Serine essentiality

Figure 11.6 A schematic view of the presumed binding mode of the tetrahedral transition state intermediate for the deacylation step. The four essential features of the serine proteinases are highlighted in yellow the catalytic triad, the oxyanion hole, the specificity pocket, and the unspecific main-chain substrate binding.

A closer examination of these essential residues, including the catalytic triad, reveals that they are all part of the same two loop regions in the two domains (Figure 11.10). The domains are oriented so that the ends of the two barrels that contain the Greek key crossover connection (described in Chapter 5) between p strands 3 and 4 face each other along the active site. The essential residues in the active site are in these two crossover connections and in the adjacent hairpin loops between p strands 5 and 6. Most of these essential residues are conserved between different members of the chymotrypsin superfamily. They are, of course, surrounded by other parts of the polypeptide chains, which provide minor modifications of the active site, specific for each particular serine proteinase. 

Serine proteinases such as chymotrypsin and subtilisin catalyze the cleavage of peptide bonds. Four features essential for catalysis are present in the three-dimensional structures of all serine proteinases a catalytic triad, an oxyanion binding site, a substrate specificity pocket, and a nonspecific binding site for polypeptide substrates. These four features, in a very similar arrangement, are present in both chymotrypsin and subtilisin even though they are achieved in the two enzymes in completely different ways by quite different three-dimensional structures. Chymotrypsin is built up from two p-barrel domains, whereas the subtilisin structure is of the a/p type. These two enzymes provide an example of convergent evolution where completely different loop regions, attached to different framework structures, form similar active sites. 

PHOSPHOPROTEINS. These proteins have phosphate groups esterified to the hydroxyls of serine, threonine, or tyrosine residues. Casein, the major protein of milk, contains many phosphates and serves to bring essential phosphorus to the growing infant. Many key steps in metabolism are regulated between states of activity or inactivity, depending on the presence or absence of phosphate groups on proteins, as we shall see in Chapter 15. Glycogen phospho-rylase a is one well-studied example. 

Several drugs in current medical use are mechanism-based enzyme inactivators. Eor example, the antibiotic penicillin exerts its effects by covalently reacting with an essential serine residue in the active site of glycoprotein peptidase, an enzyme that acts to cross-link the peptidoglycan chains during synthesis of bacterial cell walls (Eigure 14.17). Once cell wall synthesis is blocked, the bacterial cells are very susceptible to rupture by osmotic lysis, and bacterial growth is halted. 

Until recently, the catalytic role of Asp ° in trypsin and the other serine proteases had been surmised on the basis of its proximity to His in structures obtained from X-ray diffraction studies, but it had never been demonstrated with certainty in physical or chemical studies. As can be seen in Figure 16.17, Asp ° is buried at the active site and is normally inaccessible to chemical modifying reagents. In 1987, however, Charles Craik, William Rutter, and their colleagues used site-directed mutagenesis (see Chapter 13) to prepare a mutant trypsin with an asparagine in place of Asp °. This mutant trypsin possessed a hydrolytic activity with ester substrates only 1/10,000 that of native trypsin, demonstrating that Asp ° is indeed essential for catalysis and that its ability to immobilize and orient His is crucial to the function of the catalytic triad. 

The 4-phosphopantetheine group of CoA is also utilized (for essentially the same purposes) in acyl carrier proteins (ACPs) involved in fatty acid biosynthesis (see Chapter 25). In acyl carrier proteins, the 4-phosphopantetheine is covalently linked to a serine hydroxyl group. Pantothenic acid is an essential factor for the metabolism of fat, protein, and carbohydrates in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and other pathways. In view of its universal importance in metabolism, it is surprising that pantothenic acid deficiencies are not a more serious problem in humans, but this vitamin is abundant in almost all foods, so that deficiencies are rarely observed. 

An example for proteases are the (3-lactamases that hydrolyse a peptide bond in the essential (3-lactam ring of penicillins, cephalosporins, carbapenems and monobac-tams and, thereby, iireversibly inactivate the diug. 13-lactamases share this mechanism with the penicillin binding proteins (PBPs), which are essential enzymes catalyzing the biosynthesis of the bacterial cell wall. In contrast to the PBPs which irreversibly bind (3-lactams to the active site serine, the analogous complex of the diug with (3-lactamases is rapidly hydrolyzed regenerating the enzyme for inactivation of additional (3-lactam molecules. 

For many serine and cysteine peptidases catalysis first involves formation of a complex known as an acyl intermediate. An essential residue is required to stabilize this intermediate by helping to form the oxyanion hole. In cathepsin B a glutamine performs this role and sometimes a catalytic tetrad (Gin, Cys, His, Asn) is referred too. In chymotrypsin, a glycine is essential for stabilizing the oxyanion hole. 

Early mutational studies of the Rieske protein from 6ci complexes have been performed with the intention of identifying the ligands of the Rieske cluster. These studies have shown that the four conserved cysteine residues as well as the two conserved histidine residues are essential for the insertion of the [2Fe-2S] cluster (44, 45). Small amounts of a Rieske cluster with altered properties were obtained in Rhodobacter capsulatus when the second cysteine in the cluster binding loop II (Cys 155, corresponding to Cys 160 in the bovine ISF) was replaced by serine (45). The fact that all four cysteine residues are essential in Rieske clusters from be complexes, but that only two cysteines are conserved in Rieske-type clusters, led to the suggestion that the Rieske protein may contain a disulfide bridge the disulfide bridge was finally shown to exist in the X-ray structure (9). 

An attractive and useful method for the preparation of aziridine-2-carboxylic esters makes use of the readily available amino acids serine and threonine. Essentially, this synthesis involves the ring closure of 1,2-amino alcohols. 

Cysteine, tyrosine, and hydroxylysine are formed from nutritionally essential amino acids. Serine provides the carbon skeleton and homocysteine the sulfur for cysteine biosynthesis. Phenylalanine hydroxylase converts phenylalanine to tyrosine. 

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