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Dynamics driving function - New insights from electron transferring flavoproteins and partner complexes
Abstract
Electron transferring flavoproteins (ETFs) are soluble heterodimeric FAD-containing proteins that function primarily as soluble electron carriers between various flavoprotein dehydrogenases. ETF is positioned at a key metabolic branch point, responsible for transferring electrons from up to 10 primary dehydrogenases to the membrane-bound respiratory chain. Clinical mutations of ETF result in the often fatal disease glutaric aciduria type II. Structural and biophysical studies of ETF in complex with partner proteins have shown that ETF partitions the functions of partner binding and electron transfer between (a) a 'recognition loop', which acts as a static anchor at the ETF-partner interface, and (b) a highly mobile redox-active FAD domain. Together, this enables the FAD domain of ETF to sample a range of conformations, some compatible with fast interprotein electron transfer. This 'conformational sampling' enables ETF to recognize structurally distinct partners, whilst also maintaining a degree of specificity. Complex formation triggers mobility of the FAD domain, an 'induced disorder' mechanism contrasting with the more generally accepted models of protein-protein interaction by induced fit mechanisms. We discuss the implications of the highly dynamic nature of ETFs in biological interprotein electron transfer. ETF complexes point to mechanisms of electron transfer in which 'dynamics drive function', a feature that is probably widespread in biology given the modular assembly and flexible nature of biological electron transfer systems.
... In the 'closed' or 'B-like' conformation (bifurcating, vide infra), the FAD is partially occluded in the interface between the head and the base. Alternation between conformations is believed to be integral to ETF's catalytic cycle (13,14) and may gate electron transfer important to the efficiency of electron bifurcation. Although ETF is made up of three domains, domain II.A from EtfA moves relative to the other two (12,13) so the structure is often discussed in terms of two structural units, the larger of which is comprised of domains I.A and III.B. ...
... Thus a complex between ET flavin of one ETF and Bf flavin from another ETF is another possible explanation for the CT band at 726 nm, and would be consistent with the concentration dependence of 8AF formation and growth of 726 nm band (SI Figure S4). In the open conformation, the ET flavin is exposed on the surface of the ETF and the Bf flavin's xylene ring also protrudes from the protein (13,14,21,22). Thus, an interaction between two ETFs consistent with our concentration dependence could possibly explain the 726 nm band in terms of Bf-OX of one ETF making contact with 8AF-HQ in the ET site of another ETF (and vice-versa). ...
... On mechanistic grounds, we remain intrigued by the original proposal that a conformational change allows the ET flavin to make contact with the Bf flavin in the same ETF (36). This is supported by the known ability of ETF's head domain to rotate and move the ET flavin relative to the J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Bf flavin (13,14). Since no conformation has yet been observed experimentally that brings the two flavins of ETF close enough for direct electron transfer (21), the state in which this occurs must be short-lived and/or relatively unstable. ...
From the outset, canonical electron transfer flavoproteins (ETFs) earned a reputation for containing modified flavin. We now show that modification occurs in the recently recognized bifurcating (Bf) ETFs as well. In Bf ETFs, the 'electron transfer' (ET) flavin mediates single electron transfer via a stable anionic semiquinone state, akin to the FAD of canonical ETFs, whereas a second flavin mediates bifurcation (Bf FAD). We demonstrate that the ET FAD undergoes transformation to two different modified flavins by a sequence of protein-catalyzed reactions that occurs specifically in the ET site, when the enzyme is maintained at pH 9 in an amine-based buffer. Our optical and mass spectrometric characterizations identify 8-formyl flavin (8fF) early in the process and 8-amino flavins (8AFs) at later times. The latter have not previously been documented in an ETF to our knowledge. Mass spectrometry of flavin products formed in Tris or bis-tris-aminopropane (BTP) solutions demonstrates that the source of the amine adduct is the buffer. Stepwise reduction of the 8AF demonstrates that it can explain a charge transfer band observed near 726 nm in Bf ETF, as a complex involving the hydroquinone state of the 8AF in the ET site with the oxidized state of unmodified flavin in the Bf site. This supports the possibility that Bf ETF can populate a conformation enabling direct electron transfer between its two flavins, as has been proposed for cofactors brought together in complexes between ETF and its partner proteins.
... The EtfA monomer includes domains I and II while domain III derives from the EtfB monomer. Domain II has been shown to reorient by some 80 relative to the base comprised of domains I and III (1,2), and this conformational change has been proposed to gate electron transfer between the flavins of Bf ETF in the course of turnover ( Fig. S1 and (3, 4)). ...
... These long-range effects raise the possibility of conformational coupling. Indeed, a remarkable 80 rotation of domain II relative to the domain I⋅III base has been documented crystallographically and is proposed to gate electron transfer in Bf ETFs (3,4) and engage partner proteins (1). With this in mind, we discuss a mechanism suggested by our finding that mutation of Arg-165 appears to abrogate binding not only of FAD, but even AMP in the Bf site. ...
... The ET flavin's responsiveness to substitutions in either site, including the published T94,97A double substitution, can be rationalized as a consequence of the ET flavin being bound to a mobile head domain that brings the ET flavin close to the base domain in one conformation ("closed" or B-like), but exposes it more in another ("open" or D, Fig. S1) (1,4). Thus, the environment of the ET flavin is expected to be affected not only by perturbations that alter the local environment, but also by perturbations of the conformational equilibrium. ...
Bifurcating electron transfer flavoproteins (Bf ETFs) are important redox enzymes that contain two flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) cofactors, with contrasting reactivities and complementary roles in electron bifurcation. However, for both the 'electron transfer' (ET) and the 'bifurcating' (Bf) FADs, the only charged amino acid within 5 Å of the flavin is a conserved arginine (Arg) residue. To understand how the two sites produce different reactivities utilizing the same residue, we investigated the consequences of replacing each of the Arg residues with lysine, glutamine, histidine, or alanine. We show that absence of a positive charge in the ET site diminishes accumulation of the anionic semiquinone (ASQ) that enables the ET flavin to act as a single electron carrier, due to depression of the oxidized vs. ASQ reduction midpoint potential, E°OX/ASQ. Perturbation of the ET site also affected the remote Bf site, whereas abrogation of Bf FAD binding caused chemical modification of the ET flavin. In the Bf site, removal of the positive charge impaired binding of FAD or AMP, resulting in unstable protein. Based on pH dependence, we propose that the Bf site Arg interacts with the phosphate(s) of Bf FAD or AMP, bridging the domain interface via a conserved peptide loop ('zipper') and favoring nucleotide binding. We further propose a model that rationalizes conservation of the Bf site Arg even in non-Bf ETFs, as well as AMP's stabilizing role in the latter, and provides a mechanism for coupling Bf flavin redox changes to domain-scale motion.
... ETFs orthologues are found in all kingdoms of life, and belong to a family of α/β-heterodimeric FAD-containing proteins, which participate in electron transfer reactions in a variety of metabolic pathways (Finocchiaro et al., 1988;Tsai and Saier, 1995;O'Neill et al., 1998). Based on sequence homology and functional types, the members of this family can be clustered in three different groups, Group I which comprises mammalian and also a few bacterial ETFs, group II that contains proteins from nitrogen-fixing and diazotrophic bacteria and group III, which includes two putative proteins, YaaQ and YaaR, in Escherichia coli (Toogood et al., 2007). Group I ETFs are usually physiological electron acceptors of several dehydrogenases, and electrons flow to a membranebound ETF:ubiquinone oxidoreductase (ETF:QO). ...
... (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) partner complexes it was observed that ETF presents always a recognition loop that interacts with sequence-wise distinct, but structurally equivalent hydrophobic patches (Toogood et al., 2007). Also, in the different crystal structures the flavin domain in the complex has low electron density map, indicating that the flavin moiety is highly dynamic and capable of sampling different positions. ...
... Also, in the different crystal structures the flavin domain in the complex has low electron density map, indicating that the flavin moiety is highly dynamic and capable of sampling different positions. After recognition of the hydrophobic patch, the flavin domain is promiscuous in searching for transfer-competent states that place the redox cofactors in the most adequate position for the different substrates (Toogood et al., 2007). These characteristics associated with the protein:protein interactions are critical to understand why ETF can serve as electron acceptor for diverse dehydrogenases. ...
Electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) is an enzyme with orthologs from bacteria to humans. Human ETF is nuclear encoded by two separate genes, ETFA and ETFB, respectively. After translation, the two subunits are imported to the mitochondrial matrix space and assemble into a heterodimer containing one FAD and one AMP as cofactors. ETF functions as a hub taking up electrons from at least 14 flavoenzymes, feeding them into the respiratory chain. This represents a major source of reducing power for the electron transport chain from fatty acid oxidation and amino acid degradation. Transfer of electrons from the donor enzymes to ETF occurs by direct transfer between the enzyme bound flavins, a process that is tightly regulated by the polypeptide chain and by protein:protein interactions. ETF, in turn relays electrons to the iron sulfur cluster of the inner membrane protein ETF:QO, from where they travel via the FAD in ETF:QO to ubiquinone, entering the respiratory chain at the level of complex III. ETF recognizes its dehydrogenase partners via a recognition loop that anchors the protein on its partner followed by dynamic movements of the ETF flavin domain that bring redox cofactors in close proximity, thus promoting electron transfer. Genetic mutations in the ETFA or ETFB genes cause the Mendelian disorder multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MADD; OMIM #231680). We here review the knowledge on human ETF and investigations of the effects of disease-associated missense mutations in this protein that have promoted the understanding of the essential role that ETF plays in cellular metabolism and human disease.
... The domains are flanked on both sides by an antiparallel -sheet consisting of four strands, with three strands from one domain and one strand from the other domain. Despite their common folds, domains I and III lack sequence similarity, which was also observed in ETFs from humans (30) and other organisms (32,33). As in other ETF structures, domain I is built by the N-terminal portion of the ␣ subunit of ETF Gm5 , while domain III consists mainly of the  subunit. ...
... The biochemical properties of the purified proteins ETF Gm5 and ETF Dt1 are similar to those of ETF Aa (this study) but also to those of the previously characterized paralogue ETF Gm4 (26) and many other ETF species from aerobic proteobacteria or mitochondria (33). All of these proteins contain only one FAD cofactor and an additional bound AMP as a second cofactor per heterodimer. ...
... Moreover, the biochemical and spectroscopic properties of ETF Gm5 and ETF Dt1 were highly similar to those of other characterized ETF species. In particular, the UV-Vis spectra of ETF Gm5 and ETF Gm4 exhibited a sequential one-electron conversion to FADH Ϫ via a half-reduced anionic flavin semiquinone upon stepwise chemical reduction with dithionite ( Fig. 2B), whereas both proteins were simultaneously reduced by two electrons (at least predominantly, with only traces of visible semiquinones) by the natural reductants benzylsuccinyl-CoA or glutaryl-CoA with the respective dehydrogenases ( Fig. 3) (26,33). In contrast, the FAD cofactor of BbsG is reduced or reoxidized without a detectable semiquinone intermediate with either benzylsuccinyl-CoA or dithionite (16). ...
This study documents the involvement of ETF in anaerobic toluene metabolism as the physiological electron acceptor for benzylsuccinyl-CoA dehydrogenase. While toluene-degrading denitrifying proteobacteria use a common ETF species, which is also used for other β-oxidation pathways, obligately anaerobic sulfate- or ferric-iron-reducing bacteria use specialized ETF paralogues for toluene degradation. Based on the structure and sequence conservation of these ETFs, they form a new clade that is only remotely related to the previously characterized members of the ETF family. An exhaustive analysis of the available sequences indicated that the protein family consists of several closely related clades of proven or potential electron-bifurcating ETF species and many deeply branching nonbifurcating clades, which either follow the host phylogeny or are affiliated according to functional criteria.
... Similar kinetic properties have previously been found in classical acyl-CoA dehydrogenases, which are arguably among the best characterized electron donors of many electron transferring flavoproteins [35,36]. These enzymes have been shown to tightly bind the reaction products in the active site in order to shift the chemical equilibrium toward substrate oxidation [35,[37][38][39], which is indicated by the formation of a charge-transfer complex between the protein-bound reduced FAD and the reaction products. The fact that reduction of the FAD-cofactor in hD2HGDH also coincides with a significant increase in longer-wavelength absorption (Fig. 3A), suggests that hD2HGDH employs a similar strategy to make substrate conversion more efficient. ...
... The steady-state parameters for the electron transfer were determined in a coupled assay involving 1 mM D-2-hydroxyglutarate, 100 nM hD2HGDH, 125 μM DCPIP and varying concentrations of hETF (0.25 to 17.5 μM) in 50 mM HEPES, 150 mM NaCl pH 7. By monitoring the decrease in absorbance of DCPIP at 600 nm for 120 s, initial rates could be obtained and plotted as function of the hETF concentrations to yield the kinetic parameters k catapp and K Mapp . [41,[44][45][46], however, in the case of classical client dehydrogenases, e.g. the family of acyl-CoA dehydrogenases, a similar concept of productcontrolled oxygen reactivity has already been described [37][38][39]. In these enzymes, product binding leads to an increased hydrophobicity in the active site, thereby impeding the stabilization of superoxide species required for the reoxidation of reduced flavin cofactors by molecular oxygen [47]. ...
... This behavior is quite similar to the interaction of hETF with other clients such as the acyl-CoA dehydrogenases [39,[48][49][50]. Like hD2HGDH, substrate reduced acyl-CoA dehydrogenases exhibit rather poor reactivity toward molecular oxygen, but undergo rapid one-electron transfer reactions with hETF [38,48]. ...
D-2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria is a neurometabolic disorder, characterized by the accumulation of D-2-hydroxyglutarate (D-2HG) in human mitochondria. Increased levels of D-2HG are detected in humans exhibiting point mutations in the genes encoding isocitrate dehydrogenase, citrate carrier, the electron transferring flavoprotein (ETF) and its downstream electron acceptor ETF-ubiquinone oxidoreductase or D-2-hydroxyglutarate dehydrogenase (hD2HGDH). However, while the pathogenicity of several amino acid replacements in the former four proteins has been studied extensively, not much is known about the effect of certain point mutations on the biochemical properties of hD2HGDH.
Therefore, we recombinantly produced wild type hD2HGDH as well as two recently identified disease-related variants (hD2HGDH-I147S and -V444A) and performed their detailed biochemical characterization. We could show that hD2HGDH is a FAD dependent protein, which is able to catalyze the oxidation of D-2HG and D-lactate to α-ketoglutarate and pyruvate, respectively. The two variants were obtained as apo-proteins and were thus catalytically inactive. The addition of FAD failed to restore enzymatic activity of the variants, indicating that the cofactor binding site is compromised by the single amino acid replacements. Further analyses revealed that both variants form aggregates that are apparently unable to bind the FAD cofactor.
Since, D-2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria may also result from a loss of function of either the ETF or its downstream electron acceptor ETF-ubiquinone oxidoreductase, ETF may serve as the cognate electron acceptor of reduced hD2HGDH. Here, we show that hD2HGDH directly reduces recombinant human ETF, thus establishing a metabolic link between the oxidation of D-2-hydroxyglutarate and the mitochondrial electron transport chain.
... In 1956, Crane and coworkers identified the electron transferring ability of an unknown flavoprotein from the pig liver, which they named electron-transferring flavoprotein (ETF) (1). Since then, numerous studies on ETF have been reported and orthologs have been described in all kingdoms of life (2). The heterodimeric human electron-transferring flavoprotein (hETF) serves as a central electron carrier in the mitochondrial matrix. ...
... The heterodimeric human electron-transferring flavoprotein (hETF) serves as a central electron carrier in the mitochondrial matrix. hETF accepts electrons from thirteen flavin dehydrogenases and transfers them to the human ETF-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (hETF-QO), an iron-sulfur cluster containing flavoprotein bound to the inner mitochondrial membrane that feeds these electrons into the mitochondrial respiratory chain (2,3). The flavin dehydrogenases are either part of βoxidation, amino acid or choline degradation, as shown in Scheme 1. ...
... Interestingly, these dehydrogenases are structurally distinct with dehydrogenases operating either in the degradation of fatty or amino acids adopting the "acyl-CoA dehydrogenase"-fold, whereas both dimethylglycine dehydrogenase (hDMGDH) and sarcosine dehydrogenase (hSARDH) are part of the amine oxidase protein family. Apparently, hETF has evolved a flexible mechanism to interact with various dehydrogenases as well as with hETF-QO (2). The protein exists in a closed, non-productive, and in an open, productive conformation with a highly flexible upper protein domain (Scheme 1). ...
The heterodimeric human electron transferring flavoprotein (hETF) transfers electrons from at least thirteen different flavin dehydrogenases to the mitochondrial respiratory chain through a non-covalently bound FAD cofactor. Here, we describe the discovery of an irreversible and pH-dependent oxidation of the 8α-methyl group to 8-formyl-FAD (8f-FAD), which represents a unique chemical modification of a flavin cofactor in the human flavoproteome. Furthermore, a set of hETF variants revealed that several conserved amino acid residues in the FAD binding pocket of electron transferring flavoproteins are required for the conversion to the formyl group. Two of the variants generated in our study, namely αR249C and αT266M, cause glutaric aciduria type II (GAII), a severe inherited disease. Both of the variants showed impaired formation of 8f-FAD shedding new light on the potential molecular cause of disease development. Interestingly, the conversion of FAD to 8f-FAD yields a very stable flavin semiquinone that exhibited slightly lower rates of electron transfer in an artificial assay system than hETF containing FAD. On the other hand, the formation of 8f-FAD enhanced the affinity to human dimethylglycine dehydrogenase five-fold, indicating that formation of 8f-FAD modulates the interaction of hETF with client enzymes in the mitochondrial matrix. Thus, we hypothesize that the FAD cofactor bound to hETF is subject to oxidation in the alkaline (pH = 8) environment of the mitochondrial matrix, which may modulate electron transport between client dehydrogenases and the respiratory chain. This discovery challenges current concepts of electron transfer processes in mitochondria.
