Understanding Which Residues of the Active Site and Loop Structure of a Tyrosine Aminomutase Define Its Mutase and Lyase Activities

Site-directed mutations and substrate analogues were used to gain insights into the branch-point reaction of the 3,5-dihydro-5-methylidene-4H-imidazol-4-one (MIO)-tyrosine aminomutase from Oryza sativa (OsTAM). Exchanging the active residues of OsTAM (Y125C/N446K) for those in a phenylalanine aminomutase TcPAM altered its substrate specificity from tyrosine to phenylalanine. The aminomutase mechanism of OsTAM surprisingly changed almost exclusively to that of an ammonia lyase making cinnamic acid (>95%) over beta-phenylalanine [Walter, T., et al. (2016) Biochemistry 55, 3497-3503]. We hypothesized that the missing electronics or sterics on the aryl ring of the phenylalanine substrate, compared with the sizable electron-donating hydroxyl of the natural tyrosine substrate, influenced the unexpected lyase reactivity of the OsTAM mutant. The double mutant was incubated with 16 alpha-phenylalanine substituent analogues of varying electronic strengths and sterics. The mutant converted each analogue principally to its acrylate with similar to 50% conversion of the p-Br substrate, making only a small amount of the beta-amino acid. The inner loop structure over the entrance to the active site was also mutated to assess how the lyase and mutase activities are affected. An OsTAM loop mutant, matching the loop residues of TcPAM, still chiefly made >95% of the acrylate from each substrate. A combined active site:loop mutant was most reactive but remained a lyase, making 10-fold more acrylates than other mutants did. While mutations within the active site changed the substrate specificity of OsTAM, continued exploration is needed to fully understand the interplay among the inner loop, the substrate, and the active site in defining the mutase and lyase activities.