Revisiting the IspH catalytic system in the deoxyxylulose phosphate pathway: achieving high activity

From two C(5) isoprene building blocks, isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) and its isomer dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP), the more than 30 000 members of the isoprenoid family are constructed in nature using two biosynthetic pathways, the mevalonate (MVA) pathway and the deoxyxylulose phosphate (DXP) pathway. IspH of the DXP pathway is a protein containing an iron-sulfur cluster and catalyzes a reductive dehydration reaction of the DXP pathway. In the literature, a wide range of Escherichia coli IspH activities have been reported (2.0 nmol min(-1) mg(-1) to 3.4 micromol min(-1) mg(-1)). For such a broad range of activities, reaction assays were carried out under many different conditions, preventing direct comparison of the activities and determination of the key factor responsible for such a dramatic difference in IspH activities. In this work, we systematically examined the role of redox mediators in IspH catalysis using E. coli IspH as the enzyme and dithionite as the ultimate electron source. Our studies not only suggest the importance of the iron-sulfur cluster but also improve the E. coli IspH activity by nearly 97-fold relative to that from the E. coli NADPH-flavodoxin reductase-flavodoxin system.