Reuben E. Huber

LacZ β-galactosidase: structure and function of an enzyme of historical and molecular biological importance.

This review provides an overview of the structure, function, and catalytic mechanism of lacZ β‐galactosidase. The protein played a central role in Jacob and Monods development of the operon model for the regulation of gene expression. Determination of the crystal structure made it possible to understand why deletion of certain residues toward the amino‐terminus not only caused the full enzyme tetramer to dissociate into dimers but also abolished activity. It was also possible to rationalize α‐complementation, in which addition to the inactive dimers of peptides containing the “missing” N‐terminal residues restored catalytic activity. The enzyme is well known to signal its presence by hydrolyzing X‐gal to produce a blue product. That this reaction takes place in crystals of the protein confirms that the X‐ray structure represents an active conformation. Individual tetramers of β‐galactosidase have been measured to catalyze 38,500 ± 900 reactions per minute. Extensive kinetic, biochemical, mutagenic, and crystallographic analyses have made it possible to develop a presumed mechanism of action. Substrate initially binds near the top of the active site but then moves deeper for reaction. The first catalytic step (called galactosylation) is a nucleophilic displacement by Glu537 to form a covalent bond with galactose. This is initiated by proton donation by Glu461. The second displacement (degalactosylation) by water or an acceptor is initiated by proton abstraction by Glu461. Both of these displacements occur via planar oxocarbenium ion‐like transition states. The acceptor reaction with glucose is important for the formation of allolactose, the natural inducer of the lac operon.

Gata3 participates in a complex transcriptional feedback network to regulate sympathoadrenal differentiation

Gata3 mutant mice expire of noradrenergic deficiency by embryonic day (E) 11 and can be rescued pharmacologically or, as shown here, by restoring Gata3 function specifically in sympathoadrenal (SA) lineages using the human DBH promoter to direct Gata3 transgenic expression. In Gata3-null embryos, there was significant impairment of SA differentiation and increased apoptosis in adrenal chromaffin cells and sympathetic neurons. Additionally, mRNA analyses of purified chromaffin cells from Gata3 mutants show that levels of Mash1, Hand2 and Phox2b (postulated upstream regulators of Gata3) as well as terminally differentiated SA lineage products (tyrosine hydroxylase, Th, and dopamineβ -hydroxylase, Dbh) are markedly altered. However, SA lineage-specific restoration of Gata3 function in the Gata3 mutant background rescues the expression phenotypes of the downstream, as well as the putative upstream genes. These data not only underscore the hypothesis that Gata3 is essential for the differentiation and survival of SA cells, but also suggest that their differentiation is controlled by mutually reinforcing feedback transcriptional interactions between Gata3, Mash1, Hand2 and Phox2b in the SA lineage.

Solubilization, purification, and some properties of trehalase from honeybee (Apis mellifera)

Abstract The insoluble fraction of trehalase (EC 3.2.1.28) from honeybee (Apis mellifera) was solubilized by raising the pH of the enzyme suspension to 10.0. The soluble enzyme in the suspension was not deactivated by this procedure and the solution containing both the solubilized trehalase and the soluble trehalase was then purified at least 680-fold. Only one band was observed on disc gel and the trehalase activity migrated with this band. No contaminating sucrase activity was found in the purified preparation. The molecular weight of the trehalase as estimated by Sephadex chromatography was 110,000–120,000. The purified enzyme had a Km of 1.6 m m and a pH optimum of 6.5. Tris and sucrose strongly inhibited the enzyme; magnesium and ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid had slight inhibitory effects, while sodium borate and mercaptoethanol had no effects. ATP and AMP did not alter the enzymatic hydrolysis rate. Enzymatic activity was rapidly lost at temperatures greater than 40 °, at pH values less than 4.0, and in high concentrations of urea.

