Halogenated compounds are recalcitrant environmental pollutants prevalent in agricultural fields, waste waters and industrial by-products, but they can be degraded by dehalogenase-containing microbes. Notably, 2-haloalkanoic acid dehalogenases are employed to resolve optically active chloropropionates, as exemplified by the d-specific dehalogenase from Rhizobium sp. RCI (DehD), which acts on d-2-chloropropionate but not on its l-enantiomer. The catalytic residues of this dehalogenase responsible for its affinity toward d-2-chloropropionate have not been experimentally determined, although its three-dimensional crystal structure has been solved. For this study, we performed in silico docking and molecular dynamic simulations of complexes formed by this dehalogenase and d- or l-2-chloropropionate. Arg134 of the enzyme plays the key role in the stereospecific binding and Arg16 is in a position that would allow it to activate a water molecule for hydrolytic attack on the d-2-chloropropionate chiral carbon for release of the halide ion to yield l-2-hydroxypropionate. We propose that within the DehD active site, the NH group of Arg134 can form a hydrogen bond with the carboxylate of d-2-chloropropionate with a strength of ∼4 kcal/mol that may act as an acid-base catalyst, whereas, when l-2-chloropropionate is present, this bond cannot be formed. The significance of the present work is vital for rational design of this dehalogenase in order to confirm the involvement of Arg16 and Arg134 residues implicated in hydrolysis and binding of d-2-chloropropionate in the active site of d-specific dehalogenase from Rhizobium sp. RC1.
Currently, there is no three-dimensional structure of D-specific dehalogenase (DehD) in the protein database. We modeled DehD using ab initio technique, performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and docking of D-2-chloropropionate (D-2CP), D-2-bromopropionate (D-2BP), monochloroacetate (MCA), monobromoacetate (MBA), 2,2-dichloropropionate (2,2-DCP), d,l-2,3-dichloropropionate (d,l-2,3-DCP), and 3-chloropropionate (3-CP) into the DehD active site. The sequences of DehD and D-2-haloacid dehalogenase (HadD) from Pseudomonas putida AJ1 have 15% sequence similarity. The model had 80% of the amino acid residues in the most favored region when compared to the crystal structure of DehI from Pseudomonas putida PP3. Docking analysis revealed that Arg107, Arg134 and Tyr135 interacted with D-2CP, and Glu20 activated the water molecule for hydrolytic dehalogenation. Single residue substitutions at 25-30 °C showed that polar residues of DehD were stable when substituted with nonpolar residues and showed a decrease in activity within the same temperature range. The molecular dynamics simulation of DehD and its variants showed that in R134A variant, Arg107 interacted with D-2CP, while in Y135A, Gln221 and Arg231 interacted with D-2CP. It is our emphatic belief that the new model will be useful for the rational design of DehDs with enhanced potentials.
The D-2-haloacid dehalogenase of D-specific dehalogenase (DehD) from Rhizobium sp. RC1 catalyses the hydrolytic dehalogenation of D-haloalkanoic acids, inverting the substrate-product configuration and thereby forming the corresponding L-hydroxyalkanoic acids. Our investigations were focused on DehD mutants: R134A and Y135A. We examined the possible interactions between these mutants with haloalkanoic acids and characterized the key catalytic residues in the wild-type dehalogenase, to design dehalogenase enzyme(s) with improved potential for dehalogenation of a wider range of substrates. Three natural substrates of wild-type DehD, specifically, monochloroacetate, monobromoacetate and D,L-2,3-dichloropropionate, and eight other non-natural haloalkanoic acids substrates of DehD, namely, L-2-chloropropionate; L-2-bromopropionate; 2,2-dichloropropionate; dichloroacetate; dibromoacetate; trichloroacetate; tribromoacetate; and 3-chloropropionate, were docked into the active site of the DehD mutants R134A and Y135A, which produced altered catalytic functions. The mutants interacted strongly with substrates that wild-type DehD does not interact with or degrade. The interaction was particularly enhanced with 3-chloropropionate, in addition to monobromoacetate, monochloroacetate and D,L-2,3-dichloropropionate. In summary, DehD variants R134A and Y135A demonstrated increased propensity for binding haloalkanoic acid and were non-stereospecific towards halogenated substrates. The improved characteristics in these mutants suggest that their functionality could be further exploited and harnessed in bioremediations and biotechnological applications.