Probing the flavin transfer mechanism in alkanesulfonate monooxygenase system

Abstract

AbstractBacteria acquire sulfur through the sulfur assimilation pathway, but under sulfur limiting conditions bacteria must acquire sulfur from alternative sources. The alkanesulfonate monooxygenase enzymes are expressed under sulfur-limiting conditions, and catalyze the desulfonation of wide-range of alkanesulfonate substrates. The SsuE enzyme is an NADPH-dependent FMN reductase that provides reduced flavin to the SsuD monooxygenase. The mechanism for the transfer of reduced flavin in flavin dependent two-component systems occurs either by free-diffusion or channeling. Previous studies have shown the presence of protein-protein interactions between SsuE and SsuD, but the identification of putative interaction sights have not been investigated. Current studies utilized HDX-MS to identify protective sites on SsuE and SsuD. A conserved α-helix on SsuD showed a decrease in percent deuteration when SsuE was included in the reaction. This suggests the role of α-helix in promoting protein-protein interactions. Specific SsuD variants were generated in order to investigate the role of these residues in protein-protein interactions and catalysis. Variant containing substitutions at the charged residues showed a six-fold decrease in the activity, while a deletion variant of SsuD lacking the α-helix showed no activity when compared to wild-type SsuD. In addition, there was no protein-protein interactions identified between SsuE and his-tagged SsuD variants in pull-down assays, which correlated with an increase in the Kd value. The α-helix is located right next to a dynamic loop region, positioned at the entrance of the active site. The putative interaction site and dynamic loop region located so close to the active site of SsuD suggests the importance of this region in the SsuD catalysis. Stopped-flow studies were performed to analyze the lag-phase which signifies the stabilization and transfer of reduced flavin from SsuE to SsuD. The SsuD variants showed a decrease in lag-phase, which could be because of a downturn in flavin transfer. A competitive assay was devised to evaluate the mechanism of flavin transfer in the alkanesulfonate monooxygenase system. A variant of SsuE was generated which interacted with SsuD, but was not able to reduce FMN. Assays that included varying concentrations of Y118A SsuE and wild-type SsuE in the coupled assays showed a decrease in the desulfonation activity of SsuD. The decrease in activity could be by virtue of Y118A SsuE competing with the wild-type SsuE for the putative docking site on SsuD. These studies define the importance of protein-protein interactions for the efficient transfer of reduced flavin from SsuE to SsuD leading to the desulfonation of alkanesulfonates.