GTPase mechanism and function: new insights from systematic mutational analysis of the phosphate-binding loop residue Ala30 of Rab5.

Structural and biochemical data indicate the importance of the phosphate-binding loop residues Gly(12) and Gly(13) of Ras both in the GTP hydrolysis reaction and in biological activity, but these two residues are not conserved in other Ras-related GTPases. To gain a better understanding of this region in GTP hydrolysis and GTPase function, we used the Ras-related Rab5 GTPase as a model for comparison, and substituted the Ala(30) residue (the equivalent of Gly(13) of Ras) with all the other 19 amino acids. The resulting mutants were analysed for GTP hydrolysis, GTP binding, GTP dissociation and biological activity. Only the substitution of alanine with proline reduced the GTPase activity by an order of magnitude. This effect is in sharp contrast with the observation that a proline substitution at the neighbouring position (Gly(12) of Ras) has little effect on the GTPase activity. Whereas most other substitutions showed either a small negative effect or no effect on the GTPase activity, the arginine substitution surprisingly stimulated the GTPase activity by 5-fold. Molecular modelling suggests that this built-in arginine mimics the catalytic arginine residues found in trimeric GTPases and GTPase-activating proteins in providing the positive charge to facilitate the GTP hydrolysis reaction. We investigated further the biological activity of the Rab5 mutants in relation to stimulating endocytosis. When expressed in cultured baby hamster kidney cells, both arginine and proline mutants, like wild-type Rab5, stimulated endocytosis. However, the arginine mutant was a more potent stimulator than the proline mutant (3-fold stimulation as against 1.7-fold). The tryptophan mutant, on the other hand, was completely deficient in activity in terms of the stimulation of endocytosis, demonstrating the importance of the phosphate-binding loop in Rab GTPase function.