T. Fukuda et al., DIFFERENT MECHANISMS OF REGIOSELECTION OF FATTY-ACID HYDROXYLATION BYLAURATE (OMEGA-1)-HYDROXYLATING P450S, P450 2C2 AND P450 2E1, Journal of Biochemistry, 115(2), 1994, pp. 338-344
P450 2C2 as well as P450 2E1 [Fukuda, T. et at. (1993) J. Biochem. 113
, 7-12] catalyzed the hydroxylation of medium chain fatty acids, altho
ugh the regioselectivity of substrates of the former contrasted with t
hat of the latter. Whereas P450 2E1 hydroxylated C-9-C-18 fatty acids
at the omega-1 position and to a much lesser extent at the omega and o
mega-2 positions, P450 2C2 hydroxylated C-9-C-13 fatty acids at differ
ent positions dependent on the chain length of fatty acids. Among the
fatty acids used as the substrate, undecanoate was hydroxylated at the
omega-1 position almost exclusively by P450 2C2. The proportion of om
ega-hydroxylated products produced by P450 2C2 was markedly increased
with decreasing chain length of fatty acids, while the hydroxylation p
ositions were enlarged to the omega-3 position with tridecanoate. When
the conserved Thr at the putative distal helix was replaced with Ser,
the substrate regioselectivity of the two P450s was affected in diffe
rent manners. The mutation of P450 2C2 did not change the hydroxylatio
n positions of C-9-C-12 fatty acids, but caused a significant decrease
in the proportion of the omega-1 hydroxy analog in the total products
. In sharp contrast to P450 2C2, the mutated P450 2E1 gave additional
products to those with the wild-type P450, and the number of different
products increased with increasing chain length of the fatty acids. T
hus, the products of palmitate hydroxylation were identified as omega-
1, omega-2, omega-3, omega-4, omega-5, omega-6, and omega-7 monohydrox
y isomers using gas chromatogr aphy-electron impact mass spectrometry.
From these findings, (i) P450 2C2 shows the substrate selectivity of
undecanoate 10-hydroxylation, whereas P450 2E1 has the activity of fat
ty acid omega-1 hydroxylation, and (ii) P450 2E1 is speculated to have
a larger substrate pocket near the distal heme surface than P450 2C2
and the gamma-methyl Group of the conserved Thr may contribute to the
limitation of the hydroxylation position in different ways in the two
P450s.