Abstract
Although ureases play important roles in microbial nitrogen metabolism and in the pathogenesis of several human diseases, little is known of the mechanism of metallocenter biosynthesis in this Ni-Containing enzyme. Klebsiella aerogenes urease apo-protein was purified from cells grown in the absence of Ni. The purified apo-enzyme showed the same native molecular weight, charge, and subunit stoichiometry as the holo-enzyme. Chemical modification studies were consistent with histidinyl ligation of Ni. Apo-enzyme could not be activated by simple addition of Ni ions suggesting a requirement for a cellular factor. Deletion analysis showed that four accessory genes (ureD, ureE, ureF, and ureG) are necessary for the functional incorporation of the urease metallocenter. Whereas the $\Delta$ureD, $\Delta$ureF, and $\Delta$ureG mutants are inactive and their ureases lack Ni, the $\Delta$ureE mutants retain partial activity and their ureases possess corresponding lower levels of Ni. UreE and UreG peptides were identified by SDS-polyacrylamide gel comparisons of mutant and wild type cells and by N-terminal sequencing. UreD and UreF peptides, which are synthesized at ve교 low levels, were identified by using in vitro transcription/translation methods. Cotransformation of E. coli cells with the complementing plasmids confirmed that ureD and ureF gene products act in trans. UreE was purified and characterized. immunogold electron microscopic studies were used to localize UreE to the cytoplasm. Equilibrium dialysis studies of purified UreE with $^{63}$ NiC1$_2$ showed that it binds ～6 Ni in a specific manner with a $K_{d}$ of 9.6 $\pm$1.3 $\mu$M. Results from spectroscopic studies demonstrated that Ni ions are ligated by 5 histidinyl residues and a sixth N or O atom, consistent with participation of the polyhistidine tail at the carboxyl termini of the dimeric UreE in Ni binding. With these results and other known features of the urease-related gene products, a model for urease metallocenter biosynthesis is proposed in which UreE binds Ni and acts as a Ni donor to the urease apo-protein while UreG binds ATP and couples its Hydrolysis to the Ni incorporation process.ouples its Hydrolysis to the Ni incorporation process.s.