Zinc enzymology is, compared to some other current areas of metallobiochemistry, a maturing field, but in addition to further developments of structure-function relationships it has also provided a number of surprising new results and ideas in the last few years. In fact, the number of studies makes it impossible to provide a comprehensive review of the recent literature on zinc enzymology here, and the authors therefore focus on those zinc enzymes for which structure-function relationships are possible on the basis of structural and biochemical data. This means that, with a few exceptions, only zinc enzymes for which NMR or crystal structures are available are included here. Another seemingly simple, yet experimentally sometimes complex issue concerns the choice of which metalloenzyme is a zinc enzyme. Since there is in principle no difference in chemical catalysis by low-affinity compared to high-affinity metal sites, some of these enzymes are also included in this article, especially if they are or have been discussed as zinc enzymes, or are active with zinc. 552 refs.

Recent Advances in Zinc Enzymology

Zinc is required for the activity of > 300 enzymes, covering all six classes of enzymes. Zinc binding sites in proteins are often distorted tetrahedral or trigonal bipyramidal geometry, made up of the sulfur of cysteine, the nitrogen of histidine or the oxygen of aspartate and glutamate, or a combination. Zinc in proteins can either participate directly in chemical catalysis or be important for maintaining protein structure and stability. In all catalytic sites, the zinc ion functions as a Lewis acid. Researchers in our laboratory are dissecting the determinants of molecular recognition and catalysis in the zinc-binding site of carbonic anhydrase. These studies demonstrate that the chemical nature of the direct ligands and the structure of the surrounding hydrogen bond network are crucial for both the activity of carbonic anhydrase and the metal ion affinity of the zinc-binding site. An understanding of naturally occurring zinc-binding sites will aid in creating de novo zinc-binding proteins and in designing new metal sites in existing proteins for novel purposes such as to serve as metal ion biosensors.

Function and mechanism of zinc metalloenzymes.

In eukaryotes, the translation initiation codon is generally identified by the scanning mechanism, wherein every triplet in the messenger RNA leader is inspected for complementarity to the anticodon of methionyl initiator transfer RNA (Met-tRNAi). Binding of Met-tRNAi to the small (40S) ribosomal subunit, in a ternary complex (TC) with eIF2-GTP, is stimulated by eukaryotic initiation factor 1 (eIF1), eIF1A, eIF3, and eIF5, and the resulting preinitiation complex (PIC) joins the 5' end of mRNA preactivated by eIF4F and poly(A)-binding protein. RNA helicases remove secondary structures that impede ribosome attachment and subsequent scanning. Hydrolysis of eIF2-bound GTP is stimulated by eIF5 in the scanning PIC, but completion of the reaction is impeded at non-AUG triplets. Although eIF1 and eIF1A promote scanning, eIF1 and possibly the C-terminal tail of eIF1A must be displaced from the P decoding site to permit base-pairing between Met-tRNAi and the AUG codon, as well as to allow subsequent phosphate release from eIF2-GDP. A second GTPase, eIF5B, catalyzes the joining of the 60S subunit to produce an 80S initiation complex that is competent for elongation.

The Scanning Mechanism of Eukaryotic Translation Initiation

Supercritical fluids (SCFs), compounds heated and pressurized beyond the critical point, have many unusual properties. Homogeneous molecular catalysts, which have far greater control over selectivity than heterogeneous solid catalysts, are now being tested in SCFs, and early results show that high rates, improved selectivity, and elimination of masstransfer problems can be achieved. As industry moves away from toxic or environmentally damaging solvents, supercritical carbon dioxide may be an ideal replacement medium for nonpolar or weakly polar chemical processes. More than simply substitutes for nonpolar solvents, SCFs can radically change the observed chemistry. Supercritical carbon dioxide is also an excellent medium for its own fixation, as demonstrated by studies of its hydrogenation.

Homogeneous Catalysis in Supercritical Fluids.

In eukaryotes, chromosome segregation during cell division is facilitated by the kinetochore, a multiprotein structure that is assembled on centromeric DNA. The kinetochore attaches chromosomes to spindle microtubules, modulates the stability of these attachments and relays the microtubule-binding status to the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), a cell cycle surveillance pathway that delays chromosome segregation in response to unattached kinetochores. Recent studies are shaping current thinking on how each of these kinetochore-centred processes is achieved, and how their integration ensures faithful chromosome segregation, focusing on the essential roles of kinase-phosphatase signalling and the microtubule-binding KMN protein network.

Microtubule attachment and spindle assembly checkpoint signalling at the kinetochore.

Effect of deuteration on the amide proton relaxation rates in proteins. Heteronuclear NMR experiments on villin 14T.

