Identification and characterization of two families of F420 H2-dependent reductases from Mycobacteria that catalyse aflatoxin degradation.

Aflatoxins are polyaromatic mycotoxins that contaminate a range of food crops as a result of fungal growth and contribute to serious health problems in the developing world because of their toxicity and mutagenicity. Although relatively resistant to biotic degradation, aflatoxins can be metabolized by certain species of Actinomycetales. However, the enzymatic basis for their breakdown has not been reported until now. We have identified nine Mycobacterium smegmatis enzymes that utilize the deazaflavin cofactor F(420) H(2) to catalyse the reduction of the α,ß-unsaturated ester moiety of aflatoxins, activating the molecules for spontaneous hydrolysis and detoxification. These enzymes belong to two previously uncharacterized F(420) H(2) dependent reductase (FDR-A and -B) families that are distantly related to the flavin mononucleotide (FMN) dependent pyridoxamine 5'-phosphate oxidases (PNPOxs). We have solved crystal structures of an enzyme from each FDR family and show that they, like the PNPOxs, adopt a split barrel protein fold, although the FDRs also possess an extended and highly charged F(420) H(2) binding groove. A general role for these enzymes in xenobiotic metabolism is discussed, including the observation that the nitro-reductase Rv3547 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is responsible for the activation of bicyclic nitroimidazole prodrugs belongs to the FDR-A family.

Cloning, expression, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray studies of a pyridoxine 5'-phosphate oxidase from Mycobacterium smegmatis.

Pyridoxine 5'-phosphate oxidases (PNPOxs) are known to catalyse the terminal step in pyridoxal 5'-phosphate biosynthesis in a flavin mononucleotide-dependent manner in humans and Escherichia coli. Recent reports of a putative PNPOx from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Rv1155, suggest that the cofactor or catalytic mechanism may differ in Mycobacterium species. To investigate this, a putative PNPOx from M. smegmatis, Msmeg_3380, has been cloned. This enzyme has been recombinantly expressed in E. coli and purified to homogeneity. Good-quality crystals of selenomethionine-substituted Msmeg_3380 were obtained by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion technique and diffracted to 1.2 A using synchrotron radiation.

Metabolon formation in dhurrin biosynthesis.

Synthesis of the tyrosine derived cyanogenic glucoside dhurrin in Sorghum bicolor is catalyzed by two multifunctional, membrane bound cytochromes P450, CYP79A1 and CYP71E1, and a soluble UDPG-glucosyltransferase, UGT85B1 (Tattersall, D.B., Bak, S., Jones, P.R., Olsen, C.E., Nielsen, J.K., Hansen, M.L., Høj, P.B., Møller, B.L., 2001. Resistance to an herbivore through engineered cyanogenic glucoside synthesis. Science 293, 1826-1828). All three enzymes retained enzymatic activity when expressed as fluorescent fusion proteins in planta. Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants that produced dhurrin were obtained by co-expression of CYP79A1/CYP71E1-CFP/UGT85B1-YFP and of CYP79A1/CYP71E1/UGT85B1-YFP but not by co-expression of CYP79A1-YFP/CYP71E-CFP/UGT85B1. The lack of dhurrin formation upon co-expression of the two cytochromes P450 as fusion proteins indicated that tight interaction was necessary for efficient substrate channelling. Transient expression in S. bicolor epidermal cells as monitored by confocal laser scanning microscopy showed that UGT85B1-YFP accumulated in the cytoplasm in the absence of CYP79A1 or CYP71E1. In the presence of CYP79A1 and CYP71E1, the localization of UGT85B1 shifted towards the surface of the ER membrane in the periphery of biosynthetic active cells, demonstrating in planta dhurrin metabolon formation.