A water-soluble homodimeric serine palmitoyltransferase from Sphingomonas paucimobilis EY2395T strain. Purification, characterization, cloning, and overproduction.

Article Details

Citation

Ikushiro H, Hayashi H, Kagamiyama H

A water-soluble homodimeric serine palmitoyltransferase from Sphingomonas paucimobilis EY2395T strain. Purification, characterization, cloning, and overproduction.

J Biol Chem. 2001 May 25;276(21):18249-56. Epub 2001 Mar 12.

PubMed ID
11279212 [ View in PubMed
]
Abstract

Serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT, EC ) is a key enzyme in sphingolipid biosynthesis and catalyzes the decarboxylative condensation of l-serine and palmitoyl-coenzyme A to 3-ketodihydrosphingosine. We found that the Gram-negative obligatory aerobic bacteria Sphingomonas paucimobilis EY2395(T) have significant SPT activity and purified SPT to homogeneity. This enzyme is a water-soluble homodimeric protein unlike eukaryotic enzymes, known as heterodimers composed of tightly membrane-bound subunits, named LCB1 and LCB2. The purified SPT shows an absorption spectrum characteristic of a pyridoxal 5'-phosphate-dependent enzyme. The substrate specificity of the Sphingomonas SPT is less strict than the SPT complex from Chinese hamster ovary cells. We isolated the SPT gene encoding 420 amino acid residues (M(r) 45,041) and succeeded in overproducing the SPT protein in Escherichia coli, in which the product amounted to about 10-20% of the total protein of the cell extract. Sphingomonas SPT shows about 30% homology with the enzymes of the alpha-oxamine synthase family, and amino acid residues supposed to be involved in catalysis are conserved. The recombinant SPT was catalytically and spectrophotometrically indistinguishable from the native enzyme. This is the first successful overproduction of an active enzyme in the sphingolipid biosynthetic pathway. Sphingomonas SPT is a prototype of the eukaryotic enzyme and would be a useful model to elucidate the reaction mechanism of SPT.

DrugBank Data that Cites this Article

Drug Targets
DrugTargetKindOrganismPharmacological ActionActions
Pyridoxal phosphateSerine palmitoyltransferase 1ProteinHumans
Unknown
Cofactor
Details
Pyridoxal phosphateSerine palmitoyltransferase 2ProteinHumans
Unknown
Cofactor
Details