Aminoacrylate intermediates in the reaction of Citrobacter freundii tyrosine phenol-lyase

Characterization of aminoacrylate intermediates of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate dependent enzymes

Pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) Schiff's bases of 2-aminoacrylate are intermediates in β-elimination and β-substitution reaction of PLP-dependent enzymes. These enzymes are found in two major families, the α-, or aminotransferase, superfamily, and the β-family. While the α-family enzymes primarily catalyze β-eliminations, the β-family enzymes catalyze both β-elimination and β-substitution reactions. Tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL), which catalyzes the reversible elimination of phenol from l-tyrosine, is an example of an α-family enzyme. Tryptophan synthase catalyzes the irreversible formation of l-tryptophan from l-serine and indole, and is an example of a β-family enzyme. The identification and characterization of aminoacrylate intermediates in the reactions of both of these enzymes is discussed. The use of UV-visible absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray and neutron crystallography, and NMR spectroscopy to identify aminoacrylate intermediates in these and other PLP enzymes is presented.

Biocatalytic Friedel-Crafts Reactions

Friedel-Crafts alkylation and acylation reactions are important methodologies in synthetic and industrial chemistry for the construction of aryl-alkyl and aryl-acyl linkages that are ubiquitous in bioactive molecules. Nature also exploits these reactions in many biosynthetic processes. Much work has been done to expand the synthetic application of these enzymes to unnatural substrates through directed evolution. The promise of such biocatalysts is their potential to supersede inefficient and toxic chemical approaches to these reactions, with mild operating conditions - the hallmark of enzymes. Complementary work has created many bio-hybrid Friedel-Crafts catalysts consisting of chemical catalysts anchored into biomolecular scaffolds, which display many of the same desirable characteristics. In this Review, we summarise these efforts, focussing on both mechanistic aspects and synthetic considerations, concluding with an overview of the frontiers of this field and routes towards more efficient and benign Friedel-Crafts reactions for the future of humankind.

Structure and Mechanism of d-Glucosaminate-6-phosphate Ammonia-lyase: A Novel Octameric Assembly for a Pyridoxal 5'-Phosphate-Dependent Enzyme, and Unprecedented Stereochemical Inversion in the Elimination Reaction of a d-Amino Acid

d-Glucosaminate-6-phosphate ammonia-lyase (DGL) is a pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzyme that produces 2-keto-3-deoxygluconate 6-phosphate (KDG-6-P) in the metabolism of d-glucosaminic acid by Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium. We have determined the crystal structure of DGL by SAD phasing with selenomethionine to a resolution of 2.58 Å. The sequence has very low identity with most other members of the aminotransferase (AT) superfamily. The structure forms an octameric assembly as a tetramer of dimers that has not been observed previously in the AT superfamily. PLP is covalently bound as a Schiff base to Lys-213 in the catalytic dimer at the interface of two monomers. The structure lacks the conserved arginine that binds the α-carboxylate of the substrate in most members of the AT superfamily. However, there is a cluster of arginines in the small domain that likely serves as a binding site for the phosphate of the substrate. The deamination reaction performed in D2O gives a KDG-6-P product stereospecifically deuterated at C3; thus, the mechanism must involve an enamine intermediate that is protonated by the enzyme before product release. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis demonstrates that the deuterium is located in the pro-R position in the product, showing that the elimination of water takes place with inversion of configuration at C3, which is unprecedented for a PLP-dependent dehydratase/deaminase. On the basis of the crystal structure and the NMR data, a reaction mechanism for DGL is proposed.

Purification and Biochemical Characterization of a Tyrosine Phenol-lyase from Morganella morganii

Tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL) is a valuable and cost-effective biocatalyst for the biosynthesis of L-tyrosine and its derivatives, which are valuable intermediates in the pharmaceutical industry. A TPL from Morganella morganii (Mm-TPL) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and characterized. Mm-TPL was determined as a homotetramer with molecular weight of 52 kDa per subunit. Its optimal temperature and pH for β-elimination of L-tyrosine were 45 °C and pH 8.5, respectively. Mm-TPL manifested strict substrate specificity for the reverse reaction of β-elimination and ortho- and meta-substituted phenols with small steric size were preferred substrates. The enzyme showed excellent catalytic performance for synthesis of L-tyrosine, 3-fluoro-L-tyrosine, and L-DOPA with a yield of 98.1%, 95.1%, and 87.2%, respectively. Furthermore, the fed-batch bioprocess displayed space-time yields of 9.6 g L^-1 h^-1 for L-tyrosine and 4.2 g L^-1 h^-1 for 3-fluoro-L-tyrosine with a yield of 67.4 g L^-1 and 29.5 g L^-1, respectively. These results demonstrated the great potential of Mm-TPL for industrial application.

