Lanz Nicholas D, Blaszczyk Anthony J, McCarthy Erin L, Wang Bo, Wang Roy X, Jones Brianne S, Booker Squire J
Biochemistry. 2018 Mar 6;57(9):1475-1490. doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.7b01205. Epub 2018 Feb 19.
The methylation of unactivated carbon and phosphorus centers is a burgeoning area of biological chemistry, especially given that such reactions constitute key steps in the biosynthesis of numerous enzyme cofactors, antibiotics, and other natural products of clinical value. These kinetically challenging reactions are catalyzed exclusively by enzymes in the radical S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) superfamily and have been grouped into four classes (A-D). Class B radical SAM (RS) methylases require a cobalamin cofactor in addition to the [4Fe-4S] cluster that is characteristic of RS enzymes. However, their poor solubility upon overexpression and their generally poor turnover has hampered detailed in vitro studies of these enzymes. It has been suggested that improper folding, possibly caused by insufficient cobalamin during their overproduction in Escherichia coli, leads to formation of inclusion bodies. Herein, we report our efforts to improve the overproduction of class B RS methylases in a soluble form by engineering a strain of E. coli to take in more cobalamin. We cloned five genes ( btuC, btuE, btuD, btuF, and btuB) that encode proteins that are responsible for cobalamin uptake and transport in E. coli and co-expressed these genes with those that encode TsrM, Fom3, PhpK, and ThnK, four class B RS methylases that suffer from poor solubility during overproduction. This strategy markedly enhances the uptake of cobalamin into the cytoplasm and improves the solubility of the target enzymes significantly.
未活化的碳中心和磷中心的甲基化是生物化学中一个新兴的领域,特别是考虑到此类反应是众多酶辅因子、抗生素及其他具有临床价值的天然产物生物合成中的关键步骤。这些动力学上具有挑战性的反应仅由自由基S-腺苷甲硫氨酸(SAM)超家族中的酶催化,并已被分为四类(A - D)。B类自由基SAM(RS)甲基化酶除了具有RS酶特有的[4Fe - 4S]簇外,还需要钴胺素辅因子。然而,它们在过表达时溶解性差,且周转率普遍较低,这阻碍了对这些酶进行详细的体外研究。有人提出,在大肠杆菌中过量生产期间,钴胺素不足可能导致折叠不当,从而形成包涵体。在此,我们报告了通过改造大肠杆菌菌株以摄取更多钴胺素,来提高B类RS甲基化酶可溶性形式过量生产的努力。我们克隆了五个基因(btuC、btuE、btuD、btuF和btuB),它们编码负责大肠杆菌中钴胺素摄取和运输的蛋白质,并将这些基因与编码TsrM、Fom3、PhpK和ThnK的基因共表达,这四种B类RS甲基化酶在过量生产时溶解性较差。这种策略显著增强了钴胺素向细胞质的摄取,并显著提高了目标酶的溶解性。