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Rethinking the evolution of eukaryotic metabolism: novel cellular partitioning of enzymes in stramenopiles links serine biosynthesis to glycolysis in mitochondria.

ABSTRACT: An important feature of eukaryotic evolution is metabolic compartmentalization, in which certain pathways are restricted to the cytosol or specific organelles. Glycolysis in eukaryotes is described as a cytosolic process. The universality of this canon has been challenged by recent genome data that suggest that some glycolytic enzymes made by stramenopiles bear mitochondrial targeting peptides.Mining of oomycete, diatom, and brown algal genomes indicates that stramenopiles encode two forms of enzymes for the second half of glycolysis, one with and the other without mitochondrial targeting peptides. The predicted mitochondrial targeting was confirmed by using fluorescent tags to localize phosphoglycerate kinase, phosphoglycerate mutase, and pyruvate kinase in Phytophthora infestans, the oomycete that causes potato blight. A genome-wide search for other enzymes with atypical mitochondrial locations identified phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase, phosphoserine aminotransferase, and phosphoserine phosphatase, which form a pathway for generating serine from the glycolytic intermediate 3-phosphoglycerate. Fluorescent tags confirmed the delivery of these serine biosynthetic enzymes to P. infestans mitochondria. A cytosolic form of this serine biosynthetic pathway, which occurs in most eukaryotes, is missing from oomycetes and most other stramenopiles. The glycolysis and serine metabolism pathways of oomycetes appear to be mosaics of enzymes with different ancestries. While some of the noncanonical oomycete mitochondrial enzymes have the closest affinity in phylogenetic analyses with proteins from other stramenopiles, others cluster with bacterial, plant, or animal proteins. The genes encoding the mitochondrial phosphoglycerate kinase and serine-forming enzymes are physically linked on oomycete chromosomes, which suggests a shared origin.Stramenopile metabolism appears to have been shaped through the acquisition of genes by descent and lateral or endosymbiotic gene transfer, along with the targeting of the proteins to locations that are novel compared to other eukaryotes. Colocalization of the glycolytic and serine biosynthesis enzymes in mitochondria is apparently necessary since they share a common intermediate. The results indicate that descriptions of metabolism in textbooks do not cover the full diversity of eukaryotic biology.

SUBMITTER: Abrahamian M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5715807 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Rethinking the evolution of eukaryotic metabolism: novel cellular partitioning of enzymes in stramenopiles links serine biosynthesis to glycolysis in mitochondria.

Abrahamian Melania M Kagda Meenakshi M Ah-Fong Audrey M V AMV Judelson Howard S HS

BMC evolutionary biology 20171204 1

<h4>Background</h4>An important feature of eukaryotic evolution is metabolic compartmentalization, in which certain pathways are restricted to the cytosol or specific organelles. Glycolysis in eukaryotes is described as a cytosolic process. The universality of this canon has been challenged by recent genome data that suggest that some glycolytic enzymes made by stramenopiles bear mitochondrial targeting peptides.<h4>Results</h4>Mining of oomycete, diatom, and brown algal genomes indicates that s ...[more]

PMID: 29202688

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Project description:We report the results of an investigation into the catalytic role of highly conserved amide (asparagine, glutamine) and OH-containing (serine, tyrosine) residues in several prenyltransferases. We first obtained the X-ray structure of cyclolavandulyl diphosphate synthase containing two molecules of the substrate analog dimethylallyl (S)-thiolodiphosphate (DMASPP). The two molecules have similar diphosphate group orientations to those seen in other ζ-fold (cis- head-to-tail and head-to-middle) prenyltransferases with one diphosphate moiety forming a bidentate chelate with Mg2+ in the so-called S1 site (which is typically the allylic binding site in ζ-fold proteins) while the second diphosphate binds to Mg2+ in the so-called S2 site (which is typically the homoallylic binding site in ζ-fold proteins) via a single P1O1 oxygen. The latter interaction can facilitate direct phosphate-mediated proton abstraction via P1O2, or more likely by an indirect mechanism in which P1O2 stabilizes a basic asparagine species that removes H+, which is then eliminated via an Asn-Ser shuttle. The universal occurrence of Asn-Ser pairs in ζ-fold proteins leads to the idea that the highly conserved amide (Asn, Gln) and OH-containing (Tyr) residues seen in many "head-to-head" prenyltransferases such as squalene and dehydrosqualene synthase might play similar roles, in H+ elimination. Structural, bioinformatics and mutagenesis investigations indeed indicate an important role of these residues in catalysis, with the results of density functional theory calculations showing that Asn bound to Mg2+ can act as a general (imine-like) base, while Gln, Tyr and H2O form a proton channel that is adjacent to the conventional (Asp-rich) "active site". Taken together, our results lead to mechanisms of proton-elimination from carbocations in numerous prenyltransferases in which neutral species (Asn, Gln, Ser, Tyr, H2O) act as proton shuttles, complementing the more familiar roles of acidic groups (in Asp and Glu) that bind to Mg2+, and basic groups (primarily Arg) that bind to diphosphates, in isoprenoid biosynthesis.

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Rethinking the evolution of eukaryotic metabolism: novel cellular partitioning of enzymes in stramenopiles links serine biosynthesis to glycolysis in mitochondria.

Publications

Rethinking the evolution of eukaryotic metabolism: novel cellular partitioning of enzymes in stramenopiles links serine biosynthesis to glycolysis in mitochondria.

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