The X-ray crystallographic structure and activity analysis of a Pseudomonas-specific subfamily of the HAD enzyme superfamily evidences a novel biochemical function

Low-resolution SAXS and structural dynamics analysis on M. tuberculosis GmhB enzyme involved in GDP-heptose biosynthetic pathway

The M. tuberculosis GmhB protein converts the d-glycero-α-d-manno-heptose 1,7-bisphosphate (GMB) intermediate into d-glycero-α-d-manno-heptose 1-phosphate by removing the phosphate group at the C-7 position. To understand the structure and substrate binding mechanism, the MtbGmhB was purified which elutes as monomer on gel filtration column. The small angle x-ray scattering analysis shows that MtbGmhB forms fully folded monomer with shape profile similar to its modeled structure. The circular dichroism analysis shows 38% α-helix, 15% β-sheets and 47% random coil structures in MtbGmhB, similar to haloalkanoic acid dehalogenase (HAD) phosphohydrolase enzymes. The modeled MtbGmhB structure shows the catalytic site, which forms a concave, semicircular surface using the three loops around GMB substrate binding site. Dynamic simulation analysis on (i) Apo (ii) GMB bound (iii) GMB + Mg²⁺ bound (iv) Zn²⁺ +GMB + Mg²⁺ bound MtbGmhB structures show that Zn²⁺ as well as Mg²⁺ ions stabilize the loop conformation and trigger the changes in GMB substrate binding to active site of MtbGmhB. Upon demetallization, the large conformational changes occurred in ions binding loops, and leads to difference in GMB substrate binding to MtbGmhB. Our study provides information about structure and substrate binding of MtbGmhB, which may contribute in therapeutic development against M. tuberculosis.

CMsearch: simultaneous exploration of protein sequence space and structure space improves not only protein homology detection but also protein structure prediction

MOTIVATION

Protein homology detection, a fundamental problem in computational biology, is an indispensable step toward predicting protein structures and understanding protein functions. Despite the advances in recent decades on sequence alignment, threading and alignment-free methods, protein homology detection remains a challenging open problem. Recently, network methods that try to find transitive paths in the protein structure space demonstrate the importance of incorporating network information of the structure space. Yet, current methods merge the sequence space and the structure space into a single space, and thus introduce inconsistency in combining different sources of information.

METHOD

We present a novel network-based protein homology detection method, CMsearch, based on cross-modal learning. Instead of exploring a single network built from the mixture of sequence and structure space information, CMsearch builds two separate networks to represent the sequence space and the structure space. It then learns sequence-structure correlation by simultaneously taking sequence information, structure information, sequence space information and structure space information into consideration.

RESULTS

We tested CMsearch on two challenging tasks, protein homology detection and protein structure prediction, by querying all 8332 PDB40 proteins. Our results demonstrate that CMsearch is insensitive to the similarity metrics used to define the sequence and the structure spaces. By using HMM-HMM alignment as the sequence similarity metric, CMsearch clearly outperforms state-of-the-art homology detection methods and the CASP-winning template-based protein structure prediction methods.

AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION

Our program is freely available for download from http://sfb.kaust.edu.sa/Pages/Software.aspx

CONTACT

: xin.gao@kaust.edu.sa

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Probing Mechanistic Similarities between Response Regulator Signaling Proteins and Haloacid Dehalogenase Phosphatases

