SUBSTRATE MOBILITY IN THIOCAMPHOR-BOUND CYTOCHROME-P450(CAM) - AN EXPLANATION OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE OBSERVED PRODUCT PROFILE AND THE X-RAY STRUCTURE
Md. Paulsen et Rl. Ornstein, SUBSTRATE MOBILITY IN THIOCAMPHOR-BOUND CYTOCHROME-P450(CAM) - AN EXPLANATION OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE OBSERVED PRODUCT PROFILE AND THE X-RAY STRUCTURE, Protein engineering, 6(4), 1993, pp. 359-365
Thiocamphor is an unusual substrate for P450cam in that in the X-ray s
tructure it binds in the active site pocket in two distinct orientatio
ns and neither of these orientations are consistent with the 5-alcohol
being the primary product. Other camphor analogs such as norcamphor o
r camphane bind in a single orientation consistent with the 5-alcohol
being a major product. We present an analysis of four 175 ps molecular
dynamics trajectories of thiocamphor-bound cytochrome P450cam. The fi
rst two trajectories were calculated for cytochrome P450cam with thioc
amphor bound in both its major and minor crystallographic orientations
. In the second set of simulations, a single oxygen atom was added as
a distal ligand to the heme group in order to model the putative ferry
l oxygen reaction intermediate. Trajectories were again calculated sta
rting with thiocamphor in its major and minor orientations. While the
protein dynamics were quite similar in atl four trajectories, the subs
trate showed distinctly different motions in each of the trajectories.
In particular, the preferred substrate orientations were very differe
nt in the presence of the ferryl oxygen than in the absence of that ox
ygen. The preferred orientations in the absence of the distal oxygen w
ere consistent with the 3-alcohol being the major product, while the p
referred orientations in the presence of the distal oxygen were consis
tent with the 5-alcohol being a major product. These simulations offer
an explanation for the inconsistency between the X-ray data and the p
roduct profile.