Integration of an [FeFe]-hydrogenase into the anaerobic metabolism of Escherichia coli.
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SUBMITTER: Kelly CL
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4694547 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Maturation of [FeFe] hydrogenases requires the biosynthesis and insertion of the catalytic iron-sulfur cluster, the H cluster. Two radical S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) proteins proposed to function in H cluster biosynthesis, HydEF and HydG, were recently identified in the hydEF-1 mutant of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (M. C. Posewitz, P. W. King, S. L. Smolinski, L. Zhang, M. Seibert, and M. L. Ghirardi, J. Biol. Chem. 279:25711-25720, 2004). Previous efforts to study [FeFe] hydrogenase maturation in Escherichia coli by coexpression of C. reinhardtii HydEF and HydG and the HydA1 [FeFe] hydrogenase were hindered by instability of the hydEF and hydG expression clones. A more stable [FeFe] hydrogenase expression system has been achieved in E. coli by cloning and coexpression of hydE, hydF, and hydG from the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum. Coexpression of the C. acetobutylicum maturation proteins with various algal and bacterial [FeFe] hydrogenases in E. coli resulted in purified enzymes with specific activities that were similar to those of the enzymes purified from native sources. In the case of structurally complex [FeFe] hydrogenases, maturation of the catalytic sites could occur in the absence of an accessory iron-sulfur cluster domain. Initial investigations of the structure and function of the maturation proteins HydE, HydF, and HydG showed that the highly conserved radical-SAM domains of both HydE and HydG and the GTPase domain of HydF were essential for achieving biosynthesis of active [FeFe] hydrogenases. Together, these results demonstrate that the catalytic domain and a functionally complete set of Hyd maturation proteins are fundamental to achieving biosynthesis of catalytic [FeFe] hydrogenases.
| S-EPMC1428129 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Fermentation enables the production of reduced metabolites, such as the biofuels ethanol and butanol, from fermentable sugars. This work demonstrates a general approach for designing and constructing a production host that uses a heterologous pathway as an obligately fermentative pathway to produce reduced metabolites, specifically, the biofuel isobutanol. Elementary mode analysis was applied to design an Escherichia coli strain optimized for isobutanol production under strictly anaerobic conditions. The central metabolism of E. coli was decomposed into 38,219 functional, unique, and elementary modes (EMs). The model predictions revealed that during anaerobic growth E. coli cannot produce isobutanol as the sole fermentative product. By deleting 7 chromosomal genes, the total 38,219 EMs were constrained to 12 EMs, 6 of which can produce high yields of isobutanol in a range from 0.29 to 0.41 g isobutanol/g glucose under anaerobic conditions. The remaining 6 EMs rely primarily on the pyruvate dehydrogenase enzyme complex (PDHC) and are typically inhibited under anaerobic conditions. The redesigned E. coli strain was constrained to employ the anaerobic isobutanol pathways through deletion of 7 chromosomal genes, addition of 2 heterologous genes, and overexpression of 5 genes. Here we present the design, construction, and characterization of an isobutanol-producing E. coli strain to illustrate the approach. The model predictions are evaluated in relation to experimental data and strategies proposed to improve anaerobic isobutanol production. We also show that the endogenous alcohol/aldehyde dehydrogenase AdhE is the key enzyme responsible for the production of isobutanol and ethanol under anaerobic conditions. The glycolytic flux can be controlled to regulate the ratio of isobutanol to ethanol production.
| S-EPMC3147371 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Surface integration of molecular catalysts inspired from the active sites of hydrogenase enzymes represents a promising route towards developing noble metal-free and sustainable technologies for H2 production. Efficient and stable catalyst anchoring is a key aspect to enable this approach. Herein, we report the preparation and electrochemical characterization of an original diironhexacarbonyl complex including two pyrene groups per catalytic unit in order to allow for its smooth integration, through π-interactions, onto multiwalled carbon nanotube-based electrodes. In this configuration, the grafted catalyst could reach turnover numbers for H2 production (TONH2 ) of up to 4±2×103 within 20 h of bulk electrolysis, operating at neutral pH. Post operando analysis of catalyst functionalized electrodes revealed the degradation of the catalytic unit occurred via loss of the iron carbonyl units, while the anchoring groups and most part of the ligand remained attached onto multiwalled carbon nanotubes.
