title: Modifying the substrate specificity of penicillin G acylase to cephalosporin acylase by mutating active-site residues.
abstract: The penicillin G acylase (PGA) and cephalosporin acylase (CA) families, which are members of the N-terminal (Ntn) hydrolases, are valuable for the production of backbone chemicals like 6-aminopenicillanic acid and 7-aminocephalosporanic acid (7-ACA), which can be used to synthesize semi-synthetic penicillins and cephalosporins, respectively. Regardless of the low sequence similarity between PGA and CA, the structural homologies at their active-sites are very high. However, despite this structural conservation, they catalyze very different substrates. PGA reacts with the hydrophobic aromatic side-chain (the phenylacetyl moiety) of penicillin G (PG), whereas CA targets the hydrophilic linear side-chain (the glutaryl moiety) of glutaryl-7-ACA (GL-7-ACA). These different substrate specificities are likely to be due to differences in the side-chains of the active-site residues. In this study, mutagenesis of active-site residues binding the side-chain moiety of PG changed the substrate specificity of PGA to that of CA. This mutant PGA may constitute an alternative source of engineered enzymes for the industrial production of 7-ACA.
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Genomic Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Yongon-Dong, Seoul 110-799, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Bora
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Kyunggon
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jungeun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Jongchul
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Dohyun
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Youngsoo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D010399:Penicillin Amidase / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D010399:Penicillin Amidase