Release Time:2019-03-09  Hits:

Indexed by: Journal Papers

Date of Publication: 2015-05-26

Journal: CHEMBIOCHEM

Included Journals: Scopus、PubMed、SCIE

Volume: 16

Issue: 8

Page Number: 1219-1225

ISSN: 1439-4227

Key Words: arylhydroxylamines; enzyme catalysis; nitroreductases; protein engineering; regioselectivity

Abstract: Nitroreductases have great potential for the highly efficient reduction of aryl nitro compounds to arylhydroxylamines. However, regioselective reduction of the desired nitro group in polynitroarenes is still a challenge. Here, we describe the structure-based engineering of Escherichia coli nitroreductase NfsB to alter its regioselectivity, in order to achieve reduction of a target nitro group. When 2,4-dinitrotoluene was used as the substrate, the wild-type enzyme regioselectively reduced the 4-NO2 group, but the T41L/N71S/F124W mutant primarily reduced the 2-NO2 group, without loss of activity. The crystal structure of T41L/N71S/F124W and docking experiments indicated that the regioselectivity change (from 4-NO2 to 2-NO2) might result from the increased hydrophobicity of residues 41 and 124 (proximal to FMN) and conformational changes in residues 70 and 124.