Co. Hewitt et al., PROTEIN ENGINEERING TESTS OF A HOMOLOGY MODEL OF PLASMODIUM-FALCIPARUM LACTATE-DEHYDROGENASE, Protein engineering, 10(1), 1997, pp. 39-44
This paper describes the testing of a homology model of Plasmodium fal
ciparum lactate dehydrogenase (pfLDH) by protein engineering, The mode
l had been validated in structural terms, It suggests explanations of
the unusual properties of pfLDH (compared with all other LDHs), These
unusual features are a lack of substrate inhibition, high activity wit
h the synthetic coenzyme 3-acetylpyridine adenine dinucleotide (APAD()) and changes in residues at previously conserved positions. pfLDH sh
ows several amino acid insertions and deletions in an alignment with p
rotein sequences from all other known LDHs, The most notable is a five
amino acid insertion into the active-site loop, In addition, a conser
ved serine at position 163 is replaced by leucine. The results showed
that when the unique pfLDH structural features were engineered into Ba
cillus stearothermophilus lactate dehydrogenase, the thermophilic enzy
me acquired the properties previously uniquely associated with the mal
arial enzyme, We conclude that the homology model of the malarial enzy
me is adequate for the prediction of successful redesigns and, in the
regions tested, is accurate.