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Activity Essential Residue Analysis of Taxoid 10β-O-Acetyl Transferase for Enzymatic Synthesis of Baccatin

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Abstract

Taxoid 10β-O-acetyl transferase (DBAT) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of the famous anticancer drug paclitaxel, which catalyses the formation of baccatin III from 10-deacetylbaccatin III (10-DAB). However, the activity essential residues of the enzyme are still unknown, and the acylation mechanism from its natural substrate 10-deacetylbaccatin III and acetyl CoA to baccatin III remains unclear. In this study, the homology modelling, molecular docking, site-directed mutagenesis, and kinetic parameter determination of the enzyme were carried out. The results showed that the enzyme mutant DBATH162A resulted in complete loss of enzymatic activity, suggesting that the residue histidine at 162 was essential to DBAT activity. Residues D166 and R363 which were located in the pocket of the enzyme by homology modelling and molecular docking were also important for DBAT activity through the site-directed mutations. Furthermore, four amino acid residues including S31 and D34 from motif SXXD, D372 and G376 from motif DFGWG also played important roles on acylation. This was the first report of the elucidation of the activity essential residues of DBAT, making it possible for the further structural-based re-design of the enzyme for efficient biotransformation of baccatin III and paclitaxel.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Program of Guangdong Province (grant number 2014B050505018, 2014B020205003, 2015A020209121) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 31071837, 31372116, 31572178).

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  1. Lin-Feng You and Tao Wei are co-first authors. They contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Food Science & Institute of Food Biotechnology, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wu-Shan Road, Tian-He District, Guangzhou, 510640, Guangdong, China

    Lin-Feng You, Tao Wei, Qian-Wang Zheng, Jun-Fang Lin, Li-Qiong Guo & Jia-Jun Huang

  2. Chongqing Key Laboratory of Catalysis and Functional Organic Molecule, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing, 400067, China

    Lin-Feng You

  3. Research Center for Micro-Ecological Agent Engineering and Technology of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, 510640, Guangdong, China

    Tao Wei, Qian-Wang Zheng, Jun-Fang Lin & Li-Qiong Guo

  4. Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, USA

    Bing-Hua Jiang

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  1. Lin-Feng You
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Correspondence to Jun-Fang Lin or Li-Qiong Guo.

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You, LF., Wei, T., Zheng, QW. et al. Activity Essential Residue Analysis of Taxoid 10β-O-Acetyl Transferase for Enzymatic Synthesis of Baccatin. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 186, 949–959 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-018-2789-0

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