Substrate specificity within a family of outer membrane carboxylate channels.

Many Gram-negative bacteria, including human pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, do not have large-channel porins. This results in an outer membrane (OM) that is highly impermeable to small polar molecules, making the bacteria intrinsically resistant towards many antibiotics. In such microorganisms, the majority of small molecules are taken up by members of the OprD outer membrane protein family. Here we show that OprD channels require a carboxyl group in the substrate for efficient transport, and based on this we have renamed the family Occ, for outer membrane carboxylate channels. We further show that Occ channels can be divided into two subfamilies, based on their very different substrate specificities. Our results rationalize how certain bacteria can efficiently take up a variety of substrates under nutrient-poor conditions without compromising membrane permeability. In addition, they explain how channel inactivation in response to antibiotics can cause resistance but does not lead to decreased fitness.

Transmembrane passage of hydrophobic compounds through a protein channel wall.

Membrane proteins that transport hydrophobic compounds have important roles in multi-drug resistance and can cause a number of diseases, underscoring the importance of protein-mediated transport of hydrophobic compounds. Hydrophobic compounds readily partition into regular membrane lipid bilayers, and their transport through an aqueous protein channel is energetically unfavourable. Alternative transport models involving acquisition from the lipid bilayer by lateral diffusion have been proposed for hydrophobic substrates. So far, all transport proteins for which a lateral diffusion mechanism has been proposed function as efflux pumps. Here we present the first example of a lateral diffusion mechanism for the uptake of hydrophobic substrates by the Escherichia coli outer membrane long-chain fatty acid transporter FadL. A FadL mutant in which a lateral opening in the barrel wall is constricted, but which is otherwise structurally identical to wild-type FadL, does not transport substrates. A crystal structure of FadL from Pseudomonas aeruginosa shows that the opening in the wall of the beta-barrel is conserved and delineates a long, hydrophobic tunnel that could mediate substrate passage from the extracellular environment, through the polar lipopolysaccharide layer and, by means of the lateral opening in the barrel wall, into the lipid bilayer from where the substrate can diffuse into the periplasm. Because FadL homologues are found in pathogenic and biodegrading bacteria, our results have implications for combating bacterial infections and bioremediating xenobiotics in the environment.

Ligand-gated diffusion across the bacterial outer membrane.

Ligand-gated channels, in which a substrate transport pathway is formed as a result of the binding of a small-molecule chemical messenger, constitute a diverse class of membrane proteins with important functions in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Despite their widespread nature, no ligand-gated channels have yet been found within the outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria. Here we show, using in vivo transport assays, intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence and X-ray crystallography, that high-affinity (submicromolar) substrate binding to the OM long-chain fatty acid transporter FadL from Escherichia coli causes conformational changes in the N terminus that open up a channel for substrate diffusion. The OM long-chain fatty acid transporter FadL from E. coli is a unique paradigm for OM diffusion-driven transport, in which ligand gating within a ß-barrel membrane protein is a prerequisite for channel formation.

Chiral discrimination among aminotransferases: inactivation by 4-amino-4,5-dihydrothiophenecarboxylic acid.

Mechanism-based inhibitors such as cycloserine and gabaculine can inactivate aminotransferases via reactions of the compounds with the pyridoxal phosphate cofactor forming an irreversible adduct. The reaction is chirally specific in that any one enzyme usually only recognizes one enantiomer of the inactivator. For instance, l-aspartate aminotransferase (l-AspAT) is inactivated by 4-amino-4,5-dihydro-2-thiophenecarboxylic acid (ADTA), however, only by the S-isomer. We have now shown that d-amino acid aminotransferase (d-a-AT) is irreversibly inactivated by the R-isomer of the same compound. The X-ray crystal structure (PDB code: 3LQS ) of the inactivated enzyme shows that in the product the enzyme no longer makes a Schiff base linkage to the pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) cofactor, and instead the compound has formed a derivative of the cofactor. The adduct is similar to that formed between d-cycloserine and d-a-AT or alanine racemase (Ala-Rac) in that the thiophene ring of R-ADTA is intact and seems to be aromatic. The plane of the ring is rotated by nearly 90 degrees with respect to the plane of the pyridine ring of the cofactor, in comparison with the enzyme inactivated by cycloserine. Based on the structure of the product, the mechanism of inactivation most probably involves a transamination followed by aromatization to form an aromatic thiophene ring.

Inactivation of Escherichia coli L-aspartate aminotransferase by (S)-4-amino-4,5-dihydro-2-thiophenecarboxylic acid reveals "a tale of two mechanisms".

As a mechanism-based inactivator of PLP-enzymes, (S)-4-amino-4,5-dihydro-2-thiophenecarboxylic acid (SADTA) was cocrystallized with Escherichia coli aspartate aminotransferase (l-AspAT) at a series of pH values ranging from 6 to 8. Five structural models with high resolution (1.4-1.85 A) were obtained for l-AspAT-SADTA complexes at pH 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, and 8.0. Electron densities of the models showed that two different adducts had formed in the active sites. One adduct was formed from SADTA covalently linked to pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) while the other adduct was formed with the inhibitor covalently linked to Lysine246,1 the active site lysine. Moreover, there is a strong indication based on the electron densities that the occurrence of the two adducts is pH dependent. We conclude that SADTA inactivates l-AspAT via two different mechanisms based on the binding direction of the inactivator. Additionally, the structural models also show pH dependence of the protein structure itself, which provided detailed mechanistic implications for l-AspAT.

Identification of structural and catalytic classes of highly conserved amino acid residues in lysine 2,3-aminomutase.

