Chorismate mutase-prephenate dehydrogenase from Escherichia coli: spatial relationship of the mutase and dehydrogenase sites

Evolution of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolic pathway in Escherichia coli

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae glycerol pathway (GPD1 and GPP2) was evolved in vivo in Escherichia coli. The central metabolism of E. coli was engineered to link glucose consumption and glycerol production. The engineered strain was evolved in a chemostat culture and a high glycerol producer was rapidly obtained. The evolution of the strain was associated to a deletion between GPD1 and GPP2, resulting in the production of a fusion protein with both glycerol-3-P dehydrogenase and glycerol-3-P phosphatase activities. The higher efficiency of the fusion protein was due to partial glycerol-3-P channeling between the two active sites. The evolved strain produces glycerol from glucose at high yield, concentration and productivity.

Probing the overlap of chorismate mutase and prephenate dehydrogenase sites in the escherichia coli T-protein: a dehydrogenase-selective inhibitor

An inhibitor of prephenate dehydrogenase has been identified that has no effect on the chorismate mutase activity in the Escherichia coli T-protein, thus supporting the idea of two separate active sites.

The central enzymes of the aspartate family of amino acid biosynthesis

The aspartate pathway is responsible for the biosynthesis of lysine, threonine, isoleucine, and methionine in most plants and microorganisms. The absence of this pathway in humans and animals makes the central enzymes potential targets for inhibition, with the aim of developing new herbicides and biocides, and also for enhancement, to improve the nutritional value of crops. Our current state of knowledge of these enzymes is reviewed, including recently determined structural information and newly constructed bifunctional fusion enzymes.

Chorismate mutase-prephenate dehydrogenase from Escherichia coli: cooperative effects and inhibition by L-tyrosine

The effects of a variety of structural analogs of L-tyrosine on the mutase and dehydrogenase activities of hydroxyphenylpyruvate synthase have been investigated. From these studies it is concluded that the alpha-NH3+ alpha-COO-, and the 4-OH groups are essential for binding of L-tyrosine as an inhibitor of the dehydrogenase and that the L configuration is also essential. Dixon plots for inhibition of the dehydrogenase activity by some of these analogs were nonlinear and could be described by a velocity equation that is the ratio of quadratic polynomials (a 2/1 function). Dixon plots for inhibition of the mutase by prephenate at low concentrations of chorismate could also be described by a 2/1 function, but at low concentrations of prephenate chorismate acts as an apparent hyperbolic activator of the dehydrogenase activity. Up to concentrations of 300 microM, L-tyrosine activates the mutase but acts as a potent inhibitor of the dehydrogenase. Such data for the dehydrogenase could not be described by a 2/1 function in 1/[prephenate] but could be fitted to the Hill equation with increasing concentrations of L-tyrosine in the presence of 1.0 mM NAD yielding increasing values for the Hill number (n): in the absence of L-tyrosine, n = 1.6 +/- 0.1; at 150 microM L-tyrosine, n = 2.1 +/- 0.1; at 300 microM L-tyrosine, n = 2.3 +/- 0.4. L-Tyrosine bears a close structural resemblance to both prephenate and hydroxyphenylpyruvate, and evidence is presented which is consistent with L-tyrosine acting as a competitive inhibitor with respect to prephenate of the dehydrogenase.