title: Structure of the zinc endoprotease from Streptomyces caespitosus.
abstract: A zinc endoprotease produced by Streptomyces caespitosus (ScNP) specifically hydrolyzes the peptide bond at the imino side of aromatic residues and is the smallest protease found to date. Although ScNP carries the zinc-binding sequence HEXXH, its primary structure of 132 amino acid residues differs from those of other known zinc metalloendoproteases. X-ray structural analysis of ScNP at 1.6 A resolution revealed that despite a lack of sequence homology, the common topological feature of main-chain folding and a beta-turn containing methionine, which is a feature of the zinc metalloendoprotease superfamily of metzincins, is conserved in ScNP. The zinc atom of ScNP is tetrahedrally ligated by the two histidines in the HEXXH sequence, an aspartate residue and a water molecule. Thus, ScNP represents a novel subfamily of metzincins with a HEXXHXXGXXD zinc-binding sequence. A plausible substrate recognition pocket to which aromatic residues bind is located near the catalytic zinc ion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University. genji@ap.chem.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kurisu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sugimoto
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nagara
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kai
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kasai
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harada
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D008666:Metalloendopeptidases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D012984:Software; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman; D013302:Streptomyces / Q000201:enzymology*; D015032:Zinc / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008666:Metalloendopeptidases; C106507:zinc endoprotease, Streptomyces caespitosus; D015032:Zinc