Patent Application: US-53346600-A

Abstract:
the present invention relates to a data storage medium encoded with the structural coordinates of crystallized molecules and molecular complexes which comprise the active site binding pockets of bacterial impdh . such data storage material is capable of displaying such molecules and molecular complexes , or their structural homologues , as a graphical three - dimensional representation on a computer screen . this invention also relates to methods of using the structure coordinates to solve the structure of homologous proteins or protein complexes . in addition , this invention relates to methods of using the structure coordinates to screen and design compounds , including inhibitory compounds , that bind to impdh or homologues thereof . this invention also relates to molecules and molecular complexes that comprise the active site binding pockets of impdh or close structural homologues of the active site binding pockets . this invention also relates to compounds and pharmaceutical compositions which are inhibitors of bacterial impdh .

Description:
the invention relates the crystal structure of a bacterial impdh with substrate bound in the catalytic site . conditions for producing a crystal from bacterial impdh were completely different than for humans . the structure was determined using semet - substituted protein and multi - wavelength anomalous diffraction ( mad ) ( hendrickson , 1991 ) analysis of data obtained with synchrotron radiation from the undulator beamline of the structural biology center at the advanced photon source . the high quality of the data allowed determination of the structure of both catalytic and cystathionine - β - synthase ( cbs ) dimer domains . the α / β barrel domain of impdh embodies the catalytic framework . the cbs dimer domain contains two cbs motifs that are known to play a regulatory role in other proteins . however , their function in impdh is unknown . this is the first crystal structure reported of a complete cbs dimer domain . bacterial and mammalian impdh enzymes have distinct kinetic and biochemical characteristics . comparison of this bacterial impdh with the known partial structures from eukaryotic organisms provides an explanation of their distinct properties and contributes to the design of specific bacterial inhibitors . the structure of s . pyogenes impdh ( fig1 ) provides a new resource to define the distinct characteristics of bacterial and mammalian impdh enzymes . features such as the catalytic motifs , active site flap region and cbs dimer domain are structurally conserved , but show a different pattern of sequence conservation in bacteria and eukaryotes . analysis of sequence differences in these regions suggests they could contribute to the differential signature of the bacterial and mammalian enzymes . one of these sequence regions is the αg helix ( fig2 ) that forms part of the catalytic pocket . analysis of sequence alignments for this region ( table 2 ) indicates a pattern of catalytic residues conserved in all enzymes and a secondary pattern of amino acid conservation associated with either bacterial or eukaryotic impdh enzymes . in this region , the pattern of bacterial sequence conservation is superimposed on a pattern of residues highly conserved in impdh enzymes from all organisms . these highly conserved residues are involved in imp binding ; the characteristics of which appear to be similar for bacterial and eukaryotic impdh enzymes . the existence of distinct bacterial catalytic pocket is supported by site - specific mutants at positions e421 and y450 ( numbering corresponds to the amino acid sequence of the s . pyogenes impdh enzyme ) that appear to differentially alter the activity of the mammalian and bacterial impdh enzymes . residue y450 in s . pyogenes impdh is located at the noncatalytic end of the tim barrel . however , this region has contacts with another molecule in the tetramer and contributes to the catalytic environment of the adjacent monomer ( fig3 ). site - specific mutagenesis results show partial retention of activity with an alanine substitution but no activity with an aspartic acid substitution for this residue . aspartic acid was selected as a replacement on the basis of sequence alignments that show 12 of 13 eucaryotic enzymes contain aspartic acid at the corresponding position ( the exception being asparagine in t . foetus ). the partial activity observed with the ala replacement suggests y450 does not have an essential role in catalysis but does contribute to the environment of the catalytic pocket . further analysis of this region will provide insight into the differences in the environment of the catalytic pocket in bacterial and eucaryotic enzymes and also the role of the tetrameric form of the active enzyme . the e421 in s . pyogenes impdh is conserved in bacteria while eucaryotic impdh enzymes contain glutamine in the corresponding position . in hamster impdh , the corresponding residue , q441 , is implicated in the binding of mpa . comparison of the residues involved in mpa binding in the hamster enzyme ( d274 , ser276 , n303 , r322 , g326 , t333 , q441 ) with the equivalent residues in s . pyogenes impdh indicates that these residues are largely conserved . the aspartic acid , asparagine , glycine , and threonine residues are identical , but threonine replaces s276 ( although serine is present in other bacterial enzymes ), and k301 replaces the hamster r322 residue . the most significant change appears to be replacement of e421 with q441 ( interestingly , this residue is part of the active - site flap ). although this suggests that the nad binding pockets of hamster and bacterial impdh differ , a change in activity was not observed upon substitution of glutamine for glutamic acid at position 421 . it is possible that this substitution does not affect the observed activity but may alter the sensitivity to mpa . the active site flap represents another region that could account for the kinetic and biochemical differences between impdh enzymes . this flap is present in all impdh enzymes and is disordered in all impdh structures but may become ordered to upon nad binding . sequence comparisons ( table 2 ) indicate the loop size is conserved but sequence conservation is limited . a conserved feature of this region is the presence of an arginine next to one or two aromatic residues . since imp and nad bind sequentially to the active site , these residues may bind to the phosphate or the adenine or nicotinamide ring thereby ordering the active site . the sequence heterogeneity observed in this flap region may also account for the discriminatory features of bacterial and mammalian impdh enzymes . the finger region and the cbs dimer domain are not involved in catalysis but are found in all impdh enzymes . these regions show little sequence conservation but have been structurally conserved . the finger structure is composed of two anti - parallel β - strand structures stabilized by hydrogen bonding and interactions with the βl region ( fig2 ). the cbs dimer domain contains two cbs motifs arranged on a pseudo - dyad axis . in other proteins ( e . g . cystathionine - beta - synthase and chloride channel proteins ), mutations in these domains are associated with pathologic consequences . it has also been suggested ( nimmesgern et al ., 1996 ) that these domains may be involved in cytoplasmic targeting or other regulatory functions . in either case , the metabolic expenditure required for conservation of these structures suggests an underlying functional role . a unique aspect of the s . pyogenes impdh structure is that it allows examination of the initial stage of the catalytic cycle . imp does not form a covalent bond in the absence of nad . covalent bond formation requires reorientation of the hypoxanthine ring and nucleophilic attack on c2 by cys310 . this suggests that nad may have multiple roles as hydride acceptor , substrate activator , and also in contributing to the structure of the active site pocket . nad binding likely initiates realignment of the hypoxanthine ring and also facilitates the electron shift with the ring required for formation of the thioimidate intermediate . the structure of s . pyogenes impdh allows for a detailed comparison of the eukaryotic and bacterial enzymes and provides the basis for an explanation for the unique properties of the bacterial enzymes . this knowledge aids the design of inhibitors that specifically target bacterial impdh enzymes . the crystal structure of s . pyogenes impdh was determined at 1 . 9 å resolution by replacing all methionine residues in the enzyme with selenomethionine and applying mad phasing methods ( hendrickson , 1991 ). the impdh crystals were tetragonal ( space group i422 , a = b = 151 . 49 å , c = 101 . 67 å , α = β = γ = 90 °) and contained one 53 kda monomer per asymmetric unit . the enzyme contains 13 methionine residues : a potential 13 selenium sites ( table 3 ). data were collected at three x - ray energies : at the peak and edge energies of the selenium absorption spectrum , and at a lower energy far from the edge . the initial model of the α / β barrel core ( amino acid residues 15 - 90 and 222 - 460 ) was obtained by molecular replacement using a search model derived from the atomic coordinates of impdh from t . foetus ( whitby et al ., 1997 ). these phases were sufficient to permit location of 6 selenium sites . four rounds of phase development , in which the selenium sites were refined against the three data sets in program mlphare ( otwinowski , 1991 ), permitted location of the remaining selenium atoms in different fourier maps . the electron density map used for interpretation of this structure was phased by mlphare with all 13 selenium sites . the figure of merit ( fom ) for this phasing calculation was 0 . 64 ( table 4 ); the phasing power was 2 . 1 for all data between 10 - 2 . 5 å resolution . solvent flattening and density modification ( cowtan , 1994 ) further improved the electron density map ( fom = 0 . 72 ), which at this point was clear enough to trace almost all of the main peptide chain and most side chains ( fig4 ). registration of the sequence was made easy because methionine residues could be identified with the known selenium positions . the model was refined with the program cns ( brünger , et al ., 1998 ), which significantly improved the interpretation of several regions in the model that were initially ambiguous . the model disclosed herein contains 3 , 992 nonhydrogen atoms , from residues 2 - 401 and 416 - 492 , in two distinct domains . the crystallographic r - factor is 23 . 