Structure and dynamics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis truncated hemoglobin N: insights from NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations.

The potent nitric oxide dioxygenase (NOD) activity (trHbN-Fe²âº-O2 + (•)NO → trHbN-Fe³âº-OH2 + NO3⁻) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis truncated hemoglobin N (trHbN) protects aerobic respiration from inhibition by (•)NO. The high activity of trHbN has been attributed in part to the presence of numerous short-lived hydrophobic cavities that allow partition and diffusion of the gaseous substrates (•)NO and O2 to the active site. We investigated the relation between these cavities and the dynamics of the protein using solution NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD). Results from both approaches indicate that the protein is mainly rigid with very limited motions of the backbone N-H bond vectors on the picoseconds-nanoseconds time scale, indicating that substrate diffusion and partition within trHbN may be controlled by side-chains movements. Model-free analysis also revealed the presence of slow motions (microseconds-milliseconds), not observed in MD simulations, for many residues located in helices B and G including the distal heme pocket Tyr33(B10). All currently known crystal structures and molecular dynamics data of truncated hemoglobins with the so-called pre-A N-terminal extension suggest a stable α-helical conformation that extends in solution. Moreover, a recent study attributed a crucial role to the pre-A helix for NOD activity. However, solution NMR data clearly show that in near-physiological conditions these residues do not adopt an α-helical conformation and are significantly disordered and that the helical conformation seen in crystal structures is likely induced by crystal contacts. Although this lack of order for the pre-A does not disagree with an important functional role for these residues, our data show that one should not assume an helical conformation for these residues in any functional interpretation. Moreover, future molecular dynamics simulations should not use an initial α-helical conformation for these residues in order to avoid a bias based on an erroneous initial structure for the N-termini residues. This work constitutes the first study of a truncated hemoglobin dynamics performed by solution heteronuclear relaxation NMR spectroscopy.

Theoretical investigations of nitric oxide channeling in Mycobacterium tuberculosis truncated hemoglobin N.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis group I truncated hemoglobin trHbN catalyzes the oxidation of nitric oxide (NO) to nitrate with a second-order rate constant k approximately 745 microM(-1) s(-1) at 23 degrees C (nitric oxide dioxygenase reaction). It was proposed that this high efficiency is associated with the presence of hydrophobic tunnels inside trHbN structure that allow substrate diffusion to the distal heme pocket. In this work, we investigated the mechanisms of NO diffusion within trHbN tunnels in the context of the nitric oxide dioxygenase reaction using two independent approaches. Molecular dynamics simulations of trHbN were performed in the presence of explicit NO molecules. Successful NO diffusion from the bulk solvent to the distal heme pocket was observed in all simulations performed. The simulations revealed that NO interacts with trHbN at specific surface sites, composed of hydrophobic residues located at tunnel entrances. The entry and the internal diffusion of NO inside trHbN were performed using the Long, Short, and EH tunnels reported earlier. The Short tunnel was preferentially used by NO to reach the distal heme pocket. This preference is ascribed to its hydrophobic funnel-shape entrance, covering a large area extending far from the tunnel entrance. This funnel-shape entrance triggers the frequent formation of solvent-excluded cavities capable of hosting up to three NO molecules, thereby accelerating NO capture and entry. The importance of hydrophobicity of entrances for NO capture is highlighted by a comparison with a polar mutant for which residues at entrances were mutated with polar residues. A complete map of NO diffusion pathways inside trHbN matrix was calculated, and NO molecules were found to diffuse from Xe cavity to Xe cavity. This scheme was in perfect agreement with the three-dimensional free-energy distribution calculated using implicit ligand sampling. The trajectories showed that NO significantly alters the dynamics of the key amino acids of Phe(62)(E15), a residue proposed to act as a gate controlling ligand traffic inside the Long tunnel, and also of Ile(119)(H11), at the entrance of the Short tunnel. It is noteworthy that NO diffusion inside trHbN tunnels is much faster than that reported previously for myoglobin. The results presented in this work shed light on the diffusion mechanism of apolar gaseous substrates inside protein matrix.

