Jessica Vey | California State University, Northridge (original) (raw)
Papers by Jessica Vey
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2016
Pnas, 2008
Pyruvate formate-lyase activating enzyme generates a stable and catalytically essential glycyl ra... more Pyruvate formate-lyase activating enzyme generates a stable and catalytically essential glycyl radical on G734 of pyruvate formate-lyase via the direct, stereospecific abstraction of a hydrogen atom from pyruvate formate-lyase. The activase performs this remarkable feat by using an iron-sulfur cluster and S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet), thus placing it among the AdoMet radical superfamily of enzymes. We report here structures of the substrate-free and substrate-bound forms of pyruvate formate-lyase-activating enzyme, the first structures of an AdoMet radical activase. To obtain the substrate-bound structure, we have used a peptide substrate, the 7-mer RVSGYAV, which contains the sequence surrounding G734. Our structures provide fundamental insights into the interactions between the activase and the G734 loop of pyruvate formate-lyase and provide a structural basis for direct and stereospecific H atom abstraction from the buried G734 of pyruvate formate-lyase.
Acta crystallographica. Section F, Structural biology communications, 2015
Enoyl-ACP reductase, the last enzyme of the fatty-acid biosynthetic pathway, is the molecular tar... more Enoyl-ACP reductase, the last enzyme of the fatty-acid biosynthetic pathway, is the molecular target for several successful antibiotics such as the tuberculosis therapeutic isoniazid. It is currently under investigation as a narrow-spectrum antibiotic target for the treatment of several types of bacterial infections. The diazaborine family is a group of boron heterocycle-based synthetic antibacterial inhibitors known to target enoyl-ACP reductase. Development of this class of molecules has thus far focused solely on the sulfonyl-containing versions. Here, the requirement for the sulfonyl group in the diazaborine scaffold was investigated by examining several recently characterized enoyl-ACP reductase inhibitors that lack the sulfonyl group and exhibit additional variability in substitutions, size and flexibility. Biochemical studies are reported showing the inhibition of Escherichia coli enoyl-ACP reductase by four diazaborines, and the crystal structures of two of the inhibitors bo...
Acta Crystallographica Section F Structural Biology Communications, 2015
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008
Pyruvate formate-lyase activating enzyme generates a stable and catalytically essential glycyl ra... more Pyruvate formate-lyase activating enzyme generates a stable and catalytically essential glycyl radical on G 734 of pyruvate formatelyase via the direct, stereospecific abstraction of a hydrogen atom from pyruvate formate-lyase. The activase performs this remarkable feat by using an iron-sulfur cluster and S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet), thus placing it among the AdoMet radical superfamily of enzymes. We report here structures of the substrate-free and substrate-bound forms of pyruvate formate-lyase-activating enzyme, the first structures of an AdoMet radical activase. To obtain the substrate-bound structure, we have used a peptide substrate, the 7-mer RVSGYAV, which contains the sequence surrounding G 734 . Our structures provide fundamental insights into the interactions between the activase and the G 734 loop of pyruvate formate-lyase and provide a structural basis for direct and stereospecific H atom abstraction from the buried G 734 of pyruvate formate-lyase.
