title: The proton channel of the energy-transducing nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase of Escherichia coli.
abstract: The nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenases of mitochondria and bacteria are proton pumps that couple direct hydride ion transfer between NAD(H) and NADP(H) bound, respectively, to extramembranous domains I and III to proton translocation by the membrane-intercalated domain II. To delineate the proton channel of the enzyme, 25 conserved and semiconserved prototropic amino acid residues of domain II of the Escherichia coli transhydrogenase were mutated, and the mutant enzymes were assayed for transhydrogenation from NADPH to an NAD analogue and for the coupled outward proton translocation. The results confirmed the previous findings of others and ourselves on the essential roles of three amino acid residues and identified another essential residue. Three of these amino acids, His-91, Ser-139, and Asn-222, occur in three separate membrane-spanning alpha helices of domain II of the beta subunit of the enzyme. Another residue, Asp-213, is probably located in a cytosolic-side loop that connects to the alpha helix bearing Asn-222. It is proposed that the three helices bearing His-91, Ser-139, and Asn-222 come together, possibly with another highly conserved alpha helix to form a four-helix bundle proton channel and that Asp-213 serves to conduct protons between the channel and domain III where NADPH binding energy is used via protein conformation change to initiate outward proton translocation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
authors.forename: Mutsuo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: C David
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Stout
authors.forename: Youssef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hatefi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009250:NADP Transhydrogenases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017494:Proton Pumps / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D017494:Proton Pumps; D009250:NADP Transhydrogenases