Impact of the key residues of 1-Deoxy-D-Xylulose-5-Phosphate synthase on its catalysis

1-Deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase (DXS) is the first rate-limiting enzyme in the 2-methyl-D-erythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) terpenoid biosynthetic pathway. To explore the active sites of the protein, we made a series of mutations to the key amino acid residues of Escherichia coli DXS including H49, R420, D427, and R478. The results show that several mutants including H49Q lose almost all their catalytic activity in DXP synthesis, but the double-point mutants H49QD427H and H49QD427 N recover 100 % activity of the wild type enzyme. The kinetic characterization displays that the affinity of the double-point mutants for pyruvate and D-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate only slightly decreases. We also assessed impact of the mutation on the oxidative decarboxylation activity of all the mutants. Despite the fact that H49QD427H and H49QD427 N get back the full activity with regard to DXP synthesis, their oxidase activity remains unrestored. Furthermore, we assayed the acceptor substrate spectrum of the mutants and the results show that a large portion of them catalyzes ligation between pyruvate and nitrosobenzene to form N-phenyl-N-hydroxyacetamide, whereas R420D, R420F, and D427H exhibit activity in connection of pyruvate and benzaldehyde to afford phenylacetocarbinol (PAC), with the first two mutants yielding (S)-PAC (yields 21 %-25 %, ee values 71–75 %) while D427H furnishing (R)-PAC (yield 41 %, ee value 91 %), implying the key role of D427 for the acceptor substrate recognition and the stereoselectivity of the enzyme. It is worth noting that this is the first report of DXS mutants that can recognize benzaldehyde as an acceptor substrate and generate both enantiomers of PAC.