Two distinct sequences control the targeting and anchoring of the mouse P450 1A1 into the yeast endoplasmic reticulum membrane

Engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica for the production of plant triterpenoids: Asiatic, madecassic, and arjunolic acids

Several plant triterpenoids have valuable pharmaceutical properties, but their production and usage is limited since extraction from plants can burden natural resources, and result in low yields and purity. Here, we engineered oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica to produce three valuable plant triterpenoids (asiatic, madecassic, and arjunolic acids) by fermentation. First, we established the recombinant production of precursors, ursolic and oleanolic acids, by expressing plant enzymes in free or fused versions in a Y. lipolytica strain previously optimized for squalene production. Engineered strains produced up to 11.6 mg/g DCW ursolic acid or 10.2 mg/g DCW oleanolic acid. The biosynthetic pathway from ursolic acid was extended by expressing the Centella asiatica cytochrome P450 monoxygenases CaCYP716C11p, CaCYP714E19p, and CaCYP716E41p, resulting in the production of trace amounts of asiatic acid and 0.12 mg/g DCW madecassic acid. Expressing the same C. asiatica cytochromes P450 in oleanolic acid-producing strain resulted in the production of oleanane triterpenoids. Expression of CaCYP716C11p in the oleanolic acid-producing strain yielded 8.9 mg/g DCW maslinic acid. Further expression of a codon-optimized CaCYP714E19p resulted in 4.4 mg/g DCW arjunolic acid. Lastly, arjunolic acid production was increased to 9.1 mg/g DCW by swapping the N-terminal domain of CaCYP714E19p with the N-terminal domain from a Kalopanax septemlobus cytochrome P450. In summary, we have demonstrated the production of asiatic, madecassic, and arjunolic acids in a microbial cell factory. The strains and fermentation processes need to be further improved before the production of these molecules by fermentation can be industrialized.

Subcellular localization of aphidicolin biosynthetic enzymes heterologously expressed in Aspergillus oryzae

The secondary metabolite aphidicolin has previously been produced by Aspergillus oryzae after the heterologous expression of four biosynthetic enzymes isolated from Phoma betae. In this study, we examined the subcellular localization of aphidicolin biosynthetic enzymes in A. oryzae. Fusion of green fluorescent protein to each enzyme showed that geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase and terpene cyclase are localized to the cytoplasm and the two monooxygenases (PbP450-1 and PbP450-2) are localized to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Protease protection assays revealed that the catalytic domain of both PbP450s was cytoplasmic. Deletion of transmembrane domains from both PbP450s resulted in the loss of ER localization. Particularly, a PbP450-1 mutant lacking the transmembrane domain was localized to dot-like structures, but did not colocalize with any known organelle markers. Aphidicolin biosynthesis was nearly abrogated by deletion of the transmembrane domain from PbP450-1. These results suggest that ER localization of PbP450-1 is important for aphidicolin biosynthesis.

Effects of membrane mimetics on cytochrome P450-cytochrome b5 interactions characterized by NMR spectroscopy

Mammalian cytochrome P450 (P450) is a membrane-bound monooxygenase whose catalytic activities require two electrons to be sequentially delivered from its redox partners: cytochrome b5 (cytb5) and cytochrome P450 reductase, both of which are membrane proteins. Although P450 functional activities are known to be affected by lipids, experimental evidence to reveal the effect of membrane on P450-cytb5 interactions is still lacking. Here, we present evidence for the influence of phospholipid bilayers on complex formation between rabbit P450 2B4 (CYP2B4) and rabbit cytb5 at the atomic level, utilizing NMR techniques. General line broadening and modest chemical shift perturbations of cytb5 resonances characterize CYP2B4-cytb5 interactions on the intermediate time scale. More significant intensity attenuation and a more specific protein-protein binding interface are observed in bicelles as compared with lipid-free solution, highlighting the importance of the lipid bilayer in stabilizing stronger and more specific interactions between CYP2B4 and cytb5, which may lead to a more efficient electron transfer. Similar results observed for the interactions between CYP2B4 lacking the transmembrane domain (tr-CYP2B4) and cytb5 imply interactions between tr-CYP2B4 and the membrane surface, which might assist in CYP2B4-cytb5 complex formation by orienting tr-CYP2B4 for efficient contact with cytb5. Furthermore, the observation of weak and nonspecific interactions between CYP2B4 and cytb5 in micelles suggests that lipid bilayer structures and low curvature membrane surface are preferable for CYP2B4-cytb5 complex formation. Results presented in this study provide structural insights into the mechanism behind the important role that the lipid bilayer plays in the interactions between P450s and their redox partners.

