Engineering of Substrate Specificity of D-Amino Acid Oxidase from the Yeast Trigonopsis variabilis: Directed Mutagenesis of Phe258 Residue

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N. V. Komarova^1,2, I. V. Golubev^1,3, S. V. Khoronenkova^1,3, T. A. Chubar’^1,2,3, and V. I. Tishkov^1,2,3*

¹Innovations and High Technologies MSU Ltd., ul. Tsimlyanskaya 16, room 96, 109559 Moscow, Russia; fax: (495) 939-3208

²Bach Institute of Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky pr. 33-2, 117234 Moscow, Russia; fax: (495) 954-2732; E-mail: vitishkov@gmail.com

³Chemistry Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia; fax: (495) 939-2742

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received June 3, 2012; Revision received June 21, 2012

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Natural D-amino acid oxidases (DAAO) are not suitable for selective determination of D-amino acids due to their broad substrate specificity profiles. Analysis of the 3D-structure of the DAAO enzyme from the yeast Trigonopsis variabilis (TvDAAO) revealed the Phe258 residue located at the surface of the protein globule to be in the entrance to the active site. The Phe258 residue was mutated to Ala, Ser, and Tyr residues. The mutant TvDAAOs with amino acid substitutions Phe258Ala, Phe258Ser, and Phe258Tyr were purified to homogeneity and their thermal stability and substrate specificity were studied. These substitutions resulted in either slight stabilization (Phe258Tyr) or destabilization (Phe258Ser) of the enzyme. The change in half-inactivation periods was less than twofold. However, these substitutions caused dramatic changes in substrate specificity. Increasing the side chain size with the Phe258Tyr substitution decreased the kinetic parameters with all the D-amino acids studied. For the two other substitutions, the substrate specificity profiles narrowed. The catalytic efficiency increased only for D-Tyr, D-Phe, and D-Leu, and for all other D-amino acids this parameter dramatically decreased. The improvement of catalytic efficiency with D-Tyr, D-Phe, and D-Leu for TvDAAO Phe258Ala was 3.66-, 11.7-, and 1.5-fold, and for TvDAAO Phe258Ser it was 1.7-, 4.75-, and 6.61-fold, respectively.

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KEY WORDS: D-amino acid oxidase, site-directed mutagenesis, substrate specificity, thermal stability

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297912100100

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