2 % ( r - free : 26 . 1 %) for all reflections between 6 and 1 . 9 å resolution ( table 5 ). the current model contains 422 water molecules with an average b factor for all nonhydrogen protein atoms of 37 . 5 å ( table 5 ). this structure is significantly more complete ( 97 %) and of higher resolution ( 1 . 9 å ) than those reported for impdh from chinese hamster ( sintchak et al ., 1996 ) ( 85 %, 2 . 3 å ) and t . foetus ( whitby et at ., 1997 ) ( 68 %, 2 . 3 å ). the map also contains clearly defined electron density for the imp substrate , bound in the catalytic site . the s . pyogenes impdh tetramer is composed of four identical subunits where each monomer has a two - domain structure ( fig1 a ). the catalytic domain ( amino acid residues 2 - 92 and 224 - 492 ) forms the interior core of the active tetrameric enzyme and is approximately 40 × 40 × 50 å . this domain contains the catalytic site that is positioned near the tetramer four - fold at the subunit interface ( fig1 b ). this location places access to the active site on the same face of the tetramer . the cbs dimer domain ( residues 93 - 223 , approximately 20 × 20 × 30 å ) is on the active site face and projects outward from the core of the tetrameric unit placing this domain in the comer of the square formed by e162 . the core of the catalytic domain ( fig2 a ) is formed by an α / β barrel structure that provides a scaffold for the attachment of additional structural and catalytic moieties and the cbs dimer domain . this core region contains a series of eight parallel α / β motifs with the active site near the c - terminus of the β - strands ( fig2 b ). the number and relative location of the barrel structures in s . pyogenes impdh are similar to that reported for the chinese hamster ( sintchak et al ., 1996 ) and t . foetus ( whitby et al ., 1997 ) impdh and for other nicotinamide - dependent oxidoreductases . however , in impdh the phosphate - binding site is occupied by imp rather than by the phosphate of the nad or nadp cofactors as seen in the other nicotinamide dependent oxidoreductases . the β - strand structures and the interior residues of the helices are hydrophobic with very few water molecules observed in the interior of the α / β barrel structure . this hydrophobic environment and the network of hydrogen bonds provide a stable scaffold to anchor the functional and catalytic motifs . examination of the sequence conservation for impdh representatives from the three kingdoms suggests a limited sequence conservation of the α / β barrel core structure relative to the high level of conservation observed for residues forming the catalytic site pocket . the sequence conservation of α / β barrel core is restricted to residues adjacent to the active site pocket and to a region representing the junction between the catalytic and cbs dimer domains . several large structural and catalytic protrusions connect the β - strands and α - helices of the α / β barrel surface . the distal face of the α / β barrel ( furthest from the imp binding pocket ) provides for entry of the n - terminus ( strand β1 ). the cbs dimer domain is attached through helix α2 and strand β3 . connections between the remaining α / β motifs are short ( 2 - 5 amino acid residues ) and characterized by a preponderance of proline , glycine and hydrophobic residues . the c - terminal region exits from helix α8 and is located on the opposite face of the tetramer from the n - terminus . the protrusions on the proximal face of the α / β barrel scaffold range in size from 3 - 67 residues and define the character of the active site . three of the barrel connections ( β1 / α1 , β6 / α6 , and β7 / α7 ) show greater than a 50 % amino acid sequence conservation for impdh proteins representing the three kingdoms . the β8 / α8 protrusion is the largest ( 67 residues ) of the proximal face motifs and contains the “ finger ” structure ( βj and βk , fig1 b , 2 a ), short helices αi and αj , strand βm , and regions that have a role in catalysis and that interact with other impdh monomers in the tetramer . this protrusion sequence is also highly conserved with regional sequence conservation of 60 - 80 % in three distinct 10 - amino acid residue segments . a distinct feature of this region is a “ flap ” ( residues 396 - 419 ) on one edge of the active site that apparently projects into the solvent . this flap has been suggested to function by potentially folding over the catalytic pocket controlling access to and ordering the active site . ( whitby et al ., 1997 ) this structure is similar to the active site flap involved in the catalytic mechanism of lactate dehydrogenase ( holbrook t al ., 1975 ). in the s . pyogenes impdh 1 . 