... The EtfAB heterodimer is built up of an EtfAB base composed of the N-terminal segments of EtfA and EtfB (termed domains I and III, respectively) and a module termed domain II or EtfAB shuttle domain (due to its shuttling role between two sites far away from each other) formed by the tightly associated C-terminal segment of EtfA and the C-terminal arm of EtfB (Chowdhury et al., 2014). Related structures were reported for non-bifurcating EtfAB and EtfAB-oxidoreductase complexes (Leys et al., 2003;Roberts et al., 1996;Toogood et al., 2007;Vogt et al., 2019). Both the rigid oxidoreductase core and EtfAB base platforms and the mobile EtfAB shuttle domain carry one FAD termed d-FAD, b-FAD and a-FAD. ...
... The oscillation of the EtfAB shuttle domain between the D-and B-states is realized by a fixed interface between the rigid Ldh core and EtfAB base platforms and a variable interface either between the EtfAB shuttle domain and Ldh or between the EtfAB shuttle domain and the EtfAB base ( Figure 5). The fixed interface is constituted by the small segment 185-193 of EtfB composed of an elongated loop and a short helix which is well conserved in bifurcating and non-bifurcating EtfBs and referred to as recognition loop (Figure 5-figure supplement 1A; Toogood et al., 2007). The variable interface in the D-state is centered around a-FAD and d-FAD. ...
Lactate oxidation with NAD+ as electron acceptor is a highly endergonic reaction. Some anaerobic bacteria overcome the energetic hurdle by flavin-based electron bifurcation/confurcation (FBEB/FBEC) using a lactate dehydrogenase (Ldh) in concert with the electron-transferring proteins EtfA and EtfB. The electron cryo-microscopically characterized (Ldh-EtfAB)2 complex of Acetobacterium woodii at 2.43 Å resolution consists of a mobile EtfAB shuttle domain located between the rigid central Ldh and the peripheral EtfAB base units. The FADs of Ldh and the EtfAB shuttle domain contact each other thereby forming the D (dehydrogenation-connected) state. The intermediary Glu37 and Glu139 may harmonize the redox potentials between the FADs and the pyruvate/lactate pair crucial for FBEC. By integrating Alphafold2 calculations a plausible novel B (bifurcation-connected) state was obtained allowing electron transfer between the EtfAB base and shuttle FADs. Kinetic analysis of enzyme variants suggests a correlation between NAD+ binding site and D-to-B-state transition implicating a 75° rotation of the EtfAB shuttle domain. The FBEC inactivity when truncating the ferredoxin domain of EtfA substantiates its role as redox relay. Lactate oxidation in Ldh is assisted by the catalytic base His423 and a metal center. On this basis, a comprehensive catalytic mechanism of the FBEC process was proposed.
... ETFβ-KMT (METTL20)-mediated lysine methylation of the β-subunit of electron transfer flavoprotein Electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) is an α/β heterodimer that localizes to the mitochondrial matrix and acts as a mobile carrier of electrons from several FAD-containing dehydrogenases to ETF:quinone oxidoreductase, which mediates reduction of the mitochondrial ubiquinone pool (reviewed in (56)). These ETF-dependent dehydrogenases mediate e.g. ...
... Interestingly, methylation of CS by CS-KMT appeared to be particularly sensitive to inhibition by AdoHcy, potentially representing a regulatory mechanism whereby changes in the AdoMet/AdoHcy ratio may modulate CS activity, which was found to be diminished by methylation (68). Also ETFβ methylation shows potential links to onecarbon metabolism, since ETF-dependent dehydrogenases are involved in the metabolism of the 1C metabolites sarcosine and dimethylglycine (56). ...
Many proteins are modified by post-translational methylation, introduced by a number of methyltransferases (MTases). Protein methylation plays important roles in modulating protein function, and thus in optimizing and regulating cellular and physiological processes. Research has mainly focused on nuclear and cytosolic protein methylation, but it has been known for many years that also mitochondrial proteins are methylated. During the last decade, significant progress has been made on identifying the MTases responsible for mitochondrial protein methylation and addressing its functional significance. In particular, several novel human MTases have been uncovered that methylate lysine, arginine, histidine, and glutamine residues in various mitochondrial substrates. Several of these substrates are key components of the bioenergetics machinery, e.g. respiratory Complex I, citrate synthase and the ATP synthase. In the present review we report the status of the field of mitochondrial protein methylation, with a particular emphasis on recently discovered human MTases. We also discuss evolutionary aspects and functional significance of mitochondrial protein methylation, and present an outlook for this emergent research field.
... Domain III of EtfB characterized by a distinct αβ structure carries the bifurcating FAD ( Fig. 2A) to which the medium-potential two-electron donor NADH is attached for hydride transfer [28]. It is worth to mention that EtfAB complexes lacking the bifurcating FAD (replaced by AMP) are also used in biology to shuttle electrons from diverse dehydrogenases to the membrane-bound respiratory chain via the FAD bound to domain II [39]. The bNfn class consists of the NfnAB complex [40] and perhaps the DsrAB (sulfite reductase)/NfnB complex (Table 1) [41]. ...
... the capability to neutralize a negative charge at the N1C2 = O site (Fig. 5B). Several site-directed mutagenesis studies on the non-bifurcating EtfAB with a similar domain II FAD binding mode essentially confirmed the relationship between the flavin environment and the reduction potential [39,78,79]. FAD• − of EtfA that presumably dominates in the A. fermentans cell under the prevailing reducing conditions [29] appears also to influence the physical properties of the bifurcating FAD [80]. ...
The discovery of a new energy-coupling mechanism termed flavin-based electron bifurcation (FBEB) in 2008 revealed a novel field of application for flavins in biology. The key component is the bifurcating flavin endowed with strongly inverted one-electron reduction potentials (FAD/FAD•– ≪ FAD•–/FADH–) that cooperatively transfers in its reduced state one low and one high-energy electron into different directions and thereby drives an endergonic with an exergonic reduction reaction. As energy splitting at the bifurcating flavin apparently implicates one-electron chemistry, the FBEB machinery has to incorporate prior to and behind the central bifurcating flavin 2e-to-1e and 1e-to-2e switches, frequently also flavins, for oxidizing variable medium-potential two-electron donating substrates and for reducing high-potential two-electron accepting substrates. The one-electron carriers ferredoxin or flavodoxin serve as low-potential (high-energy) electron acceptors, which power endergonic processes almost exclusively in obligate anaerobic microorganisms to increase the efficiency of their energy metabolism. In this review, we outline the global organization of FBEB enzymes, the functions of the flavins therein and the surrounding of the isoalloxazine rings by which their reduction potentials are specifically adjusted in a finely tuned energy landscape.
... As Dld2 very much behaves like acyl-CoA dehydrogenases, it is tempting to speculate that also the mechanism of electron transfer to ETF is similar. In acyl-CoA dehydrogenases the rapid reoxidation of the enzyme by hETF [33] was assumed to be promoted by a lower pK a value of the reduced FAD cofactor in the product complex [37][38][39]. In addition, tight product binding, as discussed above, shifts the equilibrium toward the reduced FAD cofactor and therefore electron transfer to ETF is more likely to occur prior to product release [37][38][39]. ...
... In acyl-CoA dehydrogenases the rapid reoxidation of the enzyme by hETF [33] was assumed to be promoted by a lower pK a value of the reduced FAD cofactor in the product complex [37][38][39]. In addition, tight product binding, as discussed above, shifts the equilibrium toward the reduced FAD cofactor and therefore electron transfer to ETF is more likely to occur prior to product release [37][38][39]. Since Dld2 and the acyl-CoA dehydrogenases are structurally very distinct, p-cresol methylhydroxylase-(PCMH-) fold vs acyl-CoA dehydrogenase fold, and the chemical properties of their respective reaction products are rather different, further studies will be required to clearly resolve the exact mechanism of electron transfer from substrate-reduced Dld2 to yETF. ...
Electron transferring flavoproteins (ETFs) have been found in all kingdoms of life, mostly assisting in shuttling electrons to the respiratory chain for ATP production. While the human (h) ETF has been studied in great detail, very little is known about the biochemical properties of the homologous protein in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yETF). In view of the absence of client dehydrogenases, e.g. the acyl‐CoA dehydrogenases involved in β‐oxidation of fatty acids, D‐lactate dehydrogenase 2 (Dld2) appeared to be the only relevant enzyme that is serviced by yETF for electron transfer to the mitochondrial electron transport chain. However, this hypothesis was never tested experimentally. Here, we report the biochemical properties of yETF and Dld2 as well as the electron transfer reaction between the two proteins. Our study revealed that Dld2 oxidizes D‐α‐hydroxyglutarate more efficiently than D‐lactate exhibiting kcatapp/KMapp values of 1,200 ± 300 M−1 s−1 and 11 ± 2 M−1 s−1, respectively. As expected, substrate‐reduced Dld2 very slowly reacted with oxygen or the artificial electron acceptor 2,6‐dichlorophenol indophenol (DCPIP). However, photoreduced Dld2 was rapidly re‐oxidized by oxygen, suggesting that the reaction products, i.e. α‐ketoglutarate and pyruvate, “lock” the reduced enzyme in an unreactive state. Interestingly, however, we could demonstrate that substrate‐reduced Dld2 rapidly transfers electrons to yETF. Therefore, we conclude that formation of a product‐reduced Dld2 complex suppresses electron transfer to dioxygen but favors the rapid reduction of yETF, thus preventing the loss of electrons and the generation of reactive oxygen species. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... Bifurcating ETFs are the best-studied bifurcating enzymes and they form a subset of the large and well-known family of ETFs, which are found in all domains of life (13)(14)(15). While the non-bifurcating ETFs contain one FAD and one AMP per AB heterodimer, the bifurcating EtfABs contain two FAD molecules, with the additional FAD replacing the AMP of the canonical ETF (13,16,17). ...
... Thus, the FAD unique to bifurcating ETFs is denoted the 'bifurcating FAD' or BF-FAD and this is present in the Asubunit of Pae EtfABCX (Figure 1). The electron-transferring FAD or ET-FAD is the FAD that is shared with the structurally-homologous non-bifurcating ETFs that appear to specialize in electron transfer between partner proteins (13,14,28). By homology, the ET-FAD in Pae EtfABCX is located in the B subunit, while the FAD in the C subunit is referred to as the QR-FAD as it is likely the site of quinone reduction (Figure 1). ...
Electron bifurcation plays a key role in anaerobic energy metabolism but it is a relatively new discovery and only limited mechanistic information is available on the diverse enzymes that employ it. Herein, we focused on the bifurcating electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrobaculum aerophilum. The EtfABCX enzyme complex couples NADH oxidation to the endergonic reduction of ferredoxin and exergonic reduction of menaquinone. We developed a model for the enzyme structure by using non-denaturing MS, cross-linking and homology modeling in which EtfA, B, and C each contained FAD, whereas EtfX contained two [4Fe-4S] clusters. On the basis of analyses using transient absorption, EPR and optical titrations with NADH or inorganic reductants with and without NAD⁺, we propose a catalytic cycle involving formation of an intermediary NAD⁺-bound complex. A charge transfer signal revealed an intriguing interplay of flavin semiquinones and a protein conformational change that gated electron transfer between the low- and high-potential pathways. We found that despite a common bifurcating flavin site, the proposed EtfABCX catalytic cycle is distinct from that of the genetically-unrelated bifurcating NADH-dependent ferredoxin NADP⁺ oxidoreductase (NfnI). The two enzymes particularly differed in the role of NAD⁺, the resting and bifurcating-ready states of the enzymes, how electron flow is gated, and in the two two-electron cycles constituting the overall four-electron reaction. We conclude that P. aerophilum EtfABCX provides a model catalytic mechanism that builds on and extends previous studies of related bifurcating ETF’s and can be applied to the large bifurcating ETF family.
... Contributions of H290 and Y279 to stability and FAD binding While the possible signicance of H290 has been noted before, substitutions at this position have not previously been published, to our knowledge. 7, 56 We succeeded in replacing it by simultaneously replacing an additional participant in the Hbond chain. The H290F substitution appears in several naturally occurring ETFs, and in them we noted the almost complete conservation of I in the position of the tyrosine (Y279). ...
Electron bifurcation produces high-energy products based on less energetic reagents. This feat enables biological systems to exploit abundant mediocre fuel to drive vital but demanding reactions, including nitrogen fixation and CO2 capture. Thus, there is great interest in understanding principles that can be portable to man-made devices. Bifurcating electron transfer flavoproteins (Bf ETFs) employ two flavins with contrasting reactivities to acquire pairs of electrons from a modest reductant, NADH. The bifurcating flavin then dispatches the electrons individually to a high and a low reduction midpoint potential (E°) acceptor, the latter of which captures most of the energy. Maximum efficiency requires that only one electron accesses the exergonic path that will ‘pay for’ the production of the low-E° product. It is therefore critical that one of the flavins, the ‘electron transfer’ (ET) flavin, is tuned to execute single-electron (1e⁻) chemistry only. To learn how, and extract fundamental principles, we systematically altered interactions with the ET-flavin O2 position. Removal of a single hydrogen bond (H-bond) disfavored the formation of the flavin anionic semiquinone (ASQ) relative to the oxidized (OX) state, lowering by 150 mV and retuning the flavin's tendency for 1e⁻vs. 2e⁻ reactivity. This was achieved by replacing conserved His 290 with Phe, while also replacing the supporting Tyr 279 with Ile. Although this variant binds oxidized FADs at 90% the WT level, the ASQ state of the ET-flavin is not stable in the absence of H290's H-bond, and dissociates, in contrast to the WT. Removal of this H-bond also altered the ET-flavin's covalent chemistry. While the WT ETF accumulates modified flavins whose formation is believed to rely on an anionic paraquinone methide intermediate, the FADs of the H-bond lacking variant remain unchanged over weeks. Hence the variant that destabilizes the anionic semiquinone also suppresses the anionic intermediate in flavin modification, verifying electronic similarities between these two species. These correlations suggest that the H-bond that stabilizes the crucial flavin ASQ also promotes flavin modification. The two effects may indeed be inseparable, as a Jekyll and Hydrogen bond.
... In support of such a motion, we observed a shift in the conformational equilibrium of EtfAB in the presence of excess NADH, with 85% of the protein in solution adopting a B-like conformation where Domain II rotates and moves toward BF-FAD ( Figures 3A and 5). Conformational changes of this kind have been demonstrated crystallographically in both nonbifurcating 46 and bifurcating ETFs 11 and have been inferred in accounting for the uncrossing of the BF-FAD's half-potentials seen in the course of reductive half-reaction studies with the related Megasphaera elsdenii and P. aerophilum EtfABs. 47 Structurally probing the next sequential step in the catalytic cycle (Figure 7, Step 3) is complicated by the involvement of Fd because its interactions with EtfABCX are thought to be transient. ...
Electron bifurcation (BF) is an evolutionarily ancient energy coupling mechanism in anaerobes, whose associated enzymatic machinery remains enigmatic. In BF-flavoenzymes, a chemically high-potential electron forms in a thermodynamically favorable fashion by simultaneously dropping the potential of a second electron before its donation to physiological acceptors. The cryo-EM and spectroscopic analyses of the BF-enzyme Fix/EtfABCX from Thermotoga maritima suggest that the BF-site contains a special flavin-adenine dinucleotide and, upon its reduction with NADH, a low-potential electron transfers to ferredoxin and a high-potential electron reduces menaquinone. The transfer of energy from high-energy intermediates must be carefully orchestrated conformationally to avoid equilibration. Herein, anaerobic size exclusion-coupled small-angle X-ray scattering (SEC-SAXS) shows that the Fix/EtfAB heterodimer subcomplex, which houses BF- and electron transfer (ET)-flavins, exists in a conformational equilibrium of compacted and extended states between flavin-binding domains, the abundance of which is impacted by reduction and NAD(H) binding. The conformations identify dynamics associated with the T. maritima enzyme and also recapitulate states identified in static structures of homologous BF-flavoenzymes. Reduction of Fix/EtfABCX’s flavins alone is insufficient to elicit domain movements conducive to ET but requires a structural “trigger” induced by NAD(H) binding. Models show that Fix/EtfABCX’s superdimer exists in a combination of states with respect to its BF-subcomplexes, suggesting a cooperative mechanism between supermonomers for optimizing catalysis. The correlation of conformational states with pathway steps suggests a structural means with which Fix/EtfABCX may progress through its catalytic cycle. Collectively, these observations provide a structural framework for tracing Fix/EtfABCX’s catalysis.
... Moreover, the expression of electron transfer flavoprotein and rubrerythrin was reduced in the GIT microbiome of mice suffering from pneumococcal pneumonia. Since electron transfer flavoproteins (ETFs) play a central role in transferring electrons from dehydrogenases to the membrane-bound respiratory-chain (80), reduction of ETFs is in accordance with the decreased expression of the ATPase. Our data showed that rubrerythrin, a protein protecting against oxygen-dependent killing by pathogenic anaerobic organisms (81), was mainly produced by members of the phylum Firmicutes. ...
