title: Identification of a mouse short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase gene, retinol dehydrogenase-similar. Function of non-catalytic amino acid residues in enzyme activity.
abstract: We report a mouse short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR), retinol dehydrogenase-similar (RDH-S), with intense mRNA expression in liver and kidney. The RDH-S gene localizes to chromosome 10D3 with the SDR subfamily that catalyzes metabolism of retinoids and 3 alpha-hydroxysteroids. RDH-S has no activity with prototypical retinoid/steroid substrates, despite 92% amino acid similarity to mouse RDH1. This afforded the opportunity to analyze for functions of non-catalytic SDR residues. We produced RDH-S Delta 3 by mutating RDH-S to remove an "additional" Asn residue relative to RDH1 in its center, to convert three residues into RDH1 residues (L121P, S122N, and Q123E), and to substitute RDH1 sequence G208FKTCVTSSD for RDH-S sequence F208-FLTGMASSA. RDH-S Delta 3 catalyzed all-trans-retinol and 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha,17 alpha-diol (3 alpha-adiol) metabolism 60-70% as efficiently (Vm/Km) as RDH1. Conversely, substituting RDH-S sequence F208FLTGMASSA into RDH1 produced a chimera (viz. C3) that was inactive with all-trans-retinol, but was 4-fold more efficient with 3 alpha-adiol. A single RDH1 mutation in the C3 region (K210L) reduced efficiency for all-trans-retinol by >1250-fold. In contrast, the C3 area mutation C212G enhanced efficiency with all-trans-retinol by approximately 2.4-fold. This represents a >6000-fold difference in catalytic efficiency for two enzymes that differ by a single non-catalytic amino acid residue. Another chimera (viz. C5) retained efficiency with all-trans-retinol, but was not saturated and was weakly active with 3 alpha-adiol, stemming from three residue differences (K224Q, K229Q, and A230T). The residues studied contribute to the substrate-binding pocket: molecular modeling indicated that they would affect orientation of substrates with the catalytic residues. These data report a new member of the SDR gene family, provide insight into the function of non-catalytic SDR residues, and illustrate that limited changes in the multifunctional SDR yield major alterations in substrate specificity and/or catalytic efficiency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Min-Sun
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Weiguo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Joseph L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Napoli
mesh_terms: D000429:Alcohol Oxidoreductases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D064429:Fatty Acid Synthases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D007668:Kidney / Q000201:enzymology; D007700:Kinetics; D008099:Liver / Q000201:enzymology; D051379:Mice; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D009247:NADH, NADPH Oxidoreductases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D000429:Alcohol Oxidoreductases; C022520:retinol dehydrogenase; C036543:short chain trans-2-enoyl-CoA reductase; D009247:NADH, NADPH Oxidoreductases; D064429:Fatty Acid Synthases