Enzyme catalysis captured using multiple structures from one crystal at varying temperatures (original) (raw)
Related papers
IUCrJ, 2016
Relating individual protein crystal structures to an enzyme mechanism remains a major and challenging goal for structural biology. Serial crystallography using multiple crystals has recently been reported in both synchrotron-radiation and X-ray free-electron laser experiments. In this work, serial crystallography was used to obtain multiple structures serially from one crystal (MSOX) to study in crystallo enzyme catalysis. Rapid, shutterless X-ray detector technology on a synchrotron MX beamline was exploited to perform low-dose serial crystallography on a single copper nitrite reductase crystal, which survived long enough for 45 consecutive 100 K X-ray structures to be collected at 1.07-1.62 Å resolution, all sampled from the same crystal volume. This serial crystallography approach revealed the gradual conversion of the substrate bound at the catalytic type 2 Cu centre from nitrite to nitric oxide, following reduction of the type 1 Cu electron-transfer centre by X-ray-generated so...
IUCrJ, 2018
Synchrotron-based X-ray structural studies of ligand-bound enzymes are powerful tools to further our understanding of reaction mechanisms. For redox enzymes, it is necessary to study both the oxidized and reduced active sites to fully elucidate the reaction, an objective that is complicated by potential X-ray photoreduction. In the presence of the substrate, this can be exploited to construct a structural movie of the events associated with catalysis. Using the newly developed approach of serial femtosecond rotation crystallography (SF-ROX), an X-ray damage-free structure of the as-isolated copper nitrite reductase (CuNiR) was visualized. The sub-10 fs X-ray pulse length from the SACLA X-ray free-electron laser allowed diffraction data to be collected to 1.6 Å resolution in a 'time-frozen' state. The extremely short duration of the X-ray pulses ensures the capture of data prior to the onset of radiation-induced changes, including radiolysis. Unexpectedly, an O ligand was ide...
Theoretical study of structure of catalytic copper site in nitrite reductase
International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 2004
The catalytic copper site in nitrite reductase contains a Cu2+ ion bound to three histidine (His) ligands and a solvent molecule. Sites from various sources show a conspicuous variation in the structure. In some proteins, it is close to tetrahedral (even more so than are blue copper proteins), whereas in other proteins, it has a structure more similar to that expected for a type 2 copper site. We have studied this site with a number of theoretical methods, ranging from vacuum optimizations, combined quantum and molecular mechanics (QM/MM) optimization, quantum refinement (X‐ray crystallography supplemented by quantum chemical calculations), and accurate energy calculations. We show that the difference in the structure arises from a movement of the solvent molecule and that this movement is determined by a compromise between its hydrogen bond interactions and the intrinsic preferences of the copper site. If the solvent molecule is deprotonated, the two structures have a similar energ...
2019
Copper-containing nitrite reductases (CuNiRs) that convert NO 2 À to NO via a Cu CAT-His-Cys-Cu ET proton-coupled redox system are of central importance in nitrogen-based energy metabolism. These metalloenzymes, like all redox enzymes, are very susceptible to radiation damage from the intense synchrotronradiation X-rays that are used to obtain structures at high resolution. Understanding the chemistry that underpins the enzyme mechanisms in these systems requires resolutions of better than 2 Å. Here, for the first time, the damage-free structure of the resting state of one of the most studied CuNiRs was obtained by combining X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) and neutron crystallography. This represents the first direct comparison of neutron and XFEL structural data for any protein. In addition, damage-free structures of the reduced and nitrite-bound forms have been obtained to high resolution from cryogenically maintained crystals by XFEL crystallography. It is demonstrated that Asp CAT and His CAT are deprotonated in the resting state of CuNiRs at pH values close to the optimum for activity. A bridging neutral water (D 2 O) is positioned with one deuteron directed towards Asp CAT O 1 and one towards His CAT N "2. The catalytic T2Cu-ligated water (W1) can clearly be modelled as a neutral D 2 O molecule as opposed to D 3 O + or OD À , which have previously been suggested as possible alternatives. The bridging water restricts the movement of the unprotonated Asp CAT and is too distant to form a hydrogen bond to the O atom of the bound nitrite that interacts with Asp CAT. Upon the binding of NO 2 À a proton is transferred from the bridging water to the O 2 atom of Asp CAT , prompting electron transfer from T1Cu to T2Cu and reducing the catalytic redox centre. This triggers the transfer of a proton from Asp CAT to the bound nitrite, enabling the reaction to proceed.