9 å structure , 14 residues in this loop remain disordered in the presence of substrate in the active site and also in impdh crystals containing product , transition state analogue complexed with mpa ( sintchak et al ., 1996 ; whitby et al ., 1997 . this persistent disorder suggests that nad binding may be critical for structuring the flap ; a suggestion supported by the resistance of this region to proteolysis acquired by nad binding ( nimmesgem et al ., 1996 ). this also suggests that mpa binding does not involve an interaction with this flap and does not entirely mimic nad binding . these features suggest this flap may be important in mediating nad binding specificity in the active site and may be responsible for some of the kinetic differences of impdh enzymes from bacteria and eukaryotes . the cbs dimer domain contains residues 94 - 223 with an approximate size of 20 × 20 × 30 å . a cbs domain was originally identified in cystathionine - β - synthase and proposed as a regulatory element since mutations lead to the human disease homocystinuria ( bateman , 1997 ). the cbs dimer domain is composed of two cbs motifs arranged approximately on a two - fold dyad axis ( fig5 ). each cbs motif has the characteristic sheet / helix / sheet / sheet / helix topology . this is the first reported complete structure for this domain . the cbs dimer domain does not interact with the other subunits in the active tetrameric enzyme and may not be required for activity ( sintchak et al ., 1996 ; zhou et al ., 1997 ). although the amino acid sequence of this domain is not as well conserved as that of the catalytic domain , all impdh proteins contain this domain . in s . pyogenes impdh , these domains form a minibarrel structure that has a hydrophobic core region with hydrophilic residues on the surface . among bacteria , the degree of amino acid conservation is highest in the e and f β - strands ( fig2 a ) that span the interior of the cbs dimer domain and provide a resource of hydrophobic residues . the α - helices on the exterior maintain the character of this domain with hydrophilic residues on the exterior surfaces and hydrophobic residues positioned on the interior . there is a well - defined cleft between cbs motifs ( approximately 15 å in length ) between the cbs motifs ; this cleft may function as a potential binding site for regulatory molecules . there is not a defined role for cbs motifs in bacteria but in eukaryotic organisms they may have a role in cytoplasmic targeting , protein - protein interactions or protein regulation ( bateman , 1997 ). in view of these unique characteristics , it is possible that , in bacteria , this domain may possess a species - specific regulatory role . s . pyogenes impdh is a perfect tetramer with the four subunits related by a crystallographic four - fold axis . similarly , the structures reported for chinese hamster ( sintchak et al ., 1996 ) and t . foetus ( whitby et al ., 1997 ) impdh also display four - fold symmetry . the scope of these structures encompass the apo - enzyme and several substrate , product , and inhibitor complexes the tetrameric structure of impdh is stabilized by monomeric contacts with each of the adjacent subunits . many of these contacts originate from interactions of the n - and c - terminal regions of the adjacent monomeric units . the subunit interactions can be arranged into three groups differing in their proximity to the catalytic site and level of amino acid sequence conservation . in one group , the first 14 residues of the n - terminus project approximately 20 å from the protein core ( fig1 a , 2 b ) and interact with surface residues of an adjacent impdh monomer . this regional contact is distal from the catalytic site and involves residues 3 - 12 of the n - terminus that interact with β - sheet residues 465 - 468 of an adjacent subunit . the interaction involves hydrogen bonds and salt bridges between amino acid regions that display little sequence conservation . another loop ( residues 22 - 30 ), is involved in subunit contacts with the adjacent impdh molecule and also forms part of the active site pocket of the adjacent subunit . this region directly contacts the αh helix that is involved in binding imp and the α4 helix of the α / β motif implicated in the binding of nad ( sintchak et al ., 1996 ). this region contains amino acid residues that are conserved in impdh enzymes from the three kingdoms . the sequence conservation and proximity to the active site suggests these interactions may indirectly mediate catalytic activity and account for the tetrameric character of the active enzyme . additional subunit contacts originate from β - strand βk and residues 479 - 484 in an adjacent impdh monomer . these regions are on the exterior of the tetramer approximately 20 å from the imp binding site and display an amino acid sequence conservation that is restricted to a specific phylogenetic group . a feature observed in the tetramer structure is the projection of an extended region from the c - terminal face of each monomer subunit ( fig1 b ). these “ fingers ” are observed in all impdh enzymes for which structural information is available . this region of 12 amino acids forms two anti - parallel β - strand structures stabilized by hydrogen bonding and interactions with the βl region ( fig2 a ). interestingly , in all impdh enzymes , this region contains at least two solvent - exposed hydrophobic residues . other than a predominance of aromatic amino acids , there is little sequence conservation even within the specific phylogenetic domains . however , the β - strand structure of the fingers is preserved and amino acid residues at the base of the fingers are conserved for all phylogenetic groups . the conservation of this structure may have functional consequences for the interaction of the tetramer with other impdh complexes or cellular proteins . imp dehydrogenase catalyzes the oxidation of inosine 5 ′- monophosphate to xanthosine 5 ′- monophosphate with the concomitant reduction of nad to nadh . imp is bound at one end of the barrel with the other end blocked by the βb / βc sheet ( fig2 a ). short helices h , j , and i are structural motifs containing many of the active site residues . during the reaction the hydride is transferred from the c2 carbon of the hypoxanthine ring to nad and an oxygen atom is substituted in the c2 position resulting in the formation of xanthosine . the high - resolution ( 1 . 