Evolution of threonine aldolases, a diverse family involved in the second pathway of glycine biosynthesis.

Threonine aldolases (TAs) catalyze the interconversion of threonine and glycine plus acetaldehyde in a pyridoxal phosphate-dependent manner. This class of enzymes complements the primary glycine biosynthetic pathway catalyzed by serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT), and was shown to be necessary for yeast glycine auxotrophy. Because the reverse reaction of TA involves carbon-carbon bond formation, resulting in a ß-hydroxyl-α-amino acid with two adjacent chiral centers, TAs are of high interests in synthetic chemistry and bioengineering studies. Here, we report systematic phylogenetic analysis of TAs. Our results demonstrated that L-TAs and D-TAs that are specific for L- and D-threonine, respectively, are two phylogenetically unique families, and both enzymes are different from their closely related enzymes SHMTs and bacterial alanine racemases (ARs). Interestingly, L-TAs can be further grouped into two evolutionarily distinct families, which share low sequence similarity with each other but likely possess the same structural fold, suggesting a convergent evolution of these enzymes. The first L-TA family contains enzymes of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic origins, and is related to fungal ARs, whereas the second contains only prokaryotic L-TAs. Furthermore, we show that horizontal gene transfer may occur frequently during the evolution of both L-TA families. Our results indicate the complex, dynamic, and convergent evolution process of TAs and suggest an updated classification scheme for L-TAs.

Serine hydroxymethyltransferase 1 and 2: gene sequence variation and functional genomic characterization.

Serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) catalyzes the transfer of a ß-carbon from serine to tetrahydrofolate to form glycine and 5,10-methylene-tetrahydrofolate. This reaction plays an important role in neurotransmitter synthesis and metabolism. We set out to resequence SHMT1 and SHMT2, followed by functional genomic studies. We identified 87 and 60 polymorphisms in SHMT1 and SHMT2, respectively. We observed no significant functional effect of the 13 non-synonymous single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in these genes, either on catalytic activity or protein quantity. We imputed additional variants across the two genes using '1000 Genomes' data, and identified 14 variants that were significantly associated (p<1.0E-10) with SHMT1 messenger RNA expression in lymphoblastoid cell lines. Many of these SNPs were also significantly correlated with basal SHMT1 protein expression in 268 human liver biopsy samples. Reporter gene assays suggested that the SHMT1 promoter SNP, rs669340, contributed to this variation. Finally, SHMT1 and SHMT2 expression were significantly correlated with those of other Folate and Methionine Cycle genes at both the messenger RNA and protein levels. These experiments represent a comprehensive study of SHMT1 and SHMT2 gene sequence variation and its functional implications. In addition, we obtained preliminary indications that these genes may be co-regulated with other Folate and Methionine Cycle genes.

Threonine aldolases-screening, properties and applications in the synthesis of non-proteinogenic beta-hydroxy-alpha-amino acids.

Threonine aldolases (TAs) constitute a powerful tool for catalyzing carbon-carbon bond formations in synthetic organic chemistry, thus enabling an enantio- and diastereoselective synthesis of beta-hydroxy-alpha-amino acids. Starting from the achiral precursors glycine and an aldehyde, two new stereogenic centres are formed in this catalytic step. The resulting chiral beta-hydroxy-alpha-amino acid products are important precursors for pharmaceuticals such as thiamphenicol, a L: -threo-phenylserine derivative or L: -threo-3,4-dihydroxyphenylserine. TAs are pyridoxal-5-phosphate-dependent enzymes, which, in nature, catalyze the cleavage of L: -threonine or L: -allo-threonine to glycine and acetaldehyde in a glycine biosynthetic pathway. TAs from a broad number of species of bacteria and fungi have been isolated and characterised as biocatalysts for the synthesis of beta-hydroxy-alpha-amino acids. In this review, screening methods to obtain novel TAs, their biological function, biochemical characterisation and preparative biotransformations with TAs are described.

Molecular cloning and biochemical characterization of Leishmania donovani serine hydroxymethyltransferase.

Serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) catalyzes the inter conversion of serine and tetrahydrofolate (H(4)-folate) to form glycine and 5,10-methylene H(4)-folate and generates one-carbon fragments for the synthesis of nucleotides, methionine, thymidylate, choline, etc. In spite of being an indispensable enzyme of the thymidylate cycle, SHMT in Leishmania donovani remains uncharacterized. The study of L. donovani SHMT (ldSHMT) becomes important as this gene is preferentially expressed in the amastigote stage of parasite, which resides in human macrophages. Here we report cloning, expression and purification of a catalytically active ldSHMT. The homogeneity of recombinant protein was analyzed by denaturing gel electrophoresis and protein was found to be 95% pure having yield of 1mg/l. The recombinant protein is a tetramer of 216kDa as evidenced by gel filtration chromatography and uses serine and tetrahydrofolate as substrates with Km of 1.6 and 2.4mM, respectively. Further biochemical studies revealed that pH optimum of ldSHMT is 7.8 and enzyme is thermally stable up to 45 degrees C. ldSHMT was found sensitive towards denaturants as manifested by loss of enzyme activity at the concentration of 1M urea or 0.25M guanidine hydrochloride. This is the first report of purification and characterization of recombinant SHMT from any protozoan source. Studies on recombinant ldSHMT will help in evaluating this enzyme as potential drug target.