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Acta Cryst. (2014). A70, C847
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γ-Glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT; EC 2.3.2.2) is involved in the degradation of γ-glutamyl compounds such as glutathione (GSH; γ-glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine) . A major physiological role of this enzyme is to cleave the extracellular GSH as a source of cysteine for intracellular glutathione biosynthesis. Another crucial role of GGT is to cleave glutathione-S-conjugates as a key step in detoxification of xenobiotics and drug metabolism. In mammals, GGT has been implicated in physiological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, other neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease and cardiovascular disease. The indispensable roles played by GGT in GSH-mediated detoxification and cellular response to oxidative stress suggest that GGT is an attractive pharmaceutical target. We here report the binding mode of acivicin, a well-known glutamine antagonist, to B. subtilis GGT at 1.8 Å resolution showing that acivicin is bound to the Oγ atom of Thr403, the catalytic nucleophile of the enzyme, through its C3 atom [1]. The observed electron density around the C3 atom was best fitted to the planar and sp2 hybridized carbon, consistent with a simple nucleophilic substitution of Cl at the imino carbon by Oγ atom of Thr403. Furthermore, comparison of three bacterial enzymes, the GGTs from E. coli, H. pylori and B. subtilis in complex with acivicin, showed significant diversity in the orientation of the dihydroisoxazole ring among three GGTs. The differences are discussed in terms of the recognition of the α-amino and α-carboxy groups in preference to the dihydroisoxazole ring as observed in time-lapse soaking crystal structures of B. subtilis GGT with acivicin.
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