Different mechanisms of regioselection of fatty acid hydroxylation by laurate (omega-1)-hydroxylating P450s, P450 2C2 and P450 2E1.

P450 2C2 as well as P450 2E1 [Fukuda, T. et al. (1993) J. Biochem. 113, 7-12] catalyzed the hydroxylation of medium chain fatty acids, although the regioselectivity of substrates of the former contrasted with that of the latter. Whereas P450 2E1 hydroxylated C9-C18 fatty acids at the omega-1 position and to a much lesser extent at the omega and omega-2 positions, P450 2C2 hydroxylated C9-C13 fatty acids at different positions dependent on the chain length of fatty acids. Among the fatty acids used as the substrate, undecanoate was hydroxylated at the omega-1 position almost exclusively by P450 2C2. The proportion of omega-hydroxylated products produced by P450 2C2 was markedly increased with decreasing chain length of fatty acids, while the hydroxylation positions were enlarged to the omega-3 position with tridecanoate. When the conserved Thr at the putative distal helix was replaced with Ser, the substrate regioselectivity of the two P450s was affected in different manners. The mutation of P450 2C2 did not change the hydroxylation positions of C9-C12 fatty acids, but caused a significant decrease in the proportion of the omega-1 hydroxy analog in the total products. In sharp contrast to P450 2C2, the mutated P450 2E1 gave additional products to those with the wild-type P450, and the number of different products increased with increasing chain length of the fatty acids. Thus, the products of palmitate hydroxylation were identified as omega-1, omega-2, omega-3, omega-4, omega-5, omega-6, and omega-7 monohydroxy isomers using gas chromatography-electron impact mass spectrometry.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)