With 2.56 million deaths worldwide annually, pneumonia is one of the leading causes of death. The most frequent causative pathogens are Streptococcus pneumoniae and influenza A virus. Lately, the interaction between the pathogens, the host, and its microbiome have gained more attention. The microbiome is known to promote the immune response toward pathogens; however, our knowledge on how infections affect the microbiome is still scarce. Here, the impact of colonization and infection with S. pneumoniae and influenza A virus on the structure and function of the respiratory and gastrointestinal microbiomes of mice was investigated. Using a meta-omics approach, we identified specific differences between the bacterial and viral infection. Pneumococcal colonization had minor effects on the taxonomic composition of the respiratory microbiome, while acute infections caused decreased microbial complexity. In contrast, richness was unaffected following H1N1 infection. Within the gastrointestinal microbiome, we found exclusive changes in structure and function, depending on the pathogen. While pneumococcal colonization had no effects on taxonomic composition of the gastrointestinal microbiome, increased abundance of Akkermansiaceae and Spirochaetaceae as well as decreased amounts of Clostridiaceae were exclusively found during invasive S. pneumoniae infection. The presence of Staphylococcaceae was specific for viral pneumonia. Investigation of the intestinal microbiomés functional composition revealed reduced expression of flagellin and rubrerythrin and increased levels of ATPase during pneumococcal infection, while increased amounts of acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) acetyltransferase and enoyl-CoA transferase were unique after H1N1 infection. In conclusion, identification of specific taxonomic and functional profiles of the respiratory and gastrointestinal microbiome allowed the discrimination between bacterial and viral pneumonia. IMPORTANCE Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Here, we compared the impact of bacterial- and viral-induced pneumonia on the respiratory and gastrointestinal microbiome. Using a meta-omics approach, we identified specific profiles that allow discrimination between bacterial and viral causative.
... Electron transfer flavoprotein is a highly conserved heterodimeric protein localized in the mitochondrial matrix and required for normal mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation and amino acid metabolism (Toogood et al. 2007). It functions as an electron transfer hub, interacting with other mitochondrial flavoenzymes and transferring electrons along the respiratory chain (Henriques et al. 2021). ...
In adult mammals, spontaneous repair after spinal cord injury (SCI) is severely limited. By contrast, teleost fish successfully regenerate injured axons and produce new neurons from adult neural stem cells after SCI. The molecular mechanisms underlying this high regenerative capacity are largely unknown. The present study addresses this gap by examining the temporal dynamics of proteome changes in response to SCI in the brown ghost knifefish (Apteronotus leptorhynchus). Two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D DIGE) was combined with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) to collect data during early (1 day), mid (10 days), and late (30 days) phases of regeneration following caudal amputation SCI. Forty-two unique proteins with significant differences in abundance between injured and intact control samples were identified. Correlation analysis uncovered six clusters of spots with similar expression patterns over time and strong conditional dependences, typically within functional families or between isoforms. Significantly regulated proteins were associated with axon development and regeneration; proliferation and morphogenesis; neuronal differentiation and re-establishment of neural connections; promotion of neuroprotection, redox homeostasis, and membrane repair; and metabolism or energy supply. Notably, at all three time points examined, significant regulation of proteins involved in inflammatory responses was absent.
... The recent cryoelectron microscopy of the EtfABCX complex from T. maritima (homologous to the P. aerophilum system) suggests that the domain with the ET-FAD is similarly mobile in this system. Such mobility has, in fact, also been observed in nonbifurcating ETFs (20) and appears to be a general property of these systems. Significantly, the C terminus of the BF-FAD-containing EtfB subunit of the bacterial systems (which, somewhat confusingly, corresponds to the EtfA subunit of the archaeal system) loops into the C-terminal domain of EtfA that contains the ET-FAD. ...
The EtfAB components of two bifurcating flavoprotein systems, the crotonyl-CoA-dependent NADH:ferredoxin oxidoreductase from the bacterium Megasphaera elsdenii and the menaquinone-dependent NADH:ferredoxin oxidoreductase from the archaeon Pyrobaculum aerophilum, have been investigated. With both proteins, we find that removal of the electron-transferring FAD moiety from both proteins results in an uncrossing of the reduction potentials of the remaining bifurcating FAD; this significantly stabilizes the otherwise very unstable semiquinone state, which accumulates over the course of reductive titrations with sodium dithionite. Furthermore, reduction of both EtfABs depleted of their electron-transferring FAD by NADH was monophasic with a hyperbolic dependence of reaction rate on the concentration of NADH. On the other hand, NADH reduction of the replete proteins containing the electron-transferring FAD was multiphasic, consisting of a fast phase comparable to that seen with the depleted proteins followed by an intermediate phase that involves significant accumulation of FAD•⁻, again reflecting uncrossing of the half-potentials of the bifurcating FAD. This is then followed by a slow phase that represents the slow reduction of the electron-transferring FAD to FADH⁻, with reduction of the now fully-reoxidized bifurcating FAD by a second equivalent of NADH. We suggest that the crossing and uncrossing of the reduction half-potentials of the bifurcating FAD is due to specific conformational changes that have been structurally characterized.
... When carbohydrate substrates for respiration are limiting under environmental or developmental stress conditions, an alternative metabolic pathway widely present in plants and animals, the electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF)/electron transfer flavoprotein quinone oxidoreductase (ETFQO) system 29 , is involved in protein and lipid catabolism and provides an alternative substrate to feed electrons into mitochondrial electron transport chain [30][31][32] . ETF is a heterodimer composed of two subunits, α and β, and serves as an obligatory electron acceptor for mitochondrial matrix flavoprotein dehydrogenases, including isovalyl coenzyme A dehydrogenase (IVDH) and D-2-hydroxyglutarate dehydrogenase (D2HGDH) [33][34][35] . ...
Nitrogen (N), one of the most important plant nutrients, plays crucial roles in multiple plant developmental processes. Spikelets are the primary sink tissues during reproductive growth, and N deficiency can cause floral abortion. However, the roles of N nutrition in meiosis, the crucial step in plant sexual reproduction, are poorly understood. Here, we identified an N-dependent meiotic entrance mutant with loss of function of ELECTRON TRANSFER FLAVOPROTEIN SUBUNIT β (ETFβ) in rice (Oryza sativa). etfβ displayed meiosis initiation defects, excessive accumulation of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) and decrease in total N contents in spikelets under N starvation, which were rescued by applying excess exogenous inorganic N. Under N starvation, ETFβ, through its involvement in BCAA catabolism, promotes N reutilization and contributes to meeting N demands of spikelets, highlighting the impact of N nutrition on meiosis initiation. We conclude that N nutrition contributes to plant fertility by affecting meiosis initiation.
... Electron transfer flavoprotein subunit alpha (ETEA), NADH dehydrogenase [ubiquinone] 1 alpha subcomplex subunit 8 (Nduf alpha 8), and cytochrome C are all involved in the electron transfer of the respiratory chain. ETEA is responsible for transferring electrons from dehydrogenase to the membrane-bound respiratory chain of some bacteria and mitochondria (Toogood et al. 2007). Both Nduf alpha 8 and cytochrome C are involved in the transfer of electrons to oxygen (Hatefi 1985). ...
Postmortem metabolism in shrimp is an important factor affecting muscle quality during its preservation. Electron beam irradiation (EBI) can effectively kill microorganisms and inactivate enzymes. In this study, the tandem mass tag (TMT) method was used to study the changes in the muscle metabolism of Solenocera melantho postmortem before and after EBI (6 kGy). The TMT method identified a total of 656 proteins, including 120 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) (56 upregulated, 64 downregulated). The analysis of these results showed that EBI can inactivate most enzymes and slow down their corresponding metabolic processes. These results also showed that irradiation can denature some proteins. The study revealed the effects of EBI on the muscle quality of S. melantho at the molecular level.
... Therefore, we manually added ferredoxin to the list of identifiers associated to NADPH. Similarly, the electron transferring-flavoproteins, which are FAD-containing proteins [50], have been linked to the FAD and FADH 2 cofactors. Finally, the last two cases of revised metabolites regarded lack of the oxidation state of a given metabolite that may result in an ambiguity of its identification, such as for the iron element that, usually existing as +2 or +3 cations, is used in Yeast 7 model to just indicate the ferrous ion form, and the usage in Yeast 7 and Yeast 8 models of the generic compound diglyceride for referring, as reported in KEGG COMPOUND database, to the specific chemical entity 1,2-Diacyl-sn-glycerol. ...
Metabolic network models are increasingly being used in health care and industry. As a consequence, many tools have been released to automate their reconstruction process de novo . In order to enable gene deletion simulations and integration of gene expression data, these networks must include gene-protein-reaction (GPR) rules, which describe with a Boolean logic relationships between the gene products (e.g., enzyme isoforms or subunits) associated with the catalysis of a given reaction. Nevertheless, the reconstruction of GPRs still remains a largely manual and time consuming process. Aiming at fully automating the reconstruction process of GPRs for any organism, we propose the open-source python-based framework GPRuler . By mining text and data from 9 different biological databases, GPRuler can reconstruct GPRs starting either from just the name of the target organism or from an existing metabolic model. The performance of the developed tool is evaluated at small-scale level for a manually curated metabolic model, and at genome-scale level for three metabolic models related to Homo sapiens and Saccharomyces cerevisiae organisms. By exploiting these models as benchmarks, the proposed tool shown its ability to reproduce the original GPR rules with a high level of accuracy. In all the tested scenarios, after a manual investigation of the mismatches between the rules proposed by GPRuler and the original ones, the proposed approach revealed to be in many cases more accurate than the original models. By complementing existing tools for metabolic network reconstruction with the possibility to reconstruct GPRs quickly and with a few resources, GPRuler paves the way to the study of context-specific metabolic networks, representing the active portion of the complete network in given conditions, for organisms of industrial or biomedical interest that have not been characterized metabolically yet.
... The transport of electrons to the membrane-bound respiratory chain also involves electron transferring falvoproteins (ETFs) [53]. ETFs are soluble heterodimeric FAD-containing proteins [54] and function as electron carriers between various flavoprotein-containing dehydrogenases. ...
Endovascular repair (EVAR) has become the standard procedure in treating thoracic (TAA) or abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). Not entirely free of complications, a persisting perfusion of the aneurysm after EVAR, called Endoleak (EL), leads to reintervention and risk of secondary rupture. How the aortic wall responds to the implantation of a stentgraft and EL is mostly uncertain. We present a pilot study to identify peptide signatures and gain new insights in pathophysiological alterations of the aortic wall after EVAR using matrix-assisted laser desorption or ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI). In course of or accompanying an open aortic repair, tissue sections from 15 patients (TAA = 5, AAA = 5, EVAR = 5) were collected. Regions of interest (tunica media and tunica adventitia) were defined and univariate (receiver operating characteristic analysis) statistical analysis for subgroup comparison was used. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that MALDI-MSI is feasible to identify discriminatory peptide signatures separating TAA, AAA and EVAR. Decreased intensity distributions for actin, tropomyosin, and troponin after EVAR suggest impaired contractility in vascular smooth muscle cells. Furthermore, inability to provide energy caused by impaired respiratory chain function and continuous degradation of extracellular matrix components (collagen) might support aortic wall destabilization. In case of EL after EVAR, this mechanism may result in a weakened aortic wall with lacking ability to react on reinstating pulsatile blood flow.
... However the modest (four-fold) change in rate argues against a change in mechanism, in favor of more subtle modulation of the process, for example via perturbation of the populations of conformations present in solution. So far, the three conformations captured crystallographically and by cryoelectron microscopy place the two flavins at very different distances from one another, and vary the solvent exposure of the ET-flavin [12,61,62]. Indeed, WT and C174A.L displayed distinct populations of protein conformations in blue native PAGE analysis (Fig. 8C). ...
Electron transfer bifurcation allows production of a strongly reducing carrier at the expense of a weaker one, by redistributing energy among a pair of electrons. Thus, two weakly-reducing electrons from NADH are consumed to produce a strongly reducing ferredoxin or flavodoxin, paid for by reduction of an oxidizing acceptor. The prevailing mechanism calls for participation of a strongly reducing flavin semiquinone which has been difficult to observe with site-certainly in multi-flavin systems. Using blue light (450 nm) to photoexcite the flavins of bifurcating electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF), we demonstrate accumulation of anionic flavin semiquinone in excess of what is observed in equilibrium titrations, and establish its ability to reduce the low-potential electron acceptor benzyl viologen. This must occur at the bifurcating flavin because the midpoint potentials of the electron transfer (ET) flavin are not sufficiently negative. We show that bis-tris propane buffer is an effective electron donor to the flavin photoreduction, but that if the system is prepared with the ET flavin chemically reduced, so that only the bifurcating flavin is oxidized and photochemically active, flavin anionic semiquinone is formed more rapidly. Thus, excited bifurcating flavin is able to draw on an electron stored at the ET flavin. Flavin semiquinone photogenerated at the bifurcation site must therefore be accompanied by additional semiquinone formation by oxidation of the ET flavin. Consistent with the expected instability of bifurcating flavin semiquinone, it subsides immediately upon cessation of illumination. However comparison with yields of semiquinone in equilibrium titrations suggest that during continuous illumination at pH 9 a steady state population of 0.3 equivalents of bifurcating flavin semiquinone accumulates, and then undergoes further photoreduction to the hydroquinone. Although transient, the population of bifurcating flavin semiquinone explains the system's ability to conduct light-driven electron transfer from bis-tris propane to benzyl viologen, in effect trapping energy from light.
... Therefore, we manually enriched the list of identifiers associated to NADPH metabolite with also those coming from adrenal ferredoxin. Similarly, the electron transferring-flavoproteins, which are FAD-containing proteins [36], have been manually linked to the FAD and FADH 2 cofactors. Finally, the last two cases of manual curation regarded situations where the oxidation states of a given metabolite is missing resulting in an ambiguity of its identification, such as for the iron element that usually existing as +2 or +3 cations is used in Yeast 7 model to just indicate the ferrous ion form, and the usage in Yeast 7 and Yeast 8 models of the generic compound diglyceride for referring, as reported in KEGG COMPOUND database, to the specific chemical entity 1,2-Diacyl-sn-glycerol. ...
Background
Metabolic network models are increasingly being used in health care and industry. As a consequence, many tools have been released to automate their reconstruction process de novo . In order to enable gene deletion simulations and integration of gene expression data, these networks must include gene-protein-reaction (GPR) rules, which describe with a Boolean logic relationships between the gene products (e.g., enzyme isoforms or subunits) associated with the catalysis of a given reaction. Nevertheless, the reconstruction of GPRs still remains a largely manual and time consuming process. Aiming at fully automating the reconstruction process of GPRs for any organism, we propose the open-source python-based framework GPRuler .
Results
By mining text and data from 9 different biological databases, GPRuler can reconstruct GPRs starting either from just the name of the target organism or from an existing metabolic model. The performance of the developed tool is evaluated at small-scale level for a manually curated metabolic model, and at genome-scale level for three metabolic models related to Homo sapiens and Saccharomyces cerevisiae organisms. By exploiting these models as benchmarks, the proposed tool shown its ability to reproduce the original GPR rules with a high level of accuracy. In all the tested scenarios, after a manual investigation of the mismatches between the rules proposed by GPRuler and the original ones, the proposed approach revealed to be in many cases more accurate than the original models.
Conclusions
By complementing existing tools for metabolic network reconstruction with the possibility to reconstruct GPRs quickly and with a few resources, GPRuler paves the way to the study of context-specific metabolic networks, representing the active portion of the complete network in given conditions, for organisms of industrial or biomedical interest that have not been characterized metabolically yet.
... Accompanied with the decreased gas production after the stationary phase, the [FeFe] hydrogenase exhibited down-regulated proteomic expression level (0.68-folds) in the late fermentation stage of glycerol-fed strain CT7, resulting in the similar proteomic expression levels between glycerol-and glucose-fed ones. In addition, six electron-transferring flavoproteins (ETF) were also identified, which served as electron carriers [22]. A0A0K2MK06 and A0A0K2MK73 showed higher proteomic expression levels under glucose medium at both early and late fermentation phases. ...
Clostridium sp. strain CT7 is a new emerging microbial cell factory with high butanol production ratio owing to its non-traditional butanol fermentation mode with uncoupled acetone and 1,3-propanediol formation. Significant changes of metabolic products profile were shown in glycerol- and glucose-fed strain CT7, especially higher butanol and lower volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production occurred from glycerol-fed one. However, the mechanism of this interesting phenomenon was still unclear. To better elaborate the bacterial response towards glycerol and glucose, the quantitative proteomic analysis through iTRAQ strategy was performed to reveal the regulated proteomic expression levels under different substrates. Proteomics data showed that proteomic expression levels related with carbon metabolism and solvent generation under glycerol media were highly increased. In addition, the up-regulation of hydrogenases, ferredoxins and electron-transferring proteins may attribute to the internal redox balance, while the earlier triggered sporulation response in glycerol-fed media may be associated with the higher butanol production. This study will pave the way for metabolic engineering of other industrial microorganisms to obtain efficient butanol production from glycerol.
