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Structural and Functional Characterization of Malate Synthase G from Opportunistic Pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

McVey, AC 
Medarametla, P 
Chee, X 
Poso, A 

Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen recognized as a critical threat by the World Health Organization due to the dwindling number of effective therapies available to treat infections. Over the last decade, it has become apparent that the glyoxylate shunt plays a vital role in sustaining P. aeruginosa during infection scenarios. The glyoxylate shunt comprises two enzymes: isocitrate lyase and malate synthase isoform G. Inactivation of these enzymes has been reported to abolish the ability of P. aeruginosa to establish infection in a mammalian model system, yet we still lack the structural information to support drug design efforts. In this work, we describe the first X-ray crystal structure of P. aeruginosa malate synthase G in the apo form at 1.62 Å resolution. The enzyme is a monomer composed of four domains and is highly conserved with homologs found in other clinically-relevant microorganisms. It is also dependent on Mg2+ for catalysis. Metal ion binding led to a change in the intrinsic fluorescence of the protein, allowing us to quantitate its affinity for Mg2+. We also identified putative drug binding sites in malate synthase G using computational analysis and, because of the high resolution of the experimental data, were further able to characterize its hydration properties. Our data reveal two promising binding pockets in malate synthase G that may be exploited for drug design.

Description

Keywords

Acetyl Coenzyme A, Amino Acid Sequence, Apoenzymes, Bacterial Proteins, Binding Sites, Catalytic Domain, Computational Biology, Conserved Sequence, Crystallography, X-Ray, Expert Systems, Glyoxylates, Indoles, Ligands, Magnesium, Malate Synthase, Models, Molecular, Molecular Docking Simulation, Molecular Structure, Protein Conformation, Protein Structure, Secondary, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Recombinant Proteins, Sequence Alignment, Structural Homology, Protein

Journal Title

Biochemistry

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0006-2960
1520-4995

Volume Title

56

Publisher

American Chemical Society
Sponsorship
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/M019411/1)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (642620)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K039520/1)
This work was supported by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Grant 642620 to M.W. and A.P. and BBSRC Grant BB/M019411/1 to M.W.