skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Differential catalytic promiscuity of the alkaline phosphatase superfamily bimetallo core reveals mechanistic features underlying enzyme evolution

Journal Article · · Journal of Biological Chemistry
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4]
  1. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Biochemistry, Beckman Center
  2. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Dept. of Neurology and Neurological Science, Structural Biology, and Photon Science, and Howard Hughes Medical Inst.
  3. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), Macromolecular Crystallographic Group
  4. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Biochemistry, Dept. of Neurology and Neurological Science, and Beckman Center; Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Stanford Chemistry, Engineering, and Medicine for Human Health (ChEM-H)

Members of enzyme superfamilies specialize in different reactions but often exhibit catalytic promiscuity for one another's reactions, consistent with catalytic promiscuity as an important driver in the evolution of new enzymes. Wanting to understand how catalytic promiscuity and other factors may influence evolution across a superfamily, we turned to the well-studied alkaline phosphatase (AP) superfamily, comparing three of its members, two evolutionarily distinct phosphatases and a phosphodiesterase. Here, we mutated distinguishing active-site residues to generate enzymes that had a common Zn2+ bimetallo core but little sequence similarity and different auxiliary domains. We then tested the catalytic capabilities of these pruned enzymes with a series of substrates. A substantial rate enhancement of ~1011-fold for both phosphate mono- and diester hydrolysis by each enzyme indicated that the Zn2+ bimetallo core is an effective mono/di-esterase generalist and that the bimetallo cores were not evolutionarily tuned to prefer their cognate reactions. In contrast, our pruned enzymes were ineffective sulfatases, and this limited promiscuity may have provided a driving force for founding the distinct one-metal-ion branch that contains all known AP superfamily sulfatases. Finally, our pruned enzymes exhibited 107–108-fold phosphotriesterase rate enhancements, despite absence of such enzymes within the AP superfamily. We speculate that the superfamily active-site architecture involved in nucleophile positioning prevents accommodation of the additional triester substituent. Overall, we suggest that catalytic promiscuity, and the ease or difficulty of remodeling and building onto existing protein scaffolds, have greatly influenced the course of enzyme evolution. Uncovering principles and properties of enzyme function, promiscuity, and repurposing provides lessons for engineering new enzymes.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; GM64798; GM049243
OSTI ID:
1425345
Journal Information:
Journal of Biological Chemistry, Vol. 292, Issue 51; ISSN 0021-9258
Publisher:
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 18 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (90)