9 å ) crystal structure of s . pyogenes imp dehydrogenase allows examination of the catalytic site in greater detail than it was possible previously . the enzyme contains the inosine monophosphate substrate bound into the pocket located near the surface of the α / β - barrel structure . the inosine ribose and phosphate moieties are highly coordinated by protein ( fig3 a ). the sugar is in the c2 ′- endo - conformation and its 2 ′- and 3 ′- hydroxyls are hydrogen - bonded with the asp343 residue as well as with a water molecule that through a water relay system connects with n3 of the hypoxanthine ring ( fig3 a ). the phosphate group is anchored in its site by a number of amino acid side chains ( s308 , s367 and y390 ) and three main chain nitrogens ( g345 , g366 and s367 ). the remaining hydrogen - binding potential of the phosphate oxygens is realized with water molecules . the conformation of the glycosidic torsion angle of the bound nucleotide is anti and the hypoxanthine ring interacts with the ribose and the phosphate moiety only through water mediated interactions and appears to be free to rotate around the glycosidic bond ( fig3 a ). this conformation places h2 of hypoxanthine ring ( which is transferred to nad in the reaction ) in a position unobstructed by the rest of the molecule to facilitate the reaction . n1 , n7 and o6 of the hypoxanthine ring are hydrogen bonded to the main chain carbonyl of e421 and main chain nitrogen of m393 and g394 , respectively . however , n3 is not involved in an interaction with protein and only weakly with solvent . there are van der waals contacts between the hypoxanthine ring and the ile309 residue . cysteine 310 has been identified previously as a key residue in catalysis ( huete - pérez et al , 1995 ; antonino et al , 1994 ). the ability of the thiol residue to ionize appears to be critical for the reaction involving nucleophilic attack . the hydroxyl of t312 is in position ( 3 . 3 å ) to extract a hydrogen from c310 and therefore ionize the cysteine residue . this is consistent with mutagenesis studies that show that substitution of this residue abolishes enzyme activity ( sintchak et al , 1996 ). the sulfur atom is located above the plane of the hypoxanthine ring , 3 . 3 å from the c2 atom , and is not covalently attached to the ring ( fig5 c ). the c310 is in a position for a nucleophilic attack on c2 carbon once the activation of the cysteine residue is accomplished and the orientation of the hypoxanthine ring is adjusted ( it can swivel around glycosidic bond ). the formation of a tetrahedral intermediate has been proposed ( xiang et at , 1997 ). however , the present inventions shows that impdh does not form a covalent bond with the substrate in the absence of the nad cofactor . therefore a cofactor plays not only the role of hydride acceptor but also appears to complete the structure of the catalytic pocket . initiation of a reaction cycle requires alignment of the hypoxanthine and nicotinamide rings in near parallel fashion and positioning of the c2 of hypoxanthine ring in close contact with c4 on the beta face of nicotinamide ring ( xiang et al ., 1997 ). this places the amide moiety of nad near the n3 nitrogen of hypoxanthine . such a configuration may facilitate the electron shift within the hypoxanthine ring required for formation of the thioimidate intermediate . therefore , it appears that the cofactor may play a role in activation of the substrate . this mechanism is in striking contrast with results obtained with halogenated derivatives of imp . human impdh catalyses the dehalogenation of 2 - fluoro - and 2 - chloroinosine 5 ′- monophosphate in the absence of nad ( antonino et al ., 1994 ). this suggests that , although the c310 activation system is in place , the reaction does not proceed with imp because hydride is a much poorer leaving group than chlorine and fluorine and the binding of nad is required . the structure of the hamster impdh has been reported ( sintchak et al ., 1996 ). this structure contains the hypoxanthine ring covalently bound to c331 ( equivalent to c10 in our structure ) and an inhibitor mpa bound to the active site . it appears that the hamster impdh structure represents the covalent thioimidate intermediate of the reaction in which mpa , an uncompetitive inhibitor , prevents the hydrolysis of the thiopurine covalent intermediate as was suggested previously by link and straub ( link et al ., 1996 ) therefore mpa restricts the access of the solvent molecules and blocks subsequent steps of the reaction . this observation also suggests that the hydrolysis of the thioimidate intermediate is mediated by an activated water molecule originating from the nad site . in the s . pyogenes impdh structure , two water residue were located that are potential candidates for nucleophilic attack on the thioimidate ( fig3 b ). several residues ( e421 , t312 , and y450 from and adjacent subunit ) in the active site pocket can act as activators of this water molecule . because mpa can stabilize the thioimidate intermediate in the human enzyme ( sintchak et al ., 1996 ), hydrolysis of thioimidate must be several orders of magnitude slower than the dissociation of nadh . these results are consistent with the mechanism proposed by wang et al . ( 1996 ) the binding of nad to impdh has not been structurally characterized . however , a structure has been reported for the hamster enzyme complexed with mpa ( sintchak et al ., 1996 ), an uncompetitive inhibitor of mammalian impdh enzymes . mpa has been suggested to inhibit the hamster enzyme by mimicking the nicotinamide portion of nad and blocking access of a catalytic water molecule ( sintchak et al ., 1996 ). comparison of the residues involved in mpa binding in the hamster enzyme ( d274 , s276 , n303 , r322 , g1326 , t333 , q441 ) with the equivalent residues in s . pyogenes impdh indicates these residues are largely conserved . the asparagine , aspartate , glycine , and threonine residues are identical , threonine replaces s276 ( although serine is present in other bacterial enzymes ), and lys301 replaces the hamster r322 residue . the most significant change appears to be replacement of e421 with q441 . interestingly , this residue is part of the active site flap that is ordered . this suggests that the nad binding pocket is different in bacterial impdh , however the mechanism of if oxidation remains the same . to validate the role of specific residues in catalysis and to provide a basis for comparing the bacterial and mammalian enzymes , several point mutants were constructed . the sites for mutation were selected on the basis of previous studies suggesting a catalytic role for the region and supported by information derived from the s . pyogenes impdh crystal structure . one region targeted for site - specific mutagenesis was the active site flap . this flap is present in all impdh enzymes and is disordered in the s . pyogenes impdh structures and in the impdh structures from hamster and t . foetus . although this region has not been previously implicated in the catalysis mechanism of impdh enzymes , the presence of a conserved ry ( fy ) motif and the similarities to the flap region in lactate dehydrogenase ( holbrook et al ., 1975 ) suggest a potential role in catalysis . mutation of r406 to alanine in this flap region results in a complete loss of enzyme activity ( table 6 ) as might be expected for a residue conserved in all . impdh enzymes . this loss of activity confirms the importance of the active site flap in catalysis . since there is little sequence conservation of this region , this structure is an attractive target for specific inhibitors . the catalytic mechanism of s . pyogenes impdh involves the hydrolysis of a thioimidate intermediate that we believe is mediated by an activated water molecule originating from the nad site . in the s . pyogenes impdh structure , we have located two water residues that are potential candidates for nucleophilic attack on the thioimidate . tyrosine 450 originating from an adjacent subunit , is a residue in the active site pocket that can act as an activator of one of these water molecules . this residue is located at the noncatalytic end of a conserved helix ( helix 8 ) that forms the tim barrel core . replacement of y450 with aspartic acid or alanine ( table 6 ) results in substantial loss of enzyme activity . approximately 25 % activity is retained for an alanine replacement , but substitution of aspartic acid results in a loss of enzyme activity . this region is conserved in the impdh enzymes , but the sequence pattern is different in bacteria and eukaryotes , suggesting this region may contribute to the differential signature of the bacterial and mammalian enzymes . the nad binding region ( between the α j / β l loop ) was also selected as a target for site - specific mutagenesis . the selection of e421 for mutation was based on an analysis of sequence differences at residues corresponding to or near amino acids identified as mpa binding sites in human impdh . the conserved glutamate in bacteria is replaced with a conserved glutamine in eukaryotes . this substitution does not alter the apparent activity of s . pyogenes impdh ( table 6 ). this result was unexpected since replacement of the corresponding residue in the hamster enzyme ( q441 ) with alanine results in a significant decrease in activity ( sintchak et al ., 1996 ) the coding region of impdh was amplified from s . pyogenes genomic dna ( provided by dr . michael boyle , medical college of ohio , toledo , ohio ; genomic dna from s . pyogenes is also available from the american type culture collection [ atcc ] as catalogue no . 700294d ) using coding region - specific primers and a proofreading polymerase ( pfu ). the amplified fragment was cloned into a pet23a ( novagen ) expression vector and used to transform bl21 ( de3 ) lyss bacterial cells . dna sequencing of the expression constructs validated sequence integrity of the initiation and termination regions . expression of streptococcal impdh was induced by the addition of iptg to a concentration of 0 . 