title: Crystal structure and stereochemical studies of KD(P)G aldolase from Thermoproteus tenax.
abstract: Carbon-carbon bond forming enzymes offer great potential for organic biosynthesis. Hence there is an ongoing effort to improve their biocatalytic properties, regarding availability, activity, stability, and substrate specificity and selectivity. Aldolases belong to the class of C-C bond forming enzymes and play important roles in numerous cellular processes. In several hyperthermophilic Archaea the 2-keto-3-deoxy-(6-phospho)-gluconate (KD(P)G) aldolase was identified as a key player in the metabolic pathway. The carbohydrate metabolism of the hyperthermophilic Crenarchaeote Thermoproteus tenax, for example, has been found to employ a combination of a variant of the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway and an unusual branched Entner-Doudoroff pathway that harbors a nonphosphorylative and a semiphosphorylative branch. The KD(P)G aldolase catalyzes the reversible cleavage of 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogluconate (KDPG) and 2-keto-3-deoxygluconate (KDG) forming pyruvate and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate or glyceraldehyde, respectively. In T. tenax initial studies revealed that the pathway is specific for glucose, whereas in the thermoacidophilic Crenarchaeote Sulfolobus solfataricus the pathway was shown to be promiscuous for glucose and galactose degradation. The KD(P)G aldolase of S. solfataricus lacks stereo control and displays additional activity with 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogalactonate (KDPGal) and 2-keto-3-deoxygalactonate (KDGal), similar to the KD(P)G aldolase of Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. To address the stereo control of the T. tenax enzyme the formation of the two C4 epimers KDG and KDGal was analyzed via gas chromatography combined with mass spectroscopy. Furthermore, the crystal structure of the apoprotein was determined to a resolution of 2.0 A, and the crystal structure of the protein covalently linked to a pathway intermediate, namely pyruvate, was determined to 2.2 A. Interestingly, although the pathway seems to be specific for glucose in T. tenax the enzyme apparently also lacks stereo control, suggesting that the enzyme is a trade-off between required catabolic flexibility needed for the conversion of phosphorylated and nonphosphorylated substrates and required stereo control of cellular/physiological enzymatic reactions.
authors.affiliation: Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen-PSI, Switzerland. anuschka.pauluhn@psi.ch
authors.forename: Anuschka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pauluhn
authors.forename: Hatim
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: Esben
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lorentzen
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Buchinger
authors.forename: Dietmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schomburg
authors.forename: Bettina
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Siebers
authors.forename: Ehmke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pohl
mesh_terms: D000446:Aldehyde-Lyases / Q000737:chemistry*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D005942:Gluconates / Q000378:metabolism; D007536:Isomerism; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D019289:Pyruvic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D055672:Static Electricity; D048229:Sulfolobus solfataricus / Q000201:enzymology; D041542:Thermoproteus / Q000201:enzymology*
chemical_list: D005942:Gluconates; C002957:2-keto-3-deoxygluconate; D019289:Pyruvic Acid; D000446:Aldehyde-Lyases; C100131:phospho-2-keto-3-deoxy-gluconate aldolase