Structural Basis for Natural Lactonase and Promiscuous Phosphotriesterase Activities journal June 2008
The Depth of Chemical Time and the Power of Enzymes as Catalysts journal December 2001
Crystal Structure of an Ancient Protein: Evolution by Conformational Epistasis journal August 2007
Artificial Evolution of an Enzyme Active Site: Structural Studies of Three Highly Active Mutants of Escherichia coli Alkaline Phosphatase journal March 2002
Conserved core structure and active site residues in alkaline phosphatase superfamily enzymes journal January 2001
Refinement of Macromolecular Structures by the Maximum-Likelihood Method journal May 1997
Evolution by Gene Duplication book January 1970
Topics in Clinical Microbiology Flavobacterium Meningosepticum journal May 1984
Crystal structure of autotaxin and insight into GPCR activation by lipid mediators journal January 2011
Structural and Functional Comparisons of Nucleotide Pyrophosphatase/Phosphodiesterase and Alkaline Phosphatase:  Implications for Mechanism and Evolution , journal August 2006
Crystal Structure of Human Arylsulfatase A:  The Aldehyde Function and the Metal Ion at the Active Site Suggest a Novel Mechanism for Sulfate Ester Hydrolysis , journal March 1998
Catalytic Promiscuity and the Divergent Evolution of DNA Repair Enzymes journal February 2006
Biological Phosphoryl-Transfer Reactions: Understanding Mechanism and Catalysis journal July 2011
1.3 Å Structure of Arylsulfatase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Establishes the Catalytic Mechanism of Sulfate Ester Cleavage in the Sulfatase Family journal June 2001
Assessing the prediction fidelity of ancestral reconstruction by a library approach journal August 2015
Evolvability journal July 1998
Mutations at Positions 153 and 328 inEscherichia coliAlkaline Phosphatase Provide Insight Towards the Structure and Function of Mammalian and Yeast Alkaline Phosphatases journal November 1995
Enzymatic Mechanisms of Phosphate and Sulfate Transfer journal August 2006
Phosphoryl group transfer: evolution of a catalytic scaffold journal September 2004
A systematic identification of Kolobok superfamily transposons in Trichomonas vaginalis and sequence analysis on related transposases journal February 2011
How good are my data and what is the resolution? journal June 2013
Structure−Reactivity Studies of Serum Paraoxonase PON1 Suggest that Its Native Activity Is Lactonase journal April 2005
Efficient Catalytic Promiscuity for Chemically Distinct Reactions journal May 2009
Effective charge distribution for attack of phenoxide ion on aryl methyl phosphate monoanion: studies related to the action of ribonuclease journal November 1989
Catalytic mechanisms for phosphotriesterases journal January 2013
Structure of a human lysosomal sulfatase journal February 1997
Arginine Coordination in Enzymatic Phosphoryl Transfer: Evaluation of the Effect of Arg166 Mutations in Escherichia coli Alkaline Phosphatase journal July 2008
Crystal structure of the human alkaline sphingomyelinase provides insights into substrate recognition journal March 2017
Alkaline Phosphatase Revisited:  Hydrolysis of Alkyl Phosphates journal February 2002
Promiscuous Sulfatase Activity and Thio-Effects in a Phosphodiesterase of the Alkaline Phosphatase Superfamily journal December 2008
Reconstruction of Ancestral Metabolic Enzymes Reveals Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Evolutionary Innovation through Gene Duplication journal December 2012
Sulfotransferases: Structure, Mechanism, Biological Activity, Inhibition, and Synthetic Utility journal July 2004
Sulfatases: Structure, Mechanism, Biological Activity, Inhibition, and Synthetic Utility journal November 2004
X-Ray Structure Reveals a New Class and Provides Insight into Evolution of Alkaline Phosphatases journal July 2011
A superfamily of metalloenzymes unifies phosphopentomutase and cofactor-independent phosphoglycerate mutase with alkaline phosphatases and sulfatases journal August 1998
Enzyme Promiscuity: Engine of Evolutionary Innovation journal September 2014
An evolutionary treasure: unification of a broad set of amidohydrolases related to urease journal May 1997
A New Member of the Alkaline Phosphatase Superfamily with a Formylglycine Nucleophile: Structural and Kinetic Characterisation of a Phosphonate Monoester Hydrolase/Phosphodiesterase from Rhizobium leguminosarum journal December 2008
High-Resolution Analysis of Zn2+ Coordination in the Alkaline Phosphatase Superfamily by EXAFS and X-ray Crystallography journal January 2012
The physiology and habitat of the last universal common ancestor journal July 2016
The 'evolvability' of promiscuous protein functions journal November 2004
Enzyme Recruitment in Evolution of New Function journal October 1976
Mapping catalytic promiscuity in the alkaline phosphatase superfamily journal January 2009
Site-Directed Mutagenesis Maps Interactions That Enhance Cognate and Limit Promiscuous Catalysis by an Alkaline Phosphatase Superfamily Phosphodiesterase journal November 2013
Structural and Catalytic Diversity within the Amidohydrolase Superfamily journal May 2005
A functionally diverse enzyme superfamily that abstracts the alpha protons of carboxylic acids journal February 1995
Large-Scale Analysis Exploring Evolution of Catalytic Machineries and Mechanisms in Enzyme Superfamilies journal January 2016
