Enzymes Involved in the Aerobic Bacterial Degradation of N-Heteroaromatic Compounds: Molybdenum Hydroxylases and Ring-Opening 2,4-Dioxygenases

摘要

Many N-heteroaromatic compounds are utilized by micro-organisms as a source of carbon (and nitrogen) and energy. The aerobic bacterial degradation of these growth substrates frequently involves several hydroxylation steps and subsequent dioxygenolytic cleavage of (di)hydroxy-substituted heteroaromatic intermediates to aliphatic metabolites which finally are channeled into central metabolic pathways. As a rule, the initial bacterial hydroxylation of a N-heteroaromatic compound is catalyzed by a molybdenum hydroxylase, which uses a water molecule as source of the incorporated oxygen. The enzyme's redox-active centers - the active site molybdenum ion coordinated to a distinct pyranopterin cofactor, two different [2Fe2S] centers, and in most cases, flavin adenine dinucleotide -transfer electrons from the N-heterocyclic substrate to an electron acceptor, which for many molybdenum hydroxylases is still unknown. Ring-opening 2,4-dioxygenases involved in the bacterial degradation of quinaldine and 1H-4-oxoquinoline catalyze the cleavage of two carbon-carbon bonds with concomitant formation of carbon monoxide. Since they contain neither a metal center nor an organic cofactor, and since they do not show any sequence similarity to known oxygenases, these unique dioxygenases form a separate enzyme family. Quite surprisingly, however, they appear to be structurally and mechanistically related to enzymes of the α/β hy-drolase fold superfamily. Microbial enzymes are a great resource for biotechnological applications. Microbial strains or their enzymes may be used for degradative (bioremediation) or synthetic (bio-transformation) purposes. Modern bioremediation or biotransfor-mation strategies may even involve microbial catalysts or strains designed by protein engineering or pathway engineering. Prerequisite for developing such modern tools of biotechnology is a comprehensive understanding of microbial metabolic pathways, of the structure and function of enzymes, and of the molecular mechanisms of biocatalysis.