Browsing by Author "Opperman, Diederik J"

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    Crystal structure of a thermostable old yellow enzyme from Thermus scotoductus SA-01
    (Elsevier, 2010) Opperman, Diederik J; Sewell, Bryan T; Litthauer, Derek; Isupov, Mikhail N; Littlechild, Jennifer A; Heerden, Esta van
    Recent characterization of the chromate reductase (CrS) from the thermophile Thermus scotoductus SA-01 revealed this enzyme to be related to the Old Yellow Enzyme (OYE) family. Here, we report the structure of a thermostable OYE homolog in its holoform at 2.2 Å as well as its complex with p-hydroxybenzaldehyde (pHBA). The enzyme crystallized as octamers with the monomers showing a classical TIM barrel fold which upon dimerization yields the biologically active form of the protein. A sulfate ion is bound above the si-side of the non-covalently bound FMN cofactor in the oxidized solved structure but is displaced upon pHBA binding. The active-site architecture is highly conserved as with other members of this enzyme family. The pHBA in the CrS complex is positioned by hydrogen bonding to the two conserved catalytic-site histidines. The most prominent structural difference between CrS and other OYE homologs is the size of the “capping domain”. Thermostabilization of the enzyme is achieved in part through increased proline content within loops and turns as well as increased intersubunit interactions through hydrogen bonding and complex salt bridge networks. CrS is able to reduce the C C bonds of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds with a preference towards cyclic substrates however no activity was observed towards β-substituted substrates. Mutational studies have confirmed the role of Tyr177 as the proposed proton donor although reduction could still occur at a reduced rate when this residue was mutated to phenylalanine.
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    Whole-cell hydroxylation of n-octane by Escherichia coli strains expressing the CYP153A6 operon
    (Springer Verlag, 2012) Gudiminchi, Rama Krishna; Randall, Charlene; Opperman, Diederik J; Olaofe, Oluwafemi A; Harrison, Susan T L; Albertyn, Jacobus; Smit, Martha S
    CYP153A6 is a well-studied terminal alkane hydroxylase which has previously been expressed in Pseudomonas putida and Escherichia coli by using the pCom8 plasmid. In this study, CYP153A6 was successfully expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) by cloning the complete operon from Mycobacterium sp. HXN-1500, also encoding the ferredoxin reductase and ferredoxin, into pET28b(+). LB medium with IPTG as well as auto-induction medium was used to express the proteins under the T7 promoter. A maximum concentration of 1.85 μM of active CYP153A6 was obtained when using auto-induction medium, while with IPTG induction of LB cultures, the P450 concentration peaked at 0.6–0.8 μM. Since more biomass was produced in auto-induction medium, the specific P450 content was often almost the same, 0.5–1.0 μmol P450 gDCW−1 , for both methods. Analytical scale whole-cell biotransformations of n-octane were conducted with resting cells, and it was found that high P450 content in biomass did not necessarily result in high octanol production. Whole cells from LB cultures induced with IPTG gave higher specific and volumetric octanol formation rates than biomass from auto-induction medium. A maximum of 8.7 g octanol LBRM−1 was obtained within 24 h (0.34 g LBRM−1 h−1 ) with IPTG-induced cells containing only 0.20 μmol P450 gDCW−1 , when glucose (22 g LBRM−1 ) was added for cofactor regeneration.