Lixia Tang

Halohydrin Dehalogenases Are Structurally and Mechanistically Related to Short-Chain Dehydrogenases/Reductases

Halohydrin dehalogenases, also known as haloalcohol dehalogenases or halohydrin hydrogen-halide lyases, catalyze the nucleophilic displacement of a halogen by a vicinal hydroxyl function in halohydrins to yield epoxides. Three novel bacterial genes encoding halohydrin dehalogenases were cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, and the enzymes were shown to display remarkable differences in substrate specificity. The halohydrin dehalogenase of Agrobacterium radiobacter strain AD1, designated HheC, was purified to homogeneity. The k(cat) and K(m) values of this 28-kDa protein with 1,3-dichloro-2-propanol were 37 s(-1) and 0.010 mM, respectively. A sequence homology search as well as secondary and tertiary structure predictions indicated that the halohydrin dehalogenases are structurally similar to proteins belonging to the family of short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases (SDRs). Moreover, catalytically important serine and tyrosine residues that are highly conserved in the SDR family are also present in HheC and other halohydrin dehalogenases. The third essential catalytic residue in the SDR family, a lysine, is replaced by an arginine in halohydrin dehalogenases. A site-directed mutagenesis study, with HheC as a model enzyme, supports a mechanism for halohydrin dehalogenases in which the conserved Tyr145 acts as a catalytic base and Ser132 is involved in substrate binding. The primary role of Arg149 may be lowering of the pK(a) of Tyr145, which abstracts a proton from the substrate hydroxyl group to increase its nucleophilicity for displacement of the neighboring halide. The proposed mechanism is fundamentally different from that of the well-studied hydrolytic dehalogenases, since it does not involve a covalent enzyme-substrate intermediate.

The X-Ray Structure of the Haloalcohol Dehalogenase HheA from Arthrobacter sp. Strain AD2: Insight into Enantioselectivity and Halide Binding in the Haloalcohol Dehalogenase Family

Haloalcohol dehalogenases are bacterial enzymes that cleave the carbon-halogen bond in short aliphatic vicinal haloalcohols, like 1-chloro-2,3-propanediol, some of which are recalcitrant environmental pollutants. They use a conserved Ser-Tyr-Arg catalytic triad to deprotonate the haloalcohol oxygen, which attacks the halogen-bearing carbon atom, producing an epoxide and a halide ion. Here, we present the X-ray structure of the haloalcohol dehalogenase HheA(AD2) from Arthrobacter sp. strain AD2 at 2.0-A resolution. Comparison with the previously reported structure of the 34% identical enantioselective haloalcohol dehalogenase HheC from Agrobacterium radiobacter AD1 shows that HheA(AD2) has a similar quaternary and tertiary structure but a much more open substrate-binding pocket. Docking experiments reveal that HheA(AD2) can bind both enantiomers of the haloalcohol substrate 1-p-nitrophenyl-2-chloroethanol in a productive way, which explains the low enantiopreference of HheA(AD2). Other differences are found in the halide-binding site, where the side chain amino group of Asn182 is in a position to stabilize the halogen atom or halide ion in HheA(AD2), in contrast to HheC, where a water molecule has taken over this role. These results broaden the insight into the structural determinants that govern reactivity and selectivity in the haloalcohol dehalogenase family.

Key Residues for Controlling Enantioselectivity of Halohydrin Dehalogenase from Arthrobacter sp. Strain AD2, Revealed by Structure-Guided Directed Evolution

ABSTRACT Halohydrin dehalogenase from Agrobacterium radiobacter AD1 (HheC) is a valuable tool in the preparation of R enantiomers of epoxides and β-substituted alcohols. In contrast, the halohydrin dehalogenase from Arthrobacter sp. AD2 (HheA) shows a low S enantioselectivity toward most aromatic substrates. Here, three amino acids (V136, L141, and N178) located in the two neighboring active-site loops of HheA were proposed to be the key residues for controlling enantioselectivity. They were subjected to saturation mutagenesis aimed at evolving an S-selective enzyme. This led to the selection of two outstanding mutants (the V136Y/L141G and N178A mutants). The double mutant displayed an inverted enantioselectivity (from S enantioselectivity [ES ] = 1.7 to R enantioselectivity [ER ] = 13) toward 2-chloro-1-phenylethanol without compromising enzyme activity. Strikingly, the N178A mutant showed a large enantioselectivity improvement (ES > 200) and a 5- to 6-fold-enhanced specific activity toward (S)-2-chloro-1-phenylethanol. Further analysis revealed that those mutations produced some interference for the binding of nonfavored enantiomers which could account for the observed enantioselectivities. Our work demonstrated that those three active-site residues are indeed crucial in modulating the enantioselectivity of HheA and that a semirational design strategy has great potential for rapid creation of novel industrial biocatalysts.

