Mechanistic studies on thiaminase I. Overexpression and identification of the active site nucleophile. uri icon

abstract

  • Thiaminase I (EC 2.5.1.2) catalyzes the replacement of the thiazole moiety of thiamin with a wide variety of nucleophiles. Here we report the sequencing of a thiaminase I clone from Bacillus thiaminolyticus, the overexpression of the cloned gene in Escherichia coli, and the purification and characterization of the enzyme. Recombinant thiaminase I functions as a monomer with a Km for thiamin of 3.7 +/- 0.6 microM and a kcat of 34 s-1. Electrospray ionization Fourier-transform mass spectrometry identified a single sequencing error and demonstrated heterogeneity, finding molecular weights of 42,127, 42,198, and 42,255 due to added Ala and Gly-Ala at the amino terminus. Similar analysis of the 4-amino-2-methyl-6-chloropyrimidine inactivated enzyme indicated that the active site nucleophile involved in catalysis of the substitution reaction is located between Pro79 and Thr177. Subsequent cysteine-specific labeling and site-directed mutagenesis identified Cys113 as the active site nucleophile.

published proceedings

  • J Biol Chem

altmetric score

  • 6

author list (cited authors)

  • Costello, C. A., Kelleher, N. L., Abe, M., McLafferty, F. W., & Begley, T. P.

citation count

  • 54

complete list of authors

  • Costello, CA||Kelleher, NL||Abe, M||McLafferty, FW||Begley, TP

publication date

  • January 1996