Báo cáo khoa học: Probing the determinants of coenzyme specificity in Peptostreptococcus asaccharolyticus glutamate dehydrogenase by site-directed mutagenesis potx

Probing the determinants of coenzyme specificity in
Peptostreptococcus asaccharolyticus glutamate
dehydrogenase by site-directed mutagenesis
John B. Carrigan and Paul C. Engel
School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Ireland
An impressive phenomenon in enzymology is the
subtle discrimination that nicotinamide nucleotide-
dependent enzymes can make between NADP(H) and
NAD(H) because the only difference between these
two dinucleotide molecules is a phosphate group esteri-
fied at the 2¢-OH position of the adenosine ribose [1].
Understanding how enzymes achieve this selectivity is
not only of intrinsic scientific interest, but also has
practical application. Re-engineering coenzyme speci-
ficity is a significant goal, not only simply to minimize
coenzyme cost, but also to achieve coenzyme compati-
bility in order to couple two enzyme reactions. Predict-
ably, the 2¢-phosphate or 2¢-OH interaction site of the
enzyme:coenzyme complex has been the focus of initial
Keywords
coenzyme specificity; glutamate
dehydrogenase; NAD(P)
+
; nicotinamide
nucleotides; site-directed mutagenesis
Correspondence
P. C. Engel, School of Biomolecular and
Biomedical Science, Conway Institute,
University College Dublin, Belfield,
Dublin 4, Ireland
Fax: +353 1283 7211

Tel: +353 1716 6764
E-mail:
(Received 31 May 2007, revised 10 July
2007, accepted 10 August 2007)
doi:10.1111/j.1742-4658.2007.06038.x
Glutamate dehydrogenase (EC 1.4.1.2–4) from Peptostreptococcus asacch-
arolyticus has a strong preference for NADH over NADPH as a coenzyme,
over 1000-fold in terms of k
cat
⁄ K
m
values. Sequence alignments across the
wider family of NAD(P)-dependent dehydrogenases might suggest that this
preference is mainly due to a negatively charged glutamate at position 243
(E243) in the adenine ribose-binding pocket. We have examined the possi-
bility of altering coenzyme specificity of the Peptostreptococcus enzyme,
and, more specifically, the role of residue 243 and neighbouring residues in
coenzyme binding, by introducing a range of point mutations. Glutamate
dehydrogenases are unusual among dehydrogenases in that NADPH-spe-
cific forms usually have aspartate at this position. However, replacement of
E243 with aspartate led to only a nine-fold relaxation of the strong dis-
crimination against NADPH. By contrast, replacement with a more posi-
tively charged lysine or arginine, as found in NADPH-dependent members
of other dehydrogenase families, allows a more than 1000-fold shift toward
NADPH, resulting in enzymes equally efficient with NADH or NADPH.
Smaller shifts in the same direction were also observed in enzymes where a
neighboring tryptophan, W244, was replaced by a smaller alanine (approxi-
mately six-fold) or Asp245 was changed to lysine (32-fold). Coenzyme
binding studies confirm that the mutations result in the expected major
changes in relative affinities for NADH and NADPH, and pH studies indi-

cate that improved affinity for the extra phosphate of NADPH is the pre-
dominant reason for the increased catalytic efficiency with this coenzyme.
The marked difference between the results of replacing E243 with aspartate
and with positive residues implies that the mode of NADPH binding in
naturally occurring NADPH-dependent glutamate dehydrogenases differs
from that adopted in E243K or E243D and in other dehydrogenases.
Abbreviation
GDH,
L-glutamate dehydrogenase.
FEBS Journal 274 (2007) 5167–5174 ª 2007 The Authors Journal compilation ª 2007 FEBS 5167
redesign efforts, and changes have been made on the
basis of 3D comparisons and⁄ or sequence alignments
with similar coenzyme-binding structures that selec-
tively bind the alternative coenzyme. Frequently, the
side chain of a glutamate or aspartate binds the 2¢-OH
group and discriminates against NADP
+
or NADPH.
This important residue was highlighted by Wierenga
and Hol [2], together with a glycine-rich motif, in a
sequence fingerprint that determined coenzyme speci-
ficity in the widespread Rossmann fold [3] of dehydro-
genases. This key acidic residue has been termed the
P7 residue by Baker et al. [4]. Enzymes that exclusively
use NADP(H) usually have a smaller, uncharged resi-
due at this position and positively charged residues
nearby, allowing for better interaction with the
2¢-adenosine phosphate [5]. Protein engineering method-
ologies have provided an opportunity to explore the
generality of such specificity rules with a number of

