Publications

• Crystal structures of Escherichia coli uridine phosphorylase in two native and three complexed forms reveal basis of substrate specificity, induced conformational changes and influence of potassium.

  Caradoc-Davies T.T., Cutfield S.M., Lamont I.L., Cutfield J.F.

  Uridine phosphorylase (UP) is a key enzyme in the pyrimidine salvage pathway that catalyses the reversible phosphorolysis of uridine to uracil and ribose 1-phosphate. Inhibiting liver UP in humans raises blood uridine levels and produces a protective effect ("uridine rescue") against the toxicity ... >> More

  Uridine phosphorylase (UP) is a key enzyme in the pyrimidine salvage pathway that catalyses the reversible phosphorolysis of uridine to uracil and ribose 1-phosphate. Inhibiting liver UP in humans raises blood uridine levels and produces a protective effect ("uridine rescue") against the toxicity of the chemotherapeutic agent 5-fluorouracil without reducing its antitumour activity. We have investigated UP-substrate interactions by determining the crystal structures of native Escherichia coli UP (two forms), and complexes with 5-fluorouracil/ribose 1-phosphate, 2-deoxyuridine/phosphate and thymidine/phosphate. These hexameric structures confirm the overall structural similarity of UP to E.coli purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) whereby, in the presence of substrate, each displays a closed conformation resulting from a concerted movement that closes the active site cleft. However, in contrast to PNP where helix segmentation is the major conformational change between the open and closed forms, in UP more extensive changes are observed. In particular a swinging movement of a flap region consisting of residues 224-234 seals the active site. This overall change in conformation results in compression of the active site cleft. Gln166 and Arg168, part of an inserted segment not seen in PNP, are key residues in the uracil binding pocket and together with a tightly bound water molecule are seen to be involved in the substrate specificity of UP. Enzyme activity shows a twofold dependence on potassium ion concentration. The presence of a potassium ion at the monomer/monomer interface induces some local rearrangement, which results in dimer stabilisation. The conservation of key residues and interactions with substrate in the phosphate and ribose binding pockets suggest that ribooxocarbenium ion formation during catalysis of UP may be similar to that proposed for E.coli PNP. << Less

  J Mol Biol 337:337-354(2004) [PubMed] [EuropePMC]

• Nontargeted in vitro metabolomics for high-throughput identification of novel enzymes in Escherichia coli.

  Sevin D.C., Fuhrer T., Zamboni N., Sauer U.

  Our understanding of metabolism is limited by a lack of knowledge about the functions of many enzymes. Here, we develop a high-throughput mass spectrometry approach to comprehensively profile proteins for in vitro enzymatic activity. Overexpressed or purified proteins are incubated in a supplement ... >> More

  Our understanding of metabolism is limited by a lack of knowledge about the functions of many enzymes. Here, we develop a high-throughput mass spectrometry approach to comprehensively profile proteins for in vitro enzymatic activity. Overexpressed or purified proteins are incubated in a supplemented metabolome extract containing hundreds of biologically relevant candidate substrates, and accumulating and depleting metabolites are determined by nontargeted mass spectrometry. By combining chemometrics and database approaches, we established an automated pipeline for unbiased annotation of the functions of novel enzymes. In screening all 1,275 functionally uncharacterized Escherichia coli proteins, we discovered 241 potential novel enzymes, 12 of which we experimentally validated. Our high-throughput in vitro metabolomics method is generally applicable to any purified protein or crude cell lysate of its overexpression host and enables performing up to 1,200 nontargeted enzyme assays per working day. << Less

  Nat. Methods 14:187-194(2017) [PubMed] [EuropePMC]

  This publication is cited by 30 other entries.

• Structure of Escherichia coli uridine phosphorylase at 2.0 A.

  Burling F.T., Kniewel R., Buglino J.A., Chadha T., Beckwith A., Lima C.D.

  The 2.0 A crystal structure has been determined for Escherichia coli uridine phosphorylase (UP), an essential enzyme in nucleotide biosynthesis that catalyzes the phosphorolytic cleavage of the C-N glycosidic bond of uridine to ribose-1-phosphate and uracil. The structure determination of two inde ... >> More

  The 2.0 A crystal structure has been determined for Escherichia coli uridine phosphorylase (UP), an essential enzyme in nucleotide biosynthesis that catalyzes the phosphorolytic cleavage of the C-N glycosidic bond of uridine to ribose-1-phosphate and uracil. The structure determination of two independent monomers in the asymmetric unit revealed the residue composition and atomic details of the apo configurations of each active site. The native hexameric UP enzyme was revealed by applying threefold crystallographic symmetry to the contents of the asymmetric unit. The 2.0 A model reveals a closer structural relationship to other nucleotide phosphorylase enzymes than was previously appreciated. << Less

  Acta Crystallogr. D 59:73-76(2003) [PubMed] [EuropePMC]