Lysine 2,3-aminomutase (LAM) from Clostridium subterminale SB4 catalyzes the interconversion of (S)-lysine and (S)-beta-lysine by a radical mechanism involving coenzymatic actions of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), a [4Fe-4S] cluster, and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP). The enzyme contains a number of conserved acidic residues and a cysteine- and arginine-rich motif, which binds iron and sulfide in the [4Fe-4S] cluster. The results of activity and iron, sulfide, and PLP analysis of variants resulting from site-specific mutations of the conserved acidic residues and the arginine residues in the iron-sulfide binding motif indicate two classes of conserved residues of each type. Mutation of the conserved residues Arg134, Asp293, and Asp330 abolishes all enzymatic activity. On the basis of the X-ray crystal structure, these residues bind the epsilon-aminium and alpha-carboxylate groups of (S)-lysine. However, among these residues, only Asp293 appears to be important for stabilizing the [4Fe-4S] cluster. Members of a second group of conserved residues appear to stabilize the structure of LAM. Mutations of arginine 130, 135, and 136 and acidic residues Glu86, Asp165, Glu236, and Asp172 dramatically decrease iron and sulfide contents in the purified variants. Mutation of Asp96 significantly decreases iron and sulfide content. Arg130 or Asp172 variants display no detectable activity, whereas variants mutated at the other positions display low to very low activities. Structural roles are assigned to this latter class of conserved amino acids. In particular, a network of hydrogen bonded interactions of Arg130, Glu86, Arg135, and the main chain carbonyl groups of Cys132 and Leu55 appears to stabilize the [4Fe-4S] cluster.

The x-ray crystal structure of lysine-2,3-aminomutase from Clostridium subterminale.

The x-ray crystal structure of the pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP), S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM), and [4Fe-4S]-dependent lysine-2,3-aminomutase (LAM) of Clostridium subterminale has been solved to 2.1-A resolution by single-wavelength anomalous dispersion methods on a L-selenomethionine-substituted complex of LAM with [4Fe-4S]2+, PLP, SAM, and L-alpha-lysine, a very close analog of the active Michaelis complex. The unit cell contains a dimer of hydrogen-bonded, domain-swapped dimers, the subunits of which adopt a fold that contains all three cofactors in a central channel defined by six beta/alpha structural units. Zinc coordination links the domain-swapped dimers. In each subunit, the solvent face of the channel is occluded by an N-terminal helical domain, with the opposite end of the channel packed against the domain-swapped subunit. Hydrogen-bonded ionic contacts hold the external aldimine of PLP and L-alpha-lysine in position for abstraction of the 3-pro-R hydrogen of lysine by C5' of SAM. The structure of the SAM/[4Fe-4S] complex confirms and extends conclusions from spectroscopic studies of LAM and shows selenium in Se-adenosyl-L-selenomethionine poised to ligate the unique iron in the [4Fe-4S] cluster upon electron transfer and radical formation. The chain fold in the central domain is in part analogous to other radical-SAM enzymes.

Three-dimensional structure of the quorum-quenching N-acyl homoserine lactone hydrolase from Bacillus thuringiensis.

The three-dimensional structure of the N-acyl-l-homoserine lactone hydrolase (AHL lactonase) from Bacillus thuringiensis has been determined, by using single-wavelength anomalous dispersion (SAD) phasing, to 1.6-angstroms resolution. AHLs are produced by many Gram-negative bacteria as signaling molecules used in quorum-sensing pathways that indirectly sense cell density and regulate communal behavior. Because of their importance in pathogenicity, quorum-sensing pathways have been suggested as potential targets for the development of novel therapeutics. Quorum-sensing can be disrupted by enzymes evolved to degrade these lactones, such as AHL lactonases. These enzymes are members of the metallo-beta-lactamase superfamily and contain two zinc ions in their active sites. The zinc ions are coordinated to a number of ligands, including a single oxygen of a bridging carboxylate and a bridging water/hydroxide ion, thought to be the nucleophile that hydrolyzes the AHLs to ring-opened products, which can no longer act as quorum signals.

Human cystathionine beta-synthase is a heme sensor protein. Evidence that the redox sensor is heme and not the vicinal cysteines in the CXXC motif seen in the crystal structure of the truncated enzyme.

Elevated levels of homocysteine, a sulfur-containing amino acid, are correlated with increased risk for cardiovascular diseases and Alzheimers disease and with neural tube defects. The only route for the catabolic removal of homocysteine in mammals begins with the pyridoxal phosphate- (PLP-) dependent beta-replacement reaction catalyzed by cystathionine beta-synthase. The enzyme has a b-type heme with unusual spectroscopic properties but as yet unknown function. The human enzyme has a modular organization and can be cleaved into an N-terminal catalytic core, which retains both the heme and PLP-binding sites and is highly active, and a C-terminal regulatory domain, where the allosteric activator S-adenosylmethionine is presumed to bind. Studies with the isolated recombinant enzyme and in transformed human liver cells indicate that the enzyme is approximately 2-fold more active under oxidizing conditions. In addition to heme, the enzyme contains a CXXC oxidoreductase motif that could, in principle, be involved in redox sensing. In this study, we have examined the role of heme versus the vicinal thiols in modulating the redox responsiveness of the enzyme. Deletion of the heme domain leads to loss of redox sensitivity. In contrast, substitution of either cysteine with a non-redox-active amino acid does not affect the responsiveness of the enzyme to reductants. We also report the crystal structure of the catalytic core of the enzyme in which the vicinal cysteines are reduced without any discernible differences in the remainder of the protein. The structure of the catalytic core is compared to those of other members of the fold II family of PLP-dependent enzymes and provides insights into active site residues that may be important in interacting with the substrates and intermediates.