Structural characterization of the tunnels of Mycobacterium tuberculosis truncated hemoglobin N from molecular dynamics simulations.

The structure of oxygenated trHbN from Mycobacterium tuberculosis shows an extended heme distal hydrogen-bond network that includes Tyr33(B10), Gln58(E11), and the bound O(2). In addition, trHbN structure shows a network of hydrophobic cavities organized in two orthogonal branches. In the present work, the structure and the dynamics of oxygenated and deoxygenated trHbN in explicit water was investigated from 100 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Results show that, depending on the presence or the absence of a coordinated O(2), the Tyr33(B10) and Gln58(E11) side chains adopt two different configurations in concert with hydrogen bond network rearrangement. In addition, our data indicate that Tyr33(B10) and Gln58(E11) control the dynamics of Phe62(E15). In deoxy-trHbN, Phe62(E15) is restricted to one conformation. Upon O(2) binding, the conformation of Gln58(E11) changes and residue Phe62(E15) fluctuates between two conformations. We also conducted a systematic study of trHbN tunnels by analyzing thousands of MD snapshots with CAVER. The results show that tunnel formation is the result of the dynamic reshaping of short-lived hydrophobic cavities. The analyses indicate that the presence of these cavities is likely linked to the rigid structure of trHbN and also reveal two tunnels, EH and BE, that link the protein surface to the buried distal heme pocket and not present in the crystallographic structure. The cavities are sufficiently large to accomodate and store ligands. Tunnel dynamics in trHbN was found to be controlled by the side-chain conformation of the Tyr33(B10), Gln58(E11), and Phe62(E15) residues. Importantly, in contrast to recently published works, our extensive systematic studies show that the presence or absence of a coordinated dioxygen does not control the opening of the long tunnel but rather the opening of the EH tunnel. In addition, the data lead to new and distinctly different conclusion on the impact of the Phe62(E15) residue on trHbN tunnels. We propose that the EH and the long tunnels are used for apolar ligands storage. The trajectories bring important new structural insights related to trHbN function and to ligand diffusion in proteins.

Ligand binding to truncated hemoglobin N from Mycobacterium tuberculosis is strongly modulated by the interplay between the distal heme pocket residues and internal water.

The survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis requires detoxification of host *NO. Oxygenated Mycobacterium tuberculosis truncated hemoglobin N catalyzes the rapid oxidation of nitric oxide to innocuous nitrate with a second-order rate constant (k'(NOD) approximately 745 x 10(6) m(-1) x s(-1)), which is approximately 15-fold faster than the reaction of horse heart myoglobin. We ask what aspects of structure and/or dynamics give rise to this enhanced reactivity. A first step is to expose what controls ligand/substrate binding to the heme. We present evidence that the main barrier to ligand binding to deoxy-truncated hemoglobin N (deoxy-trHbN) is the displacement of a distal cavity water molecule, which is mainly stabilized by residue Tyr(B10) but not coordinated to the heme iron. As observed in the Tyr(B10)/Gln(E11) apolar mutants, once this kinetic barrier is lowered, CO and O(2) binding is very rapid with rates approaching 1-2 x 10(9) m(-1) x s(-1). These large values almost certainly represent the upper limit for ligand binding to a heme protein and also indicate that the iron atom in trHbN is highly reactive. Kinetic measurements on the photoproduct of the *NO derivative of met-trHbN, where both the *NO and water can be directly followed, revealed that water rebinding is quite fast (approximately 1.49 x 10(8) s(-1)) and is responsible for the low geminate yield in trHbN. Molecular dynamics simulations, performed with trHbN and its distal mutants, indicated that in the absence of a distal water molecule, ligand access to the heme iron is not hindered. They also showed that a water molecule is stabilized next to the heme iron through hydrogen-bonding with Tyr(B10) and Gln(E11).