Characterization of the PH1704 Protease from Pyrococcus horikoshii OT3 and the Critical Functions of Tyr120

The PH1704 protease from hyperthermophilic archaean Pyrococcus horikoshii OT3 is a member of DJ-1/ThiJ/PfpI superfamily with diverse functional subclasses. The recombinant PH1704 was efficiently purified and was systematically characterized by a combination of substrate specificity analysis, steady-state kinetics study and molecular docking research. The homogeneous protease was obtained as a presumed dodecamer with molecular weight of ∼240 kDa. Iodoacetamide strongly inhibited the peptidase activity, confirming that Cys100 is a nucleophilic residue. The recombinant protein was identified as both an aminopeptidase and an endopeptidase. Experimental data showed that L-R-amc was the best substrate of PH1704. Structural interaction fingerprint analysis (SIFt) indicated the binding pose of PH1704 and showed that Tyr120 is important in substrate binding. Kinetic parameters K (cat) and K (cat) /K (m) of the Y120P mutant with L-R-amc was about 7 and 7.8 times higher than that of the wild type (WT). For the endopeptidase Y120P with AAFR-amc, K (cat) and K (cat) /K (m) is 10- and 21- fold higher than that of WT. Experimental data indicate the important functions of Tyr120: involvement in enzyme activity to form a hydrogen bond with Cys100 and as an entrance gate of the substrate with Lys43. The results of this study can be used to investigate the DJ-1/ThiJ/PfpI superfamily.