Expression, crystallization and preliminary crystallographic study of octaprenyl pyrophosphate synthase from Helicobacter pylori

Octaprenyl pyrophosphate synthase (OPPs) is involved in the synthesis of the side chains of ubiquinone and menaquinone and catalyzes consecutive con­densation reactions of farnesyl pyrophosphate with isopentenyl pyrophos­phate to generate polyprenyl pyrophosphate and pyrophosphate. In order to investigate the roles played by OPPs in the metabolism of ubiquinone and menaquinone and the enzymatic mechanisms of these enzymes, analysis of the structure-function relationship of OPPs from Helicobacter pylori was initiated. The gene for OPPs was cloned, the protein was expressed, purified and crystallized and a diffraction data set was collected to 2.00 Å resolution. The crystals belonged to space group P4₁2₁2 or P4₃2₁2, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 109.33, c = 103.41 Å.