A high-throughput colorimetric assay for screening halohydrin dehalogenase saturation mutagenesis libraries.

Here we have reported a high throughput pH indicator-based assay to measure the activity of halohydrin dehalogenases (HheC). The assay relies upon the absorbance change at 560nm and the visual color change of phenol red in a weakly buffered system, due to the release of protons from the enzyme-catalyzed ring-closure reactions. The assay can be performed in a microplate format using whole cells, making the assay simple and robust. Thus, it is suitable for library screening. The assay has been further validated using two previously studied HheC variants, D80N and W249F, which exhibit 200-fold lower and 2-fold higher k(cat) values, respectively, toward 1,3-dichloro-2-propanol than the wild-type HheC. In addition, a saturation mutagenesis library of HheC was screened using the developed assay for its ability to efficiently catalyze the conversion of 1,3-dichloro-2-propanol. After screening of 500 colonies, one mutant W139C was identified and was further purified and characterized. Kinetic analysis indicates that the resulting mutant shows 2- and 5-fold improvement in k(cat) value toward 1,3-DCP and (R,S)-p-nitro-2-bromo-1-phenylethanol, respectively, although it exhibits higher K(m) values than the wild-type enzyme. The method described herein represents a useful tool given the need for the high throughput screening of halohydrin dehalogenase mutants.

MDC-Analyzer: A novel degenerate primer design tool for the construction of intelligent mutagenesis libraries with contiguous sites

Recent computational and bioinformatics advances have enabled the efficient creation of novel biocatalysts by reducing amino acid variability at hot spot regions. To further expand the utility of this strategy, we present here a tool called Multi-site Degenerate Codon Analyzer (MDC-Analyzer) for the automated design of intelligent mutagenesis libraries that can completely cover user-defined randomized sequences, especially when multiple contiguous and/or adjacent sites are targeted. By initially defining an objective function, the possible optimal degenerate PCR primer profiles could be automatically explored using the heuristic approach of Greedy Best-First-Search. Compared to the previously developed DC-Analyzer, MDC-Analyzer allows for the existence of a small amount of undesired sequences as a tradeoff between the number of degenerate primers and the encoded library size while still providing all the benefits of DC-Analyzer with the ability to randomize multiple contiguous sites. MDC-Analyzer was validated using a series of randomly generated mutation schemes and experimental case studies on the evolution of halohydrin dehalogenase, which proved that the MDC methodology is more efficient than other methods and is particularly well-suited to exploring the sequence space of proteins using data-driven protein engineering strategies.

Exploring the Enantioselective Mechanism of Halohydrin Dehalogenase from Agrobacterium radiobacter AD1 by Iterative Saturation Mutagenesis

ABSTRACT Halohydrin dehalogenase from Agrobacterium radiobacter AD1 (HheC) shows great potential in producing valuable chiral epoxides and β-substituted alcohols. The wild-type (WT) enzyme displays a high R-enantiopreference toward most aromatic substrates, whereas no S-selective HheC has been reported to date. To obtain more enantioselective enzymes, seven noncatalytic active-site residues were subjected to iterative saturation mutagenesis (ISM). After two rounds of screening aspects of both activity and enantioselectivity (E), three outstanding mutants (Thr134Val/Leu142Met, Leu142Phe/Asn176His, and Pro84Val/Phe86Pro/Thr134Ala/Asn176Ala mutants) with divergent enantioselectivity were obtained. The two double mutants displayed approximately 2-fold improvement in R-enantioselectivity toward 2-chloro-1-phenylethanol (2-CPE) without a significant loss of enzyme activity compared with the WT enzyme. Strikingly, the Pro84Val/Phe86Pro/Thr134Ala/Asn176Ala mutant showed an inverted enantioselectivity (from an ER of 65 [WT] to an ES of 101) and approximately 100-fold-enhanced catalytic efficiency toward (S)-2-CPE. Molecular dynamic simulation and docking analysis revealed that the phenyl side chain of (S)-2-CPE bound at a different location than that of its R-counterpart; those mutations generated extra connections for the binding of the favored enantiomer, while the eliminated connections reduced binding of the nonfavored enantiomer, all of which could contribute to the observed inverted enantiopreference.