The Escherichia coli Ada protein repairs O6-methylguanine residues and methyl phosphotriesters in DNA by direct transfer of the methyl group to a cysteine residue located in its C- or N-terminal domain, respectively. Methyl transfer to the N-terminal domain causes it to acquire a sequence-specific DNA binding activity, which directs binding to the regulatory region of several methylation-resistance genes. In this paper we show that the N-terminal domain of Ada contains a high-affinity binding site for a single zinc atom, whereas the C-terminal domain is free of zinc. The metal-binding domain is apparently located within the first 92 amino acids of Ada, which contains four conserved cysteine residues. We propose that these four cysteines serve as the zinc ligand residues, coordinating the metal in a tetrahedral arrangement. One of the putative ligand residues, namely, Cys69, also serves as the acceptor site for a phosphotriester-derived methyl group. This raises the possibility that methylation-dependent ligand reorganization about the metal plays a role in the conformational switching mechanism that converts Ada from a non-sequence-specific to a sequence-specific DNA-binding protein.

Zinc binding by the methylation signaling domain of the Escherichia coli Ada protein

The solution structure of the N-terminal domain of the actin-severing protein villin has been determined by multidimensional heteronuclear resonance spectroscopy. Villin is a member of a family of actin-severing proteins that regulate the organization of actin in the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. Members of this family are built from 3 or 6 homologous repeats of a structural domain of approximately 130 amino acids that is unrelated to any previously known structure. The N-terminal domain of villin (14T) contains a central beta-sheet with 4 antiparallel strands and a fifth parallel strand at one edge. This sheet is sandwiched between 2 helices on one side and a 2-stranded parallel beta-sheet with another helix on the other side. The strongly conserved sequence characteristic of the protein family corresponds to internal hydrophobic residues. Calcium titration experiments suggest that there are 2 binding sites for Ca2+, a stronger site near the N-terminal end of the longest helix, with a Kd of 1.8 +/- 0.4 mM, and a weaker site near the C-terminal end of the same helix, with a Kd of 11 +/- 2 mM. Mutational and biochemical studies of this domain in several members of the family suggest that the actin monomer binding site is near the parallel strand at the edge of the central beta-sheet.

/pdf/solution-structure-of-villin-14t-a-domain-conserved-among-4br8c8tkk0.pdf

Solution structure of villin 14T, a domain conserved among actin‐severing proteins

Villin 14T is the amino terminal actin monomer binding domain from the actin-severing and bundling protein villin. Its structure has been determined in solution using heteronuclear multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy (Markus MA, Nakayama T, Matsudaira P, Wagner G. 1994. Solution structure of villin 14T, a domain conserved among actin-severing proteins. Protein Science 3:70-81). An additional nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) spectroscopy data set, acquired using improved gradient techniques, and further detailed analysis of existing data sets, produced an additional 601 NOE restraints for structure calculations. The overall fold does not change significantly with the additional NOE restraints but the definition of the structure is improved, as judged by smaller deviations among an ensemble of calculated structures that adequately satisfy the NMR restraints. Some of the side chains, especially those in the hydrophobic core of the domain, are much more defined. This improvement in the detail of the solution structure of villin 14T makes it interesting to compare the structure with the crystal structure of gelsolin segment 1, which shares 58% sequence identity with villin 14T, in an effort to gain insight into villin 14T's weaker affinity for actin monomers. Villin 14T has smaller side chains at several positions that make hydrophobic contacts with actin in the context of gelsolin segment 1. The structure is also compared with the structure of the related actin-severing domain, severin domain 2.

Refined structure of villin 14T and a detailed comparison with other actin-severing domains.

It has been widely accepted that both the protection of carbonyls and the deprotection of acetals and ketals involve the participation of a water molecule: formation of acetals and ketals is a dehydration process, whereas the deprotection is often referred to as hydrolysis, which, as implied by its name, always requires the presence of water. Herein, we report experimental evidence and mechanistic investigations that provide an alternative view to this process. We have demonstrated that water is not required to convert acetals and ketals to the corresponding carbonyls. The (1)H NMR experimental results revealed that the TFA-mediated transformation of acetal to aldehyde occurs via a hemiacetal TFA ester intermediate, which differentiates itself from the classic acid-catalyzed hydrolysis, where the hemiacetal is the putative intermediate responsible for the formation of the aldehyde. More interestingly, alcohols are not the final byproducts as they are in the classical hydrolysis, rather, the two alcohol molecules are converted to two TFA esters under the reaction conditions. On the basis of the NMR evidence, we have proposed that the two TFA esters are formed in two separate steps via a different mechanism along the reaction pathway. Formation of the TFA esters renders the reaction irreversible. To the best of our knowledge, the cascade reaction pathway presented by the TFA-mediated conversion of acetals and ketals to carbonyls has never been previously postulated.

Mechanistic pathways in CF3COOH-mediated deacetalization reactions

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