Skip to main content
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1990 Dec;87(23):9391–9395. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.23.9391

p-Aminobenzoate synthesis in Escherichia coli: purification and characterization of PabB as aminodeoxychorismate synthase and enzyme X as aminodeoxychorismate lyase.

Q Z Ye 1, J Liu 1, C T Walsh 1
PMCID: PMC55171  PMID: 2251281

Abstract

The Escherichia coli pabA and pabB genes have been overexpressed separately and in tandem. Using purified PabB, we have confirmed the recent suggestion that PabB needs an additional protein, enzyme X, to convert chorismate and NH3 to p-aminobenzoate (PABA). With chorismate and NH3, pure PabB generates an intermediate presumed to be 4-amino-4-deoxychorismate based upon UV/visible spectroscopy and enzymatic and nonenzymatic transformations. The PabB-catalyzed interconversion of chorismate and isolated aminodeoxychorismate is readily reversible. With pure PabB as a stoichiometric assay reagent, enzyme X was purified approximately 800-fold to near homogeneity as an apparent homodimer of 50 kDa from E. coli. Enzyme X shows no activity on chorismate but quantitatively converts the preformed aminodeoxychorismate into p-aminobenzoate and pyruvate, acting thereby as an aminodeoxychorismate lyase.

Full text

PDF
9391

Images in this article

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Goncharoff P., Nichols B. P. Nucleotide sequence of Escherichia coli pabB indicates a common evolutionary origin of p-aminobenzoate synthetase and anthranilate synthetase. J Bacteriol. 1984 Jul;159(1):57–62. doi: 10.1128/jb.159.1.57-62.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Greer S., Perham R. N. Glutathione reductase from Escherichia coli: cloning and sequence analysis of the gene and relationship to other flavoprotein disulfide oxidoreductases. Biochemistry. 1986 May 6;25(9):2736–2742. doi: 10.1021/bi00357a069. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Huang M., Gibson F. Biosynthesis of 4-aminobenzoate in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1970 Jun;102(3):767–773. doi: 10.1128/jb.102.3.767-773.1970. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Kane J. F., O'Brien H. D. p-Aminobenzoate-p-aminobenzoate. J Bacteriol. 1975 Sep;123(3):1131–1138. doi: 10.1128/jb.123.3.1131-1138.1975. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Kane J. F. Regulation of a common amidotransferase subunit. J Bacteriol. 1977 Nov;132(2):419–425. doi: 10.1128/jb.132.2.419-425.1977. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Kaplan J. B., Nichols B. P. Nucleotide sequence of Escherichia coli pabA and its evolutionary relationship to trp(G)D. J Mol Biol. 1983 Aug 15;168(3):451–468. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(83)80295-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Lawrence J., Cox G. B., Gibson F. Biosynthesis of ubiquinone in Escherichia coli K-12: biochemical and genetic characterization of a mutant unable to convert chorismate into 4-hydroxybenzoate. J Bacteriol. 1974 Apr;118(1):41–45. doi: 10.1128/jb.118.1.41-45.1974. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Liu J., Albers M. W., Chen C. M., Schreiber S. L., Walsh C. T. Cloning, expression, and purification of human cyclophilin in Escherichia coli and assessment of the catalytic role of cysteines by site-directed mutagenesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990 Mar;87(6):2304–2308. doi: 10.1073/pnas.87.6.2304. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Liu J., Quinn N., Berchtold G. A., Walsh C. T. Overexpression, purification, and characterization of isochorismate synthase (EntC), the first enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of enterobactin from chorismate. Biochemistry. 1990 Feb 13;29(6):1417–1425. doi: 10.1021/bi00458a012. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. McLeish M. J., Wookey P. J., Mortimer K. G. The cloning and over-expression of PABA synthase in E. coli. Biochem Int. 1988 Apr;16(4):727–735. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Nichols B. P., Seibold A. M., Doktor S. Z. para-aminobenzoate synthesis from chorismate occurs in two steps. J Biol Chem. 1989 May 25;264(15):8597–8601. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Ozenberger B. A., Brickman T. J., McIntosh M. A. Nucleotide sequence of Escherichia coli isochorismate synthetase gene entC and evolutionary relationship of isochorismate synthetase and other chorismate-utilizing enzymes. J Bacteriol. 1989 Feb;171(2):775–783. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.2.775-783.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Walsh C. T., Erion M. D., Walts A. E., Delany J. J., 3rd, Berchtold G. A. Chorismate aminations: partial purification of Escherichia coli PABA synthase and mechanistic comparison with anthranilate synthase. Biochemistry. 1987 Jul 28;26(15):4734–4745. doi: 10.1021/bi00389a021. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Yanofsky C., Platt T., Crawford I. P., Nichols B. P., Christie G. E., Horowitz H., VanCleemput M., Wu A. M. The complete nucleotide sequence of the tryptophan operon of Escherichia coli. Nucleic Acids Res. 1981 Dec 21;9(24):6647–6668. doi: 10.1093/nar/9.24.6647. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Zalkin H. p-Aminobenzoate synthase. Methods Enzymol. 1985;113:293–297. doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(85)13041-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES