Structural basis of the substrate recognition of hydrazidase isolated from Microbacterium sp. strain HM58-2, which catalyzes acylhydrazide compounds as its sole carbon source.

Hydrazidase was an enzyme that remained unidentified for a half century. However, recently, it was purified, and its encoding gene was cloned. Microbacterium sp. strain HM58-2 grows with acylhydrazides as its sole carbon source; it produces hydrazidase and degrades acylhydrazides to acetate and hydrazides. The bacterial hydrazidase belongs to the amidase signature enzyme family and contains a Ser-cisSer-Lys catalytic motif. The condensation of hydrazine and carbonic acid produces various hydrazides, some of which are raw materials for synthesizing pharmaceuticals and other useful chemicals. Although natural hydrazide compounds have been identified, the metabolic systems for hydrazides are not fully understood. Here, we report the crystal structure of hydrazidase from Microbacterium sp. strain HM58-2. The active site was revealed to consist of a Ser-cisSer-Lys catalytic triad, in which Ser179 forms a covalent bond with a carbonyl carbon of the substrate. 4-Hydroxybenzoic acid hydrazide bound to the S179A mutant, showing an oxyanion hole composed of the three backbone amide groups. Furthermore, H336 in the non-conserved region in the amidase family may define the substrate specificity, which was confirmed by mutation analysis. A wild-type apoenzyme structure revealed an unidentified molecule covalently bound to S179, representing a tetrahedral intermediate.

Hydrazidase, a novel amidase signature enzyme that hydrolyzes acylhydrazides.

The degradation mechanisms of natural and artificial hydrazides have been elucidated. Here we screened and isolated bacteria that utilize the acylhydrazide 4-hydroxybenzoic acid 1-phenylethylidene hydrazide (HBPH) from soils. Physiological and phylogenetic studies identified one bacterium as Microbacterium sp. strain HM58-2, from which we purified intracellular hydrazidase, cloned its gene, and prepared recombinant hydrazidase using an Escherichia coli expression system. The Microbacterium sp. HM58-2 hydrazidase is a 631-amino-acid monomer that was 31% identical to indoleacetamide hydrolase isolated from Bradyrhizobium japonicum. Phylogenetic studies indicated that the Microbacterium sp. HM58-2 hydrazidase constitutes a novel hydrazidase group among amidase signature proteins that are distributed within proteobacteria, actinobacteria, and firmicutes. The hydrazidase stoichiometrically hydrolyzed the acylhydrazide residue of HBPH to the corresponding acid and hydrazine derivative. Steady-state kinetics showed that the enzyme hydrolyzes structurally related 4-hydrozybenzamide to hydroxybenzoic acid at a lower rate than HBPH, indicating that the hydrazidase prefers hydrazide to amide. The hydrazidase contains the catalytic Ser-Ser-Lys motif that is conserved among members of the amidase signature family; it shares a catalytic mechanism with amidases, according to mutagenesis findings, and another hydrazidase-specific mechanism must exist that compensates for the absence of the catalytic Ser residue. The finding that an environmental bacterium produces hydrazidase implies the existence of a novel bacterial mechanism of hydrazide degradation that impacts its ecological role.

Group X aldehyde dehydrogenases of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 degrade hydrazones.

Hydrazones are natural and synthetic compounds containing a C=N-N moiety. Here we found that the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 produced NAD(+)- or NADP(+)-dependent hydrazone dehydrogenase (HDH), which converts hydrazones to the corresponding hydrazides and acids rather than to the simple hydrolytic product aldehydes. Gene cloning indicated that the HDH is part of the group X aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) family, which is distributed among bacteria, although the physiological roles of the ALDH family remain unknown. The PAO1 strain upregulated HDH in the presence of the hydrazone adipic acid bis(ethylidene hydrazide) (AEH). Gene disruption of the HDH-encoding hdhA (PA4022) decreased growth rates in culture medium containing AEH as the sole carbon source, and this effect was more obvious in the double gene disruption of hdhA and its orthologous exaC (PA1984), indicating that these genes are responsible for hydrazone utilization. Recombinant proteins of group X ALDHs from Escherichia coli, Paracoccus denitrificans, and Ochrobactrum anthropi also acted as HDHs in that they produced HDH activity in the cells and degraded hydrazones. These findings indicated the physiological roles of group X ALDHs in bacteria and showed that they comprise a distinct ALDH subfamily.