Structure 2004-06-01

Chitobiose phosphorylase from Vibrio proteolyticus, a member of glycosyl transferase family 36, has a clan GH-L-like (alpha/alpha)(6) barrel fold.

Masafumi Hidaka, Yuji Honda, Motomitsu Kitaoka, Satoru Nirasawa, Kiyoshi Hayashi, Takayoshi Wakagi, Hirofumi Shoun, Shinya Fushinobu

Index: Structure 12 , 937-947, (2004)

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Abstract

Vibrio proteolyticus chitobiose phosphorylase (ChBP) belongs to glycosyl transferase family 36 (GT-36), and catalyzes the reversible phosphorolysis of chitobiose into alpha-GlcNAc-1-phosphate and GlcNAc with inversion of the anomeric configuration. As the first known structures of a GT-36 enzyme, we determined the crystal structure of ChBP in a ternary complex with GlcNAc and SO(4). It is also the first structures of an inverting phosphorolytic enzyme in a complex with a sugar and a sulfate ion, and reveals a pseudo-ternary complex structure of enzyme-sugar-phosphate. ChBP comprises a beta sandwich domain and an (alpha/alpha)(6) barrel domain, constituting a distinctive structure among GT families. Instead, it shows significant structural similarity with glycoside hydrolase (GH) enzymes, glucoamylases (GH-15), and maltose phosphorylase (GH-65) in clan GH-L. The structural similarity reported here, together with distant sequence similarities between ChBP and GHs, led to the reclassification of family GT-36 into a novel GH family, namely GH-94.