Domains in microbial beta-1, 4-glycanases: sequence conservation, function, and enzyme families.

In spite of much effort, no one has succeeded in isolating and characterizing the enzyme(s) responsible for synthesis of cellulose, the major cell wall polymer of plants. We have characterized two cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) cDNA clones and identified one rice (Oryza sativa) cDNA that are homologs of the bacterial celA genes that encode the catalytic subunit of cellulose synthase. Three regions in the deduced amino acid sequences of the plant celA gene products are conserved with respect to the proteins encoded by bacterial celA genes. Within these conserved regions, there are four highly conserved subdomains previously suggested to be critical for catalysis and/or binding of the substrate UDP-glucose (UDP-Glc). An overexpressed DNA segment of the cotton celA1 gene encodes a polypeptide fragment that spans these domains and binds UDP-Glc, while a similar fragment having one of these domains deleted does not. The plant celA genes show little homology at the N- and C-terminal regions and also contain two internal insertions of sequence, one conserved and one hypervariable, that are not found in the bacterial gene sequences. Cotton celA1 and celA2 genes are expressed at high levels during active secondary wall cellulose synthesis in developing cotton fibers. Genomic Southern blot analyses in cotton demonstrate that celA forms a small gene family.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/93/22/12637.full.pdf

Higher plants contain homologs of the bacterial celA genes encoding the catalytic subunit of cellulose synthase.

Preface 1. Introduction 2. Haemoglobin: Dependence of allosteric equilibrium on spin state and coordination of the haem iron 3. Haemocyanin: Dependence of allosteric equilibrium on coordination and valency of a binuclear copper complex 4. Haemerythrin: Cooperativity in a binuclear iron complex 5. Glycogen phosphorylase: Control of glycolysis 6. Phosphofructokinase: Further control of glycolysis 7. Feedback inhibition of a biosynthetic pathway: Aspartate Transcarbamoylase 8. Control of nitrogen metabolism: Glutamine synthetase 9. Cooperativity and feedback inhibition without change of quaternary structure: The "trp" and "met" repressors of E. Coli 10. Immunoglobulins: Cooperative binding to multivalent antigens 11. Allosteric membrane proteins.

Mechanisms of Cooperativity and Allosteric Regulation in Proteins

The 2.3-A resolution structure of the maltose- or maltodextrin-binding protein, a primary receptor of bacterial active transport and chemotaxis.

The blue-light photoreceptor photoactive yellow protein (PYP) undergoes a self-contained light cycle. The atomic structure of the bleached signaling intermediate in the light cycle of PYP was determined by millisecond time-resolved, multiwavelength Laue crystallography and simultaneous optical spectroscopy. Light-induced trans-to-cis isomerization of the 4-hydroxycinnamyl chromophore and coupled protein rearrangements produce a new set of active-site hydrogen bonds. An arginine gateway opens, allowing solvent exposure and protonation of the chromophore's phenolic oxygen. Resulting changes in shape, hydrogen bonding, and electrostatic potential at the protein surface form a likely basis for signal transduction. The structural results suggest a general framework for the interpretation of protein photocycles.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/275/5305/1471.full.pdf

Structure of a protein photocycle intermediate by millisecond time-resolved crystallography.

Direct observation of the progress of a catalysed reaction in crystals of glycogen phosphorylase b has been made possible through fast crystallographic data collection achieved at the Synchrotron Radiation source at Daresbury, UK. In the best experiments, data to 2.7 A resolution (some 108,300 measurements; 21,200 unique reflections) were measured in 25 min. In a series of time-resolved studies in which the control properties of the enzyme were exploited in order to slow down the reaction, the conversion of heptenitol to heptulose-2-phosphate, the phosphorylysis of maltoheptaose to yield glucose-1-phosphate and the oligosaccharide synthesis reaction involving maltotriose and glucose-1-phosphate have been monitored in the crystal. Changes in electron density in the difference Fourier maps are observed as the reaction proceeds not only at the catalytic site but also the allosteric and glycogen storage sites. Phosphorylase b is present in the crystals in the T state and under these conditions exhibits low affinity for both phosphate and oligosaccharide substrates. There are pronounced conformational changes associated with the formation and binding of the high-affinity dead-end product, heptulose-2-phosphate, which show that movement of an arginine residue, Arg 569, is critical for formation of the substrate-phosphate recognition site. The results are discussed with reference to proposals for the enzymic mechanism of phosphorylase. The feasibility for time-resolved studies on other systems and recent advances in this area utilizing Laue diffraction are also discussed.

https://www.embopress.org/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb04786.x

Catalysis in the crystal: synchrotron radiation studies with glycogen phosphorylase b.

Refined crystal structure of the phosphorylase-heptulose 2-phosphate-oligosaccharide-AMP complex.

Polysaccharides have many diverse biological roles. They comprise the insoluble structural and supportive elements of bacterial and plant cell walls. They serve as storage macromolecules (e.g., glycogen and starch) to provide fuel for cells, and they form important components in the heteromacromolecules, proteoglycans and glycoproteins, which are involved in the structural elements of connective tissue, in the lubrication of skeletal joints, in cell-cell adhesion and in cell-surface recognition. The enzymes that catalyze the biosynthesis and degradation of these polysaccharides are highly specific, resulting, in the case of biosynthesis, in polymers of defined constitution and sequence and, in the case of degradation in the cleavage of specific linkages. In this article we describe the X-ray structural results for three of these enzymes: lysozyme, glycogen phosphorylase, and amylase. Each catalyzes a specific step in the degradation of different polysaccharides. (To date there are no structural data on any of the biosynthetic enzymes.) Lysozyme catalyzes the hydrolysis of a β-(1–4) linkage of bacterial cell wall polysaccharides; glycogen phosphorylase catalyzes the reversible phosphorylation of α-(1–4) linkages of glycogen and amylase catalyzes the hydrolysis of α-(1–4) linkages in starch. We use these results in an attempt to draw together some general principles that appear to be important in generating a protein-oligosaccharide recognition site and compare these features with protein monosaccharide sites.