Diversity in protein domain superfamilies journal December 2015
Catalytic Proficiency: The Extreme Case of S–O Cleaving Sulfatases journal December 2011
Resurrecting ancestral alcohol dehydrogenases from yeast journal May 2005
MolProbity : all-atom structure validation for macromolecular crystallography journal December 2009
Efficient Catalytic Promiscuity in an Enzyme Superfamily: An Arylsulfatase Shows a Rate Acceleration of 10 13 for Phosphate Monoester Hydrolysis journal December 2008
Sulfatase Activity of E. coli Alkaline Phosphatase Demonstrates a Functional Link to Arylsulfatases, an Evolutionarily Related Enzyme Family journal December 1998
Features and development of Coot journal March 2010
The Chryseobacterium meningosepticum PafA enzyme: prototype of a new enzyme family of prokaryotic phosphate-irrepressible alkaline phosphatases? journal October 2001
Functional Annotation and Three-Dimensional Structure of Dr0930 from Deinococcus radiodurans , a Close Relative of Phosphotriesterase in the Amidohydrolase Superfamily journal March 2009
Evolution of Enzyme Superfamilies: Comprehensive Exploration of Sequence–Function Relationships journal November 2016
Efficient, crosswise catalytic promiscuity among enzymes that catalyze phosphoryl transfer journal January 2013
Evolvability of physiological and biochemical traits: evolutionary mechanisms including and beyond single-nucleotide mutation journal May 2007
Empirical fitness landscapes reveal accessible evolutionary paths journal January 2007
Divergent Evolution of Enzymatic Function: Mechanistically Diverse Superfamilies and Functionally Distinct Suprafamilies journal June 2001
The Reactivity of Phosphate Esters. Monoester Hydrolysis journal January 1967
PHENIX: a comprehensive Python-based system for macromolecular structure solution journal January 2010
Divergence of Chemical Function in the Alkaline Phosphatase Superfamily: Structure and Mechanism of the P−C Bond Cleaving Enzyme Phosphonoacetate Hydrolase journal May 2011
Evolution of enzyme superfamilies journal October 2006
Mechanistic and Evolutionary Insights from Comparative Enzymology of Phosphomonoesterases and Phosphodiesterases across the Alkaline Phosphatase Superfamily journal October 2016
Comparative Enzymology in the Alkaline Phosphatase Superfamily to Determine the Catalytic Role of an Active-Site Metal Ion journal December 2008
Expanding the Enzyme Universe: Accessing Non-Natural Reactions by Mechanism-Guided Directed Evolution journal February 2015
Probing the Origins of Catalytic Discrimination between Phosphate and Sulfate Monoester Hydrolysis: Comparative Analysis of Alkaline Phosphatase and Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases journal October 2014
The Enzyme Function Initiative journal November 2011
Mechanisms of Cellulases and Xylanases: A Detailed Kinetic Study of the Exo-.beta.-1,4-glycanase from Cellulomonas Fimi journal May 1994
Do Electrostatic Interactions with Positively Charged Active Site Groups Tighten the Transition State for Enzymatic Phosphoryl Transfer? journal September 2004
Structural and Catalytic Similarities between Nucleotide Pyrophosphatases/Phosphodiesterases and Alkaline Phosphatases journal October 2000
Evolution of Hormone-Receptor Complexity by Molecular Exploitation journal April 2006
What makes an enzyme promiscuous? journal April 2010
Studies on Sulfate Esters. I. Nucleophilic Reactions of Amines with p-Nitrophenyl Sulfate journal December 1966
Metal Specificity Is Correlated with Two Crucial Active Site Residues in Escherichia coli Alkaline Phosphatase , journal June 2005
An efficient, multiply promiscuous hydrolase in the alkaline phosphatase superfamily journal January 2010
Enzyme Promiscuity: A Mechanistic and Evolutionary Perspective journal June 2010
Does the Active Site Arginine Change the Nature of the Transition State for Alkaline Phosphatase-Catalyzed Phosphoryl Transfer? journal December 1999
Phaser crystallographic software journal July 2007
Sulfotransferases: Structure, Mechanism, Biological Activity, Inhibition, and Synthetic Utility journal September 2004
Sulfatases: Structure, Mechanism, Biological Activity, Inhibition, and Synthetic Utility journal January 2005
Catalytic Promiscuity and the Divergent Evolution of DNA Repair Enzymes journal May 2006
Enzymatic Mechanisms of Phosphate and Sulfate Transfer journal October 2006
Exploring the gas access routes in a [NiFeSe] hydrogenase using crystals pressurized with krypton and oxygen journal August 2020
PARP1 exhibits enhanced association and catalytic efficiency with γH2A.X-nucleosome journal December 2019
Cavin1 intrinsically disordered domains are essential for fuzzy electrostatic interactions and caveola formation journal February 2021
Crystal Structure of an Ancient Protein: Evolution by Conformational Epistasis text January 2007
PHENIX: a comprehensive Python-based system for macromolecular structure solution. text January 2010

Cited By (3)

Evolutionary repurposing of a sulfatase: A new Michaelis complex leads to efficient transition state charge offset journal July 2018
A Novel Alkaline Phosphatase/Phosphodiesterase, CamPhoD, from Marine Bacterium Cobetia amphilecti KMM 296 journal November 2019
Challenges and advances in the computational modeling of biological phosphate hydrolysis journal January 2018