Enzymatic conversion of deoxycytidine 5'-monophosphate to 5-methyldeoxycytidine 5'-triphosphate

Asn177 in Escherichia coli thymidylate synthase is a major determinant of pyrimidine specificity

The substrate preference of recombinant Escherichia coli thymidylate synthase (TS) has been altered from 2'-deoxyuridylate (dUMP) to 2'-deoxycytidylate (dCMP) by site-directed mutagenesis of the codon for Asn177, which was changed to aspartic acid. The side-chain amide of Asn177 forms hydrogen bonds with O4 and N3 of dUMP bound to the crystalline enzyme [Montfort, W. R., Perry, K. M., Fauman, E. B., Finer-Moore, J. S., Maley, G. F., Hardy, L., Maley, F. & Stroud, R. M. (1990) Biochemistry 29, 6964-6977]. This Asn is invariant in all natural sequences for TS known. The values of kcat for the mutant enzyme, TS(N177D), with dCMP and dUMP are, respectively, 0.09 and 0.002 times the value of kcat of wild-type TS with dUMP as substrate. TS(N177D) turns over dCMP at 35 times its rate of dUMP turnover, whereas wild-type TS turns over dCMP at < 10(-5) of its rate of dUMP turnover. Thus Asn177 is a major determinant of the pyrimidine nucleotide specificity of TS. The mutant enzyme, like wild-type TS, forms a covalent complex with 5-fluoro-dUMP in the presence of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate. TS(N177D) also has a newly acquired ability to be transiently inactivated by dUMP. This time-dependent inactivation requires the presence of methylenetetrahydrofolate and may be due to the accumulation of the enzyme in the form of a catalytic intermediate. The likely mechanistic basis for discrimination by TS between dUMP and dCMP is their differing requirements for charge stabilization during covalent catalysis.

Human placental DNA methyltransferase: DNA substrate and DNA binding specificity

We have partially purified a DNA methyltransferase from human placenta using a novel substrate for a highly sensitive assay of methylation of hemimethylated DNA. This substrate was prepared by extensive nick translation of bacteriophage XP12 DNA, which normally has virtually all of its cytosine residues replaced by 5-methylcytosine (m5C). Micrococcus luteus DNA was just as good a substrate if it was first similarly nick translated with m5dCTP instead of dCTP in the polymerization mixture. At different stages in purification and under various conditions (including in the presence or absence of high mobility group proteins), the methylation of m5C-deficient DNA and that of hemimethylated DNA were compared. Although hemimethylated , m5C-rich DNAs were much better substrates than were m5C-deficient DNAs and normal XP12 DNA could not be methylated, all of these DNAs were bound equally well by the enzyme. In contrast, from the same placental extract, a DNA-binding protein of unknown function was isolated which binds to m5C-rich DNA in preference to the analogous m5C-poor DNA.