title: Effects of conversion of an invariant tryptophan residue to phenylalanine on the function of human dihydrofolate reductase.
abstract: The binding site residue Trp-24 is conserved in all vertebrate and bacterial dihydrofolate reductases of known sequence. To determine its effects on enzyme properties, a Trp-24 to Phe-24 mutant (W-24-F) of human dihydrofolate reductase has been constructed by oligodeoxynucleotide site-directed mutagenesis. The W-24-F mutant enzyme appears to have a more open or flexible conformation as compared to the wild-type human dihydrofolate reductase on the basis of results of a number of studies. These studies include competitive ELISA using peptide-specific antibodies against human dihydrofolate reductase, thermal stability, and protease susceptibility studies of both mutant W-24-F and wild-type enzymes. It is concluded that Trp-24 is important for maintaining the structural integrity of the native enzymes. Changes in relative fluorescence quantum yield indicate that Trp-24 is buried and its fluorescence quenched relative to the other two tryptophan residues in the wild-type human reductase. Kinetic studies indicate that kcat values for W-24-F are increased in the pH range of 4.5-8.5 with a 5-fold increase at pH 7.5 as compared to the wild-type enzyme. However, the catalytic efficiency of W-24-F decreases rapidly as the pH is increased from 7.5 to 9.5. The Km values for dihydrofolate are also increased for W-24-F in the pH range of 4.5-9.5 with a 30-fold increase at pH 7.5, while the Km value for NADPH increases only ca. 1.4-fold at pH 7.5 as compared to the wild type.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo 43699.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Delcamp
authors.forename: X H
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Prendergast
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Freisheim
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D004795:Enzyme Stability; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010649:Phenylalanine; D010957:Plasmids; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013762:Tetrahydrofolate Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014364:Tryptophan
chemical_list: D010649:Phenylalanine; D014364:Tryptophan; D004247:DNA; D013762:Tetrahydrofolate Dehydrogenase