Crystal structure of ferric recombinant horseradish peroxidase

Horseradish peroxidase (HRP), isolated from horseradish roots, is heavily glycosylated, making it difficult to crystallize. In this work, we produced recombinant HRP in E. coli and obtained an X-ray structure of the ferric enzyme at 1.63 Å resolution. The structure shows that the recombinant HRP contains four disulphide bonds and two calcium ions, which are highly conserved in class III peroxidase enzymes. The heme active site contains histidine residues at the proximal (His 170) and distal (His 42) positions, and an active site arginine (Arg 38). Surprisingly, an ethylene glycol molecule was identified in the active site, forming hydrogen bonds with His 42 and Arg 38 at the δ-heme edge. The high yields obtained from the recombinant expression system, and the successful crystallization of the enzyme pave the way for new structural studies in the future.