Lucien Bettendorff

... SETTIMJ* Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Laboratorio di Chimica del Farmaco, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome (Italy) MIRIAM GARGIULO Ospedale Civile di Teramo, 64100 Teramo (Italy) and RODOLFO LORENZINI Istituto ... 1K.B. Alton, JE Patrick and JL McGuire, J. Pharm. ...

Mammalian soluble thiamine triphosphatase (ThTPase) is a 25-kDa cytosolic enzyme that specifically catalyzes the conversion of thiamine triphosphate (ThTP) to thiamine diphosphate and has an absolute requirement for divalent cations. We have investigated the kinetic properties of recombinant mouse thiamine triphosphatase (mThTPase) and determined its solution structure by NMR spectroscopy. Residues responsible for binding Mg(2+) and ThTP were determined from NMR titration experiments. The binding of Mg(2+) induced only a minor local conformational change, whereas ThTP binding was found to cause a more global conformational change. We derived a structural model for the mThTPase.ThTP.Mg(2+) ternary complex and concluded from this that whereas free mThTPase has an open cleft fold, the enzyme in the ternary complex adopts a tunnel fold. Our results provide a functional rationale for a number of conserved residues and suggest an essential role for Mg(2+) in catalysis. We propose a mechanism underlying the high substrate specificity of mThTPase and discuss the possible role of water molecules in enzymatic catalysis.

Thiamine triphosphate (ThTP) is present in most organisms and might be involved in intracellular signaling. In mammalian cells, the cytosolic ThTP level is controlled by a specific thiamine triphosphatase (ThTPase), belonging to the CYTH superfamily of proteins. CYTH proteins are present in all superkingdoms of life and act on various triphosphorylated substrates. Using crystallography, mass spectrometry and mutational analysis, we identified the key structural determinants of the high specificity and catalytic efficiency of mammalian ThTPase. Triphosphate binding requires three conserved arginines while the catalytic mechanism relies on an unusual lysine-tyrosine dyad. By docking of the ThTP molecule in the active site, we found that Trp-53 should interact with the thiazole part of the substrate molecule, thus playing a key role in substrate recognition and specificity. Sea anemone and zebrafish CYTH proteins, which retain the corresponding Trp residue, are also specific ThTPases. Surprisingly, the whole chromosome region containing the ThTPase gene is lost in birds. The specificity for ThTP is linked to a stacking interaction between the thiazole heterocycle of thiamine and a tryptophan residue. The latter likely plays a key role in the secondary acquisition of ThTPase activity in early metazoan CYTH enzymes, in the lineage leading from cnidarians to mammals. We show that ThTPase activity is not restricted to mammals as previously thought but is an acquisition of early metazoans. This, and the identification of critically important residues, allows us to draw an evolutionary perspective of the CYTH family of proteins.