Production of hydrogen sulfide by two enzymes associated with biosynthesis of homocysteine and lanthionine in Fusobacterium nucleatum subsp. nucleatum ATCC 25586
Yoshida, Yasuo and Ito, Shuntaro and Kamo, Masaharu and Kezuka, Yuichiro and Tamura, Haruki and Kunimatsu, Kazushi and Kato, Hirohisa,, 156, 2260-2269 (2010),
doi = https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.039180-0,
publicationName = Microbiology Society,
issn = 1350-0872,
abstract= Fusobacterium nucleatum produces a large amount of the toxic metabolite hydrogen sulfide in the oral cavity. Here, we report the molecular basis of F. nucleatum H2S production, which is associated with two different enzymes: the previously reported Cdl (Fn1220) and the newly identified Lcd (Fn0625). SDS-PAGE analysis with activity staining revealed that crude enzyme extracts from F. nucleatum ATCC 25586 contained three major H2S-producing proteins. Two of the proteins with low molecular masses migrated similarly to purified Fn0625 and Fn1220. Their kinetic values suggested that Fn0625 had a lower enzymic capacity to produce H2S from l-cysteine (∼30 %) than Fn1220. The Fn0625 protein degraded a variety of substrates containing βC–S linkages to produce ammonia, pyruvate and sulfur-containing products. Unlike Fn0625, Fn1220 produced neither pyruvate nor ammonia from l-cysteine. Reversed-phase HPLC separation and mass spectrometry showed that incubation of l-cysteine with Fn1220 produced H2S and an uncommon amino acid, lanthionine, which is a natural constituent of the peptidoglycans of F. nucleatum ATCC 25586. In contrast, most of the sulfur-containing substrates tested, except l-cysteine, were not used by Fn1220. Real-time PCR analysis demonstrated that the fn1220 gene showed several-fold higher expression than fn0625 and housekeeping genes in exponential-phase cultures of F. nucleatum. Thus, we conclude that Fn0625 and Fn1220 produce H2S in distinct manners: Fn0625 carries out β-elimination of l-cysteine to produce H2S, pyruvate and ammonia, whereas Fn1220 catalyses the β-replacement of l-cysteine to produce H2S and lanthionine, the latter of which may be used for peptidoglycan formation in F. nucleatum.,
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