1184818-23-2Relevant articles and documents
Mechanistic and structural analysis of Drosophila melanogaster arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferases
Dempsey, Daniel R.,Jeffries, Kristen A.,Bond, Jason D.,Carpenter, Anne-Marie,Rodriguez-Ospina, Santiago,Breydo, Leonid,Caswell, K. Kenneth,Merkler, David J.
, p. 7777 - 7793 (2014)
(Chemical Equation Presented). Arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT) catalyzes the penultimate step in the biosynthesis of melatonin and other N-acetylarylalkylamides from the corresponding arylalkylamine and acetyl-CoA. The N-acetylation of arylalkylamines is a critical step in Drosophila melanogaster for the inactivation of the bioactive amines and the sclerotization of the cuticle. Two AANAT variants (AANATA and AANATB) have been identified in D. melanogaster , in which AANATA differs from AANATB by the truncation of 35 amino acids from the N-terminus. We have expressed and purified both D. melanogaster AANAT variants (AANATA and AANATB) in Escherichia coli and used the purified enzymes to demonstrate that this N-terminal truncation does not affect the activity of the enzyme. Subsequent characterization of the kinetic and chemical mechanism of AANATA identified an ordered sequential mechanism, with acetyl-CoA binding first, followed by tyramine. We used a combination of pH-activity profiling and site-directed mutagenesis to study prospective residues believed to function in AANATA catalysis. These data led to an assignment of Glu-47 as the general base in catalysis with an apparent pKa of 7.0. Using the data generated for the kinetic mechanism, structure-function relationships, pH-rate profiles, and site-directed mutagenesis, we propose a chemical mechanism for AANATA.
