Essentiality of tetramer formation of Cellulomonas parahominis L-ribose isomerase involved in novel L-ribose metabolic pathway.

L-Ribose isomerase from Cellulomonas parahominis MB426 (CpL-RI) can catalyze the isomerization between L-ribose and L-ribulose, which are non-abundant in nature and called rare sugars. CpL-RI has a broad substrate specificity and can catalyze the isomerization between D-lyxose and D-xylulose, D-talose and D-tagatose, L-allose and L-psicose, L-gulose and L-sorbose, and D-mannose and D-fructose. To elucidate the molecular basis underlying the substrate recognition mechanism of CpL-RI, the crystal structures of CpL-RI alone and in complexes with L-ribose, L-allose, and L-psicose were determined. The structure of CpL-RI was very similar to that of L-ribose isomerase from Acinetobacter sp. strain DL-28, previously determined by us. CpL-RI had a cupin-type ß-barrel structure, and the catalytic site was detected between two large ß-sheets with a bound metal ion. The bound substrates coordinated to the metal ion, and Glu113 and Glu204 were shown to act as acid/base catalysts in the catalytic reaction via a cis-enediol intermediate. Glu211 and Arg243 were found to be responsible for the recognition of substrates with various configurations at 4- and 5-positions of sugar. CpL-RI formed a homo-tetramer in crystals, and the catalytic site independently consisted of residues within a subunit, suggesting that the catalytic site acted independently. Crystal structure and site-direct mutagenesis analyses showed that the tetramer structure is essential for the enzyme activity and that each subunit of CpL-RI could be structurally stabilized by intermolecular contacts with other subunits. The results of growth complementation assays suggest that CpL-RI is involved in a novel metabolic pathway using L-ribose as a carbon source.

Production of L-allose and D-talose from L-psicose and D-tagatose by L-ribose isomerase.

L-ribose isomerase (L-RI) from Cellulomonas parahominis MB426 can convert L-psicose and D-tagatose to L-allose and D-talose, respectively. Partially purified recombinant L-RI from Escherichia coli JM109 was immobilized on DIAION HPA25L resin and then utilized to produce L-allose and D-talose. Conversion reaction was performed with the reaction mixture containing 10% L-psicose or D-tagatose and immobilized L-RI at 40 °C. At equilibrium state, the yield of L-allose and D-talose was 35.0% and 13.0%, respectively. Immobilized enzyme could convert L-psicose to L-allose without remarkable decrease in the enzyme activity over 7 times use and D-tagatose to D-talose over 37 times use. After separation and concentration, the mixture solution of L-allose and D-talose was concentrated up to 70% and crystallized by keeping at 4 °C. L-Allose and d-talose crystals were collected from the syrup by filtration. The final yield was 23.0% L-allose and 7.30% D-talose that were obtained from L-psicose and D-tagatose, respectively.

X-ray structure of a novel L-ribose isomerase acting on a non-natural sugar L-ribose as its ideal substrate.

UNLABELLED: l-Ribose, a pentose, is not known to exist in nature. Although organisms typically do not have a metabolic pathway that uses l-ribose as a carbon source, prokaryotes use various sugars as carbon sources for survival. Acinetobacter sp. DL-28 has been shown to express the novel enzyme, l-ribose isomerase (AcL-RbI), which catalyzes reversible isomerization between l-ribose and l-ribulose. AcL-RbI showed the highest activity to l-ribose, followed by d-lyxose with 47% activity, and had no significant amino acid sequence similarity to structure-known proteins, except for weak homology with the d-lyxose isomerases from Escherichia coli O157 : H7 (18%) and Bacillus subtilis strain (19%). Thus, AcL-RbI is expected to have the unique three-dimensional structure to recognize l-ribose as its ideal substrate. The X-ray structures of AcL-RbI in complexes with substrates were determined. AcL-RbI had a cupin-type ß-barrel structure, and the catalytic site was found between two large ß-sheets with a bound metal ion. The catalytic site structures clearly showed that AcL-RbI adopted a cis-enediol intermediate mechanism for the isomerization reaction using two glutamate residues (Glu113 and Glu204) as acid/base catalysts. In its crystal form, AcL-RbI formed a unique homotetramer with many substrate sub-binding sites, which likely facilitated capture of the substrate. DATABASE: The atomic coordinates and structure factors of AcL-RbI/l-ribose, AcL-RbI/l-ribulose, AcL-RbI/ribitol, E204Q/l-ribose and E204Q/l-ribulose have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank under accession codes, 4Q0P, 4Q0Q, 4Q0S, 4Q0U and 4Q0V.

Cloning and characterization of the l-ribose isomerase gene from Cellulomonas parahominis MB426.

A newly isolated bacterium, Cellulomonas parahominis MB426, produced l-ribose isomerase (CeLRI) on a medium containing l-ribose as a sole carbon source. A 32 kDa protein isomerizing l-ribose to l-ribulose was purified to homogeneity from this bacterium. A set of degenerated primers were synthesized based on amino acid sequences of the purified CeLRI, and a 747 bp gene encoding CeLRI was cloned, sequenced and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. This gene encoded a 249 amino acid protein with a calculated molecular mass of 27,435. The deduced amino acid sequence of this gene showed the highest identity with l-ribose isomerase from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus DL-28 (71%). The recombinant l-ribose isomerase (rCeLRI) was optimally active at pH 9.0 and 40°C, and was stable up to 40°C for 1 h and not dependent for metallic ions for its activity. The rCeLRI showed widely substrate specificity for the rare sugar which involved l-erythro form such as l-ribose, d-lyxose, d-talose, d-mannose, l-gulose, and l-allose.