| S-EPMC10092503 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Ruminococcus albus 7 has played a key role in the development of the concept of interspecies hydrogen transfer. The rumen bacterium ferments glucose to 1.3 acetate, 0.7 ethanol, 2 CO2, and 2.6 H2 when growing in batch culture and to 2 acetate, 2 CO2, and 4 H2 when growing in continuous culture in syntrophic association with H2-consuming microorganisms that keep the H2 partial pressure low. The organism uses NAD(+) and ferredoxin for glucose oxidation to acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) and CO2, NADH for the reduction of acetyl-CoA to ethanol, and NADH and reduced ferredoxin for the reduction of protons to H2. Of all the enzymes involved, only the enzyme catalyzing the formation of H2 from NADH remained unknown. Here, we report that R. albus 7 grown in batch culture on glucose contained, besides a ferredoxin-dependent [FeFe]-hydrogenase (HydA2), a ferredoxin- and NAD-dependent electron-bifurcating [FeFe]-hydrogenase (HydABC) that couples the endergonic formation of H2 from NADH to the exergonic formation of H2 from reduced ferredoxin. Interestingly, hydA2 is adjacent to the hydS gene, which is predicted to encode an [FeFe]-hydrogenase with a C-terminal PAS domain. We showed that hydS and hydA2 are part of a larger transcriptional unit also harboring putative genes for a bifunctional acetaldehyde/ethanol dehydrogenase (Aad), serine/threonine protein kinase, serine/threonine protein phosphatase, and a redox-sensing transcriptional repressor. Since HydA2 and Aad are required only when R. albus grows at high H2 partial pressures, HydS could be a H2-sensing [FeFe]-hydrogenase involved in the regulation of their biosynthesis.
| S-EPMC4248817 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Hydrogenases are metalloenzymes that catalyze the conversion of protons and molecular hydrogen, H2. [FeFe]-hydrogenases show particularly high rates of hydrogen turnover and have inspired numerous compounds for biomimetic H2 production. Two decades of research on the active site cofactor of [FeFe]-hydrogenases have put forward multiple models of the catalytic proceedings. In comparison, our understanding of proton transfer is poor. Previously, residues were identified forming a hydrogen-bonding network between active site cofactor and bulk solvent; however, the exact mechanism of catalytic proton transfer remained inconclusive. Here, we employ in situ infrared difference spectroscopy on the [FeFe]-hydrogenase from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii evaluating dynamic changes in the hydrogen-bonding network upon photoreduction. While proton transfer appears to be impaired in the oxidized state (Hox), the presented data support continuous proton transfer in the reduced state (Hred). Our analysis allows for a direct, molecular unique assignment to individual amino acid residues. We found that transient protonation changes of glutamic acid residue E141 and, most notably, arginine R148 facilitate bidirectional proton transfer in [FeFe]-hydrogenases.
| S-EPMC6823627 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Proton reduction and H2 oxidation are key elementary reactions for solar fuel production. Hydrogenases interconvert H+ and H2 with remarkable efficiency and have therefore received much attention in this context. For [FeFe]-hydrogenases, catalysis occurs at a unique cofactor called the H-cluster. In this article, we discuss ways in which EPR spectroscopy has elucidated aspects of the bioassembly of the H-cluster, with a focus on four case studies: EPR spectroscopic identification of a radical en route to the CO and CN- ligands of the H-cluster, tracing 57Fe from the maturase HydG into the H-cluster, characterization of the auxiliary Fe-S cluster in HydG, and isotopic labeling of the CN- ligands of HydA for electronic structure studies of its Hox state. Advances in cell-free maturation protocols have enabled several of these mechanistic studies, and understanding H-cluster maturation may in turn provide insights leading to improvements in hydrogenase production for biotechnological applications.
| S-EPMC4618401 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The energetics for proton reduction in FeFe-hydrogenase has been reinvestigated by theoretical modeling, in light of recent experiments. Two different mechanisms have been considered. In the first one, the bridging hydride position was blocked by the enzyme, which is the mechanism that has been supported by a recent spectroscopic study by Cramer et al. A major difficulty in the present study to agree with experimental energetics was to find the right position for the added proton in the first reduction step. It was eventually found that the best position was as a terminal hydride on the distal iron, which has not been suggested in any of the recent, experimentally based mechanisms. The lowest transition state was surprisingly found to be a bond formation between a proton on a cysteine and the terminal hydride. This type of TS is similar to the one for heterolytic H2 cleavage in NiFe hydrogenase. The second mechanism investigated here is not supported by the present calculations or the recent experiments by Cramer et al., but was still studied as an interesting comparison. In that mechanism, the formation of the bridging hydride was allowed. The H-H formation barrier is only 3.6 kcal/mol higher than for the first mechanism, but there are severe problems concerning the motion of the protons.