... Electron transfer flavoproteins (ETFs) are soluble flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-containing heterodimeric proteins. They are distributed across all domains of life and are responsible for funneling electrons from dehydrogenases to the membrane-bound respiratory chain in some bacteria and mitochondria (Toogood et al., 2007) or to nitrogen fixation in other bacteria (Scott and Ludwig, 2004). ETFs consist of a small (ETF β) and a large (ETF α) subunit and, based on comparative amino acid sequence analysis, are traditionally divided into three groups with different biological functions (Tsai and Saier, 1995). ...
electron transfer flavoprotein α subunit (ETFα) peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) monocyte immunomodulation A B S T R A C T Suppression and modulation of the host immune response to parasitic nematodes have been extensively studied. In the present study, we cloned and produced recombinant electron transfer flavoprotein α subunit (ETFα) protein from Haemonchus contortus (rHCETFα), a parasitic nematode of small ruminants, and studied the effect of this protein on modulating the immune response of goat peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and monocytes. Immunohistochemical tests verified that the HCETFα protein was localized mainly in the intestinal wall and on the body surface of worms. Immunoblot analysis revealed that rHCETFα was recognized by the serum of goats artificially infected with H. contortus. Immunofluorescence analysis indicated that rHCETFα bound to the surface of PBMCs. rHCETFα was co-incubated with goat PBMCs to observe the immunomodulatory effects exerted by HCETFα on proliferation, apoptosis, cytokine secretion and nitric oxide (NO) production. The results showed that rHCETFα suppressed the proliferation of goat PBMCs stimulated by concanavalin A and induced apoptosis in goat PBMCs. After rHCETFα exposure, IL-2, IL-4, IL-17A and TNF-α expression was markedly reduced, whereas secretion of TGF-β1 was significantly elevated, in goat PBMCs. Moreover, rHCETFα up-regulated NO production in a dose-dependent manner. FITC-dextran internalization assays showed that rHCETFα inhibited phagocytosis of goat monocytes. These results elucidate the interaction between parasites and hosts at the molecular level, suggest a possible immunomodulatory target and contribute to the search for innovative proteins that may be candidate targets for drugs and vaccines.
... Given the well-documented greater-than 80° rotation of the ETF head domain (41)(42)(43)(44)(45) and its effect of moving the surface-exposed ET-FAD relative to the Bf-FAD, we suggest that the 726 nm band reflects further rotation of the head domain that places the ET-flavin in contact with the Bf-flavin. We note the possible significance to electron transfer of direct flavin-flavin contact, especially in the context of the gating role that has been proposed for head domain rotation (14,45). ...
A remarkable charge transfer (CT) band is described in the bifurcating electron transfer flavoprotein (Bf-ETF) from Rhodopseudomonas palustris ( Rpa ETF). Rpa ETF contains two FADs that play contrasting roles in electron bifurcation. The Bf-FAD accepts electrons pairwise from NADH, directs one to a lower-E° carrier and the other to the higher-E° electron transfer FAD (ET-FAD). Previous work noted that the CT band at 726 nm formed when ET-FAD was reduced and Bf-FAD was oxidized, suggesting that both flavins participate. However, existing crystal structures place them too far apart to interact directly. We present biochemical experiments addressing this conundrum and elucidating the nature of this CT species. We observed that Rpa ETF missing either FAD lacked the 726 nm band. Site-directed mutagenesis near either FAD produced altered yields of the CT species, supporting involvement of both flavins. The residue substitutions did not alter the absorption maximum of the signal, ruling out contributions from residue orbitals. Instead, we propose that the residue identities modulate the population of a protein conformation that brings the ET-flavin and Bf-flavin into direct contact, explaining the 726 nm band based on a CT complex of reduced ET-FAD and oxidized Bf-FAD. This is corroborated by persistence of the 726 nm species during gentle protein denaturation and simple density functional theory calculations of flavin dimers. Although such a CT complex has been demonstrated for free flavins, this may be the first observation of such, to our knowledge, in an enzyme. Thus, Bf-ETFs may optimize electron transfer efficiency by enabling direct flavin-flavin contact.
... Similarly, many other mitochondria-resident APE1-PPIs were found to be commonly up-regulated in the analyzed datasets. Among these, it is worth mentioning: (i) SHMT2 (serine hydroxymethyltransferase), that mainly localizes to the matrix, nucleoid and inner membranes, and is known to be targeted by c-myc for cell survival, with various studies confirming its bad prognostic power in different cancer types [87][88][89][90][91] ; (ii) pro-apoptotic protein SLC25A6 (mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier-3, AAC3) 92,93 ; (iii) ROS regulating respiratory complex III protein UQCRC2 (ubiquinol-cytochrome c reductase complex core protein 2) 94 ; (iv) respiratory complex II protein SDHB (succinate dehydrogenase B) 95 ; v) fatty acid βoxidation proteins ETFA (electron transfer flavoprotein subunit alpha) 96,97 and ACAA2 (acetyl-CoA acyltransferase 2) 98 ; vi) bad prognostic multifunctional LGALS3 (galectin-3) protein 99 ; (vii) autoimmunity protein HARS (histidyl-tRNA synthetase) 100 ; (viii) oxidative damage control protein IDH1 (isocitrate dehydrogenase 1) 101 . Additional matrix proteins were found being up-regulated in LIHC and LUAD, while down-regulated in PAAD; they included fatty acid β-oxidation proteins ECHS1 (enoyl coenzyme A hydratase short chain 1) 102 and ETFB (electron transfer flavoprotein subunit beta) 103 , multifunctional protein 17β-HSD10 (17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 10, encoded by HSD17B10) 104 and mitochondrial protein processor PMPCA (mitochondrial-processing peptidase subunit alpha) 105 . ...
APE1 is essential in cancer cells due to its central role in the Base Excision Repair pathway of DNA lesions and in the transcriptional regulation of genes involved in tumor progression/chemoresistance. Indeed, APE1 overexpression correlates with chemoresistance in more aggressive cancers, and APE1 protein-protein interactions (PPIs) specifically modulate different protein functions in cancer cells. Although important, a detailed investigation on the nature and function of protein interactors regulating APE1 role in tumor progression and chemoresistance is still lacking. The present work was aimed at analyzing the APE1-PPI network with the goal of defining bad prognosis signatures through systematic bioinformatics analysis. By using a well-characterized HeLa cell model stably expressing a flagged APE1 form, which was subjected to extensive proteomics analyses for immunocaptured complexes from different subcellular compartments, we here demonstrate that APE1 is a central hub connecting different subnetworks largely composed of proteins belonging to cancer-associated communities and/or involved in RNA- and DNA-metabolism. When we performed survival analysis in real cancer datasets, we observed that more than 80% of these APE1-PPI network elements is associated with bad prognosis. Our findings, which are hypothesis generating, strongly support the possibility to infer APE1-interactomic signatures associated with bad prognosis of different cancers; they will be of general interest for the future definition of novel predictive disease biomarkers. Future studies will be needed to assess the function of APE1 in the protein complexes we discovered. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD013368.
... The term ETF denotes a family of electron transfer flavoproteins that convey electrons between redox enzymes and compounds in energy metabolism. [4][5][6][7] Their shared heterodimeric structure is described by three domains, as shown in Figure 1. 2,8 The most familiar 'canonical' ETFs function in mitochondria receiving electrons from diverse acyl-CoA dehydrogenases and passing them one at a time to the quinone pool via an ETF-quinone oxidoreductase. ...
Flavin-based electron bifurcation allows enzymes to redistribute energy among electrons by coupling endergonic and exergonic electron transfer reactions. Diverse bifurcating enzymes employ a two-flavin electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) that accepts...
... We aligned the two sets of EtfAB of strain S33 with Etfs from Pseudomonas stutzeri A1501 (34), M. methylotrophus W3A1, B. japonicum, P. denitrificans, humans, Sulfolobus solfataricus (45), C. kluyveri (44), E. coli, and Bacillus subtilis (46) (Fig. S8). It has been shown that EtfAB-I and EtfAB-II from A. tumefaciens 2 , and the conserved AMP-binding sites (corresponding to V120 through D143 of EtfB from humans) which exist in group I Etfs only (40,47,48). In addition, EtfBs from A. tumefaciens S33 also contain the highly conserved partner region DLRLNEPRYA[S/T]LPNIMKAKKK of group I EtfBs. ...
Nicotine has been studied as a model for toxic N -heterocyclic aromatic compounds. Microorganisms can catabolize nicotine via various pathways and conserve energy from its oxidation. Although several oxidoreductases have been characterized to participate in nicotine degradation, the electron transfer involved in these processes is poorly understood. In this study, we found that 6-hydroxypseudooxynicotine dehydrogenase, a key enzyme in the hybrid pyridine and pyrrolidine pathway for nicotine degradation in Agrobacterium tumefaciens S33, utilizes EtfAB as a physiological electron acceptor. Catalyzed by the membrane-associated electron transfer flavoprotein:ubiquinone oxidoreductase, the electrons are transferred from the reduced EtfAB to coenzyme Q, which then could enter into the classic ETC. Thus, the route for electron transport from the substrate to O 2 could be constructed, by which ATP can be further sythesized via chemiosmosis to support the baterial growth. These findings provide new knowledge regarding the catabolism of N -heterocyclic aromatic compounds in microorganisms.
... Of note, different metabolites and metabolic pathways are involved in facilitating the distinct transfer mechanisms. Complex I takes over electrons from NADH, complex II oxidizes succinate to fumarate, and ETFs transfer reducing equivalents from acyl-CoA dehydrogenases [9,10]. ETFs are heterodimeric, FADcontaining proteins, found in all kingdoms of life. ...
Hypoxia poses a stress to cells and decreases mitochondrial respiration, in part by electron transport chain (ETC) complex reorganization. While metabolism under acute hypoxia is well characterized, alterations under chronic hypoxia largely remain unexplored. We followed oxygen consumption rates in THP-1 monocytes during acute (16 h) and chronic (72 h) hypoxia, compared to normoxia, to analyze the electron flows associated with glycolysis, glutamine, and fatty acid oxidation. Oxygen consumption under acute hypoxia predominantly demanded pyruvate, while under chronic hypoxia, fatty acid- and glutamine-oxidation dominated. Chronic hypoxia also elevated electron-transferring flavoproteins (ETF), and the knockdown of ETF–ubiquinone oxidoreductase lowered mitochondrial respiration under chronic hypoxia. Metabolomics revealed an increase in citrate under chronic hypoxia, which implied glutamine processing to α-ketoglutarate and citrate. Expression regulation of enzymes involved in this metabolic shunting corroborated this assumption. Moreover, the expression of acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 increased, thus pointing to fatty acid synthesis under chronic hypoxia. Cells lacking complex I, which experienced a markedly impaired respiration under normoxia, also shifted their metabolism to fatty acid-dependent synthesis and usage. Taken together, we provide evidence that chronic hypoxia fuels the ETC via ETFs, increasing fatty acid production and consumption via the glutamine-citrate-fatty acid axis.
... Nevertheless, conceptually similar examples of gated conformational dynamical changes exist. Redox-gated changes in flavoprotein structure and dynamics may play a major role in electron transfer by these proteins (42), and similar electron-or charge-coupled gating events occur in diverse systems (43)(44)(45). Photoactivatable tags that modulate sampling of active enzyme conformations have been used to create catalytically enhanced enzymes (46). ...
Post-translational modification of cysteine residues can regulate protein function and is essential for catalysis by cysteine-dependent enzymes. Covalent modifications neutralize charge on the reactive cysteine thiolate anion and thus alter the active site electrostatic environment. Although a vast number of enzymes rely on cysteine modification for function, precisely how altered structural and electrostatic states of cysteine affect protein dynamics remains poorly understood. Here we use X-ray crystallography, computer simulations, and enzyme kinetics to characterize how covalent modification of the active site cysteine residue in isocyanide hydratase (ICH) affects the protein conformational ensemble. ICH exhibits a concerted helical displacement upon cysteine modification that is gated by changes in hydrogen bond strength between the cysteine thiolate and the backbone amide of the highly strained residue Ile152. The mobile helix samples alternative conformations in crystals exposed to synchrotron X-ray radiation due to the X-ray-induced formation of a cysteine-sulfenic acid at the catalytic nucleophile (Cys101-SOH). This oxidized cysteine residue resembles the proposed thioimidate intermediate in ICH catalysis. Neither cysteine modification nor helical disorder were observed in X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) diffraction data. Computer simulations confirm cysteine modification-gated helical motion and show how structural changes allosterically propagate through the ICH dimer. Mutations at a Gly residue (Gly150) that modulate helical mobility reduce the ICH catalytic rate and alter its pre-steady state kinetic behavior, establishing that helical mobility is important for ICH catalytic efficiency. Our results suggest that cysteine modification may be a common and likely underreported means for regulating protein conformational dynamics.
... The importance of this conserved Trp has not yet been tested in nNOS or in other NOS enzymes. In any case, it is important to note that rapid conformational sampling likely occurs during NOS FMN-NOSoxy domain docking (40,41) to generate many transiently-docked species, several of which still place the FMN and heme close enough for ET between them. That said, there also may be docking preferences among the NOS enzymes that are driven by their structural differences, such as iNOS having fewer surface charges on its oxygenase and reductase domains relative to nNOS or eNOS (30). ...
NO synthase (NOS) enzymes perform inter-domain electron transfer reactions during catalysis that may rely on complementary charge interactions at domain-domain interfaces. Guided by our previous results and a computer-generated domain docking model, we assessed the importance of cross-domain charge interactions in the FMN to heme electron transfer in neuronal NOS (nNOS). We reversed the charge of three residues (Glu-762, Glu-816, Glu-819) that form an electronegative triad on the FMN domain, and then individually reversed the charges of three electropositive residues (Lys-423, Lys-620, Lys-660) on the oxygenase domain (NOSoxy), to potentially restore a cross-domain charge interaction with the triad, but in reversed polarity. Charge reversal of the triad completely eliminated heme reduction and NO synthesis in nNOS. These functions were partly restored by the charge reversal at oxygenase residue Lys-423, but not at Lys-620 or Lys-660. Full recovery of heme reduction was likely muted by an accompanying change in FMN midpoint potential that made electron transfer to the heme thermodynamically unfavorable. Our results provide direct evidence that cross-domain charge pairing is required for the FMN to heme electron transfer in nNOS. The unique ability of charge reversal at position 423 to rescue function indicates that it participates in an essential cross-domain charge interaction with the FMN domain triad. This supports our domain docking model and suggests that it may depict a productive electron transfer complex formed during nNOS catalysis.
... The oxidative half-reaction consists of two successive inter-protein one-electron transfers between reduced ACAD and two oxidized ETFs. This results in the re-oxidation of the ACAD bound FAD and yields two ETFs in the semiquinone state (ETFsq) [7]. In addition to reacting with ETF, ACADs are also able to use dioxygen as electron acceptor, albeit only as a side reaction and at a low rate [8]. ...
Although flavoenzymes have been studied in detail, the molecular basis of their dioxygen reactivity is only partially understood. The members of the flavin adenosine dinucleotide (FAD)-dependent acyl-CoA dehydrogenase and acyl-CoA oxidase families catalyze similar reactions and share common structural features. However, both enzyme families feature opposing reaction specificities in respect to dioxygen. Dehydrogenases react with electron transfer flavoproteins as terminal electron acceptors and do not show a considerable reactivity with dioxygen, whereas dioxygen serves as a bona fide substrate for oxidases. We recently engineered (2S)-methylsuccinyl-CoA dehydrogenase towards oxidase activity by rational mutagenesis. Here we characterized the (2S)-methylsuccinyl-CoA dehydrogenase wild-type, as well as the engineered (2S)-methylsuccinyl-CoA oxidase, in detail. Using stopped-flow UV-spectroscopy and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) based assays, we explain the molecular base for dioxygen reactivity in the engineered oxidase and show that the increased oxidase function of the engineered enzyme comes at a decreased dehydrogenase activity. Our findings add to the common notion that an increased activity for a specific substrate is achieved at the expense of reaction promiscuity and provide guidelines for rational engineering efforts of acyl-CoA dehydrogenases and oxidases.
... A related "dynamic drive" scenario was established for non-bifurcating EtfAB-dehydrogenase complexes by which the membrane-bound respiratory chain is supplied with reducing equivalents via two single-electron steps from α-FAD• − to quinone. The mobility of domain II carrying α-FAD is applied for sampling a large range of orientations to provide specifically a fast intersubunit ET for structurally distinct dehydrogenase partners 30,40,41 . Obviously, the swinging domain II between two redox modules far away from each other is applicable for two different biological purposes. ...
The electron transferring flavoprotein/butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase (EtfAB/Bcd) catalyzes the reduction of one crotonyl-CoA and two ferredoxins by two NADH within a flavin-based electron-bifurcating process. Here we report on the X-ray structure of the Clostridium difficile (EtfAB/Bcd)4 complex in the dehydrogenase-conducting D-state, α-FAD (bound to domain II of EtfA) and δ-FAD (bound to Bcd) being 8 Å apart. Superimposing Acidaminococcus fermentans EtfAB onto C. difficile EtfAB/Bcd reveals a rotation of domain II of nearly 80°. Further rotation by 10° brings EtfAB into the bifurcating B-state, α-FAD and β-FAD (bound to EtfB) being 14 Å apart. This dual binding mode of domain II, substantiated by mutational studies, resembles findings in non-bifurcating EtfAB/acyl-CoA dehydrogenase complexes. In our proposed mechanism, NADH reduces β-FAD, which bifurcates. One electron goes to ferredoxin and one to α-FAD, which swings over to reduce δ-FAD to the semiquinone. Repetition affords a second reduced ferredoxin and δ-FADH−, which reduces crotonyl-CoA.
... The choreography of local loop motions in the catalytic cycle has been studied in some enzymes 5-8 , but in other instances much larger-scale movements of whole domains are important 9-11 . This is particularly true in electron transfer pathways; electron transfer (ET) is generally carried out by proteins associated in large dynamic complexes, and in such systems domain motion can be required to provide access for the protein partner(s) to the redox centre(s) [12][13][14][15] . ...
NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase is a multi-domain redox enzyme which is a key component of the P450 mono-oxygenase drug-metabolizing system. We report studies of the conformational equilibrium of this enzyme using small-angle neutron scattering, under conditions where we are able to control the redox state of the enzyme precisely. Different redox states have a profound effect on domain orientation in the enzyme and we analyse the data in terms of a two-state equilibrium between compact and extended conformations. The effects of ionic strength show that the presence of a greater proportion of the extended form leads to an enhanced ability to transfer electrons to cytochrome c. Domain motion is intrinsically linked to the functionality of the enzyme, and we can define the position of the conformational equilibrium for individual steps in the catalytic cycle.
... This structural comparison shows that G2D2 Etfs share the motif identified in bifurcating Etfs in G2A and G2B (Fig. 5B), strongly suggesting that G2D2 Etfs (or Fix), like the rest of the G2 subgroups, are capable of electron bifurcation. The region displaying the most blue-colored residues and the most residues with intermediate constancy (shades of purple) coincides with the recognition loop that has been found to interact with partner proteins (41). This is consistent with G2D2 Etfs interacting with FixC and FixX while the genes of some other bifurcating Etfs (G2A and G2B) are not accompanied by genes for FixC or Etf-QO homologs, suggesting that these Etfs have different partners. ...
Electron bifurcation is the coupling of exergonic and endergonic redox reactions to simultaneously generate (or utilize) low- and high-potential electrons. It is the third recognized form of energy conservation in biology and was recently described for select electron-transferring flavoproteins (Etfs). Etfs are flavin-containing heterodimers best known for donating electrons derived from fatty acid and amino acid oxidation to an electron transfer respiratory chain via Etf-quinone oxidoreductase. Canonical examples contain a flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) that is involved in electron transfer, as well as a non-redox-active AMP. However, Etfs demonstrated to bifurcate electrons contain a second FAD in place of the AMP. To expand our understanding of the functional variety and metabolic significance of Etfs and to identify amino acid sequence motifs that potentially enable electron bifurcation, we compiled 1,314 Etf protein sequences from genome sequence databases and subjected them to informatic and structural analyses. Etfs were identified in diverse archaea and bacteria, and they clustered into five distinct well-supported groups, based on their amino acid sequences. Gene neighborhood analyses indicated that these Etf group designations largely correspond to putative differences in functionality. Etfs with the demonstrated ability to bifurcate were found to form one group, suggesting that distinct conserved amino acid sequence motifs enable this capability. Indeed, structural modeling and sequence alignments revealed that identifying residues occur in the NADH- and FAD-binding regions of bifurcating Etfs. Collectively, a new classification scheme for Etf proteins that delineates putative bifurcating versus nonbifurcating members is presented and suggests that Etf-mediated bifurcation is associated with surprisingly diverse enzymes.
IMPORTANCE
Electron bifurcation has recently been recognized as an electron transfer mechanism used by microorganisms to maximize energy conservation. Bifurcating enzymes couple thermodynamically unfavorable reactions with thermodynamically favorable reactions in an overall spontaneous process. Here we show that the electron-transferring flavoprotein (Etf) enzyme family exhibits far greater diversity than previously recognized, and we provide a phylogenetic analysis that clearly delineates bifurcating versus nonbifurcating members of this family. Structural modeling of proteins within these groups reveals key differences between the bifurcating and nonbifurcating Etfs.
... A characteristic of these proteins is that the extent of methylation is partial, and in the case of at least ETFb, it varies according to growth conditions. In ETFb, the modified site is adjacent to the recognition loop of the ETF, which has the remarkable property of recognizing and binding to as many as 13 different acyl-CoA dehydrogenases so as to allow electron transfer between the dehydrogenases and the ETF [59,60]. It has been postulated that methylation of ETFb helps to regulate these protein-protein interactions [11,45], similar to one of the proposals being made here to explain the methylation of citrate synthase. ...
The protein methylome in mammalian mitochondria has been little studied until recently. Here, we describe that lysine-368 of human citrate synthase is methylated and that the modifying enzyme, localized in the mitochondrial matrix, is methyltransferase-like protein 12 (METTL12), a member of the family of 7β-strand methyltransferases. Lysine-368 is near the active site of citrate synthase, but removal of methylation has no effect on its activity. In mitochondria, it is possible that some or all of the enzymes of the citric acid cycle, including citrate synthase, are organized in metabolons to facilitate channeling of substrates between participating enzymes. Thus, possible roles for the methylation of Lys-368 are in controlling substrate channeling itself, or in influencing protein-protein interactions in the metabolon. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... There is growing evidence that various individual protein complexes assemble into supercomplexes, which are essential for stability and substrate channelling and play an important role in diseases (24). ETF on the other hand serves as electron acceptor for nine mitochondrial dehydrogenases which are involved in fatty acid oxidation and amino acid catabolism (25). ...
The neurometabolic disorder glutaric aciduria type 1 (GA1) is caused by mutations in the GCDH gene encoding the mitochondrial matrix protein glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase (GCDH), which forms homo- and heteromeric complexes. Twenty percent of all pathogenic mutations affect single amino acid residues on the surface of GCDH resulting in a severe clinical phenotype. We report here on heterologous expression studies of 18 missense mutations identified in GA1 patients affecting surface amino acids. Western blot and pulse chase experiments revealed that the stability of half of the GCDH mutants was significantly reduced. In silico analyses showed that none of the mutations impaired the 3D structure of GCDH. Immunofluorescence co-localisation studies in HeLa cells demonstrated that all GCDH mutants were correctly translocated into mitochondria. Surprisingly, the expression of p.Arg88Cys GCDH as well as further substitutions by alanine, lysine, or methionine but not histidine or leucine resulted in the disruption of mitochondrial architecture forming longitudinal structures composed of stacks of cristae and partial loss of the outer mitochondrial membrane. The expression of mitochondrial fusion or fission proteins was not affected in these cells. Bioluminescence resonance energy transfer analyses revealed that all GCDH mutants exhibit an increased binding affinity to electron transfer flavoprotein beta, whereas only p.Tyr155His GCDH showed a reduced interaction with dihydrolipoamide succinyl transferase. Our data underscore the impact of GCDH protein interactions mediated by amino acid residues on the surface of GCDH required for proper enzymatic activity.
We have investigated the equilibrium properties and rapid-reaction kinetics of the isolated butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase (bcd) component of the electron-bifurcating crotonyl-CoA-dependent NADH:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (EtfAB:bcd) from Megasphaera elsdenii. We find that a neutral FADH• semiquinone accumulates transiently during both reduction with sodium dithionite and with NADH in the presence of catalytic concentrations of EtfAB. In both cases full reduction of bcd to the hydroquinone is eventually observed, but the accumulation of FADH• indicates that a substantial portion of reduction occurs in sequential one-electron processes rather than a single two-electron event. In rapid-reaction experiments following the reaction of reduced bcd with crotonyl-CoA and oxidized bcd with butyryl-CoA, long-wavelength-absorbing intermediates are observed that are assigned to bcdred:crotonyl-CoA and bcdox:butyryl-CoA charge-transfer complexes, demonstrating their kinetic competence in the course of the reaction. In the presence of crotonyl-CoA there is an accumulation of semiquinone that is unequivocally the anionic FAD•- rather than the neutral FADH• seen in the absence of substrate, indicating that binding of substrate/product results in ionization of the bcd semiquinone. In addition to fully characterizing the rapid-reaction kinetics of both the oxidative and reductive half-reactions, our results demonstrate that one-electron processes play an important role in the reduction of bcd in EtfAB:bcd.
Electron-bifurcating flavoproteins catalyze the tightly coupled reduction of high- and low-potential acceptors using a median-potential electron donor, and are invariably complex systems with multiple redox-active centers in two or more subunits. Methods are described that permit, in favorable cases, the deconvolution of spectral changes associated with reduction of specific centers, making it possible to dissect the overall process of electron bifurcation into individual, discrete steps.
Lysine methylation is an abundant posttranslational modification, which has been most intensively studied in the context of histone proteins, where it represents an important epigenetic mark. Lysine methylation of histone proteins is primarily catalyzed by SET-domain methyltransferases (MTases). However, it has recently become evident that also another MTase family, the so-called seven-β-strand (7BS) MTases, often denoted METTLs (methyltransferase-like), contains several lysine (K)-specific MTases (KMTs). These enzymes catalyze the attachment of up to three methyl groups to lysine residues in specific substrate proteins, using S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) as methyl donor. About a decade ago, only a single human 7BS KMT was known, namely the histone-specific DOT1L, but 15 additional 7BS KMTs have now been discovered and characterized. These KMTs typically target a single nonhistone substrate that, in most cases, belongs to one of the following three protein groups: components of the cellular protein synthesis machinery, mitochondrial proteins, and molecular chaperones. This article provides an extensive overview and discussion of the human 7BS KMTs and their biochemical and biological roles.
Copper amine oxidase from Arthrobacter globiformis (AGAO) catalyses the oxidative deamination of primary amines via a large conformational change of a topaquinone (TPQ) cofactor during the semiquinone formation step. This conformational change of TPQ occurs in the presence of strong hydrogen bonds and neighboring bulky amino acids, especially the conserved Asn381, which restricts TPQ conformational changes over the catalytic cycle. Whether such a semiquinone intermediate is catalytically active or inert has been a matter of debate in copper amine oxidases. Here, we show that the reaction rate of the Asn381Ala mutant decreases 160-fold, and the X-ray crystal structures of the mutant reveals a TPQ-flipped conformation in both the oxidized and reduced states, preceding semiquinone formation. Our hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) simulations show that the TPQ conformational change is realized through the sequential steps of the TPQ ring-rotation and slide. We determine that the bulky side chain of Asn381 hinders the undesired TPQ ring-rotation in the oxidized form, favoring the TPQ ring-rotation in reduced TPQ by a further stabilization leading to the TPQ semiquinone form. The acquired conformational flexibility of TPQ semiquinone promotes a high reactivity of Cu(i) to O2, suggesting that the semiquinone form is catalytically active for the subsequent oxidative half-reaction in AGAO. The ingenious molecular mechanism exerted by TPQ to achieve the "state-specific" reaction sheds new light on a drastic environmental transformation around the catalytic center.
Lactate oxidation with NAD ⁺ as electron acceptor is a highly endergonic reaction and some anaerobic bacteria overcome the energetic hurdle by flavin-based electron bifurcation/confurcation (FBEB/FBEC) using a lactate dehydrogenase (Ldh) in concert with the electron transferring proteins EtfA and EtfB. The electron cryo-microscopically (cryo-EM) characterized (Ldh-EtfAB) 2 complex of Acetobacterium woodii at 2.43 Å resolution consists of a mobile EtfAB shuttle located between the rigid central Ldh and the peripheral EtfAB base units. The FADs of Ldh and the EtfAB shuttle contact each other thereby forming the D (dehydrogenase conducting) state. The intermediary Asp37 and Asp139 may harmonize the redox potentials between the FADs and the pyruvate/lactate pair crucial for FBEC. A plausible novel B (bifurcation conducting) state with the EtfAB base and shuttle FADs in a productive electron transfer distance was derived by integrating Alphafold2 calculations. Kinetic analysis of enzyme variants shed light on the connection between NAD binding/release and D-to-B state transition. The FBEC inactivity when truncating the ferredoxin domain of EtfA substantiates its role as redox relay. Lactate oxidation in Ldh is based on the catalytic base His423 and a metal center. On this basis, a comprehensive catalytic mechanism of the FBEC process was outlined.
Flavin-based electron bifurcation (FBEB) couples exergonic electron-transfer reactions to the endergonic reduction of ferredoxin/flavodoxin to enhance the efficiency of metabolism in a select number of bacteria and archaea. A variety of complexes proposed to perform FBEB have been identified and it has been suggested that a flavin cofactor directs electrons along two spatially separated pathways via the formation of a strongly reducing semiquinone intermediate. These complexes are involved in a variety of metabolic processes, including hydrogen metabolism, carbon metabolism, and nitrogen fixation, and have an important role in the bioenergetics of microbial anaerobic metabolism.
Post-translational modification of cysteine residues can regulate protein function and is essential for catalysis by cysteine-dependent enzymes. Covalent modifications neutralize charge on the reactive cysteine thiolate anion and thus alter the active site electrostatic environment. Although a vast number of enzymes rely on cysteine modification for function, precisely how altered structural and electrostatic states of cysteine affect protein dynamics, which in turn, affects catalysis, remains poorly understood.
Here we use X-ray crystallography, computer simulations, site directed mutagenesis and enzyme kinetics to characterize how covalent modification of the active site cysteine residue in the enzyme, isocyanide hydratase (ICH), affects the protein conformational ensemble during catalysis. Our results suggest that cysteine modification may be a common and likely underreported means for regulating protein conformational dynamics. This thesis will also include ongoing work with ICH homologs, showing that Cys covalent modification-gated helical dynamics in Cys dependent enzymes is common to enzymes of this family.
Post-translational modification of cysteine residues can regulate protein function and is essential for catalysis by cysteine-dependent enzymes. Covalent modifications neutralize charge on the reactive cysteine thiolate anion and thus alter the active site electrostatic environment. Although a vast number of enzymes rely on cysteine modification for function, precisely how altered structural and electrostatic states of cysteine affect protein dynamics, which in turn, affects catalysis, remains poorly understood. Here we use X-ray crystallography, computer simulations, site directed mutagenesis and enzyme kinetics to characterize how covalent modification of the active site cysteine residue in the enzyme, isocyanide hydratase (ICH), affects the protein conformational ensemble during catalysis. Our results suggest that cysteine modification may be a common and likely underreported means for regulating protein conformational dynamics. This thesis will also include ongoing work with ICH homologs, showing that Cys covalent modification-gated helical dynamics in Cys dependent enzymes is common to enzymes of this family. Advisor: Dr. Mark. A. Wilson
Neuroglobin is a heme protein present in the nervous system cells of mammals and other organisms. Although cytoprotective effects of neuroglobin on neuronal damage have been reported, the physiological mechanisms of neuroglobin function remain unknown. In recent years, a role for neuroglobin as a reductant for extramitochondrial cytochrome c has been proposed. According to this hypothesis, cytoplasmic neuroglobin can interact with cytochrome c released from the mitochondria and reduce its heme group to the ferrous state, thus preventing cytochrome c-dependent assembly of the apoptosome. The interaction of neuroglobin and cytochrome c has been studied by surface plasmon resonance techniques and molecular dynamics, however the empirical evidence on the specific residues of neuroglobin and cytochrome c involved in the interaction is scarce and indirect. This study analyzes the role of five negatively charged residues in the neuroglobin surface putatively involved in the interaction with cytochrome c - Glu60, Asp63, Asp73, Glu 87 and Glu151 - by site-directed mutagenesis. Characterization of the electron transfer between neuroglobin mutants and cytochrome c indicates that Asp73 is critical for the interaction, and Glu60, Asp63 and Glu87 also contribute to the neuroglobin-cytochrome c interaction. Based on the results, structures and binding surfaces for the neuroglobin-cytochrome c complex compatible with the experimental observations are proposed. These data can guide further studies on neuroglobin function and its involvement in cytochrome c signaling cascades.
Mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation disorders (FAOD) are among the diseases detected by newborn screening in most developed countries. Alterations of mitochondrial functionality are characteristic of these metabolic disorders. However, many questions remain to be clarified, namely how the interplay between the signaling pathways harbored in mitochondria contributes to the disease-related phenotype. Herein, we overview the role of mitochondria on the regulation of cell homeostasis through the production of ROS, mitophagy, apoptosis, and mitochondrial biogenesis. Emphasis is given to the signaling pathways involving MnSOD, sirtuins and PGC-1α, which seem to contribute to FAOD phenotype, namely to multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MADD). The association between phenotype and genotype is not straightforward, suggesting that specific molecular mechanisms may contribute to MADD pathogenesis, making MADD an interesting model to better understand this interplay. However, more work needs to be done envisioning the development of novel therapeutic strategies.
A newly-recognized third fundamental mechanism of energy conservation in biology, electron bifurcation, uses free energy from exergonic redox reactions to drive endergonic redox reactions. Flavin-based electron bifurcation furnishes low potential electrons to demanding chemical reactions such as reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia. We employed the heterodimeric flavoenzyme FixAB from the diazotrophic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris to elucidate unique properties that underpin flavin-based electron bifurcation. FixAB is distinguished from canonical electron transfer flavoproteins (ETFs) by a second FAD that replaces the AMP of canonical ETF. We exploited near-UV/visible circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy to resolve signals from the different flavin sites in FixAB and to interrogate the putative bifurcating FAD. CD aided in assigning the measured reduction midpoint potentials (E°s) to individual flavins, and theE°values tested the accepted model regarding the redox properties required for bifurcation. We found that the higher-E°flavin displays sequential one-electron (1-e) reductions to anionic semiquinone and then to hydroquinone, consistent with the reactivity seen in canonical ETFs. In contrast, the lower-E°flavin displayed a single two-electron (2-e) reduction without detectable accumulation of semiquinone consistent with unstable semiquinone states, as required for bifurcation. This is the first demonstration that a FixAB protein possesses the thermodynamic prerequisites for bifurcating activity, and the separation of distinct optical signatures for the two flavins lays a foundation for mechanistic studies to learn how electron flow can be directed in a protein environment. We propose that a novel optical signal observed at long wavelength may reflect electron delocalization between the two flavins.
