Alternative donor substrates for inverting and retaining glycosyltransferases

By the use of glycosyl donors containing aromatic leaving groups linked with opposite anomeric configurations compared to those of the natural donor substrates, an inverting (Cst II) and a retaining (LgtC) glycosyltransferase were found to catalyse glycosylation reactions of natural acceptor substrates in the presence of the corresponding nucleotide.     

Mechanistic analogies amongst carbohydrate modifying enzymes

Carbohydrates are known to play essential roles in a myriad of biological processes. The enormous complexity of the various oligosaccharide structures found in biology is derived from a rational orchestration of the enzymatic formation and breakdown of glycosidic linkages achieved by glycosyltransferases, glycosidases and phosphorylases. A detailed understanding of the chemical mechanisms by which these classes of enzymes function not only provides a rational basis for their engineering and application in both the development and synthesis of new classes of therapeutic agents, but also provides insight into the role of convergence in the natural evolution of enzyme function.     

Chemical control of stem cell fate and developmental potential

Potential applications of stem cells in medicine range from their inclusion in disease modeling and drug discovery to cell transplantation and regenerative therapies. However, before this promise can be realized several obstacles must be overcome, including the control of stem cell differentiation, allogeneic rejection and limited cell availability. This will require an improved understanding of the mechanisms that govern stem cell potential and the development of robust methods to efficiently control their fate. Recently, a number of small molecules have been identified that can be used both in vitro and in vivo as tools to expand stem cells, direct their differentiation, or reprogram somatic cells to a more naive state. These molecules have provided a wealth of insights into the signaling and epigenetic mechanisms that regulate stem cell biology, and are already beginning to contribute to the development of effective treatments for tissue repair and regeneration.     

The discretized flow on domains of attraction: a structural stability result

It is well known that, for stepsize sufficiently small, compactattractors of ordinary differential equations persist underdiscretization. The present paper describes the structure ofthe discrete-time dynamical system obtained via discretizationon A(M_h)\M_h where M_h is the approximate attractor and A(M_h)is its domain of attraction. The existence of a smooth embeddinginto a continuous-time parallelizable flow is proved. The constructioncan be used to define sections for discretizations and can beinterpreted as a justification of the method of modified equations.     

Hydrogen bonding in the mechanism of GDP-mannose mannosyl hydrolase

GDP-mannose mannosyl hydrolase (GDPMH) from E. coli catalyzes the hydrolysis of GDP-α-d-sugars to GDP and β-d-sugars by nucleophilic substitution with inversion at the anomeric C1 of the sugar, with general base catalysis by His-124. The 1.3 Å X-ray structure of the GDPMH-Mg²⁺-GDP complex was used to model the complete substrate, GDP-mannose into the active site. The substrate is linked to the enzyme by 12 hydrogen bonds, as well as by the essential Mg²⁺. In addition, His-124 was found to participate in a hydrogen bonded triad: His-124-NδHTyr-127-OHPro-120(CO). The contributions of these hydrogen bonds to substrate binding and to catalysis were investigated by site-directed mutagenesis. The hydrogen bonded triad detected in the X-ray structure was found to contribute little to catalysis since the Y127F mutation of the central residue shows only 2-fold decreases in both k_cat and K_m. The GDP leaving group is activated by the essential Mg²⁺ which contributes at least 10⁵-fold to k_cat, and by nine hydrogen bonds, including those from Tyr-103, Arg-37, Arg-52, and Arg-65 (via an intervening water), each of which contribute factors to k_cat ranging from 24- to 309-fold. Both Arg-37 and Tyr-103 bind the β-phosphate of the leaving GDP and are only 5.0 Å apart. Accordingly, the R37Q/Y103F double mutant shows partially additive effects of the two single mutants on k_cat, indicating cooperativity of Arg-37 and Tyr-103 in promoting catalysis. The extensive activation of the GDP leaving group suggests a mechanism with dissociative character with a cationic oxocarbenium-like transition state and a half-chair conformation of the sugar ring, as found with glycosidase enzymes. Accordingly, Asp-22 which contributes 10^2.1- to 10^2.6-fold to k_cat, is positioned to both stabilize a developing cationic center at C1 and to accept a hydrogen bond from the C2–OH of the mannosyl group, and His-88, which contributes 10^2.3-fold to k_cat, is positioned to accept a hydrogen bond from the C3–OH of the mannose facilitating its distortion to a half-chair conformation. Also, the fluorinated substrate GDP-2-fluoro-α-d-mannose, for which the oxocarbenium ion-like transition state centered at C1 would be destabilized by electron withdrawal, shows a 16-fold lower k_cat and a 2.5-fold greater K_m than does GDP-α-d-mannose. The product of the contributions to catalysis of Arg-37 and Tyr-103 (taking their cooperativity into account), Arg-52, Arg-65, Mg²⁺, Asp-22, His-124, and His-88 is ≥10¹⁹, which exceeds the 10¹²-fold rate acceleration produced by GDPMH by a factor ≥10⁷. Hence, additional pairs or groups of catalytic residues must act cooperatively to promote catalysis.