5 mm the streptococcal impdh enzyme was purified using a modification of the procedure previously described for the human enzymes ( hager et al ., 1995 ). the modified procedure replaces the blue sepharose dye column with a matrex green resin ( millipore , bedford , mass .). since the enzyme elutes as a broad peak from the dye column , an additional chromatographic procedure was applied to facilitated enzyme concentration and increase purity . peak fractions from the dye column are diluted with 20 mm tris - hcl , ph 7 . 4 and applied to a monoq hr10 / 10 fplc column ( pharmacia , piscataway , n . j .). the column was washed with 20 mm tris - hcl , ph 7 . 4 , 1 mm dtt and the enzyme eluted with a linear gradient of 0 . 2 - 0 . 7 m nacl in wash buffer . purified impdh from s . pyogenes was characterized by n - terminal sequencing and analyzed by mass spectroscopy to validate as much of the internal protein sequence as is possible . an n - terminal sequence was obtained ( yale biotechnology resource center ) for 19 residues corresponding to amino acids 2 - 20 of the predicted sequence and indicated cleavage of the n - terminal methionine as is commonly observed for proteins expressed in e . coli . characterization of the purified protein also included matrix - assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectroscopy ( maldi - ms ) analysis of the intact and tryptic - digested protein provided by the biotechnology resource laboratory at yale university . maldi - ms of the intact protein indicated a molecular weight ( mw ) of 52 , 328 similar to the predicted mw of 52 , 657 . in addition to n - terminal sequencing of the intact protein , a tryptic digest of the purified protein was analyzed by maldi - ms . this analysis provided verification of approximately 60 % of the of the internal protein sequence . selenomethionyl impdh was obtained by growth of the native expression bacterium in m9 medium . prior to induction of impdh expression , de novo methionine synthesis was suppressed by the addition of phenyalanine , valine , threonine , isoleucine , leucine , and lysine to a final concentration of 50 ug / ml . thirty minutes later , selenomethionine was added to a final concentration of 50 ug / l and iptg was added 0 . 25 mm . the induced bacteria were harvested 4 - 6 h after induction . the purification and crystallization of selenomethionyl impdh was as described for the wild - type enzyme and the presence of selenomethionine was verified by amino acid analysis of the purified protein . crystals of impdh from s . pyogenes were grown by the hanging drop method . the reservoir solution was 0 . 1 m mes ( ph 7 . 2 ), 1 . 8 m ammonium sulfate , with 1 mm imp . the crystals grew in a few days to about 0 . 1 × 0 . 1 × 0 . 25 mm ( maximum size ). crystals were transferred into a cryo - protectant solvent prepared by the addition of glycerol to the crystallization solution ( final glycerol concentration ( v / v ), 28 %). crystals were flash cooled in liquid nitrogen for all data collections . diffraction data were collected on beamline 19id of the structural biology center at the advanced photon source . the approximate x - ray flux on the sample was 1 × 10 ph / sec . diffraction patterns from impdh crystals were collected at 100 ° k using a 3 × 3 mosaic ccd area detector ( westbrook et al . 1997 ) and data were processed by the hkl2000 ( otwinowski et al ., 1997 ) package . diffraction patterns of the impdh crystals exhibited 4 / mmm symmetry . bragg spots with indices other than ( h + k + l )= 2n were systematically absent . therefore the space group to which these crystals belong must be i422 . the cell dimensions are a = b = 151 . 49 å , c = 101 . 67 å , α = β = γ = 90 °. each asymmetric unit of this crystal form contains one monomer ; the estimated solvent content is 55 % and v m = 2 . 79 å 3 / da . crystals for the mad study were of semet impdh from s . pyogenes complexed with imp . we recorded three data sets for a single crystal , each at a unique x - ray wavelength ( λ1 = 1 . 0781 å , λ 2 = 0 . 9793 å , λ 3 = 0 . 9791 å , table 3 ). the entire time to manipulate the sample and acquire data required less than one hour . the crystal was not oriented in any special way prior to data collection . data quality is summarized in table 3 . the high - resolution data ( 1 . 90 å ) were collected from the same crystal at wavelength λ = 1 . 0332 å . details of the experiments and data quality are summarized in table 3 . phase analysis for the crystal form was initiated by carrying out molecular replacement ( mr ), using amore ( navaza et al ., 1997 ) and the t . foetus atomic coordinates ( whitby et al ., 1997 ) from the protein data bank as a search model . the initial molecular replacement solution of this structure produced phases that were not sufficiently close to the correct values for us to interpret the structure further . however this phase set was sufficiently good to identify 6 of the 13 selenium sites in the structure . these selenium sites were refined by the method discussed by ramakrishnan and biou ( 1997 ), using the program mlphare ( otwinowski , 1991 ), yielding a phase set which permitted identification of two