Flavin-based electron bifurcation (FBEB) is a recently discovered mode of energy coupling in anaerobic microorganisms. The electron-bifurcating caffeyl-CoA reductase (CarCDE) catalyzes the reduction of caffeyl-CoA and ferredoxin by oxidizing NADH. The 3.5 Å structure of the heterododecameric Car(CDE)4 complex of Acetobacterium woodii, presented here, reveals compared to other electron transferring flavoprotein/ acyl dehydrogenase family members an additional ferredoxin-like domain with two [4Fe-4S] clusters N-terminally fused to CarE. It might serve, in vivo, as specific adaptor for the physiological electron acceptor. Kinetic analysis of a CarCDE(∆Fd) complex indicates the bypassing of the ferredoxin domain by artificial electron acceptors. Site-directed mutagenesis studies substantiated the crucial role of the C-terminal arm of CarD and of ArgE203 hydrogen-bonded to the bifurcating FAD for FBEB. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
The bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens requires the expression of conductive protein filaments or pili to respire extracellular electron acceptors such as iron oxides and uranium and to wire electroactive biofilms, but the contribution of the protein fiber to charge transport has remained elusive. Here we demonstrate efficient long-range charge transport along individual pili purified free of metal and redox organic cofactors at rates high enough to satisfy the respiratory rates of the cell. Carrier characteristics were within the orders reported for organic semiconductors (mobility) and inorganic nanowires (concentration), and resistivity was within the lower ranges reported for moderately doped silicon nanowires. However, the pilus conductance and the carrier mobility decreased when one of the tyrosines of the predicted axial multistep hopping path was replaced with an alanine. Furthermore, low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy demonstrated the thermal dependence of the differential conductance at the low voltages that operate in biological systems. The results thus provide evidence for thermally activated multistep hopping as the mechanism that allows Geobacter pili to function as protein nanowires between the cell and extracellular electron acceptors.
The interaction between two physiological redox partners, trimethylamine dehydrogenase and electron-transferring flavoprotein, has been characterized quantitatively by analytical ultracentrifugation at 4°C. Analysis of sedimentation-equilibrium distributions obtained at 15000 rpm for mixtures in 10 mM potassium phosphate, pH 7.5, by means of the psi function [Wills, P. R., Jacobsen, M. P. & Winzor, D. J. (1996) Biopolymers 38, 119–1301 has yielded an intrinsic dissociation constant of 3–7 μM for the interaction of electron-transferring flavoprotein with two equivalent and independent sites on the homodimeric enzyme. This investigation indicates the potential of sedimentation equilibrium for the quantitative characterization of interactions between dissimilar macromolecules.
Butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase from Megasphera elsdenii catalyzes the exchange of the α- and β-hydrogens of substrate with solvent [Gomes, B., Fendrich, G., & Abeles, R. H. (1981) Biochemistry 20,1481-1490]. The stoichiometry of this exchange was determined by using 3H20 label as 1.94 ± 0.1 per substrate molecule. The rate of 3H label incorporation into substrate under anaerobic conditions is monophasic, indicating that both the α- and β-hydrogens exchange at the same rate. The exchange in ,HzO leads to incorporation of one 2H each into the α- and the β-positions of butyryl-CoA, as determined by companion 'H NMR experiments and confirmed by mass spectroscopic analysis. In contrast, with general acyl-CoA dehydrogenase from pig kidney, only exchange of the a-hydrogen was found. The β-hydrogen is the one that is transferred (reversibly) to the flavin 5-position during substrate dehydrogenation. This was demonstrated by reacting 5-3H- and 5-2H-reduced 5-deaza-FAD-general acyl-CoA dehydrogenase with crotonyl-CoA. Only one face of the reduced flavin analogue is capable of transferring hydrogen to substrate. The rate of this reaction is 11.1 s-1 for 5-deaza-FAD-enzyme and 2.2 s-1 for [5-2H]deaza-FAD-enzyme, yielding an isotope effect of 5. These values compare with a rate of 2.6 s-1 for the reaction of native reduced enzyme with crotonyl-CoA. The two reduced enzymes (normal vs. 5-deaza-FAD-enzyme) thus react at similar rates, indicating a similar mechanism. The results are interpreted as evidence for a catalytic sequence in which the α-hydrogen is abstracted as a proton, followed by expulsion of the β-hydrogen as a hydride and its direct transfer to the flavin position.
We studied metabolic, polypeptide and genetic variation in eight glutaric acidemia type II (GA II) patients with electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) deficiency. As measured by 3H-fatty acid oxidations in fibroblasts, beta-oxidation pathway flux correlated well with clinical phenotypes. In six patients with severe neonatal onset GA II, oxidation of [9,10(n)-3H]-palmitate ranged from 2% to 22% of control and of [9,10(n)-3H]myristate, from 2% to 26% of control. Of two patients with late onset GA II, one had intermediate residual activities with these substrates and the other normal activities. Radiolabeling and immunoprecipitation studies revealed that three of the six neonatal onset GA II patients had greatly diminished or absent alpha- and beta-ETF subunits, consistent with a failure to assemble a stable heterodimer. Another neonatal onset patient showed normal synthesis of beta-ETF but decreased synthesis of alpha-ETF. Two neonatal onset and two late onset GA II patients showed normal synthesis of both subunits. Analysis of the pre-alpha-ETF coding sequence revealed seven different mutations in the six patients with neonatal onset GA II. The most common mutation was a methionine for threonine substitution at codon 266 found in four unrelated patients, while all the other mutations were seen in single patients. No mutations were detected in the two patients with late onset GA II.
cDNAs encoding the precursor of the alpha-subunit of human electron transfer flavoprotein (p alpha-ETF) were cloned and sequenced. The cDNAs span 1,300 base pairs and include the entire coding region of 333 amino acids. The identity of the p alpha-ETF clones was confirmed by hybrid selected translation, by transcription/translation of a cDNA, and by mitochondrial processing of the protein produced by these translations. The identity of the cDNA clones was further confirmed by matching the amino acid sequence deduced from the nucleotide sequence of the cDNAs to amino acid sequences determined from seven tryptic peptides prepared from purified rat alpha-subunit of electron transfer flavoprotein (alpha-ETF). Ninety-eight of 105 amino acids from these rat alpha-ETF tryptic peptides matched with those deduced from the human cDNAs. The seven amino acid substitutions are presumably due to species difference. The calculated molecular weight of the human alpha-ETF precursor was 35,084. The amino-terminal amino acid of the mature protein could not be determined by amino-terminal sequencing, presumably due to blockage and, therefore, an accurate molecular weight of mature alpha-ETF could not be calculated. The molecular sizes of the precursor and mature alpha-ETF have been estimated to be 35 and 32 kDa, respectively, by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.
Trimethylamine dehydrogenase, which contains one covalently bound 6-S-cysteinyl-FMN and one Fe4S4 cluster per subunit of molecular mass 83,000 Da, was purified to homogeneity from the methylotrophic bacterium W3A1. Microcoulometry at pH 7 in 50 mM-Mops buffer containing 0.1 mM-EDTA and 0.1 M-KCl revealed that the native enzyme required the addition of 3 reducing equivalents per subunit for complete reduction. In contrast, under identical conditions the phenylhydrazine-inhibited enzyme required the addition of 0.9 reducing equivalent per subunit with a midpoint potential of +110 mV. Least-squares analysis of the microcoulometric data obtained for the native enzyme, assuming uptake of 1 electron by Fe4S4 and 2 electrons by FMN, indicated midpoint potentials of +44 mV and +36 mV for the FMN/FMN.- and FMN.-/FMNH2 couples respectively and +102 mV for reduction of the Fe4S4 cluster.
When grown on methylated amines as a carbon source, Methylophilus methylotrophus synthesizes an electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) which is the natural electron acceptor of trimethylamine dehydrogenase. It is composed of two dissimilar subunits of 38,000 and 42,000 daltons and 1 mol of flavin adenine dinucleotide. It was reduced by trimethylamine dehydrogenase to a stable anionic semiquinone form, which could not be converted, either enzymatically or chemically, to the fully reduced dihydroquinone. This ETF exhibited spectral properties which were nearly identical to ETFs from bacterium W3A1, Paracoccus denitrificans, and pig liver mitochondria. M. methylotrophus ETF cross-reacted immunologically and enzymatically with the ETF of bacterium W3A1 but not with the other two ETFs. In M. methylotrophus and bacterium W3A1, ETF and trimethylamine dehydrogenase were each expressed during growth on trimethylamine and were each absent during growth on methanol.
The three-dimensional structure of trimethylamine dehydrogenase from the methylotrophic bacterium W3A1 has been determined to 2.4-A resolution. The enzyme is composed of two identical 83,000-dalton subunits, each of which is folded into three structural domains. The largest domain, at the NH2 terminus of the molecule, is folded as an eight-stranded parallel alpha/beta barrel. It contains the [4Fe-4S] and covalently bound FMN cofactors separated by about 4 A. The folding topology of the large domain and orientation of the FMN cofactor are very similar to those found in glycolate oxidase. The other two domains contain alpha/beta parallel beta sheet topologies with similar folding patterns. The topologies and spatial arrangements of these two domains are remarkably similar to the FAD- and NADPH-binding domains of glutathione reductase.
Butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase prepared by a simple procedure from Peptostreptococcus elsdenii has a molecular weight of approx. 150000. The enzyme has FAD as its prosthetic group. The amino acid analysis is reported. This enzyme, like most of the corresponding mammalian ones, is green. The absorption band at 710nm can be abolished irreversibly by dithionite reduction and air reoxidation; it can be abolished reversibly by phenylmercuric acetate or potassium bromide. The enzyme as isolated appears to be a mixture of a green and a yellow form, both of which are active. This view is supported by the variable ;greenness' of different preparations and the biphasic curve obtained in anaerobic spectrophotometric titrations with dithionite. It can be calculated from the titration results that fully green enzyme would have a peak-to-peak absorption ratio (E(710)/E(430)) as great as 0.54. The green form is much less rapidly reduced by dithionite than the yellow form, but is nevertheless much more readily reduced by dithionite than the enzyme from pig liver. It is also more readily reoxidized by air and shows less tendency to form a semiquinone. Treatment with sodium borohydride produces an unusual reduced species that is probably the 3,4-dihydroflavin.
The kinetics of electron transfer between trimethylamine dehydrogenase (TMADH) and its physiological acceptor, electron transferring flavoprotein (ETF), has been studied by static and stopped-flow absorbance measurements. The results demonstrate that reducing equivalents are transferred from TMADH to ETF solely through the 4Fe/4S center of the former. The intrinsic limiting rate constant (klim) and dissociation constant (Kd) for electron transfer from the reduced 4Fe/4S center of TMADH to ETF are about 172 s-1 and 10 microM, respectively. The reoxidation of fully reduced TMADH with an excess of ETF is markedly biphasic, indicating that partial oxidation of the iron-sulfur center in 1-electron reduced enzyme significantly reduces the rate of electron transfer out of the enzyme in these forms. The interaction of the two unpaired electron spins of flavin semiquinone and reduced 4Fe/4S center in 2-electron reduced TMADH, on the other hand, does not significantly slow down the electron transfer from the 4Fe/4S center to ETF. From a comparison of the limiting rate constants for the oxidative and reductive half-reactions, we conclude that electron transfer from TMADH to ETF is not rate-limiting during steady-state turnover. The overall kinetics of the oxidative half-reaction are not significantly affected by high salt concentrations, indicating that electrostatic forces are not involved in the formation and decay of reduced TMADH-oxidized ETF complex.
In trimethylamine dehydrogenase, the enzyme-bound FMN is covalently linked to Cys-30 by a 6-S-cysteinyl FMN bond. The role played by this bond in catalysis has been investigated using a recombinant wild-type trimethylamine dehydrogenase and a Cys-30 to Ala-30 mutant, both expressed from a cloned gene (tmd) in the heterologous host Escherichia coli. The recombinant wild-type and C30A enzymes were found to be quantitatively associated with the 4Fe-4S center and ADP which are both present in the enzyme isolated from bacterium W3A1. In contrast to the enzyme isolated from bacterium W3A1, however, both recombinant proteins contained less than stoichiometric amounts of flavin and were refractory to reconstitution by FMN. The FMN in the recombinant wild-type enzyme was shown to be covalently linked to the protein, and the enzyme possessed catalytic properties similar to its counterpart isolated from bacterium W3A1. It is envisaged that flavinylation proceeds via a nucleophilic attack by the thiolate of Cys-30 at C-6 of the isoalloxazine ring of enzyme-bound FMN. The C30A mutant was found to bind FMN noncovalently and to also catalyze the demethylation of trimethylamine. The major effect of removing the 6-S-cysteinyl FMN bond is to raise the apparent Km for trimethylamine by 2 orders of magnitude and to diminish the apparent kcat for the reaction by only a factor of 2. Therefore, the 6-S-cysteinyl FMN bond is not essential for catalysis, but it is required for efficient functioning of the enzyme at micromolar concentrations of substrate.
The genes encoding the two subunits of Paracoccus denitrificans electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) were identified by screening a genomic library constructed in pBluescript II SK+ with probes generated by amplification of genomic sequences by the polymerase chain reaction. Primers for the polymerase chain reaction were designed based on peptide sequences from purified Paracoccus ETF subunits. The genes are arranged in tandem in the genomic DNA with the deoxyadenylic acid residue in the TGA termination codon of the small subunit providing the deoxyadenylic acid residue for the ATG initiating codon of the large subunit. The deduced amino acid sequences of the ETF subunits exhibits extensive sequence identity with the human ETF subunits. The Paracoccus ETF is expressed from the pBluescript vector in Escherichia coli, yielding 30 mg of purified, catalytically active protein per liter of culture.
The genes that encode the two different subunits of the novel electron-transferring flavoprotein (ETF) from Megasphaera elsdenii were identified by screening a partial genomic DNA library with a probe that was generated by amplification of genomic sequences using the polymerase chain reaction. The cloned genes are arranged in tandem with the coding sequence for the beta-subunit in the position 5' to the alpha-subunit coding sequence. Amino acid sequence analysis of the two subunits revealed that there are two possible dinucleotide-binding sites on the alpha-subunit and one on the beta-subunit. Comparison of M. elsdenii ETF amino acid sequence to other ETFs and ETF-like proteins indicates that while homology occurs with the mitochondrial ETF and bacterial ETFs, the greatest similarity is with the putative ETFs from clostridia and with fixAB gene products from nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The recombinant ETF was isolated from extracts of Escherichia coli. It is a heterodimer with subunits identical in size to the native protein. The isolated enzyme contains approximately 1 mol of FAD, but like the native protein it binds additional flavin to give a total of about 2 mol of FAD/dimer. It serves as an electron donor to butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase, and it also has NADH dehydrogenase activity.
Electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) is a heterodimeric enzyme composed of an alpha-subunit and a beta-subunit and contains a single equivalent of FAD per dimer. ETF deficiency can be demonstrated in individuals affected by a severe metabolic disorder, glutaric acidemia type II (GAII). In this study, we have investigated for the first time the molecular basis of beta-ETF deficiency in three GAII patients: two Japanese brothers, P411 and P412, and a third unrelated patient, P485. Molecular analysis of the beta-ETF gene in P411 and P412 demonstrated that both these patients are compound heterozygotes. One allele is carrying a G to A transition at nucleotide 518, causing a missense mutation at codon 164. This point mutation is maternally derived and is not detected in 42 unrelated controls. The other allele carries a G to C transversion at the first nucleotide of the intron donor site, downstream of an exon that is skipped during the splicing event. The sequence analysis of the beta-ETF coding sequence in P485 showed only a C to T transition at nucleotide 488 that causes a Thr154 to Met substitution and the elimination of a HgaI restriction site. HgaI restriction analysis on 63 unrelated controls' genomic DNA demonstrated that the C488T transition identifies a polymorphic site. Finally, transfection of wild-type beta-ETF cDNA into P411 fibroblasts suggests that wild-type beta-ETF cDNA complements the genetic defect and restores the beta-oxidation flux to normal levels.
Multiple acyl-CoA-dehydrogenase deficiency (MADD) or glutaric aciduria type II (GAII) are a group of metabolic disorders due to deficiency of either electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) or electron transfer flavoprotein ubiquinone oxidoreductase (ETF-QO). We report the clinical features and biochemical and molecular genetic analyses of a patient with a mild late-onset form of GAII due to β-ETF deficiency. Biochemical data showed an abnormal urine organic acid profile, low levels of free carnitine, increased levels of C10:1n−6, and C14:1n–9 in plasma, and decreased oxidation of [9,10-3H]palmitate and [9,10-3H]myristate in fibroblasts, suggesting MAD deficiency. In agreement with these findings, mutational analysis of the ETF/ETFDH genes demonstrated an ETFB missense mutation 124T>C in exon 2 leading to replacement of cysteine-42 with arginine (C42R), and a 604_606AAG deletion in exon 6 in the ETFB gene resulting in the deletion of lysine-202 (K202del). The present report delineates further the phenotype of mild β-ETF deficiency and illustrates that the differential diagnosis of GAII is readily achieved by mutational analysis.
Electron-transfer reactions between ions and
molecules in solution have been the subject of
considerable experimental study during the past
three decades. Experimental results have also been
obtained on related phenomena, such as reactions
between ions or molecules and electrodes, charge-transfer
spectra, photoelectric emission spectra of
ionic solutions, chemiluminescent electron transfers,
electron transfer through frozen media, and
electron transfer through thin hydrocarbon-like
films on electrodes.
Electron transfer flavoproteins (ETF) are αβ-heterodimers found in eukaryotic mitochondria and bacteria. We have identified currently sequenced protein members of the ETF-α and ETF-β families. Members of these two families include (a) the ETF subunits of mammals and bacteria, (b) homologous pairs of proteins (FixB/FixA) that are essential for nitrogen fixation in some bacteria, and (c) a pair of carnitine-inducible proteins encoded by two open reading frames in Escherichia coli (YaaQ and Yaar). These three groups of proteins comprise three clusters on both the ETF-α and ETF-β phylogenetic trees, separated from each other by comparable phylogenetic distances. This fact suggests that these two protein families evolved with similar overall rates of evolutionary divergence. Relative regions of sequence conservation are evaluated, and signature sequences for both families are derived.
