title: Identification of crucial amino acids in mouse aldehyde oxidase 3 that determine substrate specificity.
abstract: In order to elucidate factors that determine substrate specificity and activity of mammalian molybdo-flavoproteins we performed site directed mutagenesis of mouse aldehyde oxidase 3 (mAOX3). The sequence alignment of different aldehyde oxidase (AOX) isoforms identified variations in the active site of mAOX3 in comparison to other AOX proteins and xanthine oxidoreductases (XOR). Based on the structural alignment of mAOX3 and bovine XOR, differences in amino acid residues involved in substrate binding in XORs in comparison to AOXs were identified. We exchanged several residues in the active site to the ones found in other AOX homologues in mouse or to residues present in bovine XOR in order to examine their influence on substrate selectivity and catalytic activity. Additionally we analyzed the influence of the [2Fe-2S] domains of mAOX3 on its kinetic properties and cofactor saturation. We applied UV-VIS and EPR monitored redox-titrations to determine the redox potentials of wild type mAOX3 and mAOX3 variants containing the iron-sulfur centers of mAOX1. In addition, a combination of molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulations (MD) was used to investigate factors that modulate the substrate specificity and activity of wild type and AOX variants. The successful conversion of an AOX enzyme to an XOR enzyme was achieved exchanging eight residues in the active site of mAOX3. It was observed that the absence of the K889H exchange substantially decreased the activity of the enzyme towards all substrates analyzed, revealing that this residue has an important role in catalysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Enzymology, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mahro
authors.affiliation: REQUIMTE, Departamento de Quimica, Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Natércia F
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Brás
authors.affiliation: REQUIMTE, Departamento de Quimica, Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Nuno M F S A
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Cerqueira
authors.affiliation: Institute for Experimentalphysics, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Teutloff
authors.affiliation: REQUIMTE, Departamento de Química, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal.
authors.forename: Catarina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Coelho
authors.affiliation: REQUIMTE, Departamento de Química, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal.
authors.forename: Maria João
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Romão
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Enzymology, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leimkühler
mesh_terms: D000445:Aldehyde Oxidoreductases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D051379:Mice; D008958:Models, Molecular; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D000445:Aldehyde Oxidoreductases; C443116:Aox3 protein, mouse