15-23-dihydrosirohydrochlorin and siroheme

Topics: Amino Acid Substitution; Bacterial Proteins; Catalytic Domain; Electrochemistry; Ferrochelatase; Heme; Methyltransferases; Models, Molecular; Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; Oxidoreductases; Salmonella typhimurium; Substrate Specificity; Tetrapyrroles; Uroporphyrins

In Bacillus megaterium, the synthesis of vitamin B(12) (cobalamin) and sirohaem diverges at sirohydrochlorin along the branched modified tetrapyrrole biosynthetic pathway. This key intermediate is made by the action of SirC, a precorrin-2 dehydrogenase that requires NAD(+) as a cofactor. The structure of SirC has now been solved by X-ray crystallography to 2.8 A (1 A = 0.1 nm) resolution. The protein is shown to consist of three domains and has a similar topology to the multifunctional sirohaem synthases Met8p and the N-terminal region of CysG, both of which catalyse not only the dehydrogenation of precorrin-2 but also the ferrochelation of sirohydrochlorin to give sirohaem. Guided by the structure, in the present study a number of active-site residues within SirC were investigated by site-directed mutagenesis. No active-site general base was identified, although surprisingly some of the resulting protein variants were found to have significantly enhanced catalytic activity. Unexpectedly, SirC was found to bind metal ions such as cobalt and copper, and to bind them in an identical fashion with that observed in Met8p. It is suggested that SirC may have evolved from a Met8p-like protein by loss of its chelatase activity. It is proposed that the ability of SirC to act as a single monofunctional enzyme, in conjunction with an independent chelatase, may provide greater control over the intermediate at this branchpoint in the synthesis of sirohaem and cobalamin.

Topics: Amino Acid Sequence; Bacillus megaterium; Bacterial Proteins; Catalytic Domain; Cobalt; Copper; Crystallography, X-Ray; Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy; Heme; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; Oxidoreductases; Protein Structure, Secondary; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Uroporphyrins

In Bacillus megaterium, the hemAXBCDL genes were isolated and were found to be highly similar to the genes from Bacillus subtilis that are required for the conversion of glutamyl-tRNA into uroporphyrinogen III. Overproduction and purification of HemC (porphobilinogen deaminase) and -D (uroporphyrinogen III synthase) allowed these enzymes to be used for the in vitro synthesis of uroporphyrinogen III from porphobilinogen. A second smaller cluster of three genes (termed sirABC) was also isolated and found to encode the enzymes that catalyse the transformation of uroporphyrinogen III into sirohaem on the basis of their ability to complement a defined Escherichia coli (cysG) mutant. The functions of SirC and -B were investigated by direct enzyme assay, where SirC was found to act as a precorrin-2 dehydrogenase, generating sirohydrochlorin, and SirB was found to act as a ferrochelatase responsible for the final step in sirohaem synthesis. CbiX, a protein found encoded within the main B. megaterium cobalamin biosynthetic operon, shares a high degree of similarity with SirB and acts as the cobaltochelatase associated with cobalamin biosynthesis by inserting cobalt into sirohydrochlorin. CbiX contains an unusual histidine-rich region in the C-terminal portion of the protein, which was not found to be essential in the chelation process. Sequence alignments suggest that SirB and CbiX share a similar active site to the cobaltochelatase, CbiK, from Salmonella enterica.

Topics: Amino Acid Sequence; Bacillus megaterium; Escherichia coli; Heme; Methyltransferases; Molecular Sequence Data; Salmonella typhimurium; Uroporphyrins; Vitamin B 12

Clusters of genes encoding enzymes for tetrapyrrole biosynthesis were cloned from Bacillus sphaericus, Bacillus stearothermophilus, Brevibacillus brevis and Paenibacillus macerans. The sequences of all hemX genes found, and of a 6.3 kbp hem gene cluster from P. macerans, were determined. The structure of the hem gene clusters was compared to that of other Gram-positive bacteria. The Bacillus and Brevibacillus species have a conserved organization of the genes hemAXCDBL, required for biosynthesis of uroporphyrinogen III (UroIII) from glutamyl-tRNA. In P. macerans, the hem genes for UroIII synthesis are also closely linked but their organization is different: there is no hemX gene and the gene cluster also contains genes, cysG8 and cysG(A)-hemD, encoding the enzymes required for synthesis of sirohaem from UroIII. Bacillus subtilis contains genes for three proteins, NasF, YInD and YInF, with sequence similarity to Escherichia coli CysG, which is a multi-functional protein catalysing sirohaem synthesis from UroIII. It is shown that YInF is required for sirohaem synthesis and probably catalyses the precorrin-2 to sirohaem conversion. YInD probably catalyses precorrin-2 synthesis from UroIII and NasF seems to be specific for nitrite reduction.

Topics: Amino Acid Sequence; Bacillaceae; Bacillus; Bacterial Proteins; Cloning, Molecular; Escherichia coli; Genes, Bacterial; Genetic Complementation Test; Gram-Positive Bacteria; Heme; Methyltransferases; Molecular Sequence Data; Multigene Family; Pyrroles; RNA, Transfer, Amino Acyl; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Tetrapyrroles; Uroporphyrinogens; Uroporphyrins

We cloned, sequenced, and overexpressed cobA, the gene encoding uroporphyrinogen III methyltransferase in Propionibacterium freudenreichii, and examined the catalytic properties of the enzyme. The methyltransferase is similar in mass (27 kDa) and homologous to the one isolated from Pseudomonas denitrificans. In contrast to the much larger isoenzyme encoded by the cysG gene of Escherichia coli (52 kDa), the P. freudenreichii enzyme does not contain the additional 22-kDa peptide moiety at its N-terminal end bearing the oxidase-ferrochelatase activity responsible for the conversion of dihydrosirohydrochlorin (precorrin-2) to siroheme. Since it does not contain this moiety, it is not a likely candidate for synthesis of a cobalt-containing early intermediate that has been proposed for the vitamin B12 biosynthetic pathway in P. freudenreichii. Uroporphyrinogen III methyltransferase of P. freudenreichii not only catalyzes the addition of two methyl groups to uroporphyrinogen III to afford the early vitamin B12 intermediate, precorrin-2, but also has an overmethylation property that catalyzes the synthesis of several tri- and tetra-methylated compounds that are not part of the vitamin B12 pathway. The enzyme catalyzes the addition of three methyl groups to uroporphyrinogen I to form trimethylpyrrocorphin, the intermediate necessary for biosynthesis of the natural products, factors S1 and S3, previously isolated from this organism. A second gene found upstream from the cobA gene encodes a protein homologous to CbiO of Salmonella typhimurium, a membrane-bound, ATP-dependent transport protein thought to be part of the cobalt transport system involved in vitamin B12 synthesis. These two genes do not appear to constitute part of an extensive cobalamin operon.

Topics: Amino Acid Sequence; Base Sequence; Carbon Isotopes; Cloning, Molecular; Escherichia coli; Genes, Bacterial; Heme; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Methyltransferases; Molecular Sequence Data; Propionibacterium; Recombinant Proteins; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Uroporphyrinogens; Uroporphyrins; Vitamin B 12