Electron-transferring flavoprotein (ETF) from the anaerobic bacterium Megasphaera elsdenii catalyzes electron transfer from NADH or d-lactate dehydrogenase to butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase. As a basis for understanding the interactions of ETF with its substrates, we report here on the redox properties of ETF alone. ETF exhibited reversible, two-electron transfer during electrochemical reduction in the presence of mediator dyes. The midpoint redox potentials of the FAD cofactor were −0.185 V at pH 5.5, −0.259 V at pH 7.1 and −0.269±0.013 V at pH 8.4, all versus the standard hydrogen electrode. In the presence of the indicator dye 1-deazariboflavin, the Nernst slopes were 0.029 V and 0.026 V at pH 5.5 and pH 7.1, respectively, compared with an expected value of 0.028 V at 10°C. At pH 8.4, in the presence of 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthouqinone or phenosafranine, the Nernst slope varied from 0.021 V to 0.041 V. In the experiments at pH 8.4, equilibration was very low slow in the reductive direction and a diffference of as much as 30 mV was observed between reductive and oxidative midpoints. ETF exhibited no thermodynamic stabilization of the radical form of the FAD cofactor during electrochemical reduction at pH 5.5, 7.1 or 8.4. However, up to 93% of kinetically stable, anionic radical was produced by dithionite titration at pH 8.5. Molar absorptivities of ETF radical were 17 000 M−1 · cm−1 at 365 nm and 5100 M−1 · cm−1 at 450 nm. The four ETF preparations used here contained less than 7% 6-OH-FAD. However, two of the preparations contained significant amounts (up to 30%) of flavin which stabilized radical and reduced at potentials 0.2 V more positive than those required for reduction of the major form of ETF. This is referred to as the B form of ETF. The proportion of ETF-FAD in the B form was increased by incubation with free FAD or by a cycle of reduction and reoxidation. These treatments caused marked changes in the absorption spectrum of oxidized ETF and decreases of 20–25% in ETF units/ A450.
Arg249 in the large (α) subunit of human electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) heterodimer is absolutely conserved throughout the ETF superfamily. The guanidinium group of αArg249 is within van der Waals contact distance and lies perpendicular to the xylene subnucleus of the flavin ring, near the region proposed to be involved in electron transfer with medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase. The backbone amide hydrogen of αArg249 is within hydrogen bonding distance of the carbonyl oxygen at the flavin C(2). αArg249 may modulate the potentials of the two flavin redox couples by hydrogen bonding the carbonyl oxygen at C(2) and by providing delocalized positive charge to neutralize the anionic semiquinone and anionic hydroquinone of the flavin. The potentials of the oxidized/semiquinone and semiquinone/hydroquinone couples decrease in an αR249K mutant ETF generated by site directed mutagenesis and expression in Escherichia coli, without major alterations of the flavin environment as judged by spectral criteria. The steady state turnover of medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase and glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase decrease greater than 90% as a result of the αR249Ks mutation. In contrast, the steady state turnover of short chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase was decreased about 38% when αR249K ETF was the electron acceptor. Stopped flow absorbance measurements of the oxidation of reduced medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase/octenoyl-CoA product complex by wild type human ETF at 3°C are biphasic (t1/2=12 ms and 122 ms). The rate of oxidation of this reduced binary complex of the dehydrogenase by the αR249K mutant ETF is extremely slow and could not be reasonably estimated. αAsp253 is proposed to function with αArg249 in the electron transfer pathway from medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase to ETF. The steady state kinetic constants of the dehydrogenase were not altered when ETF containing an αD253A mutant was the substrate. However, t1/2 of the rapid phase of oxidation of the reduced medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase/octenoyl-CoA charge transfer complex almost doubled. βTyr16 lies on a loop near the C(8) methyl group, and is also near the proposed site for interflavin electron transfer with medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase. The tyrosine residue makes van der Waals contact with the C(8) methyl group of the flavin in human ETF and Paracoccus denitrificans ETF (as βTyr13) and lies at a 30°C angle with the plane of the flavin. Human βTyr16 was substituted with leucine and alanine residues to investigate the role of this residue in the modulation of the flavin redox potentials and in electron transfer to ETF. In βY16L ETF, the potentials of the flavin were slightly reduced, and steady state kinetic constants were modestly altered. Substitution of an alanine residue for βTyr16 yields an ETF with potentials very similar to the wild type but with steady state kinetic properties similar to βY16L ETF. It is unlikely that the β methyl group of the alanine residue interacts with the flavin C(8) methyl. Neither substitution of βTyr16 had a large effect on the fast phase of ETF reduction by medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase.
As part of a series of comparisons of the structures of the three oxidation states of flavodoxin from Clostridium MP, phases for the semiquinono form were determined to 2.0 Å resolution by isomorphous replacement (〈m 〉 = 0.725). Subsequently, the structure was refined at 1.8 Å resolution by a combination of difference Fourier, real space and reciprocal space methods. After refining to an R of 0.194, we explored the conformation of the FMN binding site by real space refinement versus maps with Fourier coefficients of the form ( ). To minimize bias in the fitting, groups of atoms were systematically omitted from the structure factors used in computation of the ( ) maps.
Electron transfer flavoprotein: ubiqionone oxidoreductase (ETF-QO) is a component of the mitochondrial respiratory chain that together with electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) forms a short pathway that transfers electrons from 11 different mitochondrial flavoprotein dehydrogenases to the ubiquinone pool. The X-ray structure of the pig liver enzyme has been solved in the presence and absence of a bound ubiquinone. This structure reveals ETF-QO to be a monotopic membrane protein with the cofactors, FAD and a [4Fe-4S](+1+2) cluster, organised to suggests that it is the flavin that serves as the immediate reductant of ubiquinone. ETF-QO is very highly conserved in evolution and the recombinant enzyme from the bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides has allowed the mutational analysis of a number of residues that the structure suggested are involved in modulating the reduction potential of the cofactors. These experiments, together with the spectroscopic measurement of the distances between the cofactors in solution have confirmed the intramolecular pathway of electron transfer from ETF to ubiquinone. This approach can be extended as the R. sphaeroides ETF-QO provides a template for investigating the mechanistic consequences of single amino acid substitutions of conserved residues that are associated with a mild and late onset variant of the metabolic disease multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MADD).
Mammalian electron-transferring flavoproteins have previously been reported to form the red anionic semiquinone on 1-electron reduction. This work describes a new form of electron-transferring flavoprotein (ETFB) from pig kidney which yields the blue neutral semiquinone upon photochemical, dithionite, or enzymatic reduction. ETFB appears in varying amounts as part of an established purification scheme for ETF. Both the normal form of ETF (ETFR) and ETFB show small differences in the spectra of their oxidized flavins, but no detectable differences in molecular weight or subunit composition. The catalytic activities of ETFR and ETFB are comparable when they mediate the transfer of reducing equivalents between medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase and 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol. ETFB can be converted into a form showing the characteristic red semiquinone of ETFR by full reduction at pH 6.5 or by preparation of the apoprotein and reconstitution with FAD. In contrast, no conditions for the conversion of red to blue forms of ETF have been found. ETFB contains substoichiometric levels of an unusual FAD analogue which yields a pink flavin species on photochemical or dithionite reduction. The evidence presented suggests that ETFB contains a labile factor or protein modification which is irreversibly lost on conversion to ETFR. The possible physiological significance of these data is discussed.
In our previous study of eight glutaric acidemia type II (GAII) fibroblast lines by using [35S]methionine labeling and immunoprecipitation, three of them had a defect in the synthesis of the alpha-subunit of electron transfer flavoprotein (alpha-ETF) (Ikeda et al. 1986). In one of them (YH1313) the labeling of the mature alpha-ETF was barely detectable, while that of the precursor (p) was stronger. In another (YH605) no synthesis of immunoreactive p alpha-ETF was detectable. In the third cell line (YH1391) the rate of variant p alpha-ETF synthesis was comparable to normal, but its electrophoretic mobility was slightly faster than normal. In the present study, the northern blot analysis revealed that all three mutant cell lines contained p alpha-ETF mRNA and that their size and amount were comparable to normal. In immunoblot analysis, both alpha- and beta-ETF bands were barely detectable in YH1313 and YH605 but were detectable in YH1391 in amounts comparable to normal. Sequencing of YH1313 p alpha-ETF cDNA via PCR identified a transversion of T-470 to G. We then devised a simple PCR method for the 119-bp section (T-443/G-561) for detecting this mutation. In the upstream primer, A-466 was artificially replaced with C, to introduce a BstNI site into the amplified copies in the presence of G-470 from the variant sequence. The genomic DNA analysis using this method demonstrated that YH1313 was homozygous for T----G-470 transversion. It was not detected either in two other alpha-ETF-deficient GAII or in seven control cell lines. The alpha-ETF cDNA sequence in YH605 was identical to normal.
For pyridine nucleotide-dependent flavoenzymes, binding both FAD and NAD(P)H on a single amino-acid chain, we have found a high degree of internal sequence similarity for certain regions of the FAD and NAD(P)H binding portions of the chain for any given protein. This was the case for a range of enzyme classes, including disulphide oxidoreductases (such as glutathione reductase, trypanothione reductase, lipoamide dehydrogenase, mercuric reductase), mono- and dioxygenases, nitrite reductase, alkyl hydroperoxidase and NADH dehydrogenase from E. coli. This provides strong support for gene duplication as the origin of at least part of the FAD and NAD(P)H recognising domains of such enzymes.
Medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase reduced with octanoyl-CoA is reoxidized in two one-electron steps by two molecules of the physiological oxidant, electron transferring flavoprotein (ETF). The organometallic oxidant ferricenium hexafluorophosphate (Fc+PF6-) is an excellent alternative oxidant of the dehydrogenase and mimics a number of the features shown by ETF. Reoxidation of octanoyl-CoA-reduced enzyme (200 microM Fc+PF6- in 100 mM Hepes buffer, pH 7.6, 1 degree C) occurs in two one-electron steps with pseudo-first-order rate constants of 40 s-1 and about 200 s-1 for k1 and k2, respectively. The reaction is comparatively insensitive to ionic strength, and evidence of rate saturation is encountered at high ferricenium ion concentration. As observed with ETF, the free two-electron-reduced dehydrogenase is a much poorer kinetic reductant of Fc+PF6-, with rate constants of 3 s-1 and 0.3 s-1 (for k1 and k2, respectively) using 200 microM Fc+PF6-. In addition to the enoyl-CoA product formed during the dehydrogenation of octanoyl-CoA, binding a number of redox-inert acyl-CoA analogues (notably 3-thia- and 3-oxaoctanoyl-CoA) significantly accelerates electron transfer from the dehydrogenase to Fc+PF6-. Those ligands most effective at accelerating electron transfer favor deprotonation of reduced flavin species in the acyl-CoA dehydrogenase. Thus this rate enhancement may reflect the anticipated kinetic superiority of anionic flavin forms as reductants in outer-sphere electron-transfer processes. Evidence consistent with the presence of two distinct loci for redox communication with the bound flavin in the acyl-CoA dehydrogenase is presented.
Glutaryl-coenzyme A (CoA) dehydrogenase and the electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) of Paracoccus denitrificans were purified to homogeneity from cells grown with glutaric acid as the carbon source. Glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase had a molecular weight of 180,000 and was made up of four identical subunits with molecular weights of about 43,000 each of which contained one flavin adenine dinucleotide molecule. The enzyme catalyzed an oxidative decarboxylation of glutaryl-CoA to crotonyl-CoA, was maximally stable at pH 5.0, and lost activity readily at pH values above 7.0. The enzyme had a pH optimum in the range of 8.0 to 8.5, a catalytic center activity of about 960 min-1, and apparent Michaelis constants for glutaryl-CoA and pig liver ETF of about 1.2 and 2.5 microM, respectively. P. denitrificans ETF had a visible spectrum identical to that of pig liver ETF and was made up of two subunits, only one of which contained a flavin adenine dinucleotide molecule. The isoelectric point of P. denitrificans ETF was 4.45 compared with 6.8 for pig liver ETF. P. denitrificans ETF accepted electrons not only from P. denitrificans glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase, but also from the pig liver butyryl-CoA and octanoyl-CoA dehydrogenases. The apparent Vmax was of similar magnitude with either pig liver or P. denitrificans ETF as an electron acceptor for these dehydrogenases. P. denitrificans glutaryl-CoA dehydrogenase and ETF were used to assay for the reduction of ubiquinone 1 by ETF-Q oxidoreductase in cholate extracts of P. denitrificans membranes. The ETF-Q oxidoreductase from P. denitrificans could accept electrons from either the bacterial or the pig liver ETF. In either case, the apparent Km for ETF was infinitely high. P. denitrificans ETF-Q oxidoreductase was purified from contaminating paramagnets, and the resultant preparation had electron paramagnetic resonance signals at 2.081, 1.938, and 1.879 G, similar to those of the mitochondrial enzyme.
The mitochondrial electron-transfer flavoprotein (ETF) is a heterodimer containing only one FAD. In previous work on the structure-function relationships of ETF, its interaction with the general acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (GAD) was studied by chemical cross-linking with heterobifunctional reagents [D. J. Steenkamp (1987) Biochem. J. 243, 519-524]. GAD whose lysine residues were substituted with 3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionyl groups was preferentially cross-linked to the small subunit of ETF, the lysine residues of which had been substituted with 4-mercaptobutyramidine (MBA) groups. This work was extended to the interaction of ETF with ETF-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (ETF-Q ox). ETF-Q ox was partially inactivated by modification with N-succinimidyl 3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionate to introduce pyridyl disulphide structures. A similar modification of ETF caused a large increase in the apparent Michaelis constant of ETF-Q ox for modified ETF owing to the loss of positive charge on some critical lysines of ETF. When ETF-Q ox was modified with 2-iminothiolane to introduce 4-mercaptobutyramidine groups, only a minor effect on the activity of the enzyme was observed. To retain the positive charges on the lysine residues of ETF, pyridyl disulphide structures were introduced by treating ETF with 2-iminothiolane in the presence of 2,2'-dithiodipyridyl. The electron-transfer activity of the resultant ETF preparation containing 4-(2-pyridyldithio)butyramidine (PDBA) groups was only slightly affected. When ETF-Q ox substituted with MBA groups was mixed with ETF bearing PDBA groups, at least 70% of the cross-links formed between the two proteins were between the small subunit of ETF and ETF-Q ox. ETF-Q ox, therefore, interacts predominantly with the same subunit of ETF as GAD. Variables which affect the selectivity of ETF-Q ox cross-linking to the subunits of ETF are considered.