Journal of Molecular Biology, 2008
Nitrite reductases are key enzymes that perform the first committed step in the denitrification process and reduce nitrite to nitric oxide. In copper nitrite reductases, an electron is delivered from the type 1 copper (T1Cu) centre to the type 2 copper (T2Cu) centre where catalysis occurs. Despite significant structural and mechanistic studies, it remains controversial whether the substrates, nitrite, electron and proton are utilised in an ordered or random manner. We have used crystallography, together with online X-ray absorption spectroscopy and optical spectroscopy, to show that X-rays rapidly and selectively photoreduce the T1Cu centre, but that the T2Cu centre does not photoreduce directly over a typical crystallographic data collection time. Furthermore, internal electron transfer between the T1Cu and T2Cu centres does not occur, and the T2Cu centre remains oxidised. These data unambiguously demonstrate an 'ordered' mechanism in which electron transfer is gated by binding of nitrite to the T2Cu. Furthermore, the use of online multiple spectroscopic techniques shows their value in assessing radiation-induced redox changes at different metal sites and demonstrates the importance of ensuring the correct status of redox centres in a crystal structure determination. Here, optical spectroscopy has shown a very high sensitivity for detecting the change in T1Cu redox state, while X-ray absorption spectroscopy has reported on the redox status of the T2Cu site, as this centre has no detectable optical absorption.
Journal of Molecular Biology, 2010
Here, we report the 1.53-Å crystal structure of the enzyme 7-cyano-7-deazaguanine reductase (QueF) from Vibrio cholerae, which is responsible for the complete reduction of a nitrile (C≡N) bond to a primary amine (H 2 C-NH 2 ). At present, this is the only example of a biological pathway that includes reduction of a nitrile bond, establishing QueF as particularly noteworthy. The structure of the QueF monomer resembles two connected ferrodoxin-like domains that assemble into dimers. Ligands identified in the crystal structure suggest the likely binding conformation of the native substrates NADPH and 7-cyano-7-deazaguanine. We also report on a series of numerical simulations that have shed light on the mechanism by which this enzyme affects the transfer of four protons (and electrons) to the 7-cyano-7-deazaguanine substrate. In particular, the simulations suggest that the initial step of the catalytic process is the formation of a covalent adduct with the residue Cys194, in agreement with previous studies. The crystal structure also suggests that two conserved residues (His233 and Asp102) play an important role in the delivery of a fourth proton to the substrate.
Structural insights into the function of a thermostable copper-containing nitrite reductase
Journal of Biochemistry, 2014
Copper-containing nitrite reductase (CuNIR) catalyzes the reduction of nitrite (NO À 2 ) to nitric oxide (NO) during denitrification. We determined the crystal structures of CuNIR from thermophilic gram-positive bacterium, Geobacillus thermodenitrificans (GtNIR) in chloride-and formate-bound forms of wild type at 1.15 Å resolution and the nitrite-bound form of the C135A mutant at 1.90 Å resolution. The structure of C135A with nitrite displays a unique g 1 -O coordination mode of nitrite at the catalytic copper site (T2Cu), which has never been observed at the T2Cu site in known wildtype CuNIRs, because the mobility of two residues essential to catalytic activity, Asp98 and His244, are sterically restricted in GtNIR by Phe109 on a characteristic loop structure that is found above Asp98 and by an unusually short CHO hydrogen bond observed between His244 and water, respectively. A detailed comparison of the WT structure with the nitrite-bound C135A structure implies the replacement of hydrogen-bond networks around His244 and predicts the flow path of protons consumed by nitrite reduction. On the basis of these observations, the reaction mechanism of GtNIR through the g 1 -O coordination manner is proposed.
Structural study of the X-ray-induced enzymatic reaction of octahaem cytochromecnitrite reductase
Acta Crystallographica Section D Biological Crystallography, 2015
Octahaem cytochromecnitrite reductase from the bacteriumThioalkalivibrio nitratireducenscatalyzes the reduction of nitrite to ammonium and of sulfite to sulfide. The reducing properties of X-ray radiation and the high quality of the enzyme crystals allow study of the catalytic reaction of cytochromecnitrite reductase directly in a crystal of the enzyme, with the reaction being induced by X-rays. Series of diffraction data sets with increasing absorbed dose were collected from crystals of the free form of the enzyme and its complexes with nitrite and sulfite. The corresponding structures revealed gradual changes associated with the reduction of the catalytic haems by X-rays. In the case of the nitrite complex the conversion of the nitrite ions bound in the active sites to NO species was observed, which is the beginning of the catalytic reaction. For the free form, an increase in the distance between the oxygen ligand bound to the catalytic haem and the iron ion of the haem took place...
Journal of Molecular Biology, 2005
We present high-resolution crystal structures and functional analysis of T1Cu centre mutants of nitrite reductase that perturb the redox potential and the Cys130-His129 "hard-wired" bridge through which electron transfer to the catalytic T2Cu centre occurs. These data provide insight into how activity can be altered through mutational manipulation of the electron delivery centre (T1Cu). The alteration of Cys to Ala results in loss of T1Cu and enzyme inactivation with azurin as electron donor despite the mutant enzyme retaining full nitrite-binding capacity. These data establish unequivocally that no direct transfer of electrons occurs from azurin to the catalytic type 2 Cu centre. The mutation of the axial ligand Met144 to Leu increases both the redox potential and catalytic activity, establishing that the rate-determining step of catalysis is the intermolecular electron transfer from azurin to nitrite reductase.