Crystal structures of the photosystem II D1 C-terminal processing protease

We report here the first three-dimensional structure of the D1 C-terminal processing protease (D1P), which is encoded by the ctpA gene. This enzyme removes the C-terminal extension of the D1 polypeptide of photosystem II of oxygenic photosynthesis. Proteolytic processing is necessary to allow the light driven assembly of the tetranuclear manganese cluster, which is responsible for photosynthetic water oxidation. The X-ray structure of the Scenedesmus obliquus enzyme has been determined at 1.8 A resolution using the multiwavelength anomalous dispersion method. The enzyme is monomeric and is composed of three folding domains. The middle domain is topologically homologous to known PDZ motifs and is proposed to be the site at which the substrate C-terminus binds. The remainder of the substrate likely extends across the face of the enzyme, interacting at its scissile bond with the enzyme active site Ser 372 / Lys 397 catalytic dyad, which lies at the center of the protein at the interface of the three domains.