Engineering enzymes for noncanonical amino acid synthesis

The standard proteinogenic amino acids grant access to a myriad of chemistries that harmonize to create life. Outside of these twenty canonical protein building blocks are countless noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs), either found in nature or created by man. Interest in ncAAs has grown as research has unveiled their importance as precursors to natural products and pharmaceuticals, biological probes, and more. Despite their broad applications, synthesis of ncAAs remains a challenge, as poor stereoselectivity and low functional-group compatibility stymie effective preparative routes. The use of enzymes has emerged as a versatile approach to prepare ncAAs, and nature's enzymes can be engineered to synthesize ncAAs more efficiently and expand the amino acid alphabet. In this tutorial review, we briefly outline different enzyme engineering strategies and then discuss examples where engineering has generated new 'ncAA synthases' for efficient, environmentally benign production of a wide and growing collection of valuable ncAAs.

Crystal Structures of Wild-Type and F448A Mutant Citrobacter freundii Tyrosine Phenol-Lyase Complexed with a Substrate and Inhibitors: Implications for the Reaction Mechanism

Tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL; EC 4.1.99.2) is a pyridoxal 5'-phosphate-dependent enzyme that catalyzes the reversible hydrolytic cleavage of l-tyrosine to phenol and ammonium pyruvate. We have shown previously that F448A TPL has k_cat and k_cat/ K_m values for l-tyrosine reduced by ∼10⁴-fold [Phillips, R. S., Vita, A., Spivey, J. B., Rudloff, A. P., Driscoll, M. D., and Hay, S. (2016) ACS Catal. 6, 6770-6779]. We have now obtained crystal structures of F448A TPL and complexes with l-alanine, l-methionine, l-phenylalanine, and 3-F-l-tyrosine at 2.05-2.27 Å and the complex of wild-type TPL with l-phenylalanine at 1.8 Å. The small domain of F448A TPL, where Phe-448 is located, is more disordered in chain A than in wild-type TPL. The complexes of F448A TPL with l-alanine and l-phenylalanine are in an open conformation in both chains, while the complex with l-methionine is a 52:48 open:closed equilibrium mixture in chain A. Wild-type TPL with l-alanine is closed in chain A and open in chain B, and the complex with l-phenylalanine is a 56:44 open:closed mixture in chain A. Thus, the Phe-448 to alanine mutation affects the conformational equilibrium of open and closed active sites. The structure of the 3-F-l-tyrosine quinonoid complex of F448A TPL is unstrained and in an open conformation, with a hydrogen bond from the phenolic OH to Thr-124. These results support our previous conclusion that ground-state strain plays a critical role in the mechanism of TPL.

Properties and mechanism of d-glucosaminate-6-phosphate ammonia-lyase: An aminotransferase family enzyme with d-amino acid specificity

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium utilizes a wide range of growth substrates, some of which are relatively novel. One of these unusual substrates is d-glucosaminate, which is metabolized by the enzymes encoded in the dga operon. d-Glucosaminate is transported and converted to d-glucosaminate-6-phosphate (G6P) by a phosphotransferase system, composed of DgaABCD. The protein product of dgaE, d-glucosaminate-6-phosphate ammonia lyase (DGL), converts G6P to 2-keto-3-deoxygluconate-6-phosphate, which undergoes a retroaldol reaction catalyzed by the DgaF protein to give d-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate and pyruvate. We have now developed an improved synthesis of G6P which gives a higher yield. The DGL reaction is of mechanistic interest because it is one of only a few enzymes in the pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) dependent aminotransferase superfamily known to catalyze reaction of a d-amino acid substrate. The pH dependence of DGL shows an optimum at 7.5-8.5, suggesting a requirement for a catalytic base. α-Glycerophosphate and inorganic phosphate are weak competitive inhibitors, with K_i values near 30mM, and d-serine is neither a substrate nor an inhibitor. We have found in rapid-scanning stopped-flow experiments that DGL reacts rapidly with its substrate to form a quinonoid intermediate with λ_max=480nm, within the dead time (ca. 2msec), which then rapidly decays (k=279s^-1) to an intermediate with absorption between 330 and 350nm, probably an aminoacrylate complex. We suggest a mechanism for DGL and propose that the unusual stereochemistry of the DGL reaction requires a catalytic base poised on the opposite face of the PLP-substrate complex from the other members of the aminotransferase superfamily.

Chemistry and diversity of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate dependent enzymes

Pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) is a versatile cofactor that enzymes use to catalyze a wide variety of reactions of amino acids, including transamination, decarboxylation, racemization, β- and γ-eliminations and substitutions, retro-aldol and Claisen reactions. These reactions depend on the ability of PLP to stabilize, to a varying degree, α-carbanionic intermediates. Furthermore, oxidative decarboxylations and rearrangements suggest that PLP can stabilize radical intermediates as well. The reaction mechanisms of two PLP-dependent enzymes are discussed, kynureninase and tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL). Kynureninase catalyzes a retro-Claisen reaction of kynurenine to give anthranilate and alanine. The key step, hydration of the γ-carbonyl, is assisted by acid-base catalysis with the phosphate of the PLP, mediated by a conserved tyrosine, and an oxyanion hole. TPL catalyzes the reversible elimination of phenol, a poor leaving group, from l-tyrosine. In TPL, the Cβ-Cγ bond cleavage is accelerated by ground state strain from the bending of the substrate ring out of the plane with the Cβ-Cγ bond. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Cofactor-dependent proteins: evolution, chemical diversity and bio-applications.

