The importance of methionine residues for the catalysis of the biotin enzyme, transcarboxylase. Analysis by site-directed mutagenesis

• Published in: The Journal of biological chemistry 1992-09, Vol.267 (26), p.18407-18412
• Main Authors: SHENOY, B. C, XIE, Y, PARK, V. L, KUMAR, G. K, BEEGEN, H, WOOD, H. G, SAMOLS, D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Analytical, structural and metabolic biochemistry; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Carboxyl and Carbamoyl Transferases; Catalysis; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; Enzymes and enzyme inhibitors; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Kinetics; Methionine - metabolism; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; Mutation; Propionibacterium - metabolism; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; Transferases; Transferases - metabolism
• ISSN: 0021-9258; 1083-351X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0021-9258(19)36977-7

Almost all biotin enzymes contain the conserved tetrapeptide Ala-Met-Bct-Met (Bct, N epsilon-biotinyl-L-lysine). In the 1.3 S biotinyl subunit of transcarboxylase (TC), this sequence is present between positions 87 and 90. The conserved nature of these amino acids implies a critical role in the function of biotin enzymes. In order to examine the role of these conserved amino acids, point mutations in the gene encoding the 1.3 S subunit have been made by site-directed mutagenesis to generate A87G, M88L, M90L, M88T, M88C, M88A, and a double mutant A87M, M88A in the 1.3 S subunit. TC, a multisubunit enzyme containing 12 S, 5 S, and 1.3 S subunits, catalyzes the transfer of a carboxyl group from methylmalonyl-CoA to pyruvate (overall reaction). TC can be dissociated into individual subunits and also reconstituted by assembling isolated subunits to a fully active form. The mutants of the 1.3 S subunit have been reconstituted with native 5 S and 12 S subunits from Propionibacterium shermanii. The effects of mutations on the activity of TC were compared with that of TC-1.3 S wild type (WT) prepared in a similar manner. The results show that any substitution of a residue in the conserved tetrapeptide causes impairment of the rate of TC activity. Comparison of gel filtration profiles, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and electron micrographs of the TC assembled with mutant 1.3 S and with wild type 1.3 S subunits showed that the impairment of the overall activity was not due to a failure of the subunits to assemble into complexes. Steady state kinetic analysis using the mutant 1.3 S subunits indicated that the Km for methylmalonyl-CoA or pyruvate did not change significantly indicating that the binding of substrates is not altered. However, the kcat values were significantly lower for mutants at positions 87 and 88 than for those at position 90. The replacement of methionine at position 88 either by hydrophobic or hydrophilic residues significantly altered the activity in the overall reaction, while similar substitution at position 90 did not dramatically alter the kcat. These results suggest that Ala-87 and Met-88 are catalytically critical in the conserved tetrapeptide.