ABSTRACT
A superfamily of cyclic amidohydrolases, including dihydropyrimidinase, allantoinase, hydantoinase, and dihydroorotase, all of which are involved in the metabolism of purine and pyrimidine rings, was recently proposed based on the rigidly conserved structural domains in identical positions of the related enzymes. With these conserved domains, two putative cyclic amidohydrolase genes from
Escherichia coli
, flanked by related genes, were identified and characterized. From the genome sequence of
E. coli
, the
allB
gene and a putative open reading frame, tentatively designated as a
hyuA
(for hydantoin-utilizing enzyme) gene, were predicted to express hydrolases. In contrast to
allB
, high-level expression of
hyuA
in
E. coli
of a single protein was unsuccessful even under various induction conditions. We expressed HyuA as a maltose binding protein fusion protein and AllB in its native form and then purified each of them by conventional procedures.
allB
was found to encode a tetrameric allantoinase (453 amino acids) which specifically hydrolyzes the purine metabolite allantoin to allantoic acid. Another open reading frame,
hyuA
, located near 64.4 min on the physical map and known as a UUG start, coded for
d
-stereospecific phenylhydantoinase (465 amino acids) which is a homotetramer. As a novel enzyme belonging to a cyclic amidohydrolase superfamily,
E. coli
phenylhydantoinase exhibited a distinct activity toward the hydantoin derivative with an aromatic side chain at the 5′ position but did not readily hydrolyze the simple cyclic ureides. The deduced amino acid sequence of the novel phenylhydantoinase shared a significant homology (>45%) with those of allantoinase and dihydropyrimidinase, but its functional role still remains to be elucidated. Despite the unclear physiological function of HyuA, its presence, along with the allantoin-utilizing AllB, strongly suggested that the cyclic ureides might be utilized as nutrient sources in
E. coli
.
摘要
根据相关酶相同位置上的刚性保守结构域,最近提出了一个环酰胺水解酶超家族,包括二氢嘧啶酶、尿囊素酶、海因酶和二氢烟酸酶,它们都参与嘌呤和嘧啶环的代谢。有了这些保守结构域,两个来自
大肠杆菌
从大肠杆菌的基因组序列中发现了两个推定的环酰胺水解酶基因,其两侧有相关的基因。从大肠杆菌的基因组序列中
大肠杆菌
的
allB
基因和一个推测的开放阅读框(暂定为
hyuA
(代表海因利用酶)基因被预测为表达水解酶。与
allB
相比,高水平表达
hyuA
在
大肠杆菌中
即使在不同的诱导条件下,也无法成功表达单一蛋白。我们将 HyuA 表达为麦芽糖结合蛋白融合蛋白,将 AllB 表达为其原生形式,然后通过常规程序纯化了它们。
AllB
编码一个四聚体尿囊素酶(453 个氨基酸),它能将嘌呤代谢物尿囊素水解为尿囊酸。另一个开放阅读框
hyuA
在物理图谱上位于 64.4 分钟附近,被称为 UUG 起点,其编码为
d
-甾体特异性苯海因酶(465 个氨基酸)的编码,该酶是一个同源四聚体。这是一种属于环酰胺水解酶超家族的新型酶、
大肠杆菌
苯海因酶对 5′位芳香侧链的海因衍生物具有独特的活性,但不容易水解简单的环状脲苷。推导出的新型苯基海因酶的氨基酸序列与尿囊素酶和二氢嘧啶酶的氨基酸序列具有显著的同源性(45%),但其功能作用仍有待阐明。尽管 HyuA 的生理功能尚不明确,但它与利用尿囊素的 AllB 的存在强烈表明,环状脲苷可能被大肠杆菌利用为营养源。
大肠杆菌
.