| S-EPMC7750917 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The active site (H-cluster) of [FeFe]-hydrogenases is a blueprint for the design of a biologically inspired H2-producing catalyst. The maturation process describes the preassembly and uptake of the unique [2FeH] cluster into apo-hydrogenase, which is to date not fully understood. In this study, we targeted individual amino acids by site-directed mutagenesis in the [FeFe]-hydrogenase CpI of Clostridium pasteurianum to reveal the final steps of H-cluster maturation occurring within apo-hydrogenase. We identified putative key positions for cofactor uptake and the subsequent structural reorganization that stabilizes the [2FeH] cofactor in its functional coordination sphere. Our results suggest that functional integration of the negatively charged [2FeH] precursor requires the positive charges and individual structural features of the 2 basic residues of arginine 449 and lysine 358, which mark the entrance and terminus of the maturation channel, respectively. The results obtained for 5 glycine-to-histidine exchange variants within a flexible loop region provide compelling evidence that the glycine residues function as hinge positions in the refolding process, which closes the secondary ligand sphere of the [2FeH] cofactor and the maturation channel. The conserved structural motifs investigated here shed light on the interplay between the secondary ligand sphere and catalytic cofactor.
| S-EPMC6689974 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND: The realization of hydrogenase-based technologies for renewable H(2) production is presently limited by the need for scalable and high-yielding methods to supply active hydrogenases and their required maturases. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this report, we describe an improved Escherichia coli-based expression system capable of producing 8-30 mg of purified, active [FeFe] hydrogenase per liter of culture, volumetric yields at least 10-fold greater than previously reported. Specifically, we overcame two problems associated with other in vivo production methods: low protein yields and ineffective hydrogenase maturation. The addition of glucose to the growth medium enhances anaerobic metabolism and growth during hydrogenase expression, which substantially increases total yields. Also, we combine iron and cysteine supplementation with the use of an E. coli strain upregulated for iron-sulfur cluster protein accumulation. These measures dramatically improve in vivo hydrogenase activation. Two hydrogenases, HydA1 from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and HydA (CpI) from Clostridium pasteurianum, were produced with this improved system and subsequently purified. Biophysical characterization and FTIR spectroscopic analysis of these enzymes indicate that they harbor the H-cluster and catalyze H(2) evolution with rates comparable to those of enzymes isolated from their respective native organisms. SIGNIFICANCE: The production system we describe will facilitate basic hydrogenase investigations as well as the development of new technologies that utilize these prolific H(2)-producing enzymes. These methods can also be extended for producing and studying a variety of oxygen-sensitive iron-sulfur proteins as well as other proteins requiring anoxic environments.
| S-EPMC2991362 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The synthesis and electrochemical properties of tetranuclear [Fe2S2]-hydrogenase mimic species containing Pt(II), Ni(II), and Ru(II) complexes have been studied. To this end, a new tetranuclear [Fe2S2] complex containing a 5,5'-diisocyanide-2,2'-bipyridine bridging ligand has been designed and coordinated to the metal complexes through the bipyridine moiety. Thus, the tetranuclear [Fe2S2] complex (6) coordinates to Pt(II), Ni(II) and Ru(II) yielding the corresponding metal complexes. The new metal center in the bipyridine linker modulates the electronic communication between the redox-active [Fe2S2] units. Thus, electrochemical studies and DFT calculations have shown that the presence of metal complexes in the structure strongly affect the electronic communication between the [Fe2S2] centers. In the case of diphosphine platinum compounds 10, the structure of the phosphine ligand plays a crucial role to facilitate or to hinder the electronic communication between [Fe2S2] moieties. Compound 10a, bearing a dppe ligand, shows weak electronic communication (ΔE = 170 mV), whereas the interaction is much weaker in the Pt-dppp derivative 10b (ΔE = 80 mV) and virtually negligible in the Pt-dppf complex 10c. The electronic communication is facilitated by incorporation of a Ru-bis(bipyridine) complex, as observed in the BF4 salt 12 (ΔE = 210 mV) although the reduction of the [FeFe] centers occurs at more negative potentials. Overall, the experimental-computational procedure used in this work allows us to study the electronic interaction between the redox-active centers, which, in turn, can be modulated by a transition metal.
| S-EPMC9976291 | biostudies-literature