different dehydrogenases [6–8].
A Rossmann fold is also typical of l-glutamate de-
hydrogenases (GDH) (EC 1.4.1.2–4) [9]. GDHs cata-
lyse the reversible, nicotinamide-nucleotide-dependent
oxidative deamination of l-glutamate to 2-oxoglutarate
and ammonia and, in different organisms and meta-
bolic circumstances, the reaction may function either
to release or to assimilate ammonia [10,11]. Typically,
the anabolic reaction is NADPH-dependent, whereas
the catabolic reaction uses NAD
+
, but other members
of the family, possibly with amphibolic roles, can use
both coenzymes efficiently. Accordingly, the range of
GDHs that have been studied cover a complete range
of coenzyme specificity, from extreme NAD
+
specific-
ity at one end via varying degrees of dual specificity to
extreme NADP
+
specificity at the other end.
An alignment of sequences by Teller et al. [12] dem-
onstrated that the GDHs differ from other dehydro-
genases in that, surprisingly, the P7 residue is nearly
always acidic, regardless of coenzyme specificity. In
those enzymes binding NADP(H) only, such as the
GDH of Escherichia coli, this residue tends to be
aspartate whereas, in NAD(H)- and dual-specific
GDHs, the tendency is towards glutamate [12,13].

Figure 1 shows a clear example of the interaction of a
P7 glutamate residue with the adenosine ribose of
NADH, in this case bound to dual-specificity bovine
glutamate dehydrogenase [13]. An exception to this
general trend, however, is the NAD(H)-specific GDH
from Clostridium symbiosum, which has glycine at the
P7 position [3,9,12].
Another NAD(H)-specific GDH in Teller’s align-
ment is from Peptostreptococcus asaccharolyticus, also
a mesophilic, gram-positive anaerobic bacterium, in
which GDH serves the same metabolic role as in
C. symbiosum, catalysing the first step in the unusual
hydroxyglutarate pathway of glutamate fermentation
[14]. Despite this close physiological parallel, the two
GDHs show less than 40% sequence identity. The
P. asaccharolyticus GDH, which has been purified by a
number of groups [15–17], has recently been character-
ized in detail in our laboratory following over-expres-
sion in E. coli [18]. Like the clostridial GDH, this is an
enzyme quite highly specific for NAD(H), with k
cat
⁄ K
m
being approximately 1000-fold greater for NADH than
for NADPH, but it conforms to the more general pat-
tern of a glutamate residue at the P7 position. This
implies that the two enzymes distinguish the cofactors
in different ways [3].
In the present study, we have investigated, by means
of site-directed mutagenesis and steady-state kinetics,

the individual contribution of the P7 glutamate
residue, which occupies position 243, as well as the
adjacent residues, Trp244 and Asp245, to coenzyme
binding and specificity in P. asaccharolyticus GDH.
Five mutants were created: in E243K and E243R, the
P7 glutamate was replaced by positively charged lysine
and arginine, which might stabilize the 2¢-phosphate of
NAD(P)H. D245K was created for the same reason.
E243D was also constructed because the sequence
alignments show aspartate in this position in
NADP(H)-specific proteins. The tryptophan residue at
position 244 was targeted because removal of this large
residue might allow more space for the 2¢-adenosine
phosphate, and so it was replaced by serine, which
was observed in sequence alignments as the residue
most commonly found beside the P7 amino acid of
NADP(H) specific GDHs.
NADH
P1-P6
P7 (Glu)
Fig. 1. PYMOL representation of NADH bound to bovine GDH [13].
The P1–P6 region is highlighted in blue and the P7 glutamate,
which stabilizes the 2¢-OH of the adenine ribose of the coenzyme,
is shown in red stick form.
Changing glutamate dehydrogenase coenzyme specificity J. B. Carrigan and P. C. Engel
5168 FEBS Journal 274 (2007) 5167–5174 ª 2007 The Authors Journal compilation ª 2007 FEBS
Results and Discussion
Preparation of mutant enzymes
All mutants successfully yielded similar quantities of
enzyme to the wild-type [18], in the range of 70–