A single point mutation enhances hydroxynitrile synthesis by halohydrin dehalogenase

The cyanide-mediated ring opening of epoxides catalyzed by halohydrin dehalogenases yields β-hydroxynitriles that are of high interest for synthetic chemistry. The best studied halohydrin dehalogenase to date is the enzyme from Agrobacterium radiobacter, but this enzyme (HheC) exhibits only low cyanolysis activities. Sequence comparison between a pair of related halohydrin dehalogenases from Corynebacterium and Mycobacterium suggested that substitution of a threonine that interacts with the active site might be responsible for the higher cyanolytic activity of the former enzyme. Here we report that a variant of HheC in which this substitution (T134A) is adopted displays an up to 11-fold higher activity in cyanide-mediated epoxide ring-opening. The mutation causes removal of the hydrogen bond between residue 134 and the side chain O of the active site serine 132, which donates a hydrogen bond to the substrate oxygen. The mutation also increases dehalogenase rates with various substrates. Structural analysis revealed that the anion-binding site of the mutant enzyme remained unaltered, showing that the enhanced activity is due to altered interactions with the substrate oxygen rather than changes in the nucleophile binding site.

Improvement of the thermostability and activity of halohydrin dehalogenase from Agrobacterium radiobacter AD1 by engineering C-terminal amino acids.

In the current study, a three-tiered mutagenesis strategy was employed to simultaneously improve the thermostability and activity of halohydrin dehalogenase from Agrobacterium radiobacter AD1 (HheC) by engineering the last ten amino acids (Met245∼Glu254) of its C-terminal region. Initially, truncated mutagenesis results displayed that C-terminal deletions decreased the thermostability and/or activity of HheC. Then ten residues were subjected to single-site saturation mutagenesis, resulting in 20 beneficial single-point variants related to the thermostability or activity of HheC. The results clearly indicated that residues Met252∼Glu254 and Trp249 are crucial for regulating enzyme thermostability and activity, respectively. Finally, the beneficial substitutions were combined using efficient multi-site combinatorial mutagenesis approaches, leading to an outstanding variant PX14 (Trp249Pro/Met252Leu/Pro253Asp), which had a 17.8-fold higher half-life and a 4.0-fold higher kcat value than that of wild-type HheC. These results indicated that the C-terminal residues play an important role in modulating both the thermostability and activity of HheC.

MDC-Analyzer-facilitated combinatorial strategy for improving the activity and stability of halohydrin dehalogenase from Agrobacterium radiobacter AD1

Halohydrin dehalogenase from Agrobacterium radiobacter AD1 (HheC) displays a broad substrate range with high regio- and enantioselectivity of both ring-closure and ring-opening reactions, making the enzyme a useful catalyst for the production of optically pure epoxides and β-substituted alcohols. In this study, we report a novel method using an MDC-Analyzer-facilitated combinatorial strategy to improve the activity and stability of HheC by simultaneously randomizing multiple contiguous residues. Six contiguous active-site residues, which are the hotspots for improving the activity of HheC, were simultaneously selected and randomized using the MDC-Analyzer-facilitated combinatorial strategy, resulting in a high-quality mutagenesis library. After screening a total of 1152 clones, three positive mutants were obtained, which exhibited approximately 3.5-5.9-fold higher kcat values than the wild-type HheC toward 1,3-dichloro-2-propanol (1,3-DCP). However, the inactivation half-life of the best mutant (DG9) at 55 °C decreased 9-fold compared with that of the wild-type HheC. To improve the stability of mutant DG9, seven contiguous potential surface amino acids were revealed by using the B-FITTER tool. Two charged amino acids, Glu and Lys, which are more abundant in thermophilic proteins than in their mesophilic counterparts, were selected to substitute those seven amino acids and were combined together via an MDC-Analyzer-facilitated combinatorial strategy. Two mutants displaying 1.6- and 2.3-fold higher half-life τ1/2 (55 °C) values than their DG9 template were obtained after screening only 384 clones. The results indicated that an MDC-Analyzer-facilitated combinatorial strategy represents an efficient tool for the directed evolution of functional enzymes with multiple contiguous targeting sites.

Exploring the potential of megaprimer PCR in conjunction with orthogonal array design for mutagenesis library construction

Although megaprimer PCR mutagenesis has been used routinely in protein directed evolution, users sometimes encounter technical hurdles, particularly inefficiency during amplification when large fragments are used or the template is difficult to be amplified. Instead of methodology development, here we simply overcome the limitation by optimizing megaprimer PCR conditions via orthogonal array design of the four PCR components in three levels of each: template, primer, Mg2+, and dNTPs. For this, only nine PCRs need to be performed. The strategy (termed as OptiMega) was not only successfully applied for the construction of one multiple‐site saturation mutagenesis library of halohydrin dehalogenase HheC, which failed to be constructed previously using the standard QuikChange™ protocol, but also expanded the construction of two high‐quality random mutagenesis libraries of HheA and HheC. Most importantly, OptiMega offers a quick and simple way of constructing random mutagenesis libraries by eliminating the ligation step. Our results demonstrated that the OptiMega strategy could greatly strengthen the potential of megaprimer PCR mutagenesis for library construction.