• BMB Reports
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.326-330
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• 1999

An aspartase purified from Hafnia alvei was inactivated by diethylpyrocarbonate (DEP) in a pseudo-first-order inactivation. The first-order plot was biphasic. The inactivation process was not saturable and the second order rate constant was $1.3\;M^{-1}s^{-1}$. The inactivated aspartase was reactivated with NH₂OH. The difference absorption spectrum of DEP-inactivated vs native enzyme preparations revealed a marked peak around 242 nm. The pH dependence of the inactivation rate suggests that an amino acid residue having a pK value of 7.2 was involved in the inactivation. L-aspartate, fumarate (substrates), and chloride ion (inhibitor) protected the enzyme against inactivation, indicating that histidine residues for the enzyme activity are located at the active site of this aspartase. Inspection of the presence and absence of $Cl^-$ ion demonstrated that the number of essential histidine residues is less than two. Thus, one or two histidines are in or near the aspartate binding site and participate in an essential step of the catalytic reaction.

• BMB Reports
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.248-252
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• 2005

Dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (E3) catalyzes the reoxidation of dihydrolipoyl moiety of the acyltransferase components of three $\alpha$-keto acid dehydrogenase complexes and of the hydrogen-carrier protein of the glycine cleavage system. His-457 of Pseudomonas putida E3 is suggested to interact with the hydroxyl group of Tyr-18 of the other subunit and with Glu-446, a component in the last helical structure. To examine the importance of the suggested interactions in human E3 function, the corresponding residue of human E3, Asn-473, was substituted to Leu using site-directed mutagenesis. The E3 mutant was expressed in Escherichia coli and highly purified using an affinity column. Its E3 activity was decreased about 37-fold, indicating that Asn-473 residue was important to the efficient catalytic function of human E3. Its slightly altered spectroscopic properties implied that small conformational changes could occur in the E3 mutant.

• BMB Reports
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.113-118
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• 1997

Aspartase from Hafnia alvei was inactivated by N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) and 5,5' -Dithiobis-(2-znitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB) following pseudo-first order kinetics. Their apparent reaction orders were 0.83 and 0.50 for NEM and DTNB modifications, respectively, indicating that inactivation was due to a sulfhydryl group in the active site of aspartase and participation of the sulfhydryl group in an essential step in the catalytic reaction. When aspartase was modified by DTNB, the enzyme activity was restored by dithiothreitol treatment, indicating that cysteine residuetsl islarel possibly at or near the active site. The pH-dependence of the inactivation rate by NEM suggested that an amino acid residue having pK value of 8.3 was involved in the inactivation. When aspartase was incubated with NEM and L-aspartate together, L-aspartate markedly protected the enzyme from inactivation by NEM, but the other reagents used did not.

• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.223-227
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• 2006

Dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (E3) belongs to the pyridine nucleotide-disulfide oxidoreductase family including glutathione reductase and thioredoxin reductase. It catalyzes the reoxidation of dihydrolipoyl moiety of the acyltransferase components of three $\alpha$-keto acid dehydrogenase complexes and of the hydrogen-carrier protein of the glycine cleavage system. Isoleucine-51 of human E3, located near the active disulfide center Cys residues, is highly conserved in most E3s from several sources. To examine the importance of this highly conserved Ile-51 in human E3 function, it was substituted with Ala using site-directed mutagenesis. The mutant was expressed in Escherichia coli and highly purified using an affinity column. Its E3 activity was decreased about 100-fold, indicating that the conservation of the Ile-51 residue in human E3 was very important to the efficient catalytic function of the enzyme. Its altered spectroscopic properties implied that conformational changes could occur in the mutant.

• BMB Reports
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.472-477
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• 2001

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC, EC 4.1.1.17) is the first and key enzyme in eukaryotic polyamine biosynthesis. The cDNA encoding ornithine decarboxylase from Nicotiana glutinosa was cloned ($GeBank^{TM}$ AF 323910) and expressed in E. coli. Site directed mutagenesis were performed on several highly conserved cysteine residues. Among the mutants, C115A showed significant changes in the kinetic properties. The $K_m$ value of the C115A mutant was $1790\;{\mu}M$, which was 3-fold higher than that of the wild-type ODC. There was a dramatic decrease in the $k_{cat}$, values of the C115A mutant, compared to that of the wild-type ODC, which had a $k_{cat}$ value of $77.75\;s^{-1}$. C115A caused a shift in the optimal pH from 8.0 to 8.4. Considering these results, we suggest that cys-115 is involved in the catalytic activity of N. glutinosa ODC.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.774-776
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• 1994

Ab initio studies of simple model systems for the carboxypeptidase A active site indicate that penta-and hexa-coordinate Zn(II) complexes have comparable structural stabilities. These facile coordination structures can be responsible for the catalytic role. Although the hexa-coordinate Zn(II) complex is more stable in enthalpy than the penta-coordinate Zn(II) complex, the entropy effect makes the latter as stable as or slightly more stable in free energy than the former.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.277-287
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• 2003