Single-molecule height measurements on microsomal cytochrome P450 in nanometer-scale phospholipid bilayer disks

The architecture of membrane proteins in their native environment of the phospholipid bilayer is critical for understanding physiological function, but has been difficult to realize experimentally. In this communication we describe the incorporation of a membrane-anchored protein into a supported phospholipid bilayer. Cytochrome P450 2B4 solubilized and purified from the hepatic endoplasmic reticulum was incorporated into phospholipid bilayer nanostructures and oriented on a surface for visualization by atomic force microscopy. Individual P450 molecules were observed protruding from the bilayer surface. Problems associated with deformation of the protein by the atomic force microscopy probe were avoided by analyzing force-dependent height measurements to quantitate the height of the protein above the bilayer surface. Measurements of the atomic force microscopy cantilever deflection as a function of probe-sample separation reveal that the top of the P450 opposite the N-terminal membrane anchor region sits 3.5 nanometers above the phospholipid-water boundary. Models of the orientation of the enzyme are presented and discussed in relation to membrane interactions and interaction with cytochrome P450 reductase.

N-terminal truncated cytochrome P450 2B4: catalytic activities and reduction with alternative electron sources

It was shown that riboflavin binds to the truncated cytochrome P450 2B4 and forms a complex with the K(d) = 26 microM. Noncovalent complex of truncated (Delta2-27) cytochrome P450 2B4 with riboflavin was essential for electron transfer realization and catalyzed the NADH-dependent and hydrogen peroxide-supported monooxygenase reactions of aminopyrine N-demethylation and aniline p-hydroxylation. Flavocytochrome molecular maquette was capable of supporting photoactivatable electron transfer and could be photoreduced and electroreduced quantitatively in the absence of pyridine nucleotides.

Cumene hydroperoxide-supported demethylation reactions catalyzed by cytochrome P450 2B4 lacking the NH2-terminal sequence

Catalytic activities of cytochrome P450 2B4 lacking NH2-terminal amino acids 2-27 (wt Delta2B4) and that of truncated 2B4 containing a Pro to Ser mutation at position 221 were examined in a system supported by cumene hydroperoxide. Demethylation activities of either truncated 2B4 with N-methylaniline, N,N-dimethylaniline, and d-benzphetamine were lower than those of liver microsomal 2B4, whereas the rate of 1-phenylethanol oxidation to acetophenone catalyzed by liver microsomal and truncated 2B4 enzymes was nearly the same. The Km and Vmax values for cumene hydroperoxide in the demethylation of N-methylaniline by wt Delta2B4 were 20% and 28%, respectively, of those obtained for 2B4. The reaction with wt Delta2B4 displayed a lesser dependence on phospholipid than did that with 2B4, and a complex relationship between activity and substrate concentration. The results suggest that the NH2-terminal region contributes to interaction of oxidant, substrate, and phospholipid in cumene hydroperoxide-supported reactions catalyzed by cytochrome P450 2B4.

Membrane topology of cytochrome P450 2B4 in Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers

Using Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers of both phosphatidylethanolamines and phosphatidylcholines as membrane mimics, we have examined the topology of cytochrome P450 2B4 anchoring. The interaction of wild-type P450 2B4 with phosphatidylethanolamine monolayers can be characterized as a biphasic reaction, with the initial fast phase explained by the specific insertion of membrane-spanning segments of the protein into the monolayer. Injection of cytochrome b5 (b5) beneath dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine monolayers also resulted in biphasic kinetics. Regardless of the nature of the lipid employed, neither a truncated cytochrome P450 2B4 (P450 2B4 Delta2-27) lacking the amino-terminal hydrophobic residues widely believed to be the major transmembrane segment nor a soluble b5 fragment (Deltab5) lacking its carboxy terminus anchor exhibit the fast-phase behavior characteristic of specific insertion. To further characterize the membrane topology of P450 2B4, its insertion area in DPPE monolayers was measured and analyzed with use of the Gibbs equation for adsorption at an interface. The mean molecular insertion area derived from isotherms of P450 2B4 in a DPPE monolayer at a pressure of 19 mN/m, 680 +/- 95 A2 is large enough to accommodate two to four transmembrane helices. The large insertion area and the fact that the truncated cytochrome retains as much as 30% of its membrane localization when expressed in Escherichia coli (Pernecky, S. J., Larson, J. R., Philpot, R. M., and Coon, M. J. (1993) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90, 2651-2655) suggest that this cytochrome is not deeply embedded but that other regions, in addition to the amino-terminal 26 residues, may be involved in the interaction of cytochrome P450 with the membrane.