Response regulator signaling proteins and phosphatases of the haloacid dehalogenase (HAD) superfamily share strikingly similar folds, active site geometries, and reaction chemistry. Proteins from both families catalyze the transfer of a phosphoryl group from a substrate to one of their own aspartyl residues, and subsequent hydrolysis of the phosphoprotein. Notable differences include an additional Asp that functions as an acid/base catalyst and an active site well-structured prior to phosphorylation in HAD phosphatases. Both features contribute to reactions substantially faster than those for response regulators. To investigate mechanisms underlying the functional differences between response regulators and HAD phosphatases, we characterized five double mutants of the response regulator CheY designed to mimic HAD phosphatases. Each mutant contained the extra Asp paired with a phosphatase-inspired substitution to potentially position the Asp properly. Only CheY DR (Arg as the anchor) exhibited enhanced rates of both autophosphorylation with phosphoramidate and autodephosphorylation compared to those of wild-type CheY. Crystal structures of CheY DR complexed with MoO4(2-) or WO4(2-) revealed active site hydrogen bonding networks similar to those in HAD·substrate complexes, with the extra Asp positioned for direct interaction with the leaving group (phosphorylation) or nucleophile (dephosphorylation). However, CheY DR reaction kinetics did not exhibit the pH sensitivities expected for acid/base catalysis. Biochemical analysis indicated CheY DR had an enhanced propensity to adopt the active conformation without phosphorylation, but a crystal structure revealed unphosphorylated CheY DR was not locked in the active conformation. Thus, the enhanced reactivity of CheY DR reflected partial acquisition of catalytic and structural features of HAD phosphatases.

Consequences of domain insertion on sequence-structure divergence in a superfold

Although the universe of protein structures is vast, these innumerable structures can be categorized into a finite number of folds. New functions commonly evolve by elaboration of existing scaffolds, for example, via domain insertions. Thus, understanding structural diversity of a protein fold evolving via domain insertions is a fundamental challenge. The haloalkanoic dehalogenase superfamily serves as an excellent model system wherein a variable cap domain accessorizes the ubiquitous Rossmann-fold core domain. Here, we determine the impact of the cap-domain insertion on the sequence and structure divergence of the core domain. Through quantitative analysis on a unique dataset of 154 core-domain-only and cap-domain-only structures, basic principles of their evolution have been uncovered. The relationship between sequence and structure divergence of the core domain is shown to be monotonic and independent of the corresponding type of domain insert, reflecting the robustness of the Rossmann fold to mutation. However, core domains with the same cap type share greater similarity at the sequence and structure levels, suggesting interplay between the cap and core domains. Notably, results reveal that the variance in structure maps to α-helices flanking the central β-sheet and not to the domain-domain interface. Collectively, these results hint at intramolecular coevolution where the fold diverges differentially in the context of an accessory domain, a feature that might also apply to other multidomain superfamilies.

Structural determinants of substrate recognition in the HAD superfamily member D-glycero-D-manno-heptose-1,7-bisphosphate phosphatase (GmhB)

The haloalkanoic acid dehalogenase (HAD) enzyme superfamily is the largest family of phosphohydrolases. In HAD members, the structural elements that provide the binding interactions that support substrate specificity are separated from those that orchestrate catalysis. For most HAD phosphatases, a cap domain functions in substrate recognition. However, for the HAD phosphatases that lack a cap domain, an alternate strategy for substrate selection must be operative. One such HAD phosphatase, GmhB of the HisB subfamily, was selected for structure-function analysis. Herein, the X-ray crystallographic structures of Escherichia coli GmhB in the apo form (1.6 A resolution), in a complex with Mg(2+) and orthophosphate (1.8 A resolution), and in a complex with Mg(2+) and d-glycero-d-manno-heptose 1beta,7-bisphosphate (2.2 A resolution) were determined, in addition to the structure of Bordetella bronchiseptica GmhB bound to Mg(2+) and orthophosphate (1.7 A resolution). The structures show that in place of a cap domain, the GmhB catalytic site is elaborated by three peptide inserts or loops that pack to form a concave, semicircular surface around the substrate leaving group. Structure-guided kinetic analysis of site-directed mutants was conducted in parallel with a bioinformatics study of sequence diversification within the HisB subfamily to identify loop residues that serve as substrate recognition elements and that distinguish GmhB from its subfamily counterpart, the histidinol-phosphate phosphatase domain of HisB. We show that GmhB and the histidinol-phosphate phosphatase domain use the same design of three substrate recognition loops inserted into the cap domain yet, through selective residue usage on the loops, have achieved unique substrate specificity and thus novel biochemical function.