Mutational Analysis of Two Conserved Active Site Tyrosine Residues in Matrilysin

The ionization of tyrosine residue is known to be involved in the stabilization of transition-state in catalysis of astacin based upon the astacin-transition state analog structure. Two tyrosine residues, Tyr-216 and Tyr-219, are conserved in all MMPs related with astacin family, We replaced Tyr-216 and Tyr-219 into phenylalanine, respectively and the zinc binding properties, kinetic parameters, and pH dependence of each mutant are determined in order to examine the role of tyrosine residue in matrilysin catalysis. Both mutants contain two zinc atoms per mol of enzyme, indicating that either tyrosime does not affect the zinc binding property of the enzyme. Y216F and Y219F mutants are highly active and the kcat/Km values are only decreased 1.1-1.5-fold compared to the wild-type enzyme. The decrease in the activity of the mutants is essentially due to the increase in Km value. The pH dependencies of the kcat/Km values for both mutants are similar to the corresponding dependencies obtained with the wild type enzyme. The pKa values at the alkaline side of both mutants are not changed. These kinetic and pH dependence results indicate that the ionization of active site tyrosine residue of matrilysin is not reflected in the kinetics of peptide hydrolysin as catalyzed by astacin.