Crystal, Solution and In silico Structural Studies of Dihydrodipicolinate Synthase from the Common Grapevine

Dihydrodipicolinate synthase (DHDPS) catalyzes the rate limiting step in lysine biosynthesis in bacteria and plants. The structure of DHDPS has been determined from several bacterial species and shown in most cases to form a homotetramer or dimer of dimers. However, only one plant DHDPS structure has been determined to date from the wild tobacco species, Nicotiana sylvestris (Blickling et al. (1997) J. Mol. Biol. 274, 608–621). Whilst N. sylvestris DHDPS also forms a homotetramer, the plant enzyme adopts a ‘back-to-back’ dimer of dimers compared to the ‘head-to-head’ architecture observed for bacterial DHDPS tetramers. This raises the question of whether the alternative quaternary architecture observed for N. sylvestris DHDPS is common to all plant DHDPS enzymes. Here, we describe the structure of DHDPS from the grapevine plant, Vitis vinifera, and show using analytical ultracentrifugation, small-angle X-ray scattering and X-ray crystallography that V. vinifera DHDPS forms a ‘back-to-back’ homotetramer, consistent with N. sylvestris DHDPS. This study is the first to demonstrate using both crystal and solution state measurements that DHDPS from the grapevine plant adopts an alternative tetrameric architecture to the bacterial form, which is important for optimizing protein dynamics as suggested by molecular dynamics simulations reported in this study

Overproduction of l-Lysine from Methanol by Methylobacillus glycogenes Derivatives Carrying a Plasmid with a Mutated dapA Gene

The dapA gene, encoding dihydrodipicolinate synthase (DDPS) partially desensitized to inhibition by l-lysine, was cloned from an l-threonine- and l-lysine-coproducing mutant of the obligate methylotroph Methylobacillus glycogenes DHL122 by complementation of the nutritional requirement of an Escherichia coli dapA mutant. Introduction of the dapA gene into DHL122 and AL119, which is the parent of DHL122 and an l-threonine producing mutant, elevated the specific activity of DDPS 20-fold and l-lysine production 2- to 3-fold with concomitant reduction of l-threonine in test tube cultures. AL119 containing the dapA gene produced 8 g of l-lysine per liter in a 5-liter jar fermentor from methanol as a substrate. Analysis of the nucleotide sequence of the dapA gene shows that it encodes a peptide with an M(r) of 30,664 and that the encoded amino acid sequence is extensively homologous to those of other organisms. In order to study the mutation that occurred in DHL122, the dapA genes of the wild type and AL119 were cloned and sequenced. Comparison of the nucleotide sequences of the dapA genes revealed that the amino acid at residue 88 was F in DHL122 whereas it was L in the wild type and AL119, suggesting that this amino acid alteration that occurred in DHL122 caused the partial desensitization of DDPS to the inhibition by l-lysine. The similarity in the amino acid sequences of DDPS in M. glycogenes and other organisms suggests that the mutation of the dapA gene in DHL122 is located in the region concerned with interaction of the allosteric effector, l-lysine