Electron-transfer flavoprotein-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (ETF-QO) was purified to homogeneity from pig liver submitochondrial particles. It is comparable in molecular weight and general properties to ETF-QO from beef heart [Ruzicka, F. J., & Beinert, H. (1977) J. Biol. Chem. 252, 8440-8445], and the electron spin resonance signals of the reduced iron-sulfur cluster are essentially identical. ETF-QO catalyzes the transfer of electrons from electron-transfer flavoprotein (ETF) to nitro blue tetrazolium, with a sluggish reaction turnover number of about 10-30 min-1. In contrast, the enzyme rapidly disproportionates ETF semiquinone, with a turnover number of 200 s-1. The reverse reaction, comproportionation of oxidized and hydroquinone ETF, provides an enzymatic assay for ETF-QO with picomolar sensitivity. Equilibrium spectrophotometric titrations show that ETF-QO accepts a maximum of two electrons from ETF and accepts three electron equivalents from dithionite or by photochemical reduction. All electrons from the enzymatically or chemically reduced protein can be transferred to 2,3-dimethoxy-5-methyl-6-pentyl-1,4-benzoquinone (PB), and this reaction is readily reversible. Reduction of ETF-QO by 2,3-dimethoxy-5-methyl-6-pentyl-1,4-benzohydroquinone is pH dependent and indicates the enzyme to have a redox potential that decreases by 47 mV per pH unit. Therefore, ETF-QO binds one to two protons upon reduction. The EO' at pH 7.3 is 38 mV. The ability of ETF-QO to catalyze the equilibration of ETF redox states has been used to evaluate the equilibrium 2ETFsq + nH+ in equilibrium ETFox + ETFhq.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The mechanism of interflavin electron transfer between pig kidney general acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (GAD) and its physiological acceptor, electron-transferring flavoprotein (ETF), has been studied by static and stopped-flow absorbance and fluorescence measurements. At 3 degrees C, pH 7.6, reoxidation of the dehydrogenase (stoichiometrically reduced by octanoyl-CoA) by ETF is multiphasic, consisting of two rapid phases (t1/2 of about 20 and 50 ms), a slower phase half-complete in about 1 s, and a final reaction with a half-time of 20 s. Only the two most rapid phases are significant in turnover. This complicated reaction course was dissected by examining the rates of plausible individual steps, e.g., GAD2e X P + ETF1e, GAD1e X P + ETFox, and GAD1e X P + ETF1e (where P represents the product, octenoyl-CoA, and the subscripts indicate the redox state of the flavin). Rapid reaction and static fluorescence measurements, in all cases, showed that the final equilibrium mixture included appreciable levels of oxidized ETF. This was confirmed by measuring the reverse reactions, e.g., ETF1e + GADox X P, ETF1e + GAD1e X P, and ETF2e + GADox X P. These data support the following overall scheme for the reaction of GAD2e X P with ETFox: The first and second phases correspond to reoxidation of GAD2e X P in two successive one-electron steps requiring two molecules of ETFox. This results in a rapid rise in absorbance at 370 nm where the red anionic radicals of both product-complexed dehydrogenase and ETF absorb strongly.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase from Megasphera elsdenii catalyzes the exchange of the alpha- and beta-hydrogens of substrate with solvent [Gomes, B., Fendrich, G., & Abeles, R. H. (1981) Biochemistry 20, 1481-1490]. The stoichiometry of this exchange was determined by using 3H2O label as 1.94 +/- 0.1 per substrate molecule. The rate of 3H label incorporation into substrate under anaerobic conditions is monophasic, indicating that both the alpha- and beta-hydrogens exchange at the same rate. The exchange in 2H2O leads to incorporation of one 2H each into the alpha- and the beta-positions of butyryl-CoA, as determined by companion 1H NMR experiments and confirmed by mass spectroscopic analysis. In contrast, with general acyl-CoA dehydrogenase from pig kidney, only exchange of the alpha-hydrogen was found. The beta-hydrogen is the one that is transferred (reversibly) to the flavin 5-position during substrate dehydrogenation. This was demonstrated by reacting 5-3H- and 5-2H-reduced 5-deaza-FAD-general acyl-CoA dehydrogenase with crotonyl-CoA. Only one face of the reduced flavin analogue is capable of transferring hydrogen to substrate. The rate of this reaction is 11.1 s-1 for 5-deaza-FAD-enzyme and 2.2 s-1 for [5-2H]deaza-FAD-enzyme, yielding an isotope effect of 5. These values compare with a rate of 2.6 s-1 for the reaction of native reduced enzyme with crotonyl-CoA. The two reduced enzymes (normal vs. 5-deaza-FAD-enzyme) thus react at similar rates, indicating a similar mechanism.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) is a heterodimeric enzyme composed of an alpha-subunit and a beta-subunit and contains a single equivalent of FAD per dimer. ETF deficiency can be demonstrated in individuals affected by a severe metabolic disorder, glutaric acidemia type II (GAII). In this study, we have investigated for the first time the molecular basis of beta-ETF deficiency in three GAII patients: two Japanese brothers, P411 and P412, and a third unrelated patient, P485. Molecular analysis of the beta-ETF gene in P411 and P412 demonstrated that both these patients are compound heterozygotes. One allele is carrying a G to A transition at nucleotide 518, causing a missense mutation at codon 164. This point mutation is maternally derived and is not detected in 42 unrelated controls. The other allele carries a G to C transversion at the first nucleotide of the intron donor site, downstream of an exon that is skipped during the splicing event. The sequence analysis of the beta-ETF coding sequence in P485 showed only a C to T transition at nucleotide 488 that causes a Thr154 to Met substitution and the elimination of a HgaI restriction site. HgaI restriction analysis on 63 unrelated controls' genomic DNA demonstrated that the C488T transition identifies a polymorphic site. Finally, transfection of wild-type beta-ETF cDNA into P411 fibroblasts suggests that wild-type beta-ETF cDNA complements the genetic defect and restores the beta-oxidation flux to normal levels.
The objective of this work was to identify the key structural functionalities of substrate or product that modulate the thermodynamic properties of medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD). In order to achieve this, two classes of substrate analogues, acetyl-CoA and thioether-CoAs, were complexed with MCAD and their effects on the redox properties of MCAD were measured. A pH dependence study of the redox potential of uncomplexed MCAD allowed us to compare redox properties between complexed and uncomplexed MCAD and to calculate the dissociation constants of the analogues to the three redox states of MCAD. The results from this work indicate that these analogues are not influencing the thermodynamic behavior of MCAD in the same way as natural substrate. Thus, we propose that the following two key structural features of the binding ligand are necessary for mimicking the thermodynamic effects natural substrate has on MCAD: a thioester carbonyl on carbon 1 and a fatty acyl-CoA chain length around 8 carbon units. Furthermore, with the advent of structural knowledge, insights into the interactions of these structural features with MCAD and their influence on MCAD's highly regulated dehydrogenation mechanism are discussed.
Electron transfer flavoproteins (ETF) are alpha beta-heterodimers found in eukaryotic mitochondria and bacteria. We have identified currently sequenced protein members of the ETF-alpha and ETF-beta families. Members of these two families include (a) the ETF subunits of mammals and bacteria, (b) homologous pairs of proteins (FixB/FixA) that are essential for nitrogen fixation in some bacteria, and (c) a pair of carnitine-inducible proteins encoded by two open reading frames in Escherichia coli (YaaQ and YaaR). These three groups of proteins comprise three clusters on both the ETF-alpha and ETF-beta phylogenetic trees, separated from each other by comparable phylogenetic distances. This fact suggests that these two protein families evolved with similar overall rates of evolutionary divergence. Relative regions of sequence conservation are evaluated, and signature sequences for both families are derived.
A group of four co-regulated genes (fixA, fixB, fixC, fixX) essential for symbiotic nitrogen fixation has been described in several rhizobial species, including Bradyrhizobium japonicum. The complete nucleotide sequence of the B. japonicum fixA, fixB and fixC, genes is reported here. The derived amino acid sequences confirmed the previously noted sequence similarity between FixA and the beta-subunit and between FixB and the alpha-subunit of mammalian and Paracoccus denitrificans electron transfer flavoproteins (ETF). Since the classical role of ETF is in beta-oxidation of fatty acids, a process unrelated to nitrogen fixation, we rationalized that B. japonicum ought to contain bona fide etf genes in addition to the etf-like genes fixA and fixB. Therefore, we identified, cloned, sequenced, and transcriptionally analyzed the B. japonicum etfSL genes encoding the beta- and alpha-subunits of ETF. The etfSL genes, but not the fix genes, are transcribed in aerobically grown cells. An amino acid sequence comparison between all available ETFs and ETF-like proteins revealed the existence of two distinguishable subfamilies. Group I comprises housekeeping ETFs that link acyl-CoA dehydrogenase reactions with the respiratory chain, such as in the fatty acid degradation pathway. B. japonicum EtfS and EtfL clearly belong to this group. Group II contains ETF-like proteins that are synthesized only under certain specific growth conditions and receive electrons from the oxidation of specific substrates. The products of the anaerobically induced fixA and fixB genes of B. japonicum are members of that group. B. japonicum is the first example of an organism in which genes for proteins of both groups I and II of the ETF family have been identified.
Crystal structures of the wild type human medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCADH) and a double mutant in which its active center base-arrangement has been altered to that of long chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (LCADH), Glu376Gly/Thr255Glu, have been determined by X-ray crystallography at 2.75 and 2.4 A resolution, respectively. The catalytic base responsible for the alpha-proton abstraction from the thioester substrate is Glu376 in MCADH, while that in LCADH is Glu255 (MCADH numbering), located over 100 residues away in its primary amino acid sequence. The structures of the mutant complexed with C8-, C12, and C14-CoA have also been determined. The human enzyme structure is essentially the same as that of the pig enzyme. The structure of the mutant is unchanged upon ligand binding except for the conformations of a few side chains in the active site cavity. The substrate with chain length longer than C12 binds to the enzyme in multiple conformations at its omega-end. Glu255 has two conformations, "active" and "resting" forms, with the latter apparently stabilized by forming a hydrogen bond with Glu99. Both the direction in which Glu255 approaches the C alpha atom of the substrate and the distance between the Glu255 carboxylate and the C alpha atom are different from those of Glu376; these factors are responsible for the intrinsic differences in the kinetic properties as well as the substrate specificity. Solvent accessible space at the "midsection" of the active site cavity, where the C alpha-C beta bond of the thioester substrate and the isoalloxazine ring of the FAD are located, is larger in the mutant than in the wild type enzyme, implying greater O2 accessibility in the mutant which might account for the higher oxygen reactivity.
Mammalian electron transfer flavoproteins (ETF) are heterodimers containing a single equivalent of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). They function as electron shuttles between primary flavoprotein dehydrogenases involved in mitochondrial fatty acid and amino acid catabolism and the membrane-bound electron transfer flavoprotein ubiquinone oxidoreductase. The structure of human ETF solved to 2.1-A resolution reveals that the ETF molecule is comprised of three distinct domains: two domains are contributed by the alpha subunit and the third domain is made up entirely by the beta subunit. The N-terminal portion of the alpha subunit and the majority of the beta subunit have identical polypeptide folds, in the absence of any sequence homology. FAD lies in a cleft between the two subunits, with most of the FAD molecule residing in the C-terminal portion of the alpha subunit. Alignment of all the known sequences for the ETF alpha subunits together with the putative FixB gene product shows that the residues directly involved in FAD binding are conserved. A hydrogen bond is formed between the N5 of the FAD isoalloxazine ring and the hydroxyl side chain of alpha T266, suggesting why the pathogenic mutation, alpha T266M, affects ETF activity in patients with glutaric acidemia type II. Hydrogen bonds between the 4'-hydroxyl of the ribityl chain of FAD and N1 of the isoalloxazine ring, and between alpha H286 and the C2-carbonyl oxygen of the isoalloxazine ring, may play a role in the stabilization of the anionic semiquinone. With the known structure of medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, we hypothesize a possible structure for docking the two proteins.
In wild-type trimethylamine dehydrogenase, tyrosine-442 is located at the center of a concave region on the surface of the enzyme that is proposed to form the docking site for the physiological redox acceptor, electron transferring flavoprotein. The intrinsic rate constant for electron transfer in the reoxidation of one-electron dithionite-reduced wild-type trimethylamine dehydrogenase (modified with phenylhydrazine) by electron transferring flavoprotein was investigated by stopped-flow spectroscopy. Analysis of the temperature dependence of the reaction rate by electron transfer theory yielded values for the reorganizational energy of 1.4 eV and the electronic coupling matrix element of 0.82 cm-1. The role played by residue Tyr-442 in facilitating reduction of ETF by TMADH was investigated by isolating three mutant forms of the enzyme in which Tyr-442 was exchanged for a phenylalanine, leucine, or glycine residue. Rates of electron transfer from these mutants of TMADH to ETF were investigated by stopped-flow spectroscopy. At 25 degrees C, modest reductions in rate were observed for the Y442F (1.4-fold) and Y442L (2.2-fold) mutant complexes, but a substantial decrease in rate (30.5-fold) and an elevated dissociation constant for the complex were seen for the Y442G mutant enzyme. Inspection of the crystal structure of wild-type TMADH reveals that Tyr-442 is positioned along one side of a small cavity on the surface of the enzyme: Val 344, located at the bottom of this cavity, is the closest surface residue to the 4Fe-4S center of TMADH and is likely to be positioned on a major electron transfer pathway to ETF. The reduced electron transfer rates in the mutant complexes are probably brought about by decreases in electronic coupling between the electron transfer donor and acceptor within the complex, either directly or indirectly due to unfavorable change in the orientation of the two proteins with respect to one another.
The interaction between two physiological redox partners, trimethylamine dehydrogenase and electron-transferring flavoprotein, has been characterized quantitatively by analytical ultracentrifugation at 4 degrees C. Analysis of sedimentation-equilibrium distributions obtained at 15 000 rpm for mixtures in 10 mM potassium phosphate, pH 7.5, by means of the psi function [Wills, P. R., Jacobsen, M. P. & Winzor, D. J. (1996) Biopolymers 38, 119-130] has yielded an intrinsic dissociation constant of 3-7 microM for the interaction of electron-transferring flavoprotein with two equivalent and independent sites on the homodimeric enzyme. This investigation indicates the potential of sedimentation equilibrium for the quantitative characterization of interactions between dissimilar macromolecules.
In trimethylamine dehydrogenase (TMADH), substrate is bound in the active site by organic cation-pi bonding mediated by residues Tyr-60, Trp-264, and Trp-355. In the closely related dimethylamine dehydrogenase (DMADH), modeling suggests that a mixture of cation-pi bonding and conventional hydrogen bonding is responsible for binding dimethylamine. The active sites of both enzymes are highly conserved, but three changes in amino acid identity (residues Tyr-60 --> Gln, Ser-74 --> Thr, and Trp-105 --> Phe, TMADH numbering) were identified as probable determinants for tertiary --> secondary alkylammonium ion specificity. In an attempt to switch the substrate specificity of TMADH so that the enzyme operates more efficiently with dimethylamine, three mutant proteins of TMADH were isolated. The mutant forms contained either a single mutation (Y60Q), double mutation (Y60Q x S74T) or triple mutation (Y60Q x S74T x W105F). A kinetic analysis in the steady state with trimethylamine and dimethylamine as substrate indicated that the specificity of the triple mutant was switched approximately 90,000-fold in favor of dimethylamine. The major component of this switch in specificity is a selective impairment of the catalytic efficiency of the enzyme with trimethylamine. Rapid-scanning and single wavelength stopped-flow spectroscopic studies revealed that the major effects of the mutations are on the rate of flavin reduction and the dissociation constant for substrate when trimethylamine is used as substrate. With dimethylamine as substrate, the rate constants for flavin reduction and the dissociation constants for substrate are not substantially affected in the mutant enzymes compared with wild-type TMADH. The results indicate a selective modification of the substrate-binding site in TMADH (that impairs catalysis with trimethylamine but not with dimethylamine) is responsible for the switch in substrate specificity displayed by the mutant enzymes.
Threonine 244 in the alpha subunit of Paracoccus denitrificans transfer flavoprotein (ETF) lies seven residues to the amino terminus of a proposed dinucleotide binding motif for the ADP moiety of the FAD prosthetic group. This residue is highly conserved in the alpha subunits of all known ETFs, and the most frequent pathogenic mutation in human ETF encodes a methionine substitution at the corresponding position, alphaT266. The X-ray crystal structures of human and P. denitrificans ETFs are very similar. The hydroxyl hydrogen and a backbone amide hydrogen of alphaT266 are hydrogen bonded to N(5) and C(4)O of the flavin, respectively, and the corresponding alphaT244 has the same structural role in P. denitrificans ETF. We substituted a methionine for T244 in the alpha subunit of P. denitrificans ETF and expressed the mutant ETF in Escherichia coli. The mutant protein was purified, characterized, and compared with wild type P. denitrificans ETF. The mutation has no significant effect on the global structure of the protein as inferred from visible and near-ultraviolet absorption and circular dichroism spectra, far-ultraviolet circular dichroism spectra, and infrared spectra in 1H2O and 2H2O. Intrinsic fluorescence due to tryptophan of the mutant protein is 60% greater than that of the wild type ETF. This increased tryptophan fluorescence is probably due to a change in the environment of the nearby W239. Tyrosine fluorescence is unchanged in the mutant protein, although two tyrosine residues are close to the site of the mutation. These results indicate that a change in structure is minor and localized. Kinetic constants of the reductive half-reaction of ETF with porcine medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase are unaltered when alphaT244M ETF serves as the substrate; however, the mutant ETF fails to exhibit saturation kinetics when the semiquinone form of the protein is used as the substrate in the disproportionation reaction catalyzed by P. denitrificans electron transfer flavoprotein-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (ETF-QO). The redox behavior of the mutant ETF was also altered as determined from the equilibrium constant of the disproportionation reaction. The separation of flavin redox potentials between the oxidized/semiquinone couple and semiquinone/hydroquinone couple are -6 mV in the wild type ETF and -27 mV in the mutant ETF. The mutation does not alter the AMP content of the protein, although the extent and fidelity of AMP-dependent, in vitro renaturation of the mutant AMP-free apoETF is reduced by 57% compared to renaturation of wild type apoETF, likely due to the absence of the potential hydrogen bond donor T244.
The crystal structure of electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) from Paracoccus denitrificans was determined and refined to an R-factor of 19.3% at 2.6 A resolution. The overall fold is identical to that of the human enzyme, with the exception of a single loop region. Like the human structure, the structure of the P. denitrificans ETF is comprised of three distinct domains, two contributed by the alpha-subunit and the third from the beta-subunit. Close analysis of the structure reveals that the loop containing betaI63 is in part responsible for conferring the high specificity of AMP binding by the ETF protein. Using the sequence and structures of the human and P. denitrificans enzymes as models, a detailed sequence alignment has been constructed for several members of the ETF family, including sequences derived for the putative FixA and FixB proteins. From this alignment, it is evident that in all members of the ETF family the residues located in the immediate vicinity of the FAD cofactor are identical, with the exception of the substitution of serine and leucine residues in the W3A1 ETF protein for the human residues alphaT266 and betaY16, respectively. Mapping of ionic differences between the human and P. denitrificans ETF onto the structure identifies a surface that is electrostatically very similar between the two proteins, thus supporting a previous docking model between human ETF and pig medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD). Analysis of the ionic strength dependence of the electron transfer reaction between either human or P. denitrificans ETF and MCAD demonstrates that the human ETF functions optimally at low ( approximately 10 mequiv) ionic strength, while P. denitrificans ETF is a better electron acceptor at higher (>75 mequiv) ionic strength. This suggests that the electrostatic surface potential of the two proteins is very different and is consistent with the difference in isoelectric points between the proteins. Analysis of the electrostatic potentials of the human and P. denitrificans ETFs reveals that the P. denitrificans ETF is more negatively charged. This excess negative charge may contribute to the difference in redox potentials between the two ETF flavoproteins and suggests an explanation for the opposing ionic strength dependencies for the reaction of MCAD with the two ETFs. Furthermore, by analysis of a model of the previously described human-P. denitrificans chimeric ETF protein, it is possible to identify one region of ETF that participates in docking with ETF-ubiquinone oxidoreductase, the physiological electron acceptor for ETF.