Novel properties of malarial S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase as revealed by structural modelling

In the malaria parasite, the two main regulatory activities of polyamine biosynthesis, ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) and S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (AdoMetDC) occur in a single bifunctional protein. The AdoMetDC domain was modeled using the human and potato X-ray crystal structures as templates. Three parasite-specific inserts and the core active site region was identified using a structure-based alignment approach. The domain was modeled without the two largest inserts, to give a root mean square deviation of 1.85 angstroms from the human template. Contact with the rest of the bifunctional complex is predicted to occur on one face of the Plasmodium falciparum AdoMetDC (PfAdoMetDC) domain. In the active site there are four substitutions compared to the human template. One of these substitutions may be responsible for the lack of inhibition by Tris, compared to mammalian AdoMetDC. The model also provides an explanation for the lack of putrescine stimulation in PfAdoMetDC compared to mammalian AdoMetDC. A network of residues that connects the putrescine-binding site with the active site in human AdoMetDC is conserved in the malarial and plant cognates. Internal basic residues are found to assume the role of putrescine, based on the model and site-directed mutagenesis: Arg11 is absolutely required for normal activity, while disrupting Lys15 and Lys215 each cause 50% inhibition of AdoMetDC activity. These novel features of malarial AdoMetDC suggest possibilities for the discovery of parasite-specific inhibitors.