Dataset Information

Cobalt cystathionine ?-synthase: a cobalt-substituted heme protein with a unique thiolate ligation motif.

ABSTRACT: Human cystathionine ?-synthase (hCBS), a key enzyme in the trans-sulfuration pathway, catalyzes the condensation of serine with homocysteine to produce cystathionine. CBS from higher organisms is the only known protein that binds pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) and heme. Intriguingly, the function of the heme in hCBS has yet to be elucidated. Herein, we describe the characterization of a cobalt-substituted variant of hCBS (Co hCBS) in which CoPPIX replaces FePPIX (heme). Co(III) hCBS is a unique Co-substituted heme protein: the Co(III) ion is 6-coordinate, low-spin, diamagnetic, and bears a cysteine(thiolate) as one of its axial ligands. The peak positions and intensities of the electronic absorption and MCD spectra of Co(III) hCBS are distinct from those of previously Co-substituted heme proteins; TD-DFT calculations reveal that the unique features arise from the 6-coordinate Co bound axially by cysteine(thiolate) and a neutral donor, presumably histidine. Reactivity of Co(III) hCBS with HgCl(2) is consistent with a loss of the cysteine(thiolate) ligand. Co(III) hCBS is slowly reduced to Co(II) hCBS, which contains a 5-coordinate, low-spin, S = 1/2 Co-porphyrin that does not retain the cysteine(thiolate) ligand; this form of Co(II) hCBS binds NO((g)) but not CO((g)). Co(II) hCBS is reoxidized in the air to form a new Co(III) form, which does not contain a cysteine(thiolate) ligand. Canonical and alternative CBS assays suggest that maintaining the native heme ligation motif of wild-type Fe hCBS (Cys/His) is essential in maintaining maximal activity in Co hCBS. Correlation between the coordination structures and enzyme activity in both native Fe and Co-substituted proteins implicates a structural role for the heme in CBS.

SUBMITTER: Smith AT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3350334 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Cobalt cystathionine β-synthase: a cobalt-substituted heme protein with a unique thiolate ligation motif.

Smith Aaron T AT Majtan Tomas T Freeman Katherine M KM Su Yang Y Kraus Jan P JP Burstyn Judith N JN

Inorganic chemistry 20110411 10

Human cystathionine β-synthase (hCBS), a key enzyme in the trans-sulfuration pathway, catalyzes the condensation of serine with homocysteine to produce cystathionine. CBS from higher organisms is the only known protein that binds pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) and heme. Intriguingly, the function of the heme in hCBS has yet to be elucidated. Herein, we describe the characterization of a cobalt-substituted variant of hCBS (Co hCBS) in which CoPPIX replaces FePPIX (heme). Co(III) hCBS is a unique Co ...[more]

PMID: 21480614

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Project description:Cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) plays a central role in homocysteine metabolism, and malfunction of the enzyme leads to homocystinuria, a devastating metabolic disease. CBS contains a pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) cofactor which catalyzes the synthesis of cystathionine from homocysteine and serine. Mammalian forms of the enzyme also contain a heme group, which is not involved in catalysis. It may, however, play a regulatory role, since the enzyme is inhibited when CO or NO are bound to the heme. We have investigated the mechanism of this inhibition using fluorescence and resonance Raman spectroscopies. CO binding is found to induce a tautomeric shift of the PLP from the ketoenamine to the enolimine form. The ketoenamine is key to PLP reactivity because its imine C horizontal lineN bond is protonated, facilitating attack by the nucleophilic substrate, serine. The same tautomer shift is also induced by heat inactivation of Fe(II)CBS, or by an Arg266Met replacement in Fe(II)CBS, which likewise inactivates the enzyme; in both cases the endogenous Cys52 ligand to the heme is replaced by another, unidentified ligand. CO binding also displaces Cys52 from the heme. We propose that the tautomer shift results from loss of a stabilizing H-bond from Asn149 to the PLP ring O3' atom, which is negatively charged in the ketoenamine tautomer. This loss would be induced by displacement of the PLP as a result of breaking the salt bridge between Cys52 and Arg266, which resides on a short helix that is also anchored to the PLP via H-bonds to its phosphate group. The salt bridge would be broken when Cys52 is displaced from the heme. Cys52 protonation is inferred to be the rate-limiting step in breaking the salt bridge, since the rate of the tautomer shift, following CO binding, increases with decreasing pH. In addition, elevation of the concentration of phosphate buffer was found to diminish the rate and extent of the tautomer shift, suggesting a ketoenamine-stabilizing phosphate binding site, possibly at the protonated imine bond of the PLP. Implications of these findings for CBS regulation are discussed.

Dataset Information

Cobalt cystathionine ?-synthase: a cobalt-substituted heme protein with a unique thiolate ligation motif.

Publications

Cobalt cystathionine β-synthase: a cobalt-substituted heme protein with a unique thiolate ligation motif.

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