90 mg pure proteinÆL
)1
culture. Both the high yield
of soluble protein and the fact that all the proteins
behaved similarly during ion exchange chromato-
graphy suggest that there was no significant over-
all perturbation of structure resulting from the
mutations.
Coenzyme discrimination in the wild-type
enzyme
As a baseline for these studies, it was necessary to
establish the extent of discrimination between the
two natural nicotinamide cofactors in the unmutated
enzyme. Table 1 shows the separate values of k
cat
and
K
m
and the derived value for the catalytic efficiency,
k
cat
⁄ K
m
. The latter parameter was used to establish
discrimination. Thus, the figures of 7.11 s
)1
Ælm
)1
for
NADH and 6.1 · 10

)3
s
)1
Ælm
)1
for NADPH indicate
a 1165-fold discrimination in favour of NADH. This is
contributed mainly by a 370-fold difference in K
m
,
with only a 3.1-fold difference in k
cat
values.
Coenzyme specificity of mutants
The values for the kinetic parameters at pH 7
(Table 1) reveal improved catalytic efficiency with
NADPH as coenzyme for all five mutant proteins,
although there is statistical uncertainty with regard to
W244S. This improvement is based in all cases on a
lowered K
m
for NADPH. Four of the mutants also
showed decreases in k
cat
values, but these adverse
changes were considerably smaller than the favour-
able decreases in K
m
. E243K is the exception in that,
as well as having the most dramatic decrease in K

m
for NADPH, it also demonstrates a 50% increase
in k
cat
.
Table 1. Coenzyme specificity of wild-type and mutant Peptostreptococcus asaccharolyticus glutamate dehydrogenases. Initial rates were
measured with NADH and NADPH in 100 m
M potassium phosphate buffer at pH 7 with 20 mM oxoglutarate and 100 mM ammonium chlo-
ride as the fixed concentrations of substrates. Concentrations of NADH and NADPH were varied to obtain values of k
cat
(column 2) and K
m
(column 3) for both coenzymes under these conditions. Catalytic efficiency (k
cat
⁄ K
m
) values (column 4) are used as the basis for comparing
each of the mutants with wild-type GDH and also, in each case, for calculating the discrimination factor between the two coenzymes. Thus,
column 5 gives the ratio of catalytic efficiency for each mutant enzyme to the corresponding value for the wild-type enzyme with the same
coenzyme. This ratio is the ‘factor change’ brought about by the mutation (e.g. for W244S with NADH 1.43 ⁄ 7.11 ¼ 0.201). Column 6 shows
another ratio obtained from the catalytic efficiencies in column 4, namely the ratio, for each enzyme, of the catalytic efficiency with NADH
to that with NADPH (i.e. the discrimination factor defining the degree of specificity for NADH). This value (i.e. 1170) for the unmutated
enzyme is decreased in all the mutants. Column 7 indicates how many folds this discrimination factor is changed in each case. The final
column shows, for each mutant, the factor change (e.g. 1170-fold discrimination in the wild-type GDH decreases to 130-fold in E243D,
a change by a factor of 8.96).
k
cat
(s
)1
) K

m
(lM) k
cat
⁄ K
m
s
)1
ÆlM
)1
Factor
change (k
cat
⁄ K
NADH
m
) ⁄ (k
cat
⁄ K
NADPH
m
)
Discrimination shift
towards NADPH
Wild-type
NADH 31.3 ± 0.66 4.4 ± 0.45 7.11 1
NADPH 10 ± 1.3 1640 ± 252 6.1 · 10
)3
1 1170 –
W244S
NADH 10.9 ± 0.23 7.6 ± 0.697 1.43 0.201

