Activity and substrate specificity of , , and Tpt1: essential tRNA splicing enzymes and potential anti-fungal targets.

The enzyme Tpt1 is an essential agent of fungal tRNA splicing that removes an internal RNA 2'-PO generated by fungal tRNA ligase. Tpt1 performs a two-step reaction in which: (i) the 2'-PO attacks NAD to form an RNA-2'-phospho-(ADP-ribose) intermediate; and (ii) transesterification of the ADP-ribose O2'' to the RNA 2'-phosphodiester yields 2'-OH RNA and ADP-ribose-1'',2''-cyclic phosphate. Because Tpt1 does not participate in metazoan tRNA splicing, and Tpt1 knockout has no apparent impact on mammalian physiology, Tpt1 is considered a potential anti-fungal drug target. Here we characterize Tpt1 enzymes from four human fungal pathogens: , the agent of Valley Fever; and , which cause invasive, often fatal, infections in immunocompromised hosts; and , an emerging pathogen that is resistant to current therapies. All four pathogen Tpt1s were active in vivo in complementing a lethal Saccharomyces cerevisiae tpt1∆ mutation and in vitro in NAD-dependent conversion of a 2'-PO to a 2'-OH. The fungal Tpt1s utilized nicotinamide hypoxanthine dinucleotide as a substrate in lieu of NAD, albeit with much lower affinity, whereas nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide was ineffective. Fungal Tpt1s efficiently removed an internal ribonucleotide 2'-phosphate from an otherwise all-DNA substrate. Replacement of an RNA ribose-2'-PO nucleotide with arabinose-2'-PO diminished enzyme specific activity by ≥2000-fold and selectively slowed step 2 of the reaction pathway, resulting in transient accumulation of an ara-2'-phospho-ADP-ribosylated intermediate. Our results implicate the 2'-PO ribonucleotide as the principal determinant of fungal Tpt1 nucleic acid substrate specificity.