The lipid-rich cell wall of mycobacteria is essential not only for virulence but also for survival. Whilst anabolic pathways for mycobacterial lipid biosynthesis have been well studied, there has been little research looking into lipid catabolism. The genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis encodes multiple enzymes with putative roles in the β-oxidation of fatty acids. In this report we explore the functionality of FadB2, one of five M. tuberculosis homologues of a β-hydroxybutyryl-CoA dehydrogenase, an enzyme that catalyses the third step in the β-oxidation cycle. Purified M. tuberculosis FadB2 catalysed the in vitro NAD+-dependent dehydration of β-hydroxybutyryl-CoA to acetoacetyl-CoA at pH 10. Mutation of the active-site serine-122 residue resulted in loss of enzyme activity, consistent with the function of FadB2 as a fatty acyl dehydrogenase involved in the β-oxidation of fatty acids. Surprisingly, purified FadB2 also catalysed the reverse reaction, converting acetoacetyl-CoA to β-hydroxybutyryl-CoA, albeit in a lower pH range of 5.5–6.5. Additionally, a null mutant of fadB2 was generated in Mycobacterium smegmatis. However, the mutant showed no significant differences from the wild-type strain with regard to lipid composition, utilization of different fatty acid carbon sources and tolerance to various stresses; the absence of any phenotype in the mutant strain could be due to the potential redundancy between the five M. smegmatis fadB paralogues.
分析表明,分解脂质是支持分枝杆菌生存和致病性的重要途径,但与脂质生物合成相比,关于脂质分解的研究较少。结核分枝杆菌基因组编码多种酶,可能在脂肪酸β-氧化中发挥作用。本研究探讨了FadB2的功能,它是五个M. tuberculosis同源物中的一个β-羟丁酰辅酶A脱氢酶,该酶催化β-氧化循环中的第三步。纯化的M. tuberculosis FadB2在pH10下催化了体外NAD+依赖的β-羟丁酰辅酶A的脱水反应,生成乙酰乙酰辅酶A。活性位点丝氨酸122的突变导致酶活性丧失,与FadB2作为脂肪酰脱氢酶参与脂肪酸β-氧化的功能一致。令人惊讶的是,纯化的FadB2也催化了反向反应,将乙酰乙酰辅酶A转化为β-羟丁酰辅酶A,但在较低的pH范围(5.5-6.5)内。此外,在Mycobacterium smegmatis中生成了fadB2的零突变体。然而,与野生型菌株相比,突变株在脂质组成、利用不同的脂肪酸碳源和耐受各种应激方面没有显著差异;突变株中没有任何表型可能是由于五个M. smegmatis fadB同源物之间的潜在冗余性。