A chimeric tyrosine/tryptophan hydroxylase |
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Authors: | Susan M Mockus Sean C Kumer Kent E Vrana |
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Affiliation: | (1) Program in Neuroscience, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC;(2) Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC |
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Abstract: | The neurotransmitter biosynthetic enzymes, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), and tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) are each composed of
an amino-terminal regulatory domain and a carboxylterminal catalytic domain. A chimeric hydroxylase was generated by coupling
the regulatory domain of TH (TH-R) to the catalytic domain of TPH (TPH-C) and expressing the recombinant enzyme in bacteria.
The chimeric junction was created at proline 165 in TH and proline 106 in TPH because this residue is within a conserved five
amino-acid span (ValProTrpPhePro) that defines the beginning of the highly homologous catalytic domains of TH and TPH. Radioenzymatic
activity assays demonstrated that the TH-R/TPH-C chimera hydroxylates tryptophan, but not tyrosine. Therefore, the regulatory
domain does not confer substrate specificity. Although the TH-R/TPH-C enzyme did serve as a substrate for protein kinase (PKA),
activation was not observed following phosphorylation. Phosphorylation studies in combination with kinetic data provided evidence
that TH-R does not exert a dominant influence on TPH-C. Stability assays revealed that, whereas TH exhibited a t1/2 of 84 min at 37°C, TPH was much less stable (t
1/2=28.3 min). The stability profile of TH-R/TPH-C, however, was superimposable on that of TH. Removal of the regulatory domain
(a deletion of 165 amino acids from the N-terminus) of TH rendered the catalytic domain highly unstable, as demonstrated by
at
1/2 of 14 min. The authors conclude that the regulatory domain of TH functions as a stabilizer of enzyme activity. As a corollary,
the well-characterized instability of TPH may be attributed to the inability of its regulatory domain to stabilize the catalytic
domain. |
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Keywords: | Chimera phosphorylation tryptophan hydroxylase tyrosine hydroxylase bacterial expression |
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