NADPH 3.0 ± 0.482 431 ± 88 6.96 · 10
)3
1.14 205 5.68
E243D
NADH 16.9 ± 1.33 12.3 ± 3 1.38 0.194
NADPH 5.06 ± 2.13 476 ± 100 1.06 · 10
)2
1.73 130 8.96
E243R
NADH 1.71 ± 0.08 38.5 ± 5.5 0.044 6.19 · 10
)3
NADPH 1.67 ± 0.17 38.4 ± 7 0.043 7.05 1.02 1140
E243K
NADH 10.6 ± 0.19 36 ± 1.71 0.294 0.041
NADPH 14.8 ± 0.63 53 ± 5 0.28 46 1.05 1110
D245K
NADH 16.4 ± 0.16 18 ± 0.99 0.911 0.128
NADPH 6.0 ± 0.44 238 ± 3.4 0.025 4.1 36.4 32
J. B. Carrigan and P. C. Engel Changing glutamate dehydrogenase coenzyme specificity
FEBS Journal 274 (2007) 5167–5174 ª 2007 The Authors Journal compilation ª 2007 FEBS 5169
Table 1 also shows for each mutant enzyme a direct
comparison (‘factor change’) of its catalytic efficiency
with NADPH with the corresponding figure for the
unmutated enzyme. E243K, with a 46.0-fold increase
in efficiency compared to wild-type, is by far the best
mutant in this respect. Another residue substitution at
the same site, E243R, allowed a less dramatic 7.5-fold
increase in efficiency, followed by D245K with a 4.1-
fold increase and E243D with a 1.73-fold increase. A
less definite change was observed with W244S, where

an increase in catalytic efficiency of just over 18% with
NADPH was measured.
For an ideal data set, higher concentrations of
NADPH would have been desirable for some of the
mutants. However, the high starting absorption of
NADPH at concentrations above 0.25 mm made it
extremely difficult to measure absorbance changes
accurately after enzyme addition. The data obtained
nevertheless clearly allow unambiguous ranking of the
effects of the various mutations.
Accompanying the improved performance with
NADPH just described, all mutants showed a marked
decrease in efficiency (k
cat
⁄ K
m
) with NADH as coen-
zyme compared to the wild-type (Table 1). E243R
shows the most notable shift, being 158-fold worse
than the wild-type. The other mutants do not change
as much, with W244S and E243D both showing
a five-fold decrease and D245K showing a 7.8-fold
decrease in efficiency with NADH. The E243K
mutant, which shows the most catalytic activity with
NADPH, also shows a 24-fold decrease in activity
with NADH.
The overall discrimination shift from NADH to
NADPH for the two positively charged substitutions
at P7 is quite similar, with swings of approximately
1100-fold for both E243R and E243K, reflecting the

combination of improved efficiency with NADPH and
diminished efficiency with NADH. This is much
greater than the shift in discrimination values for
D245K, E243D and W244S, which range from 32- to
8.96- to 5.68-fold, respectively. The replacement of glu-
tamate at the P7 position 243 by the more positively
charged lysine and arginine thus gave the most success-
ful results in our attempts to alter coenzyme specificity.
E243K has a k
cat
⁄ K
m
of 0.28 s
)1
Ælm
)1
with NADPH,
6.3-fold greater than the value for E243R. Both these
mutant enzymes, however, have almost equal activity
with the two reduced coenzymes, thus displaying dual
specificity. Indeed, the kinetic constants obtained for
E243R with the two coenzymes are so strikingly close
that it raises at least the possibility of a change in the
rate-limiting step to a coenzyme-independent process
in the mechanism.
The replacement at the same position with Asp pro-
duced a much more modest shift in specificity, as seen
above, and, even though Asp is widely found at this
position in naturally NADP
+

-dependent GDHs,
E243D still shows a preference of over 100-fold for
NADH. The replacement of Asp at position 245 with
lysine had considerably more effect, decreasing the
preference for NADH to a factor of 36.
Effect of pH on specific activity
Tables 2 and 3 show the specific activity values
(lmolÆmg
)1
Æmin
)1
) over a range of pH values from 8
to 6 for each enzyme with NADPH and NADH,
respectively. Table 3 indicates how all the enzymes
show an increase in specific activity with a rise in pH
when the coenzyme used is NADH. A similar consis-
tent trend was not seen when NADPH was used
(Table 2): the wild-type GDH and E243D showed a
lowering of specific activity with a pH rise whereas
E243K, E243R and W244S showed greater values with
increasing pH. It is notable in particular that the two
mutants with a positive charge engineered in specifi-
cally to engage the negatively charged 2¢-phosphate of
NADPH show a substantial increase in activity
between pH 6.5 and 7.5, precisely the range over which
deprotonation is expected to increase the negative
charge on the phosphate. This is most pronounced in
the case of the ‘best’ mutant E243K, with almost an
Table 2. Specific activity values (lmolÆmg
)1

