Structural explanation for allolactose (lac operon inducer) synthesis by lacZ ß-galactosidase and the evolutionary relationship between allolactose synthesis and the lac repressor.

ß-Galactosidase (lacZ) has bifunctional activity. It hydrolyzes lactose to galactose and glucose and catalyzes the intramolecular isomerization of lactose to allolactose, the lac operon inducer. ß-Galactosidase promotes the isomerization by means of an acceptor site that binds glucose after its cleavage from lactose and thus delays its exit from the site. However, because of its relatively low affinity for glucose, details of this site have remained elusive. We present structural data mapping the glucose site based on a substituted enzyme (G794A-ß-galactosidase) that traps allolactose. Various lines of evidence indicate that the glucose of the trapped allolactose is in the acceptor position. The evidence includes structures with Bis-Tris (2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)-2,2',2″-nitrilotriethanol) and L-ribose in the site and kinetic binding studies with substituted ß-galactosidases. The site is composed of Asn-102, His-418, Lys-517, Ser-796, Glu-797, and Trp-999. Ser-796 and Glu-797 are part of a loop (residues 795-803) that closes over the active site. This loop appears essential for the bifunctional nature of the enzyme because it helps form the glucose binding site. In addition, because the loop is mobile, glucose binding is transient, allowing the release of some glucose. Bioinformatics studies showed that the residues important for interacting with glucose are only conserved in a subset of related enzymes. Thus, intramolecular isomerization is not a universal feature of ß-galactosidases. Genomic analyses indicated that lac repressors were co-selected only within the conserved subset. This shows that the glucose binding site of ß-galactosidase played an important role in lac operon evolution.

Ser-796 of ß-galactosidase (Escherichia coli) plays a key role in maintaining a balance between the opened and closed conformations of the catalytically important active site loop.

A loop (residues 794-803) at the active site of ß-galactosidase (Escherichia coli) opens and closes during catalysis. The α and ß carbons of Ser-796 form a hydrophobic connection to Phe-601 when the loop is closed while a connection via two H-bonds with the Ser hydroxyl occurs with the loop open. ß-Galactosidases with substitutions for Ser-796 were investigated. Replacement by Ala strongly stabilizes the closed conformation because of greater hydrophobicity and loss of H-bonding ability while replacement with Thr stabilizes the open form through hydrophobic interactions with its methyl group. Upon substitution with Asp much of the defined loop structure is lost. The different open-closed equilibria cause differences in the stabilities of the enzyme·substrate and enzyme·transition state complexes and of the covalent intermediate that affect the activation thermodynamics. With Ala, large changes of both the galactosylation (k(2)) and degalactosylation (k(3)) rates occur. With Thr and Asp, the k(2) and k(3) were not changed as much but large ΔH(‡) and TΔS(‡) changes showed that the substitutions caused mechanistic changes. Overall, the hydrophobic and H-bonding properties of Ser-796 result in interactions strong enough to stabilize the open or closed conformations of the loop but weak enough to allow loop movement during the reaction.