Chemical Reviews, 2011
ABSTRACT
Biochemistry, 2004
Cysteine desulfurases, designated NifS, IscS, and SufS, cleave L-cysteine to form alanine and an ... more Cysteine desulfurases, designated NifS, IscS, and SufS, cleave L-cysteine to form alanine and an enzyme cysteinyl persulfide intermediate. Genetic studies on the photosynthetic cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 have shown that of the three Nif/Isc/SufS-like proteins encoded in its genome only the sequence group II protein, Slr0077/SufS, is essential. This protein has been overexpressed in Escherichia coli, purified to homogeneity, shown to bind pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) and to catalyze cysteine desulfuration, and characterized in terms of its structure and kinetics. The results suggest that catalysis in the absence of accessory factors has two constituent pathways, one involving nucleophilic attack by C372 to form the Slr0077/SufS-bound cysteinyl persulfide intermediate and the second involving intermolecular attack by the sulfur of a second molecule of the substrate on the initial l-cysteine-PLP complex to form free l-cysteine persulfide. The second pathway is operant in the C372A variant protein, explaining why it retains significant activity, which is proportional to the concentration of l-cysteine (i.e., does not saturate). C-S bond cleavage by the first (normal) pathway is considerably less efficient than the equivalent step in a group I desulfurase (Slr0387) from the same organism (characterized in the accompanying paper). The 1.8 A crystal structure of the protein, which is very similar to that previously reported for E. coli SufS, shows that the loop on which C372 resides is well-ordered and shorter by 11 residues than the corresponding disordered loop of the group I NifS-like protein from Thermotoga maritima. Sequence comparisons establish that the T. maritima and Slr0387 proteins have loops of similar length. The combined structural and kinetic data imply that the modest activity of Slr0077/SufS and other SufS proteins in comparison to their sequence group I (NifS/IscS-like) paralogues results from inefficiency in the nucleophilic attack step associated with differences in the structure or dynamics of this loop. The recent reports that SufS proteins can be activated manyfold by binding to SufE thus implies that the accessory protein either accelerates nucleophilic attack by the conserved cysteine residue of SufS by a conformational mechanism or itself contributes a nucleophilic cysteine for more efficient intermolecular attack.
Biochemistry, 2010
Everninomicin is a highly modified octasaccharide that belongs to the orthosomycin family of anti... more Everninomicin is a highly modified octasaccharide that belongs to the orthosomycin family of antibiotics and possesses potent gram-positive antibiotic activity, including broad-spectrum efficacy against multidrug resistant enterococci and Staphylococcus aureus. Among its distinctive structural features is a nitrosugar, L-evernitrose, analogs of which decorate a variety of natural products. Recently, we identified a nitrososynthase enzyme encoded by orf36 from Micromonospora carbonacea var. africana that mediates the flavin-dependent double oxidation of synthetically-generated thymidine diphosphate (TDP)-L-epi-vancosamine to the corresponding nitroso sugar. Herein, we utilize a five enzyme in vitro pathway both to verify that ORF36 catalyzes oxidation of biogenic TDP-L-epi-vancosamine and to determine whether ORF36 exhibits catalytic competence for any of its biosynthetic progenitors, which are candidate substrates for nitrososynthases in vivo. Progenitors solely undergo single oxidation reactions and terminate in the hydroxylamine oxidation state. Performing the in vitro reactions in the presence of 18 O 2 establishes that molecular oxygen, rather than oxygen from water, is incorporated into ORF36generated intermediates and products, and identifies an off-pathway product that correlates with the oxidation product of a progenitor substrate. The 3.15 Å resolution x-ray crystal structure of ORF36 reveals a tetrameric enzyme that shares a fold with acyl-coA dehydrogenases and class D flavin-containing monooxygenases, including the nitrososynthase KijD3. However, ORF36 and KijD3 have unusually open active sites in comparison to these related enzymes. Taken together, these studies map substrate determinants and allow the proposal of a minimal monooxygenase mechanism for amino sugar oxidation by ORF36.
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Proteins and Proteomics, 2012
AdoMet radical enzymes are involved in processes such as cofactor biosynthesis, anaerobic metabol... more AdoMet radical enzymes are involved in processes such as cofactor biosynthesis, anaerobic metabolism, and natural product biosynthesis. These enzymes utilize the reductive cleavage of Sadenosylmethionine (AdoMet) to afford L-methionine and a transient 5'-deoxyadenosyl radical, which subsequently generates a substrate radical species. By harnessing radical reactivity, the AdoMet radical enzyme superfamily is responsible for an incredible diversity of chemical transformations. Structural analysis reveals that family members adopt a full or partial Triosephosphate Isomerase Mutase (TIM) barrel protein fold, containing core motifs responsible for binding a catalytic [4Fe-4S] cluster and AdoMet. Here we evaluate over twenty structures of AdoMet radical enzymes and classify them into two categories: traditional and ThiC-like (named for the structure of 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine phosphate synthase (ThiC)). In light of new structural data, we reexamine the traditional structural motifs responsible for binding the [4Fe-4S] cluster and AdoMet, and compare and contrast these motifs with the ThiC case. We also review how structural data combine with biochemical, spectroscopic, and computational data to help us understand key features of this enzyme superfamily, such as the energetics, the triggering, and the molecular mechanisms of AdoMet reductive cleavage.
The Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2001
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2016
Pnas, 2008
Pyruvate formate-lyase activating enzyme generates a stable and catalytically essential glycyl ra... more Pyruvate formate-lyase activating enzyme generates a stable and catalytically essential glycyl radical on G734 of pyruvate formate-lyase via the direct, stereospecific abstraction of a hydrogen atom from pyruvate formate-lyase. The activase performs this remarkable feat by using an iron-sulfur cluster and S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet), thus placing it among the AdoMet radical superfamily of enzymes. We report here structures of the substrate-free and substrate-bound forms of pyruvate formate-lyase-activating enzyme, the first structures of an AdoMet radical activase. To obtain the substrate-bound structure, we have used a peptide substrate, the 7-mer RVSGYAV, which contains the sequence surrounding G734. Our structures provide fundamental insights into the interactions between the activase and the G734 loop of pyruvate formate-lyase and provide a structural basis for direct and stereospecific H atom abstraction from the buried G734 of pyruvate formate-lyase.
Acta crystallographica. Section F, Structural biology communications, 2015
Enoyl-ACP reductase, the last enzyme of the fatty-acid biosynthetic pathway, is the molecular tar... more Enoyl-ACP reductase, the last enzyme of the fatty-acid biosynthetic pathway, is the molecular target for several successful antibiotics such as the tuberculosis therapeutic isoniazid. It is currently under investigation as a narrow-spectrum antibiotic target for the treatment of several types of bacterial infections. The diazaborine family is a group of boron heterocycle-based synthetic antibacterial inhibitors known to target enoyl-ACP reductase. Development of this class of molecules has thus far focused solely on the sulfonyl-containing versions. Here, the requirement for the sulfonyl group in the diazaborine scaffold was investigated by examining several recently characterized enoyl-ACP reductase inhibitors that lack the sulfonyl group and exhibit additional variability in substitutions, size and flexibility. Biochemical studies are reported showing the inhibition of Escherichia coli enoyl-ACP reductase by four diazaborines, and the crystal structures of two of the inhibitors bo...
Acta Crystallographica Section F Structural Biology Communications, 2015
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008
Pyruvate formate-lyase activating enzyme generates a stable and catalytically essential glycyl ra... more Pyruvate formate-lyase activating enzyme generates a stable and catalytically essential glycyl radical on G 734 of pyruvate formatelyase via the direct, stereospecific abstraction of a hydrogen atom from pyruvate formate-lyase. The activase performs this remarkable feat by using an iron-sulfur cluster and S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet), thus placing it among the AdoMet radical superfamily of enzymes. We report here structures of the substrate-free and substrate-bound forms of pyruvate formate-lyase-activating enzyme, the first structures of an AdoMet radical activase. To obtain the substrate-bound structure, we have used a peptide substrate, the 7-mer RVSGYAV, which contains the sequence surrounding G 734 . Our structures provide fundamental insights into the interactions between the activase and the G 734 loop of pyruvate formate-lyase and provide a structural basis for direct and stereospecific H atom abstraction from the buried G 734 of pyruvate formate-lyase.
Chemical Reviews, 2011
ABSTRACT
Biochemistry, 2004
Cysteine desulfurases, designated NifS, IscS, and SufS, cleave L-cysteine to form alanine and an ... more Cysteine desulfurases, designated NifS, IscS, and SufS, cleave L-cysteine to form alanine and an enzyme cysteinyl persulfide intermediate. Genetic studies on the photosynthetic cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 have shown that of the three Nif/Isc/SufS-like proteins encoded in its genome only the sequence group II protein, Slr0077/SufS, is essential. This protein has been overexpressed in Escherichia coli, purified to homogeneity, shown to bind pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) and to catalyze cysteine desulfuration, and characterized in terms of its structure and kinetics. The results suggest that catalysis in the absence of accessory factors has two constituent pathways, one involving nucleophilic attack by C372 to form the Slr0077/SufS-bound cysteinyl persulfide intermediate and the second involving intermolecular attack by the sulfur of a second molecule of the substrate on the initial l-cysteine-PLP complex to form free l-cysteine persulfide. The second pathway is operant in the C372A variant protein, explaining why it retains significant activity, which is proportional to the concentration of l-cysteine (i.e., does not saturate). C-S bond cleavage by the first (normal) pathway is considerably less efficient than the equivalent step in a group I desulfurase (Slr0387) from the same organism (characterized in the accompanying paper). The 1.8 A crystal structure of the protein, which is very similar to that previously reported for E. coli SufS, shows that the loop on which C372 resides is well-ordered and shorter by 11 residues than the corresponding disordered loop of the group I NifS-like protein from Thermotoga maritima. Sequence comparisons establish that the T. maritima and Slr0387 proteins have loops of similar length. The combined structural and kinetic data imply that the modest activity of Slr0077/SufS and other SufS proteins in comparison to their sequence group I (NifS/IscS-like) paralogues results from inefficiency in the nucleophilic attack step associated with differences in the structure or dynamics of this loop. The recent reports that SufS proteins can be activated manyfold by binding to SufE thus implies that the accessory protein either accelerates nucleophilic attack by the conserved cysteine residue of SufS by a conformational mechanism or itself contributes a nucleophilic cysteine for more efficient intermolecular attack.
