Key Amino Acids in the Bacterial (6-4) Photolyase PhrB from Agrobacterium fabrum

PLoS One. 2015 Oct 21;10(10):e0140955. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140955. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Photolyases can repair pyrimidine dimers on the DNA that are formed during UV irradiation. PhrB from Agrobacterium fabrum represents a new group of prokaryotic (6-4) photolyases which contain an iron-sulfur cluster and a DMRL chromophore. We performed site-directed mutagenesis in order to assess the role of particular amino acid residues in photorepair and photoreduction, during which the FAD chromophore converts from the oxidized to the enzymatically active, reduced form. Our study showed that Trp342 and Trp390 serve as electron transmitters. In the H366A mutant repair activity was lost, which points to a significant role of His366 in the protonation of the lesion, as discussed for the homolog in eukaryotic (6-4) photolyases. Mutants on cysteines that coordinate the Fe-S cluster of PhrB were either insoluble or not expressed. The same result was found for proteins with a truncated C-terminus, in which one of the Fe-S binding cysteines was mutated and for expression in minimal medium with limited Fe concentrations. We therefore assume that the Fe-S cluster is required for protein stability. We further mutated conserved tyrosines that are located between the DNA lesion and the Fe-S cluster. Mutagenesis results showed that Tyr424 was essential for lesion binding and repair, and Tyr430 was required for efficient repair. The results point to an important function of highly conserved tyrosines in prokaryotic (6-4) photolyases.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agrobacterium / enzymology*
  • Agrobacterium / genetics*
  • Amino Acid Sequence / genetics
  • Amino Acids / metabolism*
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics*
  • DNA Damage / genetics
  • DNA Repair / genetics
  • Deoxyribodipyrimidine Photo-Lyase / genetics*
  • Models, Molecular
  • Mutagenesis, Site-Directed

Substances

  • Amino Acids
  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Deoxyribodipyrimidine Photo-Lyase

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Grant 799/8-1 (to T.L.) and SFB 740-B6 and SFB 1078-B6 (to P.S.); grants from the China Scholarship Council (to F.Z.); Karlsruhe House of Young Scientists (to F.Z.); and DFG Cluster of Excellence “Unifying Concepts in Catalysis” Research Field D3/E3 (to P.S.).