title: Catalysis-linked inactivation of fluoroacetate dehalogenase by ammonia: a novel approach to probe the active-site environment.
abstract: Fluoroacetate dehalogenase from Moraxella sp. B (FAc-DEX) catalyzes the hydrolytic dehalogenation of fluoroacetate and other haloacetates. Asp(105) of the enzyme acts as a nucleophile to attack the alpha-carbon of haloacetate to form an ester intermediate, which is subsequently hydrolyzed by a water molecule activated by His(272) [Liu, J.Q., Kurihara, T., Ichiyama, S., Miyagi, M., Tsunasawa, S., Kawasaki, H., Soda, K., and Esaki, N. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 30897-30902]. In this study, we found that FAc-DEX is inactivated concomitantly with defluorination of fluoroacetate by incubation with ammonia. Mass spectrometric analyses revealed that the inactivation of FAc-DEX is caused by nucleophilic attack of ammonia on the ester intermediate to convert the catalytic residue, Asp(105), into an asparagine residue. The results indicate that ammonia reaches the active site of FAc-DEX without losing its nucleophilicity. Analysis of the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme by homology modeling showed that the active site of the enzyme is mainly composed of hydrophobic and basic residues, which are considered to be essential for an ammonia molecule to retain its nucleophilicity. In a normal enzyme reaction, the hydrophobic environment is supposed to prevent hydration of the highly electronegative fluorine atom of the substrate and contribute to fluorine recognition by the enzyme. Basic residues probably play a role in counterbalancing the electronegativity of the substrate. These results demonstrate that catalysis-linked inactivation is useful for characterizing the active-site environment as well as for identifying the catalytic residue.
authors: Laboratory of Microbial Biochemistry, Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan.
authors: Susumu
authors: S
authors: Ichiyama
authors: Tatsuo
authors: T
authors: Kurihara
authors: Masaru
authors: M
authors: Miyagi
authors: Andrey
authors: A
authors: Galkin
authors: Susumu
authors: S
authors: Tsunasawa
authors: Haruhiko
authors: H
authors: Kawasaki
authors: Nobuyoshi
authors: N
authors: Esaki
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000641:Ammonia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001665:Binding Sites; D002384:Catalysis; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D005463:Fluoroacetates / Q000378:metabolism; D006867:Hydrolases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009016:Moraxella / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D005463:Fluoroacetates; D000641:Ammonia; D006867:Hydrolases; C034507:2-haloacid dehalogenase; C023098:haloacetate dehalogenase