Multiple replacements establish the importance of tyrosine-503 in β-galactosidase (Escherichia coli)☆

Tyr-503 of beta-galactosidase was specifically replaced with Phe, His, Cys, and Lys using site-directed mutagenesis. The normal enzyme and the substituted enzymes were purified. The activities of each of the substituted enzymes with o-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside (ONPG) and p-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactopyronoside (PNPG) were very low and Y503K-beta-galactosidase was essentially inactive, showing that Tyr-503 is important for activity. The stability (including tetrameric stability) of the enzymes at 4 and 25 degrees C was essentially the same as that of the wild-type enzyme and the cleavage patterns on sodium dodecyl sulfate gels after protease action were unchanged. These studies thus indicate that Tyr-503 has no noticeable influence on stability under normal conditions. The substitutions for Tyr-503 had some small effects on the binding of both substrate and inhibitor. However, both kappa 2 (glycosidic bond cleavage rate) and kappa 3 (hydrolysis rate constant) were dramatically reduced. Each substitution except that of Lys (which can be explained by electrostatic effects) gave decreases in kappa 2 and kappa 3 of roughly the same magnitude regardless of whether the substitutions were conservative or not. This strongly implies that the changes in rate were not due to conformational changes as it is very unlikely that there would be such similar decreases in the values of kappa 2 and kappa 3 for amino acids with such different structures and chemical properties if the changes in rate were due to conformational differences. The data suggest that one possible role of Tyr-503 is as a general acid/base catalyst. Profiles of the kinetic data of the enzymes as functions of pH supported the suggestion that Tyr-503 normally acts as a general acid and base catalyst. When Tyr-503 was substituted by His, a small amount of base catalytic activity seemed to be restored. The strongest evidence that Tyr-503 acts as an acid catalyst came from studies with isoquinolinium-beta-D-galactopyranoside as the substrate. The kappa cat(s) of Y503F-beta-galactosidase and of Y503C-beta-galactosidase decreased by about an order of magnitude while the rate decreases were about 3 orders of magnitude with ONPG and PNPG. The breakdown of isoquinolinium-beta-D-galactopyranoside cannot be catalyzed by acids.

Site-directed mutagenesis of β-galactosidase (E. coli) reveals that tyr-503 is essential for activity

By using the technique of site-directed mutagenesis we have succeeded in replacing tyr-503 of beta-galactosidase (E. coli) with a phe. A study of the kinetic and stability properties of this mutant enzyme (F-503 beta-galactosidase) showed that the loss in activity upon this change is due to the loss of a catalytic group (rather than a detrimental change in the enzymes overall structure or a change in the enzymes binding capacity). This confirms previous suggestions that this tyr residue is involved in catalysis.

m-Fluorotyrosine substitution in β-galactosidase; Evidence for the existence of a catalytically active tyrosine

The pH profiles of beta-galactosidase, having tyr replaced by m-fluorotyrosine, were compared to those of normal enzyme. The inflection point on the alkaline side was lowered about 1.5 pH units in the fluoro-enzyme, corresponding to the difference in the phenolic pKa values of m-fluorotyrosine and tyr. When glycosidic bond breakage was rate-limiting, the Vm at pH 7.0 was higher for the fluoro-enzyme. When hydrolysis was rate-limiting or when acceptors which made transgalactosylis rate-limiting were used, the Vm was lower for the fluoro-enzyme. This shows that a tyr in beta-galactosidase is a general-acid catalyst in the glycosidic bond breaking reaction and a tyr (probably the same one) is a general-base catalyst in the hydrolytic reaction.

Direct and indirect roles of His‐418 in metal binding and in the activity of β‐galactosidase (E. coli)

The active site of ß‐galactosidase (E. coli) contains a Mg2+ ion ligated by Glu‐416, His‐418 and Glu‐461 plus three water molecules. A Na+ ion binds nearby. To better understand the role of the active site Mg2+ and its ligands, His‐418 was substituted with Asn, Glu and Phe. The Asn‐418 and Glu‐418 variants could be crystallized and the structures were shown to be very similar to native enzyme. The Glu‐418 variant showed increased mobility of some residues in the active site, which explains why the substitutions at the Mg2+ site also reduce Na+ binding affinity. The Phe variant had reduced stability, bound Mg2+ weakly and could not be crystallized. All three variants have low catalytic activity due to large decreases in the degalactosylation rate. Large decreases in substrate binding affinity were also observed but transition state analogs bound as well or better than to native. The results indicate that His‐418, together with the Mg2+, modulate the central role of Glu‐461 in binding and as a general acid/base catalyst in the overall catalytic mechanism. Glucose binding as an acceptor was also dramatically decreased, indicating that His‐418 is very important for the formation of allolactose (the natural inducer of the lac operon).

