the FAD cofactor. The isoalloxazine ring system displays a bent structure relative to that of the oxidized enzyme, and alternate conformations of a triad of aromatic residues near to the cofactor are evident. A 1.12 Å resolution anaerobically trapped reduced enzyme structure in the presence of 2-propanol does not show a similar bending of the flavin ring system, but does show alternate conformations of the aromatic triad. Additionally, a significant difference electron-density peak is observed within a covalent-bond distance of N5 of the flavin moiety, suggesting that a hydride-transfer event has occurred as a result of substrate oxidation trapping the flavin in the electron-rich reduced state. The hydride transfer generates a tetrahedral geometry about the flavin N5 atom. High-level density-functional theory calculations were performed to correlate the crystallographic findings with the energetics of this unusual arrangement of the flavin moiety. These calculations suggest that strong hydrogen-bond interactions between Gly120 and the flavin N5 centre may play an important role in these structural features.

Evidence that the C-terminal domain of a type B PutA protein contributes to aldehyde dehydrogenase activity and substrate channeling

Proline utilization A (PutA) is a bifunctional enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of proline to glutamate. Structures of type A PutAs have revealed the catalytic core consisting of proline dehydrogenase (PRODH) and Δ¹-pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase (P5CDH) modules connected by a substrate-channeling tunnel. Type B PutAs also have a C-terminal domain of unknown function (CTDUF) that is absent in type A PutAs. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), mutagenesis, and kinetics are used to determine the contributions of this domain to PutA structure and function. The 1127-residue Rhodobacter capsulatus PutA (RcPutA) is used as a representative CTDUF-containing type B PutA. The reaction progress curve for the coupled PRODH–P5CDH activity of RcPutA does not exhibit a time lag, implying a substrate channeling mechanism. RcPutA is monomeric in solution, which is unprecedented for PutAs. SAXS rigid body modeling with target–decoy validation is used to build a model of RcPutA. On the basis of homology to aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDHs), the CTDUF is predicted to consist of a β-hairpin fused to a noncatalytic Rossmann fold domain. The predicted tertiary structural interactions of the CTDUF resemble the quaternary structural interactions in the type A PutA dimer interface. The model is tested by mutagenesis of the dimerization hairpin of a type A PutA and the CTDUF hairpin of RcPutA. Similar functional phenotypes are observed in the two sets of variants, supporting the hypothesis that the CTDUF mimics the type A PutA dimer interface. These results suggest annotation of the CTDUF as an ALDH superfamily domain that facilitates P5CDH activity and substrate channeling by stabilizing the aldehyde-binding site and sealing the substrate-channeling tunnel from the bulk medium.

Kinetic and structural characterization of tunnel-perturbing mutants in Bradyrhizobium japonicum proline utilization A

Proline utilization A from Bradyrhizobium japonicum (BjPutA) is a bifunctional flavoenzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of proline to glutamate using fused proline dehydrogenase (PRODH) and Δ(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase (P5CDH) domains. Recent crystal structures and kinetic data suggest an intramolecular channel connects the two active sites, promoting substrate channeling of the intermediate Δ(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylate/glutamate-γ-semialdehyde (P5C/GSA). In this work, the structure of the channel was explored by inserting large side chain residues at four positions along the channel in BjPutA. Kinetic analysis of the different mutants revealed replacement of D779 with Tyr (D779Y) or Trp (D779W) significantly decreased the overall rate of the PRODH-P5CDH channeling reaction. X-ray crystal structures of D779Y and D779W revealed that the large side chains caused a constriction in the central section of the tunnel, thus likely impeding the travel of P5C/GSA in the channel. The D779Y and D779W mutants have PRODH activity similar to that of wild-type BjPutA but exhibit significantly lower P5CDH activity, suggesting that exogenous P5C/GSA enters the channel upstream of Asp779. Replacement of nearby Asp778 with Tyr (D778Y) did not impact BjPutA channeling activity. Consistent with the kinetic results, the X-ray crystal structure of D778Y shows that the main channel pathway is not impacted; however, an off-cavity pathway is closed off from the channel. These findings provide evidence that the off-cavity pathway is not essential for substrate channeling in BjPutA.