Biochemistry, 2010
Everninomicin is a highly modified octasaccharide that belongs to the orthosomycin family of anti... more Everninomicin is a highly modified octasaccharide that belongs to the orthosomycin family of antibiotics and possesses potent gram-positive antibiotic activity, including broad-spectrum efficacy against multidrug resistant enterococci and Staphylococcus aureus. Among its distinctive structural features is a nitrosugar, L-evernitrose, analogs of which decorate a variety of natural products. Recently, we identified a nitrososynthase enzyme encoded by orf36 from Micromonospora carbonacea var. africana that mediates the flavin-dependent double oxidation of synthetically-generated thymidine diphosphate (TDP)-L-epi-vancosamine to the corresponding nitroso sugar. Herein, we utilize a five enzyme in vitro pathway both to verify that ORF36 catalyzes oxidation of biogenic TDP-L-epi-vancosamine and to determine whether ORF36 exhibits catalytic competence for any of its biosynthetic progenitors, which are candidate substrates for nitrososynthases in vivo. Progenitors solely undergo single oxidation reactions and terminate in the hydroxylamine oxidation state. Performing the in vitro reactions in the presence of 18 O 2 establishes that molecular oxygen, rather than oxygen from water, is incorporated into ORF36generated intermediates and products, and identifies an off-pathway product that correlates with the oxidation product of a progenitor substrate. The 3.15 Å resolution x-ray crystal structure of ORF36 reveals a tetrameric enzyme that shares a fold with acyl-coA dehydrogenases and class D flavin-containing monooxygenases, including the nitrososynthase KijD3. However, ORF36 and KijD3 have unusually open active sites in comparison to these related enzymes. Taken together, these studies map substrate determinants and allow the proposal of a minimal monooxygenase mechanism for amino sugar oxidation by ORF36.
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Proteins and Proteomics, 2012
AdoMet radical enzymes are involved in processes such as cofactor biosynthesis, anaerobic metabol... more AdoMet radical enzymes are involved in processes such as cofactor biosynthesis, anaerobic metabolism, and natural product biosynthesis. These enzymes utilize the reductive cleavage of Sadenosylmethionine (AdoMet) to afford L-methionine and a transient 5'-deoxyadenosyl radical, which subsequently generates a substrate radical species. By harnessing radical reactivity, the AdoMet radical enzyme superfamily is responsible for an incredible diversity of chemical transformations. Structural analysis reveals that family members adopt a full or partial Triosephosphate Isomerase Mutase (TIM) barrel protein fold, containing core motifs responsible for binding a catalytic [4Fe-4S] cluster and AdoMet. Here we evaluate over twenty structures of AdoMet radical enzymes and classify them into two categories: traditional and ThiC-like (named for the structure of 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine phosphate synthase (ThiC)). In light of new structural data, we reexamine the traditional structural motifs responsible for binding the [4Fe-4S] cluster and AdoMet, and compare and contrast these motifs with the ThiC case. We also review how structural data combine with biochemical, spectroscopic, and computational data to help us understand key features of this enzyme superfamily, such as the energetics, the triggering, and the molecular mechanisms of AdoMet reductive cleavage.
The Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2001