Critical amino-terminal segments in insertion of rat liver cytochrome P450 3A1 into the endoplasmic reticulum membrane

An in vitro transcription-translation assay was used to study the membrane topology of rat liver cytochrome P450 3A1. N-terminus deletion mutants were constructed to assess the importance of N-terminal regions in the stable incorporation of the protein into the microsomal membranes. Wild-type nascent cytochrome P450 bound to microsomes as an integral membrane protein through its hydrophobic N-terminal segments, uncleaved by signal peptidase. Deletion of the most N-terminal hydrophobic segment (positions 7-26) had a dramatic effect on endoplasmic reticulum membrane integration. Confirming the essential role of this stretch in P450 3A1 membrane targeting, proteolysis-resistant membrane-associated peptides were observed in all the in vitro translated mutants containing that segment. It is concluded that the membrane topogenesis of P450 3A1 is determined mainly by the amino-terminal hydrophobic segment.

Targeting of heterologous membrane proteins into proliferated internal membranes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Overproduction of chimeric proteins containing the HMG2/1 peptide, which comprises the seven transmembrane domains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase isozymes 1 and 2, has previously been observed to induce the proliferation of internal endoplasmic reticulum-like membranes. In order to exploit this amplified membrane surface area for the accommodation of heterologous microsomal proteins, we fused sequences coding for human cytochrome P4501A1 (CYP1A1) to sequences encoding the HMG2/1 peptide and expressed the hybrid genes in yeast. The heterologous hybrid proteins were targeted into strongly proliferated membranes, as shown by electron microscopic and immunofluorescent analysis. Fusion proteins comprising the whole CYP1A1 polypeptide (HMG2/1-CYP1A1) exhibited 7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase activity, whereas fusion proteins lacking the N-terminal 56 amino acids of CYP1A1 (HMG2/1-delta CYP1A1) were inactive and appeared to be unable to incorporate protoheme. Similar amounts of heterologous protein were detected in cells expressing HMG2/1-CYP1A1, HMG2/1-delta CYP1A1 and CYP1A1, respectively. Replacement of the N-terminal membrane anchor domain of human NADPH-cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase by the HMG2/1 peptide also resulted in a functional fusion enzyme, which was able to interact with HMG2/1-CYP1A1 and the yeast endogenous P450 enzyme lanosterol-14 alpha-demethylase.

Chimeras of the human cytochrome P450 1A family produced in yeast. Accumulation in microsomal membranes, enzyme kinetics and stability

An expression library of hybrid cDNAs was constructed in vivo by homeologous recombination in yeast between human P450 1A1 and P450 1A2 sequences. Two clones exhibiting highly enhanced monooxygenase activities in vivo were selected. Chimera S12 includes the 88 N-terminal residues of P450 1A1 fused to the complementary part of the P450 1A2 sequence. Chimera S71 derives from P450 1A1 by the substitution of the 36 C-terminal amino acid residues by the corresponding 38 residues of the 1A2 sequence. Biochemical analysis on microsomal fractions indicated that S12 and S71 have the same substrate specificities as 1A2 and 1A1, respectively. The observed increase in the in vivo monooxygenase activity is related to a ninefold increase in the microsomal S12 content as compared to the 1A2 content. In contrast, the expression level of S71 is slightly reduced but its turnover numbers are increased as compared to 1A1. The folding stability of chimeric P450 enzymes was evaluated by thermal and chaotropic agent denaturation. No difference was found between S12 and 1A2, but S71 appeared slightly less stable than 1A1. In vivo experiments indicated that S12 mRNA accumulation and stability are quite similar to the stability of parental 1A2 and, for both chimeras and parental enzymes, the protein half-lives are longer than the cell doubling time. The surprising accumulation of chimera S12 in the microsomal membrane is discussed in terms of the relationship of protein folding with transport to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane and the apparent expression levels of human P450 enzymes produced in yeast.