Site-directed mutagenic replacement of glu-461 with gln in β-galactosidase (E. coli): Evidence that glu-461 is important for activity

Glutamic acid 461 of beta-galactosidase (E. coli) was replaced by gln using site-directed mutagenesis. Kinetic studies on the purified Q461-beta-galactosidase showed that it had less than 0.4% of the wild-type activity (with ONPG as substrate), confirming other studies which have suggested that the negative charge on glu-461 is important for activity. The Km values did not increase, indicating that binding of the substrate was not decreased by this change. Thermal denaturation studies showed Q461-beta-galactosidase to be somewhat more susceptible to heat denaturation than the wild-type enzyme.

Reversion reactions of β-galactosidase (Escherichia coli)

Abstract The reversion reactions of β-galactosidase ( Escherichia coli ) produced β-galactosyl-galactoses and β-galactosyl-glucoses. About 10 β-galactosyl-galactose and 10 β-galactosyl-glucose gas-liquid chromatographic peaks were detected and it is thus very likely that every possible isomer of β-galactosyl-galactose and of β-galactosyl-glucose was formed by the reversion reactions (taking into account both anomers for each isomer). The presence of lactose and allolactose among the β-galactosyl-glucoses was confirmed with standards. An important finding relating to the role of allolactose as an inducer of the lac operon was that allolactose (β- d -galactosyl-(1 → 6)- d -glucose) was the only dissacharide formed initially, and at equilibrium it was present in the largest amount (50%). Obviously the enzyme is specific in its ability to form allolactose, and allolactose is the most stable β-galactosyl-glucose, both important inducer properties. The equilibrium constant (concentration of disaccharides divided by the concentration of reactants at equilibrium) of the reaction was about 9.5 m m −1 . This is the first report of an equilibrium constant for the β-galactosidase reaction. Of mechanistic significance is the fact that only three compounds were able to replace d -galactose as a reversion reactant. Two of these ( l -arabinose and d -fucose) had alterations at carbon 6. The 6 position, therefore, is not essential for reactivity. The third compound was d -galactal. Any other sugars tested (even with very minor changes relative to d -galactose) did not react. Of special consequence is the 2 position. The results strongly suggest that there has to be either an equatorial hydroxyl at the 2 position of a sugar or a special reactivity (as with d -galactal) in order for the enzyme to catalyze the β-galactosidase reaction.

Role of Met-542 as a guide for the conformational changes of Phe-601 that occur during the reaction of β-galactosidase (Escherichia coli).

The Met-542 residue of β-galactosidase is important for the enzymes activity because it acts as a guide for the movement of the benzyl side chain of Phe-601 between two stable positions. This movement occurs in concert with an important conformational change (open vs. closed) of an active site loop (residues 794-803). Phe-601 and Arg-599, which interact with each other via the π electrons of Phe-601 and the guanidium cation of Arg-599, move out of their normal positions and become disordered when Met-542 is replaced by an Ala residue because of the loss of the guide. Since the backbone carbonyl of Phe-601 is a ligand for Na(+), the Na(+) also moves out of its normal position and becomes disordered; the Na(+) binds about 120 times more poorly. In turn, two other Na(+) ligands, Asn-604 and Asp-201, become disordered. A substrate analog (IPTG) restored Arg-599, Phe-601, and Na(+) to their normal open-loop positions, whereas a transition state analog d-galactonolactone) restored them to their normal closed-loop positions. These compounds also restored order to Phe-601, Asn-604, Asp-201, and Na(+). Binding energy was, however, necessary to restore structure and order. The K(s) values of oNPG and pNPG and the competitive K(i) values of substrate analogs were 90-250 times higher than with native enzyme, whereas the competitive K(i) values of transition state analogs were ~3.5-10 times higher. Because of this, the E•S energy level is raised more than the E•transition state energy level and less activation energy is needed for galactosylation. The galactosylation rates (k₂) of M542A-β-galactosidase therefore increase. However, the rate of degalactosylation (k₃) decreased because the E•transition state complex is less stable.