Trehalase: stereocomplementary hydrolytic and glucosyl transfer reactions with alpha- and beta-D-glucosyl fluoride

A new understanding has been obtained of the catalytic capabilities of trehalase, an enzyme heretofore held to be strictly specific for hydrolyzing alpha, alpha-trehalose and devoid of transglycosylative ability. Highly purified rabbit renal cortical trehalase and a partly purified Candida tropicalis yeast trehalase were found to utilize both alpha- and beta-D-glucosyl fluoride as substrates. In each case, the reactions were competitively inhibited by alpha, alpha-trehalose. Both enzymes catalyzed rapid hydrolysis of alpha-D-glucosyl fluoride to form beta-D-glucose (also, of alpha, alpha-trehalose to form equimolar alpha- and beta-D-glucose). In addition, digests of beta-D-glucosyl fluoride plus alpha-D-[14C]-glucopyranose with either trehalase (but not controls of enzyme with alpha-D-[14C]glucopyranose alone) yielded small amounts of radioactive trehalose (alpha-D-glucopyranosyl alpha-D-[14C]glucopyranoside) which does not accumulate since it is rapidly hydrolyzed. Trehalase thus catalyzes two stereocomplementary types of glycosylation reactions: (I) alpha-D-glucosyl fluoride (or alpha, alpha-trehalose) + H2O leads to beta-D-glucose + HF (or alpha-D-glucose); (II) beta-D-glucosyl fluoride + alpha-D-glucopyranose leads to alpha, alpha-trehalose + HF. Such behavior shows that the catalytic groups of trehalase, as recently found for other glycosylases, are functionally flexible. The results illustrate the inadequacy of conventional views of carbohydrase specificity and the rigor, as a basic guiding principle, of the concept that glycoside hydrolases and glycosyltransferases form a class of glycosylases effecting glycosyl/proton interchange.