Æmin
)1
) of wild-type and
mutant enzymes with 0.1 m
M NADPH, 20 mM oxoglutarate and
100 m
M ammonium chloride at different pH values.
pH 6 pH 6.5 pH 7.0 pH 7.5 pH 8
Wild-type 1.32 1.23 0.73 0.32 0.33
E243K 3.27 9.01 17.6 25.3 20.1
E243R 1.83 2.26 3.05 3.41 4.1
D245K 1.12 2.16 1.53 0.87 1.14
E243D 4.93 5.0 2.98 1.47 1.47
W244S 0.29 0.51 0.33 0.34 0.5
Table 3. Specific activity values (lmolÆmg
)1
Æmin
)1
) of wild-type and
mutant enzymes with 0.1 m
M NADH, 20 mM oxoglutarate and
100 m
M ammonium chloride at different pH values.
pH 6 pH 6.5 pH 7.0 pH 7.5 pH 8
Wild-type 9.8 20.6 50 155 174
E243K 5.2 9.6 19 56 54
E243R 0.9 2.3 3 12 11
D245K 5.8 12.5 30 68 101.8
E243D 7.2 15 34 90 102
W244S 3.82 6.78 20 56.5 62

Changing glutamate dehydrogenase coenzyme specificity J. B. Carrigan and P. C. Engel
5170 FEBS Journal 274 (2007) 5167–5174 ª 2007 The Authors Journal compilation ª 2007 FEBS
eight-fold increase in rate between pH 6 and pH 7.5.
With the other enzymes, including the wild-type GDH,
the responses to pH are much smaller with, for exam-
ple, less than a two-fold variation over the range 6–8
in D245K and W244S. When interpreting these results,
however, it must be noted that the comparison is
between rates with fixed substrate concentrations and,
in the case of the coenzymes, the fixed concentration
will result in widely different degrees of saturation.
The rates that are being compared will be dominated
therefore to varying degrees by K
m
.
Dissociation constant values with NAD(P)H
Dissociation constant (K
d
) values (Table 4) were
obtained by protein fluorescence. Although binding of
a coenzyme by an enzyme may not always be produc-
tive, it can at least be unambiguously understood,
whereas the physical significance of kinetic parameters
is often more complex. (It is important to stress that,
although there is evidence for random-order sequen-
tial mechanisms for some other GDHs, the detailed
kinetic mechanism of this particular GDH has yet to
be investigated.) K
d
values were therefore determined

as a direct indication of the effect of the mutations
on the enzyme’s binding affinity for reduced coen-
zyme. Inner filter effects made it impossible to obtain
reliable data with coenzyme concentrations greater
than 70 lm and, accordingly, the higher K
d
values
could not be estimated. K
d
values for the reduced
coenzymes were generally much smaller in the pres-
ence of 0.5 mm oxoglutarate than without and,
indeed, without the other substrate, were generally
too high to measure by this method. In most cases
where a K
d
value could be estimated both with and
without oxoglutarate, the addition of the second sub-
strate tightened coenzyme binding by a factor of at
least 20. The exception to this was D245K, which
yielded a relatively low K
d
value (8.6 lm) for NADH
even without oxoglutarate. However, in this latter
case, the interaction of enzyme and coenzyme caused
a very small change in fluorescence.
The measurements with NADH in the absence of
oxoglutarate show a weakening of binding to varying
extents in every one of the mutants. However, with
NADPH on its own K

d
values could not be attained
for the wild-type enzyme, nor any of the mutants.
Accordingly, the measurements in the presence of oxo-
glutarate were the most useful for overall comparison.
The wild-type K
d
for NADH in the presence of oxo-
glutarate was 0.72 lm and each of the mutants showed
the anticipated weakening of NADH binding, to the
extent, in the cases of E243K and E243R, that measur-
able interactions with NADH could not be detected
over the experimentally accessible range of coenzyme
concentration. Conversely, with NADPH, even in the
presence of oxoglutarate, a K
d
value could not be
obtained for the wild-type enzyme because the binding
is so weak. K
d
values could not be calculated for
W243S either but, in each of the other four mutants,
binding of NADPH was tightened sufficiently to give
K
d
values small enough to measure. Of these, E243K
gave a value of 37 lm, but E243D, which kinetically
was only two-fold improved over wild-type with
NADPH, had a much lower K
d