Protein-oligosaccharide interactions: lysozyme, phosphorylase, amylases.

The structural relationships between substrate and pyridoxal phosphate in glycogen phosphorylase b (EC 2.4.1.1) have been studied by X-ray diffraction experiments at 3-A resolution. Recent work [Klein, H. W., Im, M. J., & Helmreich, E. J. M. (1984) in Chemical and Biological Aspects of Vitamin B6 Catalysis (Evangelopoulos, A. E., Ed.) pp 147-160, Liss, New York] has shown that phosphorylase in the presence of inorganic phosphate catalyzes the conversion of heptenitol to heptulose 2-phosphate. The latter compound is a dead-end product and a most potent inhibitor (Ki = 14 microM). The X-ray diffraction studies show that heptenitol binds at the catalytic site of phosphorylase in a position essentially identical with that observed for the glucopyranose moiety of glucose 1-phosphate. Incubation of a phosphorylase b crystal for 50 h in a solution containing the substrates heptenitol and inorganic phosphate and the activators AMP and maltohetaose resulted in the formation of a phosphorylated product bound at the active site. The structure of this product, as analyzed by a difference Fourier synthesis at 3 A, is consistent with that of heptulose 2-phosphate. Analysis of the surrounding soak solution by thin-layer chromatography showed that heptulose 2-phosphate was produced under these conditions. Heptulose 2-phosphate binds with its glucopyranose moiety in the same position as that for glucose 1-phosphate, but there is a marked difference in phosphate positions. The presence of the methyl group in the beta-configuration in heptulose 2-phosphate forces a change in the torsion angle O5-C1-O1-P from 117 degrees as observe in glucose 1-phosphate to -136 degrees in heptulose 2-phosphate. The "down" position of the phosphate (with respect to the crystallographic z axis) results in a change in the distance between the 5'-phosphorus atom of the pyridoxal phosphate and the phosphorus atom of the substrate from 6.8 (with glucose 1-phosphate) to 4.5 A (with heptulose 2-phosphate). The closest distance between the phosphate oxygen of the cofactor and a phosphate oxygen of heptulose 2-phosphate is 2.7 A, and it is assumed that there must be a hydrogen bond between them. These observations are consistent with the NMR experiments reported in the preceding paper in which sharing of a proton between heptulose 2-phosphate and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate is observed [Klein, H.W., Im, M. J., Palm, D., & Helmreich, E. J. M. (1984) Biochemistry (preceding paper in this issue)].(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Substrate-cofactor interactions for glycogen phosphorylase b: a binding study in the crystal with heptenitol and heptulose 2-phosphate.

UDP-glucose is an R-state inhibitor of glycogen phosphorylase b, competitive with the substrate, glucose 1-phosphate and noncompetitive with the allosteric activator, AMP. Diffusion of 100 mM UDP-glucose into crystals of phosphorylase b resulted in a difference Fourier synthesis at 0.3-nm resolution that showed two peaks: (a) binding at the allosteric site and (b) binding at the catalytic site.



At the allosteric site the whole of the UDP-glucose molecule can be located. It is in a well defined folded conformation with its uracil portion in a similar position to that observed for the adenine of AMP. The uracil and the glucose moieties stack against the aromatic side chains of Tyr-75 and Phe-196, respectively. The phosphates of the pyrophosphate component interact with Arg-242, Arg-309 and Arg-310.



At the catalytic site, the glucose-1-P component of UDP-glucose is firmly bound in a position similar to that observed for glucose 1-phosphate. The pyrophosphate is also well located with the glucose phosphate interacting with the main-chain NH groups at the start of the glycine-loop α helix and the uridine phosphate interacting through a water molecule with the 5′-phosphate of the cofactor pyridoxal phosphate and with the side chains of residues Tyr-573, Lys-574 and probably Arg-569. However the position of the uridine cannot be located although analysis by thin-layer chromatography showed that no degradation had taken place. Binding of UDP-glucose to the catalytic site promotes extensive conformational changes. The loop 279–288 which links the catalytic site to the nucleoside inhibitor site is displaced and becomes mobile. Concomitant movements of residues His-571, Arg-569, and the loop 378–383, together with the major loop displacement, result in an open channel to the catalytic site. Comparison with other structural results shows that these changes form an essential feature of the T to R transition. They allow formation of the phosphate recognition site at the catalytic site and destroy the nucleoside inhibitor site. Kinetic experiments demonstrate that UDP-glucose activates the enzyme in the presence of high concentrations of the weak activator IMP, because of its ability to decrease the affinity of IMP for the inhibitor site.

https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1432-1033.1988.tb14037.x

P.J. McLaughlin

Papers

Catalysis in the crystal: synchrotron radiation studies with glycogen phosphorylase b.

Refined crystal structure of the phosphorylase-heptulose 2-phosphate-oligosaccharide-AMP complex.

Protein-oligosaccharide interactions: lysozyme, phosphorylase, amylases.

Substrate-cofactor interactions for glycogen phosphorylase b: a binding study in the crystal with heptenitol and heptulose 2-phosphate.

Uridine(5')diphospho(1)-alpha-D-glucose. A binding study to glycogen phosphorylase b in the crystal.