Structural and functional importance of two glutamate residues, Glu47 and Glu146, conserved in N-carbamyl D-amino acid amidohydrolases

Abstract

The mutant enzymes of N-carbamyl-D-amino aicd amidohydrolase (N-carbamylase) from Agrobacterium radiobacter NRRL B11291, showing a negligible activity, were selected from the library generated by random mutagenesis. From the sequence analysis, these mutants were found to contain the amino acids substitutions at Cys172, Glu47, and Glu146. Previously, Cys172 was reported to be necessary for the enzyme catalysis. The chemical modification of the N-carbamylase by carboxyl group specific chemical reagent, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide(EDC), resulted in a loss of activity. The replacement of glutamic acids with glutamines by site-directed mutagenesis led to aggregation of the enzymes. Mutant enzymes fused with maltose binding protein (MBP) were expressed in soluble form, but were inactive. These results indicate that two glutamic acid residues play an important role in structure and function of the N-carbamylase. Multiple sequence alignment of the related enzymes revealed that Glu47 and Glu146 are rigidly conserved, which suggests that tese residues are crucial for the structure and function of the functionally related C-N hydrolases.