Membrane topology of liver microsomal cytochrome P450 2B4 determined via monoclonal antibodies directed to the halt-transfer signal

The membrane topology of cytochrome P450 2B4 from the endoplasmic reticulum has been studied with highly-purified liver microsomes in a site-directed immunochemical approach. Microsomes were prepared from phenobarbital-induced rabbits, and the resulting microsomal fraction was washed 6 additional times with 0.1 M pyrophosphate buffer to effect removal of significant quantities of adventitiously-bound protein. Monoclonal antibodies were prepared against residues 18-29 of P450 2B4 (Leu18-Leu-Phe-Arg-Gly-His-Pro-Lys-Ala-His-Gly-Arg29), essentially corresponding to the halt-transfer signal. This region was chosen due to its mutually-exclusive location in the two alternative membrane topology models currently tenable [Black, S.D. (1992) FASEB J.6, 680-685]. Model "A" contains a single transmembrane anchor peptide with the amino terminus projecting into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum, while model "B" exhibits a hairpin loop of the first approximately 46 residues inserted into the membrane with the amino terminus located on the cytosolic side of the lipid bilayer; the halt-transfer signal peptide would be located at the cytosolic surface of the membrane in model "A" or as a loop on the lumenal side of the membrane in model "B". Nine antibodies, denoted as MmAbA, MmAbC, MmAbD, MmAbF, MmAbH, MmAbI, MmAbK, MmAbL, and MmAbP, were produced, and all were identified as IgM/kappa subtypes. Western blotting demonstrated that the antibodies could readily recognize P450 2B4 in microsomes. ELISA assays showed that all of the antibodies exhibited strong binding to intact microsomes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Multipurpose vectors designed for the fast generation of N- or C-terminal epitope-tagged proteins

In this paper are described a set of new high-copy-number yeast vectors, which are specially designed for the conditional expression of epitope-tagged proteins in vivo. One of the major advantages of these plasmids is that they allow polymerase chain reaction-amplified open reading frames to be automatically fused in frame with the epitope-coding sequence, avoiding longer procedures such as site-directed mutagenesis. This heterologous construction can be realized either at the 5'-end of the coding sequence, in the pYeF1 vector, or at its 3'-end, in pYeF2, generating N- or C-terminal tagged proteins, respectively. Moreover, to increase the usefulness of the method, derivatives of the two basic URA3-borne pYeF1 and pYeF2 were constructed, carrying either the HIS3 or TRP1 gene as a marker of selection. These vectors could be of use for the purpose of functional analysis of the newly discovered genes resulting from the systematic sequencing of the yeast genome. Here, we present results showing the functional expression and the efficient immunoprecipitation of the epitope-tagged Rna15 protein, which is involved in Saccharomyces cerevisiae mRNA stability.

Expression of truncated forms of liver microsomal P450 cytochromes 2B4 and 2E1 in Escherichia coli: influence of NH2-terminal region on localization in cytosol and membranes

The currently accepted model for the membrane topology of microsomal cytochrome P450 is that of a largely cytoplasmic domain bound by only one or two transmembrane segments at the NH2 terminus. However, as we have reported previously, P450 2E1 lacking the hydrophobic NH2-terminal signal peptide, like the full-length protein, is located in the inner cell membrane when expressed in Escherichia coli and is active with typical substrates. In the present study, additional variants of alcohol-inducible P450 2E1 as well as truncated forms of phenobarbital-inducible P450 2B4 were similarly expressed to determine the influence of the NH2-terminal region on the membrane-binding properties. After deletion of S1 (the NH2-terminal hydrophobic segment), or both S1 and L1 (the following hydrophilic region, expected to be lumenal or cytosolic), one-third of the resulting P450 2B4 (delta 2-20) and 2B4 (delta 2-27) remained membrane bound. Furthermore, the idea that the first two hydrophobic segments are required for attachment by a hairpin loop is not supported by the finding that after deletion of the S1, L1, and S2 segments about half of the P450 2E1 (delta 3-48) remained membrane bound. Since Na2CO3 treatment of the membrane fraction had no significant effect, the findings are apparently not attributable to a loose attachment or occlusion of the truncated proteins. The replacement of neutral amino acids by positively charged residues in positions 3 and 8 of P450 2E1 (delta 3-29) changed the amount in the cytosol from 35% to 50%, and the deletion of residues 2-20 or 2-27 from P450 2B4, which resulted in positive charges occurring in the NH2-terminal region, changed the amount in the cytosol from 27% to 67%. We conclude that alterations in the NH2-terminal region can change the location of the cytochrome from largely membranous to largely cytosolic and that the first two hydrophobic segments are not uniquely involved in membrane attachment.