title: Mechanism of the reaction catalyzed by mandelate racemase. 3. Asymmetry in reactions catalyzed by the H297N mutant.
abstract: The two preceding papers [Powers, V. M., Koo, C. W., Kenyon, G. L., Gerlt, J. A., & Kozarich, J. W. (1991) Biochemistry (first paper of three in this issue); Neidhart, D. J., Howell, P. L., Petsko, G. A., Powers, V. M., Li, R., Kenyon, G. L., & Gerlt, J. A. (1991) Biochemistry (second paper of three in this issue)] suggest that the active site of mandelate racemase (MR) contains two distinct general acid/base catalysts: Lys 166, which abstracts the alpha-proton from (S)-mandelate, and His 297, which abstracts the alpha-proton from (R)-mandelate. In this paper we report on the properties of the mutant of MR in which His 297 has been converted to asparagine by site-directed mutagenesis (H297N). The structure of H297N, solved by molecular replacement at 2.2-A resolution, reveals that no conformational alterations accompany the substitution. As expected, H297N has no detectable MR activity. However, H297N catalyzes the stereospecific elimination of bromide ion from racemic p-(bromomethyl)mandelate to give p-(methyl)-benzoylformate in 45% yield at a rate equal to that measured for wild-type enzyme; the unreacted p-(bromomethyl)mandelate is recovered as (R)-p-(hydroxymethyl)mandelate. At pD 7.5, H297N catalyzes the stereospecific exchange of the alpha-proton of (S)- but not (R)-mandelate with D2O solvent at a rate 3.3-fold less than that observed for incorporation of solvent deuterium into (S)-mandelate catalyzed by wild-type enzyme. The pD dependence of the rate of the exchange reaction catalyzed by H297N reveals a pKa of 6.4 in D2O, which is assigned to Lys 166.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park 20742.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Landro
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Kallarakal
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Ransom
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Gerlt
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kozarich
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Neidhart
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Kenyon
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D001965:Bromides / Q000378:metabolism; D002384:Catalysis; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D003903:Deuterium / Q000378:metabolism; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007700:Kinetics; D008239:Lysine / Q000737:chemistry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D019998:Racemases and Epimerases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D001965:Bromides; D009841:Oligonucleotides; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D003903:Deuterium; D019998:Racemases and Epimerases; C021540:mandelate racemase; D008239:Lysine