of 3.5 lm. D245K and
E243R, which are more efficient than E243D with
NADPH, have much higher K
d
values of 139 lm and
20.4 lm. This is a striking illustration that tight bind-
ing is not necessarily catalytically productive.
The strategy behind creating all of these mutants
was to try and achieve tighter binding of NADP(H). It
can clearly be observed not only that residue 243 (the
P7 residue) is a critical residue in the binding of the
coenzyme, but also that those residues in its immediate
vicinity are of importance. The study of GDH
sequence alignments [12] might have suggested that
replacement of glutamate with aspartate at this posi-
tion would be the best choice. However, the most suc-
cessful strategy was to replace Glu243 with a Lys or
Arg, stabilizing the adenosine phosphate in the way
seen in many other dehydrogenases, and this stabiliza-
tion was also achieved, to a lesser extent, by replacing
the Asp at 245 with a positively charged amino acid.
The fluorescence titrations showed that even with these
mutations binding of NADPH was still too weak to
allow determination of a K
d
value in the absence of
the other substrate. In the presence of oxoglutarate,
however, coenzyme binding was tighter and therefore
measurable and, in particular, gave measurable K
d

values for binding of NADPH to both E243K and
E243R, whereas the binding of NADH to these
mutants was too weak to measure, in keeping with the
Table 4. Dissociation constant values of each enzyme for the
reduced coenzyme in the presence and absence of oxoglutarate.
Fluorescence titration was carried out on a Perkin-Elmer fluorimeter
with excitation set at 290 nm and emission measured at 400 nm.
Enzyme
K
d
NADH (lM)
(without
oxoglutarate)
K
d
NADH
(l
M) (with
oxoglutarate)
K
d
NADPH
(l
M) (with
oxoglutarate)
Wild-type 16 ± 4 0.72 ± 0.3 –
E243K – – 37 ± 7
E243R – – 20.4 ± 4
D245K 8.57 ± 0.8 4.64 ± 0.57 139 ± 50
E243D 274 ± 20 6.12 ± 1 3.5 ± 0.47

W244S 56.5 ± 10 2.3 ± 0.5 –
J. B. Carrigan and P. C. Engel Changing glutamate dehydrogenase coenzyme specificity
FEBS Journal 274 (2007) 5167–5174 ª 2007 The Authors Journal compilation ª 2007 FEBS 5171
fact that these two mutants also gave the highest K
m
values with NADH.
Of the different mutants, E243K is the most success-
ful; even though E243R shows a similar shift in dis-
crimination in the intended direction, its k
cat
value
with NADPH is decreased relative to the wild-type
enzyme, whereas the corresponding figure for E243K
(14.8 s
)1
) is not only increased, but is also close to
50% of the k
cat
of the wild-type enzyme with its natu-
ral coenzyme, NADH. Lysine is closer in size to the
glutamate it replaces than arginine, and it is possible
that the latter is too large to allow optimal orientation
of the coenzyme. Although the binding of NADPH is
actually tighter to E243R than E243K in the presence
of 2-oxoglutarate (Table 4), tighter binding is not
necessarily productive binding.
To date, high-resolution crystallographic data for
P. asaccharolyticus GDH have been elusive [19]. How-
ever, even though direct structural studies of coenzyme
complexes with these mutants would doubtless help to

explain some of these subtle differences more conclu-
sively, the main result observed with E243K is not dif-
ficult to explain. What still requires further structural
insight is, on the one hand, the widespread use of Asp
at the P7 position in many naturally occurring
NADPH-dependent GDHs and, on the other hand,
the failure of the E243D mutation to produce a better
result in the present study. It has been suggested [3]
that GDHs may normally bind NADPH in the form
with only a single charge on the 2¢-phosphate, thus
allowing efficient interaction with Asp at P7, although
these issues can only be resolved by solution of crystal
structures for more binary enzyme coenzyme
complexes for GDHs. The present study would seem
to support the conclusions of Carrugo and Argos [20],
who suggested that discrimination between NAD(H)
and NADP(H) is a consequence of the overall proper-
ties of the binding pocket and not solely the contribu-
tion of a few key residues. What is certain is that the
generalizations regarding the P7 position widely
assumed to govern NADH ⁄ NADPH specificity cannot
be uniformly applied in this enzyme family.
Experimental procedures
Materials
Vectors and bacterial strains for expression and mutagene-
sis of P. asaccharolyticus GDH were described previously
by Snedecor et al. [21]. In most cases, analytical grade
reagents were used. NADH and NADPH, supplied by
Roche Diagnostics (Mannheim, Germany) at 98% purity,
were used without further purification. l-glutamate (mono-

