Y. Wang et al., IDENTIFICATION OF FUNCTIONAL CYSTEINE RESIDUES IN HUMAN GALACTOSYLTRANSFERASE, Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 204(2), 1994, pp. 701-709
The functions of the five cysteine residues in human galactosyltransfe
rase were investigated using site-directed mutagenesis to determine th
e location of the disulfide bond as well as the role of the sulfhydryl
groups. The enzyme remains active when three of its cysteine residues
at positions 171, 264 and 340 are mutated to serine separately. Howev
er, enzymatic activity is lost when either cysteine-129 or cysteine-24
5 is replaced with serine. The loss of GT activity suggests that these
two cysteine residues form a disulfide bond. The three active mutated
enzymes were studied kinetically. The kinetic constants of the enzyme
s with cysteine-171 or cysteine-264 replaced with serine are not signi
ficantly different from those of GT that does not have these substitut
ions. When cysteine-340 was mutated, however, the kinetic constant for
UDP-galactose increased about 30 fold, while that for N-acetylglucosa
mine and Mn2+ remained unchanged. In addition, sulfhydryl inhibition s
tudies reveal that cysteine-340 is the only cysteine residue that reac
ts with the sulfhydryl reagents. These results indicate that cysteine-
340 may be involved in the binding of UDP-galactose. (C) 1994 Academic
Press, Inc.