A small, nucleotide-binding domain, the ATP-cone, is found at the N-terminus of most ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) catalytic subunits. By binding adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or deoxyadenosine triphosphate (dATP) it regulates the enzyme activity of all classes of RNR. Functional and structural work on aerobic RNRs has revealed a plethora of ways in which dATP inhibits activity by inducing oligomerisation and preventing a productive radical transfer from one subunit to the active site in the other. Anaerobic RNRs, on the other hand, store a stable glycyl radical next to the active site and the basis for their dATP-dependent inhibition is completely unknown. We present biochemical, biophysical, and structural information on the effects of ATP and dATP binding to the anaerobic RNR from Prevotella copri. The enzyme exists in a dimer-tetramer equilibrium biased towards dimers when two ATP molecules are bound to the ATP-cone and tetramers when two dATP molecules are bound. In the presence of ATP, P. copri NrdD is active and has a fully ordered glycyl radical domain (GRD) in one monomer of the dimer. Binding of dATP to the ATP-cone results in loss of activity and increased dynamics of the GRD, such that it cannot be detected in the cryo-EM structures. The glycyl radical is formed even in the dATP-bound form, but the substrate does not bind. The structures implicate a complex network of interactions in activity regulation that involve the GRD more than 30 Å away from the dATP molecules, the allosteric substrate specificity site and a conserved but previously unseen flap over the active site. Taken together, the results suggest that dATP inhibition in anaerobic RNRs acts by increasing the flexibility of the flap and GRD, thereby preventing both substrate binding and radical mobilisation.

Invertases, or β-fructofuranosidases, are metabolic enzymes widely distributed among plants and microorganisms that hydrolyze sucrose and release fructose from various substrates. Invertase was one of the earliest discovered enzymes, first investigated in the mid-nineteenth century, becoming a classical model used in the primary biochemical studies on protein synthesis, activity, and the secretion of glycoproteins. However, it was not until 20 years ago that a member of this family of enzymes was structurally characterized, showing a bimodular arrangement with a β-propeller catalytic domain, and a β-sandwich domain with unknown function. Since then, many studies on related plant and fungal enzymes have revealed them as basically monomeric. By contrast, all yeast enzymes in this family that have been characterized so far have shown sophisticated oligomeric structures mediated by the non-catalytic domain, which is also involved in substrate binding, and how this assembly determines the particular specificity of each enzyme. In this chapter, we will review the available structures of yeast invertases to elucidate the mechanism regulating oligomer formation and compare them with other reported dimeric invertases in which the oligomeric assembly has no apparent functional implications. In addition, recent work on a new family of invertases with absolute specificity for the α-(1,2)-bond of sucrose found in cyanobacteria and plant invertases is highlighted.

Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchoring of proteins is a ubiquitous posttranslational modification in eukaryotic cells. GPI-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) play critical roles in enzymatic, signaling, regulatory, and adhesion processes. Over 20 enzymes are involved in GPI synthesis, attachment to client proteins, and remodeling after attachment. The GPI transamidase (GPI-T), a large complex located in the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, catalyzes the attachment step by replacing a C-terminal signal peptide of proproteins with GPI. In the last three decades, extensive research has been conducted on the mechanism of the transamidation reaction, the components of the GPI-T complex, the role of each subunit, and the substrate specificity. Two recent studies have reported the three-dimensional architecture of GPI-T, which represent the first structures of the pathway. The structures provide detailed mechanisms for assembly that rationalizes previous biochemical results and subunit-dependent stability data. While the structural data confirm the catalytic role of PIGK, which likely uses a caspase-like mechanism to cleave the proproteins, they suggest that unlike previously proposed, GPAA1 is not a catalytic subunit. The structures also reveal a shared cavity for GPI binding. Somewhat unexpectedly, PIGT, a single-pass membrane protein, plays a crucial role in GPI recognition. Consistent with the assembly mechanisms and the active site architecture, most of the disease mutations occur near the active site or the subunit interfaces. Finally, the catalytic dyad is located ~22 Å away from the membrane interface of the GPI-binding site, and this architecture may confer substrate specificity through topological matching between the substrates and the elongated active site. The research conducted thus far sheds light on the intricate processes involved in GPI anchoring and paves the way for further mechanistic studies of GPI-T.

Living systems contain a vast network of metabolic reactions, providing a wealth of enzymes and cells as potential biocatalysts for chemical processes. The properties of protein and cell biocatalysts-high selectivity, the ability to control reaction sequence and operation in environmentally benign conditions-offer approaches to produce molecules at high efficiency while lowering the cost and environmental impact of industrial chemistry. Furthermore, biocatalysis offers the opportunity to generate chemical structures and functions that may be inaccessible to chemical synthesis. Here we consider developments in enzymes, biosynthetic pathways and cellular engineering that enable their use in catalysis for new chemistry and beyond.

