Identification, expression, and characterization of Escherichia coli guanine deaminase

Abstract

Using the human cDNA sequence corresponding to guanine deaminase, the Escherichia coli genome was scanned using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), and a corresponding 439-residue open reading frame of unknown function was identified as having 36% identity to the human protein. The putative gene was amplified, subcloned into the pMAL-c2 vector, expressed, purified, and characterized enzymatically. The 50.2-kDa protein catalyzed the conversion of guanine to xanthine, having a K(m) of 15 microM with guanine and a k(cat) of 3.2 s(-1). The bacterial enzyme shares a nine-residue heavy metal binding site with human guanine deaminase, PG[FL]VDTHIH, and was found to contain approximately 1 mol of zinc per mol of subunit of protein. The E. coli guanine deaminase locus is 3' from an open reading frame which shows homology to a bacterial purine base permease.

FIG. 1

E. coli and human guanine deaminase sequence alignment. Shown is a Clustal W alignment of sequences, with symbols defined as follows: ∗, identical or conserved residues; :, conserved substitutions; ., semiconserved substitutions.