S-Adenosylmethionine-Binding Properties of a Bacterial Phospholipid N-Methyltransferase▿†

The presence of the membrane lipid phosphatidylcholine (PC) in the bacterial membrane is critically important for many host-microbe interactions. The phospholipid N-methyltransferase PmtA from the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens catalyzes the formation of PC by a three-step methylation of phosphatidylethanolamine via monomethylphosphatidylethanolamine and dimethylphosphatidylethanolamine. The methyl group is provided by S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), which is converted to S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) during transmethylation. Despite the biological importance of bacterial phospholipid N-methyltransferases, little is known about amino acids critical for binding to SAM or phospholipids and catalysis. Alanine substitutions in the predicted SAM-binding residues E58, G60, G62, and E84 in A. tumefaciens PmtA dramatically reduced SAM-binding and enzyme activity. Homology modeling of PmtA satisfactorily explained the mutational results. The enzyme is predicted to exhibit a consensus topology of the SAM-binding fold consistent with cofactor interaction as seen with most structurally characterized SAM-methyltransferases. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) titration experiments and 14C-SAM-binding studies revealed binding constants for SAM and SAH in the low micromolar range. Our study provides first insights into structural features and SAM binding of a bacterial phospholipid N-methyltransferase