sodium salt), 2-oxoglutarate (monosodium salt) and
Q-Sepharose were purchased from Sigma (Poole, UK).
Restriction enzymes and T4 DNA ligase were obtained
from New England Biolabs (Ipswich, MA, USA) and Pfu-
turbo DNA polymerase were obtained from Stratagene.
Oligonucleotide primers were obtained from Sigma-Genosys
(Poole, UK).
Expression and purification of the wild-type and
mutated P. asaccharolyticus GDH
The ptac85 plasmid [12,22], which allows genes to be
inserted downstream of the isopropyl thio-b-d-galactoside-
inducible tac promoter, was used for the over-expression of
wild-type and mutated GDH genes in E. coli TG1. PCR
overlap extension and whole plasmid synthesis were used to
generate point mutations. Transformation of the E. coli
TG1 host, growth, induction, harvesting, breakage and
enzyme purification were as described by Carrigan et al.
[18]. This involved utilizing the thermostability of the
enzyme by heating the preparation to 70 °C before binding
to an ion exchange column. SDS ⁄ PAGE gels were used to
check that the over-expressed protein was soluble.
Determination of kinetic parameters
Apparent values of k
cat
and K
m
for the coenzyme, either
NADH or NADPH, at fixed concentrations of the other
two substrates (20 mm 2-oxoglutarate and 100 mm ammo-
nium chloride), were determined for the reductive amina-

tion reaction in 0.1 m potassium phosphate buffer at pH 7.
Concentrations of NAD(P)H were varied between 0.001
and 0.4 mm. Reaction rates at 25 °C after addition of the
enzyme were monitored on a Cary 50 recording spectro-
photometer (Varian Inc., Palo Alto, CA, USA) by measur-
ing the decrease in NAD(P)H concentration via the change
in A
340 nm
, using an extinction coefficient of 6220 m
)1
Æcm
)1
for both NADH and NADPH [23]. For the lowest coen-
zyme concentrations, the more sensitive Hitachi 1500 fluo-
rimeter (Hitachi Corp., Tokyo, Japan) was used, with
excitation wavelength set at 340 nm and emission at
460 nm. K
m
and V
max
values were obtained using
enzpack 3.0 (Biosoft, Great Shelford, UK), which also
generated a Wilkinson error value [24]. All reaction rates
were measured at least in duplicate, usually with an agree-
ment within 2–3%, and enzyme concentrations were
adjusted to ensure that these measurements could be confi-
dently made over the very wide activity range explored.
Thus, where activity was high (e.g. wild-type GDH with
NADH), the concentration of enzyme was kept low enough
to obtain good initial linearity; where activity was low (e.g.

wild-type GDH with NADPH), the plentiful supply of pure
enzyme meant that large amounts could be added to pro-
duce a high enough rate for accurate measurement.
Changing glutamate dehydrogenase coenzyme specificity J. B. Carrigan and P. C. Engel
5172 FEBS Journal 274 (2007) 5167–5174 ª 2007 The Authors Journal compilation ª 2007 FEBS
Measurement of K
d
Fluorescence titration was carried out on a Perkin-Elmer
fluorimeter (Perkin-Elmer Life Sciences, Boston, MA,
USA) with excitation set at 290 nm and emission measured
at 400 nm. The protein emission peak is actually at
340 nm, but light absorption by the reduced coenzyme at
this wavelength could cause experimental error. Protein
(20 lg) was added to varying concentrations of NAD(P)H
in 0.1 m potassium phosphate buffer at pH 7 and at a con-
stant temperature of 25 °C. An attempt was made to obtain
values in the presence of 0.5 mm oxoglutarate as well as
without. The changes in fluorescence of the protein were
plotted versus coenzyme concentration. The data were fitted
to a saturation plot using enzpack which provided an esti-
mate of the K
d
.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported in part by a Basic Science
research grant SC2002 ⁄ 0502 from Enterprise Ireland
and this assistance is gratefully acknowledged. We also
wish to thank Roche Diagnostics and the Irish Ameri-
can Partnership for studentship support in the initial
stages of the project and the EU for making it possible

through the Marie Curie scheme for J. B. Carrigan to
spend a valuable period in the laboratory of Professor
Janet Thornton at Cambridge.
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