Brussel Histidine-40 of ribonuclease T 1 acts as base catalyst when the true catalytic base , glutamic acid-58 , is replaced by alanine

Mechanisms for the ribonuclease TI (RNase T,; EC 3.1.27.3) catalyzed transesterification reaction generally include the proposal that Glu58 and His92 provide general base and general acid assistance, respectively [Heinemann, U. , & Saenger, W. (1982) Nature (London) 299, 27-31]. This view was recently challenged by the observation that mutants substituted at position 58 retain high residual activity; a revised mechanism was proposed in which His40, and not Glu58, is engaged in catalysis as general base [Nishikawa, S. , Morioka, H. , Kim, H. , Fuchimura, K. , Tanaka, T. , Uesugi, S. , Hakoshima, T. , Tomita, K. , Ohtsuka, E. , & Ikehara, M. (1987) Biochemistry 26, 8620-86241. To clarify the functional roles of His40, Glu58, and His92, we analyzed the consequences of several amino acid substitutions (His40Ala, His40Lys, His40Asp, Glu58Ala, Glu58Gln, and His92Gln) on the kinetics of GpC transesterification. The dominant effect of all mutations is on kcat, implicating His40, Glu58, and His92 in catalysis rather than in substrate binding. Plots of log (kcat/&,) vs pH for wild-type, His40Lys, and Glu58Ala RNase T I , together with the N M R determined pK, values of the histidines of these enzymes, strongly support the view that Glu58-His92 acts as the base-acid couple. The curves also show that His40 is required in its protonated form for optimal activity of wild-type enzyme. We propose that the charged His40 participates in electrostatic stabilization of the transition state; the magnitude of the catalytic defect (a factor of 2000) from the His40 to Ala replacement suggests that electrostatic catalysis contributes considerably to the overall rate acceleration. For Glu58Ala RNase TI, the pH dependence of the catalytic parameters suggests an altered mechanism in which His40 and His92 act as base and acid catalyst, respectively. The ability of His40 to adopt the function of general base must account for the significant activity remaining in Glu58-mutated enzymes. Ribonuclease TI (RNase TI , EC 3.1.27.3) from the fungus Aspergillus oryzae is the best known representative of a family of microbial ribonucleases sharing homology at both the sequence and structural level. The enzyme consists of a single polypeptide chain of 104 residues of known sequence and contains 2 disulfide bridges (Takahashi, 1971, 1985). The three-dimensional structure of RNase TI, complexed with the competitive inhibitor guanosine 2’-phosphate (2’-GMP),’ has been determined to 1.9-A resolution by Heinemann and Saenger [ 1982; see also Arni et al. (1988) and Sugio et al. ‘This work was supported by Plant Genetic Systems NV. J.S. is a Research Assistant of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research. * Address correspondence to this author at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. ‘Plant Genetic Systems NV. 5 Vrije Universiteit Brussel. 0006-2960/90/0429-9064$02.50/0 I Abbreviations: barnase, Bacillus amylofiquefaciens ribonuclease; cGMP, guanosine cyclic 2’,3’-phosphate; EDTA, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; 2’-GMP, guanosine 2’-phosphate; GpC, guanylyl(3’-5’)cytidine; GpU, guanylyl(3’-5’)uridine; IPTG, isopropyl 0-D-thiogalactopyranoside; MES, 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid; rms, root mean square; Tris, tris(hydroxymethy1)aminomethane; UpU, uridylyl(3’-5’)uridine.