1.3 A structure of arylsulfatase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa establishes the catalytic mechanism of sulfate ester cleavage in the sulfatase family.

BACKGROUND: Sulfatases constitute a family of enzymes with a highly conserved active site region including a Calpha-formylglycine that is posttranslationally generated by the oxidation of a conserved cysteine or serine residue. The crystal structures of two human arylsulfatases, ASA and ASB, along with ASA mutants and their complexes led to different proposals for the catalytic mechanism in the hydrolysis of sulfate esters. RESULTS: The crystal structure of a bacterial sulfatase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PAS) has been determined at 1.3 A. Fold and active site region are strikingly similar to those of the known human sulfatases. The structure allows a precise determination of the active site region, unequivocally showing the presence of a Calpha-formylglycine hydrate as the key catalytic residue. Furthermore, the cation located in the active site is unambiguously characterized as calcium by both its B value and the geometry of its coordination sphere. The active site contains a noncovalently bonded sulfate that occupies the same position as the one in para-nitrocatecholsulfate in previously studied ASA complexes. CONCLUSIONS: The structure of PAS shows that the resting state of the key catalytic residue in sulfatases is a formylglycine hydrate. These structural data establish a mechanism for sulfate ester cleavage involving an aldehyde hydrate as the functional group that initiates the reaction through a nucleophilic attack on the sulfur atom in the substrate. The alcohol is eliminated from a reaction intermediate containing pentacoordinated sulfur. Subsequent elimination of the sulfate regenerates the aldehyde, which is again hydrated. The metal cation involved in stabilizing the charge and anchoring the substrate during catalysis is established as calcium.

Crystal structure of an enzyme-substrate complex provides insight into the interaction between human arylsulfatase A and its substrates during catalysis.

Arylsulfatase A (ASA) belongs to the sulfatase family whose members carry a C(alpha)-formylglycine that is post-translationally generated by oxidation of a conserved cysteine or serine residue. The crystal structures of two arylsulfatases, ASA and ASB, and kinetic studies on ASA mutants led to different proposals for the catalytic mechanism in the hydrolysis of sulfate esters. The structures of two ASA mutants that lack the functional C(alpha)-formylglycine residue 69, in complex with a synthetic substrate, have been determined in order to unravel the reaction mechanism. The crystal structure of the inactive mutant C69A-ASA in complex with p-nitrocatechol sulfate (pNCS) mimics a reaction intermediate during sulfate ester hydrolysis by the active enzyme, without the covalent bond to the key side-chain FGly69. The structure shows that the side-chains of lysine 123, lysine 302, serine 150, histidine 229, the main-chain of the key residue 69 and the divalent cation in the active center are involved in sulfate binding. It is proposed that histidine 229 protonates the leaving alcoholate after hydrolysis.C69S-ASA is able to bind covalently to the substrate and hydrolyze it, but is unable to release the resulting sulfate. Nevertheless, the resulting sulfation is low. The structure of C69S-ASA shows the serine side-chain in a single conformation, turned away from the position a substrate occupies in the complex. This suggests that the double conformation observed in the structure of wild-type ASA is more likely to correspond to a formylglycine hydrate than to a twofold disordered aldehyde oxo group, and accounts for the relative inertness of the C69S-ASA mutant. In the C69S-ASA-pNCS complex, the substrate occupies the same position as in the C69A-ASA-pNCS complex, which corresponds to the non-covalently bonded substrate. Based on the structural data, a detailed mechanism for sulfate ester cleavage is proposed, involving an aldehyde hydrate as the functional group.

Amino acid residues forming the active site of arylsulfatase A. Role in catalytic activity and substrate binding.

Arylsulfatase A belongs to the sulfatase family whose members carry a Calpha-formylglycine that is post-translationally generated by oxidation of a conserved cysteine or serine residue. The formylglycine acts as an aldehyde hydrate with two geminal hydroxyls being involved in catalysis of sulfate ester cleavage. In arylsulfatase A and N-acetylgalactosamine 4-sulfatase this formylglycine was found to form the active site together with a divalent cation and a number of polar residues, tightly interconnected by a net of hydrogen bonds. Most of these putative active site residues are highly conserved among the eukaryotic and prokaryotic members of the sulfatase family. To analyze their function in binding and cleaving sulfate esters, we substituted a total of nine putative active site residues of human ASA by alanine (Asp29, Asp30, Asp281, Asn282, His125, His229, Lys123, Lys302, and Ser150). In addition the Mg2+-complexing residues (Asp29, Asp30, Asp281, and Asn282) were substituted conservatively by either asparagine or aspartate. In all mutants Vmax was decreased to 1-26% of wild type activity. The Km was more than 10-fold increased in K123A and K302A and up to 5-fold in the other mutants. In all mutants the pH optimum was increased from 4.5 by 0.2-0.8 units. These results indicate that each of the nine residues examined is critical for catalytic activity, Lys123 and Lys302 by binding the substrate and the others by direct (His125 and Asp281) or indirect participation in catalysis. The shift in the pH optimum is explained by two deprotonation steps that have been proposed for sulfate ester cleavage.

Residues critical for formylglycine formation and/or catalytic activity of arylsulfatase A.

Sulfatases contain a unique posttranslational modification in their active site, a formylglycine residue generated from a cysteine or a serine residue. The formylglycine residue is part of a sequence that is highly conserved among sulfatases, suggesting that it might direct the generation of this unique amino acid derivative. In the present study residues 68-86 flanking formylglycine 69 in arylsulfatase A were subjected to an alanine/glycine scanning mutagenesis. The mutants were analyzed for the conversion of cysteine 69 to formylglycine and their kinetic properties. Only cysteine 69 turned out to be essential for formation of the formylglycine residue, while substitution of leucine 68, proline 71, and alanine 74 within the heptapeptide LCTPSRA reduced the formylglycine formation to about 30-50%. Several residues that are part of or directly adjacent to an alpha-helix presenting the formylglycine 69 at the bottom of the active site pocket were found to be critical for catalysis. A surprising outcome of this study was that a number of residues fully or highly conserved between all known eukaryotic and prokaryotic sulfatases turned out to be essential neither for generation of formylglycine nor for catalysis.