Methionine Adenosyltransferase Engineering to Enable Bioorthogonal Platforms for AdoMet-Utilizing Enzymes

ACS Chem Biol. 2020 Mar 20;15(3):695-705. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.9b00943. Epub 2020 Mar 3.

Abstract

The structural conservation among methyltransferases (MTs) and MT functional redundancy is a major challenge to the cellular study of individual MTs. As a first step toward the development of an alternative biorthogonal platform for MTs and other AdoMet-utilizing enzymes, we describe the evaluation of 38 human methionine adenosyltransferase II-α (hMAT2A) mutants in combination with 14 non-native methionine analogues to identify suitable bioorthogonal mutant/analogue pairings. Enabled by the development and implementation of a hMAT2A high-throughput (HT) assay, this study revealed hMAT2A K289L to afford a 160-fold inversion of the hMAT2A selectivity index for a non-native methionine analogue over the native substrate l-Met. Structure elucidation of K289L revealed the mutant to be folded normally with minor observed repacking within the modified substrate pocket. This study highlights the first example of exchanging l-Met terminal carboxylate/amine recognition elements within the hMAT2A active-site to enable non-native bioorthgonal substrate utilization. Additionally, several hMAT2A mutants and l-Met substrate analogues produced AdoMet analogue products with increased stability. As many AdoMet-producing (e.g., hMAT2A) and AdoMet-utlizing (e.g., MTs) enzymes adopt similar active-site strategies for substrate recognition, the proof of concept first generation hMAT2A engineering highlighted herein is expected to translate to a range of AdoMet-utilizing target enzymes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Catalytic Domain
  • Escherichia coli / genetics
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Gene Library
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays
  • Humans
  • Kinetics
  • Methionine Adenosyltransferase / genetics*
  • Methionine Adenosyltransferase / metabolism*
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Conformation
  • Mutant Proteins / genetics*
  • Mutant Proteins / metabolism*
  • Mutation
  • Protein Engineering
  • S-Adenosylmethionine / chemistry
  • S-Adenosylmethionine / metabolism*
  • Structure-Activity Relationship
  • Substrate Specificity
  • Transfection

Substances

  • Mutant Proteins
  • S-Adenosylmethionine
  • Methionine Adenosyltransferase