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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Cobalamin-dependent methionine synthase (MetH) catalyzes the synthesis of methionine from homocysteine and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (CH(3)-H(4)folate) using the unique chemistry of its cofactor. In doing so, MetH links the cycling of S-adenosylmethionine with the folate cycle in one-carbon metabolism. Extensive biochemical and structural studies on Escherichia coli MetH have shown that this flexible, multidomain enzyme adopts two major conformations to prevent a futile cycle of methionine production and consumption. However, as MetH is highly dynamic as well as both a photosensitive and oxygen-sensitive metalloenzyme, it poses special challenges for structural studies, and existing structures have necessarily come from a "divide and conquer" approach. In this study, we investigate E. coli MetH and a thermophilic homolog from Thermus filiformis using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), single-particle cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM), and extensive analysis of the AlphaFold2 database to present a structural description of the full-length MetH in its entirety. Using SAXS, we describe a common resting-state conformation shared by both active and inactive oxidation states of MetH and the roles of CH(3)-H(4)folate and flavodoxin in initiating turnover and reactivation. By combining SAXS with a 3.6-A cryo-EM structure of the T. filiformis MetH, we show that the resting-state conformation consists of a stable arrangement of the catalytic domains that is linked to a highly mobile reactivation domain. Finally, by combining AlphaFold2-guided sequence analysis and our experimental findings, we propose a general model for functional switching in MetH.

Conformational switching and flexibility in cobalamin-dependent methionine synthase studied by small-angle X-ray scattering and cryoelectron microscopy.,Watkins MB, Wang H, Burnim A, Ando N Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 Jun 27;120(26):e2302531120. doi: , 10.1073/pnas.2302531120. Epub 2023 Jun 20. PMID:37339208^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.