The role of substrate strain in the mechanism of the carbon-carbon lyases

The carbon-carbon lyases, tryptophan indole lyase (TIL) and tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL) are bacterial enzymes which catalyze the reversible elimination of indole and phenol from l-tryptophan and l-tyrosine, respectively. These PLP-dependent enzymes show high sequence homology (∼40% identity) and both form homotetrameric structures. Steady state kinetic studies with both enzymes show that an active site base is essential for activity, and α-deuterated substrates exhibit modest primary isotope effects on kcat and kcat/Km, suggesting that substrate deprotonation is partially rate-limiting. Pre-steady state kinetics with TPL and TIL show rapid formation of external aldimine intermediates, followed by deprotonation to give quinonoid intermediates absorbing at about 500nm. In the presence of phenol and indole analogues, 4-hydroxypyridine and benzimidazole, the quinonoid intermediates of TPL and TIL decay to aminoacrylate intermediates, with λmax at about 340nm. Surprisingly, there are significant kinetic isotope effects on both formation and subsequent decay of the quinonoid intermediates when α-deuterated substrates are used. The crystal structure of TPL with a bound competitive inhibitor, 4-hydroxyphenylpropionate, identified several essential catalytic residues: Tyr-71, Thr-124, Arg-381, and Phe-448. The active sites of TIL and TPL are highly conserved with the exceptions of these residues: Arg-381(TPL)/Ile-396 (TIL); Thr-124 (TPL)/Asp-137 (TIL), and Phe-448 (TPL)/His-463 (TIL). Mutagenesis of these residues results in dramatic decreases in catalytic activity without changing substrate specificity. The conserved tyrosine, Tyr-71 (TPL)/Tyr-74 (TIL) is essential for elimination activity with both enzymes, and likely plays a role as a proton donor to the leaving group. Mutation of Arg-381 and Thr-124 of TPL to alanine results in very low but measurable catalytic activity. Crystallography of Y71F and F448H TPL with 3-fluoro-l-tyrosine bound demonstrated that there are two quinonoid structures, relaxed and tense. In the relaxed structure, the substrate aromatic ring is in plane with the Cβ-Cγ bond, but in the tense structure, the substrate aromatic ring is about 20° out of plane with the Cβ-Cγ bond. In the tense structure, hydrogen bonds are formed between the substrate OH and the guanidinium of Arg-381 and the OH of Thr-124, and the phenyl rings of Phe-448 and 449 provide steric strain. Based on the effects of mutagenesis, the substrate strain is estimated to contribute about 10(8) to TPL catalysis. Thus, the mechanisms of TPL and TIL require both substrate strain and acid/base catalysis, and substrate strain is probably responsible for the very high substrate specificity of TPL and TIL.

Crystallographic snapshots of tyrosine phenol-lyase show that substrate strain plays a role in C-C bond cleavage

The key step in the enzymatic reaction catalyzed by tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL) is reversible cleavage of the Cβ-Cγ bond of L-tyrosine. Here, we present X-ray structures for two enzymatic states that form just before and after the cleavage of the carbon-carbon bond. As for most other pyridoxal 5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes, the first state, a quinonoid intermediate, is central for the catalysis. We captured this relatively unstable intermediate in the crystalline state by introducing substitutions Y71F or F448H in Citrobacter freundii TPL and briefly soaking crystals of the mutant enzymes with a substrate 3-fluoro-L-tyrosine followed by flash-cooling. The X-ray structures, determined at ~2.0 Å resolution, reveal two quinonoid geometries: "relaxed" in the open and "tense" in the closed state of the active site. The "tense" state is characterized by changes in enzyme contacts made with the substrate's phenolic moiety, which result in significantly strained conformation at Cβ and Cγ positions. We also captured, at 2.25 Å resolution, the X-ray structure for the state just after the substrate's Cβ-Cγ bond cleavage by preparing the ternary complex between TPL, alanine quinonoid and pyridine N-oxide, which mimics the α-aminoacrylate intermediate with bound phenol. In this state, the enzyme-ligand contacts remain almost exactly the same as in the "tense" quinonoid, indicating that the strain induced by the closure of the active site facilitates elimination of phenol. Taken together, structural observations demonstrate that the enzyme serves not only to stabilize the transition state but also to destabilize the ground state.