J Backmann — Page 2 | PubMed Health

PubMed1994

Extended kinetic analysis of ribonuclease T1 variants leads to an improved scheme for the reaction mechanism.

Recombinant ribonuclease (RNase) T1 variants were characterized kinetically taking into account the different reactions catalyzed by this enzyme. In addition to established assays, monitoring the transesterification activity, a photometric assay for fast screening of RNase T1 and variants thereof for ester hydrolysis activity is described, which is based on the application of phenol red as pH indicator. Moreover we established an HPLC assay to evaluate RNase T1 variants by their ability to carry out the transesterification towards an internucleotide diphosphoester (reverse or synthetic activity). In this way we found that the transesterification and hydrolyzing activities of variants change in various directions though in all reactions the same active site and the same transition state are involved. The variant where Tyr42 has been replaced by Trp performs RNA synthesis better than the wild type protein. The scheme of the hypothetic RNase T1 mechanism had to be improved to take into account the non processive character of the reaction.

Binding Sites↗

PubMed1993

Trp59 to Tyr substitution enhances the catalytic activity of RNase T1 and of the Tyr to Trp variants in positions 24, 42 and 45.

Using point mutated overproducing strains of E. coli, ribonuclease T1 was prepared with the single substitutions Tyr24Trp, Tyr42Trp, Tyr45Trp or Trp59Tyr and the corresponding double substitutions Tyr24Trp/Trp59Tyr, Tyr42Trp/Trp59Tyr and Tyr45Trp/Trp59Tyr. Steady state kinetics of the transesterification reaction for the two dinucleoside monophosphate substrates guanylyl-3',5'-cytidine and guanylyl-3',5'-adenosine indicate that the tryptophan can be introduced in different positions within the ribonuclease T1 molecule without abolishing enzymatic activity. The Trp59Tyr exchange even enhances catalysis of the cleavage reaction (kcat/Km) relative to the wild type enzyme and similar effects are found with single tyrosine to tryptophan substitutions. For the pH dependencies of the guanylyl-3',5'-cytidine transesterification reaction of wild type ribonuclease T1 and of the variants, typically bell-shaped curves are observed with a plateau in the range pH 4.5-7.0. Their shapes and slopes indicate that the enzymes are comparable in their macroscopic pKa values. At pH 7.5, the variant Tyr45Trp/Trp59Tyr shows a more than 3-fold higher transesterification activity for guanylyl-3',5'-adenosine and a 2-fold increase for guanylyl-3',5'-cytidine compared to the wild type enzyme, i.e. this variant catalyses the transesterification of the substrate guanylyl-3',5'-adenosine with the same or better efficiency as guanylyl-3',5'-cytidine.

Base Sequence↗