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Journal of Bacteriology, March 1999, p. 1739-1747, Vol. 181, No. 6
Department of Biochemistry,
Received 8 September 1998/Accepted 12 January 1999
An aminotransferase which catalyzes the final step in methionine
recycling from methylthioadenosine, the conversion of
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Tyrosine Aminotransferase Catalyzes the Final Step
of Methionine Recycling in Klebsiella pneumoniae
-ketomethiobutyrate to methionine, has been purified from
Klebsiella pneumoniae and characterized. The enzyme was
found to be a homodimer of 45-kDa subunits, and it catalyzed methionine
formation primarily using aromatic amino acids and glutamate as the
amino donors. Histidine, leucine, asparagine, and arginine were also
functional amino donors but to a lesser extent. The N-terminal amino
acid sequence of the enzyme was determined and found to be almost
identical to the N-terminal sequence of both the Escherichia
coli and Salmonella typhimurium tyrosine
aminotransferases (tyrB gene products). The structural gene
for the tyrosine aminotransferase was cloned from K. pneumoniae and expressed in E. coli. The deduced
amino acid sequence displayed 83, 80, 38, and 34% identity to the
tyrosine aminotransferases from E. coli, S. typhimurium, Paracoccus denitrificans, and
Rhizobium meliloti, respectively, but it showed less than 13% identity to any characterized eukaryotic tyrosine
aminotransferase. Structural motifs around key invariant residues
placed the K. pneumoniae enzyme within the Ia subfamily of
aminotransferases. Kinetic analysis of the aminotransferase showed that
reactions of an aromatic amino acid with
-ketomethiobutyrate and of
glutamate with
-ketomethiobutyrate proceed as favorably as the
well-known reactions of tyrosine with
-ketoglutarate and tyrosine
with oxaloacetate normally associated with tyrosine aminotransferases.
The aminotransferase was inhibited by the aminooxy compounds canaline
and carboxymethoxylamine but not by substrate analogues, such as
nitrotyrosine or nitrophenylalanine.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Div. of
Molecular Parasitology & Biological Chemistry, Wellcome Trust
Bldg., Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Dundee, Dundee, United
Kingdom DD1 5EH. Phone: 44-(0)1382-345761. Fax:
44-(0)1382-345893. E-mail: bjberger{at}bad.dundee.ac.uk.
Journal of Bacteriology, March 1999, p. 1739-1747, Vol. 181, No. 6
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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