additional selenium atoms . further mlphare refinement with 8 selenium sites produced phases that permitted location of three additional selenium sites by difference fourier analysis . the next stage of mlphare refinement against 11 selenium sites produced phases with which the remaining 2 selenium sites were identified . the final round of mlphare phasing with all 13 selenium sites ( table 3 ) produced a map with which interpretation of the model was completed . phases were improved during subsequent refinement with cns ( holbrook et al ., 1975 ) ( see below ) permitting modeling of 97 % of the structure . all model building was carried out with frodo ( jones , 1968 ) on an evans and sutherland esv10 graphics workstation . relative to the map obtained by molecular replacement , the mad map obtained with six selenium sites allowed localization of imp in the active site and corrected several errors in the catalytic domain model . the mad map calculated with 8 selenium sites allowed modeling of the complete n - terminus ( except residue 1 ), the c - terminus to residue 480 , and the cbs dimer domain with the exception of residues 114 - 169 . the mad map obtained with eleven selenium sites allowed assignment of the c - terminus to residue to 490 , and decreased the undefined region of the cbs dimer domain to residues 146 - 162 . when all 13 selenium sites were used in the mad map calculation , it was possible to model the entire molecule , with the exception of residue 1 , residues 221 - 226 , the active site flap ( residues 402 - 415 ) and c - terminal residue 493 . cns refinement improved phases to allow modeling of residues 221 - 226 in the cbs dimer domain . this model accounts for 97 % of the residues predicted from the gene sequence . refinement of the initial model against the mad data was carried out using torsion - angle molecular dynamics ( rice et al ., 1994 ) and the phase restrained mlhl target ( pannu et al ., 1998 ) implemented in cns ( holbrook et al ., 1975 ). all diffraction data ( 6 . 0 - 1 . 90 å ) were used throughout the refinement except for a 10 % randomly selected test set required for cross - validation of the σ a values used in the maximum likelihood target and free r calculations . a flat bulk solvent model was implemented in density modification of the initial mad maps , with the program dm ( cowtan , 1994 ). at the later stages , σ a phase - combined maps ( pannu et al ., 1998 ) were calculated , with model phases calculated from the mlhl refined model combined with experimental phases . alternate cycles of model rebuilding , positional refinement , restrained b - factor refinement , and water placement followed , decreasing the free r - factor from its initial value of 48 % to 26 . 1 % and yielding the current r - factor of 23 . 2 % ( table 5 ). the model has a correlation coefficient ( f a versus f c ) of 95 % and an estimated coordinate error of 0 . 3 å using the sigmaa ( read , 1986 ) sftware suite . stereochemical and other refinement parameters are given in table 4 . by procheck ( laskowski et al ., 1993 ) criteria , the model has 91 . 2 % of the main chain torsion angles within the “ allowed regions ” of the ramachandran plot and 8 . 8 % within the “ additional allowed regions ”. the coordinates of the crystalline impdh molecule ( table 7 ) have been deposited in the brookhaven protein data bank under accession number 1zfj . a figure of merit is a measure of the relative reliability of a phase based on the consistency of the mir analysis from one derivative to the next . the maximum value is 1 . 0 . {(| f hl − f hi | 2 )/∫ p λl → λi ( φ )(|| f λl | e iφ + f hi − f hl | − | f λi |) 2 dφ } 1 / 2 computed for individual lack - of - closure expressions between the reflections of the reference wavelength λ l , its friedel mate , and the bijvoet pairs measured at the other wavelengths ( f ht ). p λl ® λi ( φ ) is the kiguchi , k ., collart , f . r ., henning - chubb , c ., and huberman , e . induction of cell differentiation in melanoma cells by inhibitors of imp dehydrogenase : altered patterns of imp dehydrogenase expression and activity . cell growth and differen . 1 , 259 - 270 ( 1990 ). laskowski , r . a ., macarthur , m . w ., moss , d . s . & amp ; thomton , j . m . procheck — a program to check the stereochemical quality of protein structures . j . appl . crystallogr . 26 , 283 - 291 ( 1993 ). link , j . o . & amp ; straub , k . trapping of an imp dehydrogenase - substrate covalent intermediate by mycophenolic acid . j . am . chem . soc . 118 , 2091 - 2092 ( 1996 ). navaza , j . & amp ; sludijan , p . amore : an automated molecular replacement package . methods enzymol . 276 , 581 - 594 ( 1997 ). nimmesgern , e ., fox , t ., fleming , m . a . & amp ; thomson , j . a . conformational changes and stabilization of inosine 5 ′- monophosphate dehydrogenase associated with ligand binding and inhibition by mycophenolic acid . j . biol . chem . 271 , 9421 - 19427 ( 1996 ). otwinowski , z & amp ; minor , w . processing of x - ray diffraction data collected in oscillation mode . methods enzymol . 276 , 307 - 326 ( 1997 ). otwinowski , z . mlphare - maximum likelihood refinement of heavy atom parameters . in isomorphous replacement and anomalous scattering . 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