Substrate specificity of plant nitrilase complexes is affected by their helical twist
- Nitrilases are oligomeric, helix-forming enzymes from plants, fungi and bacteria that are involved in the metabolism of various natural and artificial nitriles. These biotechnologically important enzymes are often specific for certain substrates, but directed attempts at modifying their substrate specificities by exchanging binding pocket residues have been largely unsuccessful. Thus, the basis for their selectivity is still unknown. Here we show, based on work with two highly similar nitrilases from the plant \(\textit {Capsella rubella}\), that modifying nitrilase helical twist, either by exchanging an interface residue or by imposing a different twist, without altering any binding pocket residues, changes substrate preference. We reveal that helical twist and substrate size correlate and when binding pocket residues are exchanged between two nitrilases that show the same twist but different specificities, their specificities change. Based on these findings we propose that helical twist influences the overall size of the binding pocket.
| Author: | Jeremy D. WoodwardGND, Inga TrompetterGND, Trevor SewellGND, Markus PiotrowskiORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-64414 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-018-0186-4 |
| Parent Title (English): | Communications biology |
| Document Type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of Publication (online): | 2019/05/20 |
| Date of first Publication: | 2018/11/02 |
| Publishing Institution: | Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek |
| Tag: | Open Access Fonds Electron microscopy; Hydrolases; Natural variation in plants |
| Volume: | 1 |
| First Page: | 186-1 |
| Last Page: | 186-10 |
| Note: | Communications biology, Bd. 1.2018, Artikelnummer 186 |
| Note: | Article Processing Charge funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Open Access Publication Fund of Ruhr-Universität Bochum. |
| Institutes/Facilities: | Lehrstuhl für Pflanzenphysiologie, Arbeitsgruppe Pflanzliche Zellphysiologie und Molekularbiologie |
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / Biowissenschaften, Biologie, Biochemie |
| open_access (DINI-Set): | open_access |
| faculties: | Fakultät für Biologie und Biotechnologie |
| Licence (English): |  Creative Commons - CC BY 4.0 - Attribution 4.0 International |