Enzymes are nature\'s ultimate machinery to catalyze complex reactions. Though enzymes are evolved to catalyze specific reactions, they also show significant promiscuity in reactions and substrate selection. Metalloenzymes contain a metal ion or metal cofactor in their active site, which is crucial in their catalytic activity. Depending on the metal and its coordination environment, the metal ion or cofactor may function as a Lewis acid or base and a redox center and thus can catalyze a plethora of natural reactions. In fact, the versatility in the oxidation state of the metal ions provides metalloenzymes with a high level of catalytic adaptability and promiscuity. In this chapter, we discuss different aspects of promiscuity in metalloenzymes by using several recent experimental and theoretical works as case studies. We start our discussion by introducing the concept of promiscuity and then we delve into the mechanistic insight into promiscuity at the molecular level.

Deamination of bases is a form of DNA damage that occurs spontaneously via the hydrolysis and nitrosation of living cells, generating hypoxanthine from adenine. E. coli endonuclease V (eEndoV) cleaves hypoxanthine-containing double-stranded DNA, whereas human endonuclease V (hEndoV) cleaves hypoxanthine-containing RNA; however, hEndoV in vivo function remains unclear. To date, hEndoV has only been examined using hypoxanthine, because it binds closely to the base located at the cleavage site. Here, we examined whether hEndoV cleaves other lesions (e.g., AP site, 6-methyladenine, xanthine) to reveal its function and whether 2\'-nucleoside modification affects its cleavage activity. We observed that hEndoV is hypoxanthine-specific; its activity was the highest with 2\'-OH modification in ribose. The cleavage activity of hEndoV was compared based on its base sequence. We observed that it has specificity for adenine located on the 3\'-end of hypoxanthine at the cleavage site, both before and after cleavage. These data suggest that hEndoV recognizes and cleaves the inosine generated on the poly A tail to maintain RNA quality. Our results provide mechanistic insight into the role of hEndoV in vivo.

Many viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, enter host cells through a process of cell-viral membrane fusion that is activated by proteolytic enzymes. Typically, these enzymes are host cell proteases. Identifying the proteases that activate the virus is not a simple task but is important for the development of new antiviral drugs. In this study, we developed a bioinformatics method for identifying proteases that can cleave viral envelope glycoproteins. The proposed approach involves the use of predictive models for the substrate specificity of human proteases and the application of a structural analysis method for predicting the vulnerability of protein regions to proteolysis based on their 3D structures. Specificity models were constructed for 169 human proteases using information on their known substrates. A previously developed method for structural analysis of potential proteolysis sites was applied in parallel with specificity models. Validation of the proposed approach was performed on the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, whose proteolysis sites have been well studied.

Large terpene synthases (large-TSs) are a new family of TSs. The first large-TS discovered was from Bacillus subtilis (BsuTS), which is involved in the biosynthesis of a C35 sesquarterpene. Large-TSs are the only enzymes that enable the biosynthesis of sesquarterpenes and do not share any sequence homology with canonical Class I and II TSs. Thus, the investigation of large-TSs is promising for expanding the chemical space in the terpene field. In this chapter, we describe the experimental methods used for identifying large-TSs, as well as their functional and structural analyses. Additionally, several enzymes related to the biosynthesis of large-TS substrates have been described.

Vanadium-dependent haloperoxidases (VHPOs) are a unique family of enzymes that utilize vanadate, an aqueous halide ion, and hydrogen peroxide to produce an electrophilic halogen species that can be incorporated into electron rich organic substrates. This halogen species can react with terpene substrates and trigger halonium-induced cyclization in a manner reminiscent of class II terpene synthases. While not all VHPOs act in this capacity, several notable examples from algal and actinobacterial species have been characterized to catalyze regio- and enantioselective reactions on terpene and meroterpenoid substrates, resulting in complex halogenated cyclic terpenes through the action of single enzyme. In this article, we describe the expression, purification, and chemical assays of NapH4, a difficult to express characterized VHPO that catalyzes the chloronium-induced cyclization of its meroterpenoid substrate.

Chemoenzymatic synthesis of non-natural terpenes using the promiscuous activity of terpene synthases allows for the expansion of the chemical space of terpenoids with potentially new bioactivities. In this report, we describe protocols for the preparation of a novel aphid attractant, (S)-14,15-dimethylgermacrene D, by exploiting the promiscuity of (S)-germacrene D synthase from Solidago canadensis and using an engineered biocatalytic route to convert prenols to terpenoids. The method uses a combination of five enzymes to carry out the preparation of terpenoid semiochemicals in two steps: (1) diphosphorylation of five or six carbon precursors (prenol, isoprenol and methyl-isoprenol) catalyzed by Plasmodium falciparum choline kinase and Methanocaldococcus jannaschii isopentenyl phosphate kinase to form DMADP, IDP and methyl-IDP, and (2) chain elongation and cyclization catalyzed by Geobacillus stearothermophilus (2E,6E)-farnesyl diphosphate synthase and S. canadensis (S)-germacrene D synthase to produce (S)-germacrene D and (S)-14,15-dimethylgermacrene D. Using this method, new non-natural terpenoids are readily accessible and the approach can be adopted to produce different terpene analogs and terpenoid derivatives with potential novel applications.