Critical role of arg433 in rat transketolase activity as probed by site-directed mutagenesis

It has been shown that one arginine per monomer at an unknown position is essential for enzyme activity of the homodimeric transketolase (TK) [Kremer, Egan and Sable (1980) J. Biol. Chem. 255, 2405-2410]. To identify the critical arginine, four highly conserved arginine residues of rat TK (Arg102, Arg350, Arg433 and Arg506) were replaced with alanine by site-directed mutagenesis. Wild-type and mutant TK proteins were produced in Escherichia coli and characterized. The Arg102-->Ala mutant exhibited similar catalytic activity to the wild-type enzyme, whereas Arg350-->Ala, Arg506-->Ala and Arg433-->Ala mutants exhibited 36.7, 37.0 and 6.1% of the wild-type activity respectively. Three recombinant proteins (wild-type, Arg350-->Ala and Arg433-->Ala) were purified to apparent homogeneity using Ni2+-affinity chromatography and further characterized. All these proteins were able to form homodimers (148 kDa), as shown by immunoblot analysis subsequent to non-denaturing gel electrophoresis. The Arg433-->Ala mutant protein was less stable than the wild-type and Arg350-->Ala proteins at 55 degrees C. Kinetic analyses revealed that both Vmax and Km values were markedly affected in the Arg433-->Ala mutant. The Km values for two substrates xylulose 5-phosphate and ribose 5-phosphate were 11.5- and 24.3-fold higher respectively. The kcat/Km values of the Arg433-->Ala mutant for the two substrates were less than 1% of those of the wild-type protein. Molecular modelling of the rat TK revealed that Arg433 of one monomer has three potential hydrogen-bond interactions with the catalytically important highly conserved loop of the other monomer. Thus, our biochemical analyses and modelling data suggest the critical role of the previously uncharacterized Arg433 in TK activity.