Fern L-methionine decarboxylase: kinetics and mechanism of decarboxylation and abortive transamination

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Abstract
L-Methionine decarboxylase from Dryopteris filix-mas catalyzes the decarboxylation of L-methionine and a range of straight- and branched-chain L-amino acids to give the corresponding amine products. The deuterium solvent isotope effects for the decarboxylation of (2S)-methionine are D(V/K) = 6.5 and DV = 2.3, for (2S)-valine are D(V/K) = 1.9 and DV = 2.6, and for (2S)-leucine are D(V/K) = 2.5 and DV = 1.0 at pL 5.5. At pL 6.0 and above, where the value of Kcat for all of the substrates is low, the solvent isotope effects on Vmax for methionine are 1.1-1.2 whereas the effects on V/K remain unchanged, indicating that the solvent-sensitive transition state occurs before the first irreversible step, carbon dioxide desorption. The enzyme also catalyzes an abortive decarboxylation-transamination reaction in which the coenzyme is converted to pyridoxamine phosphate [Stevenson, D. E. Akhtar, M., and Gani, D. (1990a) Biochemistry (first paper of three in this issue)]. At very high concentration, the product amine can promote transamination of the coenzyme. However, the reaction occurs infrequently and does not influence the partitioning between decarboxylation and substrate-mediated abortive transamination under steady-state turnover conditions. The partition ratio, normal catalytic versus abortive events, can be determined from the amount of substrate consumed by a known amount of enzyme at infinite time, and the rate of inactivation can be determined by measuring the decrease in enzyme activity with respect to time. For methionine, the values of Km as determined from double-reciprocal plots of concentration versus inactivation rate are the same as those calculated from initial catalytic (decarboxylation) rate data, indicating that a single common intermediate partitions between product formation and slow transamination. The partition ratio is sensitive to changes in pH and is also dependent upon the structure of the substrate; methionine causes less frequent inactivation than either valine or leucine. The pH dependence of the partition ratio with methionine as substrate is very similar to that for V/K. Both curves show a sharp increase at .apprx. pH 6.25, indicating that a catalytic group on the enzyme simultaneously suppresses the abortive reaction and enhances physiological reaction in its unprotonated state. Experiments conducted in deuterium oxide allowed the solvent isotope effects for the partition ratio and the abortive reaction to be determined. The isotope effect for the partition ratio increased sharply from 0.6 to 1.7 at pL 6.25 while that for the abortive reaction decreased from 1.7 to 0.7, indicating that a postdecarboxylation step on the normal reaction pathway requires a catalytic group on the enzyme to be protonated. This step is probably quinoid protonation at C.alpha.. 1H NMR spectroscopic analysis of 3-(methylthio)-1-aminopropane isolated from incubations conducted in 50 molar % deuterium oxide at pL 4.8 and at pL 6.5, where the step for protonation of the quinoid at C.alpha. is expected to be kinetically significant in the postdecarboxylation part of the reaction, indicated that the proton donor was monoprotic and, therefore, is probably the imidazolium side chain of a histidine residue. The results of further experiments are described, and a mechanistic scheme in which a His residue operates at C.alpha. of the quinoid intermediate in normal decarboxylation and in which a Lys residue operates at C-4'' in abortive reactions is proposed and discussed.