Acetolactate synthase (ALS, EC 4.1.3.18; also referred to as acetohydroxy acid synthase) catalyzes the first common step in the biosynthesis of valine, leucine, and isoleucine in microorganisms and plants. Recently X-ray structure of yeast ALS was available. Pair-wise alignment of yeast and tobacco ALS sequences revealed 63% sequence similarity. Using Deep View and automatic modeling on Swiss model server, we have generated reliable models of tobacco ALS based on yeast ALS template with a calculated pair-wise RMSD of 0.86 Angstrom. Functional roles of four residues located on the subunit interface (H142, El43, M350, and R376) were examined by site-directed mutagenesis. Seven mutants were generated and purified, of which three mutants (H142T, M350V, and R376F) were found to be inactivated under various assay conditions. The H142k mutant showed moderately altered kinetic properties. The E143A mutant increased 10-fold in K$_m$ value while other parameters remained unchanged. The M350C mutant was strongly resistant to three tested herbicides, while the R376k mutant can bind with herbicide carder at similar affinity to that of wild type enzyme, as determined by tryptophan quenching study. Except M350V mutant, all other mutants were ate to bind with cofactor FAD. Taken together, it is likely that residues H142 and E143 are located at the active site, while residues M350 and R376 are possibly located at the overlapping region of active site and herbicide binding site of the enzyme. Our data also allows us to hypothesize that the interaction between side chains of residues M350 and R376 are probably essential for the correct conformation of the active site. It remains to be elucidated that, whether the herbicide, upon binding with enzyme, inactivates the enzyme by causing change in the active site allosterically, which is unfavorable for catalytic activity.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.657-662
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• 2006

Identification of accessible sites in targeted RNAs is a major limitation to the effectiveness of antisense oligonucleotides. A class of antisense oligodeoxynucleotides, known as the “10-23” DNA enzyme or DNAzyme, which is a small catalytic DNA, has been shown to efficiently cleave target RNA at purine-pyrimidine junctions in vitro. We have designed a strategy to identify accessible cleavage sites in the target RNA, which is hepatitis C virus nonstructural gene 3 (HCV NS3) RNA that encodes viral helicase and protease, from a pool of random DNAzyme library. A pool of DNAzymes of 58 nucleotides-length that possess randomized annealing arms, catalytic core sequence, and fixed 5'/3'-end flanking sequences was designed and screened for their ability to cleave the target RNA. The screening procedure, which includes binding of DNAzyme pool to the target RNA under inactive condition, selection and amplification of active DNAzymes, incubation of the selected DNAzymes with the target RNA, and target site identification on sequencing gels, identified 16 potential cleavage sites in the target RNA. Corresponding DNAzymes were constructed for the selected target sites and were tested for RNA-cleavage in terms of kinetics and accessibility. These selected DNAzymes were effective in cleaving the target RNA in the presence of $Mg^{2+}$. This strategy can be applicable to identify accessible sites in any target RNA for antisense oligonucleotides-based gene inactivation methods.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.217-221
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• 2002

dTDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase (TDPDH) catalyzes the conversion of dTDP-D-glucose to dTDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-D-glucose, and requires $NAD^＋$ as a coenzyme for its catalytic activity. The dTDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase from Streptomyces antibioticus $Tu{\ddot}99$ tightly binds $NAD^＋$ [19]. In order to determine the role of lysine-148 in the $NAD^＋$ binding, the lysine of the dTDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase from Streptomyces antibioticus $Tu{\ddot}99$ was mutated to various amino acids by site-directed mutagenesis. The catalytic activity of the four mutated enzymes of TDPDH did not recover after addition of $NAD^＋$ . However, the activity of K159A, the mutated enzyme of UDP-D-glucose 4-epimerase (UDPE), recovered after the addition of $NAD^＋$ [15]. Although dTDP-glucose 4,6-dehydratase, and UDP-galactose (glucose) 4-epimerase are members of the short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase SDR family and the lysine-148 of TDPDH was highly conserved as in UDPE (Lys-159), the function of the lysine-148 of TDPDH was different from that of UDPE. The mutated enzymes showed that the lysine-148 of the dTDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase played no role in the $NAD^＋$ binding. Accordingly, it is suggested that the lysine-148 of the dTDP-D-glucose 4,6-dehydratase is involved in the folding of TDPDH.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.695-703
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• 1999

We have studied the stereospecificities of various pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) dependent enzymes for the hydrogen transfer between the C-4' of a bound coenzyme and the C-2 of a substrate in the transamination catalyzed by the enzymes. Stereospecificities reflect the structures of enzyme active-sites, in particular the geometrical relationship between the coenzyme-substrate Schiff base and the active site base participating in an $\alpha$-hydrogen abstraction. The PLP enzymes studied so far catalyze only a si-face specific (pro-S) hydrogen transfer. This stereochemical finding suggests that the PLP enzymes have the same topological active-site structures, and that the PLP enzymes have evolved divergently from a common ancestral protein. However, we found that o-amino acid aminotransferase, branched chain L-amino acid aminotransferase, and 4-amino-4-deoxychorismate lyase, which have significant sequence homology with one another, catalyze a re-face specific (pro-R) hydrogen transfer. We also showed that PLP-dependent amino acid racemases, which have no sequence homology with any aminotransferases, catalyze a non-stereospecific hydrogen transfer: the hydrogen transfer occurs on both faces of the planar intermediate. Crystallographical studies have shown that the catalytic base is situated on the re-face of the C-4' of the bound coenzyme in o-amino acid aminotransferase and branched chain L-amino acid aminotransferase, whereas the catalytic base is situated on the si-face in other aminotransferases (such as L-aspartate aminotransferase) catalyzing the si-face hydrogen transfer. Thus, we have clarified the stereospecificities of PLP enzymes in relation with the primary structures and three-dimensional structures of the enzymes. The characteristic stereospecificities of these enzymes for the hydrogen transfer suggest the convergent evolution of PLP enzymes.