0000000000311344

AUTHOR

Meitian Wang

Crystal Structure of Perakine Reductase, Founding Member of a Novel Aldo-Keto Reductase (AKR) Subfamily That Undergoes Unique Conformational Changes during NADPH Binding

Perakine reductase (PR) catalyzes the NADPH-dependent reduction of the aldehyde perakine to yield the alcohol raucaffrinoline in the biosynthetic pathway of ajmaline in Rauvolfia, a key step in indole alkaloid biosynthesis. Sequence alignment shows that PR is the founder of the new AKR13D subfamily and is designated AKR13D1. The x-ray structure of methylated His(6)-PR was solved to 2.31 Å. However, the active site of PR was blocked by the connected parts of the neighbor symmetric molecule in the crystal. To break the interactions and obtain the enzyme-ligand complexes, the A213W mutant was generated. The atomic structure of His(6)-PR-A213W complex with NADPH was determined at 1.77 Å. Overal…

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High speed X-ray analysis of plant enzymes at room temperature.

X-ray measurements at room temperature (295 K) deliver high quality data sets with unprecedented speed (2 min), as shown for crystallized raucaffricine-O-β-D-glucosidase (RG), its mutant RG-Glu186Gln and several ligand complexes of the enzyme which participates in alkaloid biosynthesis in the plant Rauvolfia. The data obtained are compared with data sets measured under typical cryo conditions (100K). Under both conditions, density maps are highly comparable and favor the described protocol for room temperature measurements, potentially paving the way for future crystallographic studies capturing biosynthetic pathway intermediates.

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Structures of Alkaloid Biosynthetic Glucosidases Decode Substrate Specificity

Two similar enzymes with different biosynthetic function in one species have evolved to catalyze two distinct reactions. X-ray structures of both enzymes help reveal their most important differences. The Rauvolfia alkaloid biosynthetic network harbors two O-glucosidases: raucaffricine glucosidase (RG), which hydrolyses raucaffricine to an intermediate downstream in the ajmaline pathway, and strictosidine glucosidase (SG), which operates upstream. RG converts strictosidine, the substrate of SG, but SG does not accept raucaffricine. Now elucidation of crystal structures of RG, inactive RG-E186Q mutant, and its complexes with ligands dihydro-raucaffricine and secologanin reveals that it is the…

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Ligand structures of synthetic deoxa-pyranosylamines with raucaffricine and strictosidine glucosidases provide structural insights into their binding and inhibitory behaviours

Insight into the structure and inhibition mechanism of O-β-d-glucosidases by deoxa-pyranosylamine type inhibitors is provided by X-ray analysis of complexes between raucaffricine and strictosidine glucosidases and N-(cyclohexylmethyl)-, N-(cyclohexyl)- and N-(bromobenzyl)-β-d-gluco-1,5-deoxa-pyranosylamine. All inhibitors anchored exclusively in the catalytic active site by competition with appropriate enzyme substrates. Thus facilitated prospective elucidation of the binding networks with residues located at <3.9 A distance will enable the development of potent inhibitors suitable for the production of valuable alkaloid glucosides, raucaffricine and strictosidine, by means of synthesis in …

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Strukturbasis und Enzymmechanismus der Biosynthese von C9- aus C10-monoterpenoiden Indol-Alkaloiden

Alle Neune: Die dreidimensionale Struktur der Polyneuridinaldehyd-Esterase (PNAE) gibt einen Einblick in den Enzymmechanismus der Biosynthese von C9- aus C10-monoterpenoiden Indol-Alkaloiden (siehe Schema). PNAE ist eine sehr substratspezifische Serin-Esterase. Sie enthalt die katalytische Triade S87-D216-H244 und ist ein neues Mitglied der Superfamilie der α/β-Hydrolasen, allerdings mit einer neuartigen Funktion: der Diversifizierung von Alkaloidstrukturen.

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Structural Basis and Enzymatic Mechanism of the Biosynthesis of C9- from C10-Monoterpenoid Indole Alkaloids

Cutting carbons: The three-dimensional structure of polyneuridine aldehyde esterase (PNAE) gives insight into the enzymatic mechanism of the biosynthesis of C(9)- from C(10)-monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (see scheme). PNAE is a very substrate-specific serine esterase. It harbors the catalytic triad S87-D216-H244, and is a new member of the alpha/beta-fold hydrolase superfamily. Its novel function leads to the diversification of alkaloid structures.

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