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Protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMT) involved in the regulations of signal transduction, protein subcellular localization, and transcription have been mostly studied in mammals and yeast. In this study orthologues of eight human PRMT genes (PRMT1-7 and HRMT1L3) were identified in both puffer fish Fugu rubripes and zebrafish Danio rerio. The fish PRMT genes appear to be conserved with their mammalian orthologues at the levels of amino acid sequences as well as genomic structures. All vertebrate PRMT genes contain 10–16 coding exons except PRMT6 that contains only one coding exon. Western blot analyses of zebrafish tissue extracts confirmed the expression of some PRMT proteins in zebra fish. We further identified six PRMT members (PRMT1, 3–7) in an invertebrate chordate Ciona intestinalis. Genomic structures of the PRMT orthologues are no more conserved in the ascidians, as PRMT3 and PRMT5 contain only one coding exon while PRMT6 contains six exons. PRMT2 and HRMT1L3 that are missing in Ciona appear to be vertebrate-specific. HRMT1L3 is a PRMT1 paralogue with highly conserved sequences and exact exon junctions, whereas the PRMT2 orthologues are very diverged. Different PRMT orthologues are likely to evolve at different rates and the PRMT1 orthologues appear to be most conserved through evolution. Furthermore, phylogenetic analyses using the core regions of various PRMT genes show that PRMT5 with the type II PRMT activity is separated in one branch. All other PRMT genes including PRMT1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and HRMT1L3 clustered in the other branch, probably represent the genes for the type I activity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The activity of S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (AdoMetDC) in Crithidia fasciculata was shown to be correlated to the growth of the parasite. An increase in activity was observed during exponential growth. Inhibition of protein synthesis induced an extremely rapid decay of AdoMetDC activity. The half-life of the enzyme was estimated to be about 3 min, which is the shortest half-life ever recorded for an eukaryotic AdoMetDC. The reduction in AdoMetDC activity was correlated with a decrease in AdoMetDC protein content, demonstrating a rapid turnover of the enzyme. No polyamine-mediated feedback regulation of AdoMetDC was observed in the parasite. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Type II restriction endonucleases (REs) are widely used tools in molecular biology, biotechnology and diagnostics. Efforts to generate new specificities by structure-guided design and random mutagenesis have been unsuccessful so far. We have developed a new procedure called the methylation activity-based selection (MABS) for generating REs with a new specificity. MABS uses a unique property of bifunctional type II REs to methylate DNA targets they recognize. The procedure includes three steps: (1) conversion of a bifunctional RE into a monofunctional DNA-modifying enzyme by cleavage center disruption; (2) mutagenesis and selection of mutants with altered DNA modification specificity based on their ability to protect predetermined DNA targets; (3) reconstitution of the cleavage center''s wild-type structure. The efficiency of the MABS technique was demonstrated by altering the sequence specificity of the bifunctional RE Eco57I from 5′-CTGAAG to 5′-CTGRAG, and thus generating the mutant restriction endonuclease (and DNA methyltransferase) of a specificity not known before. This study provides evidence that MABS is a promising technique for generation of REs with new specificities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent analyses identified a putative catalytic tetrad K-D-K-E common to several families of site-specific methyltransferases (MTases) that modify 2′-hydroxyl groups of ribose in mRNA, rRNA and tRNA (designated the RrmJ class after one of the structurally characterized members; 1eiz in Protein Data Bank) [Genome Biol. 2(9) (2001) 38]. Subsequently, three residues of the tetrad (K-D-K) were shown to be essential for catalysis in RrmJ [J. Biol. Chem. 277 (2002) 41978]. Here, we report identification of a similar conserved tetrad (K-D-K-H) in the family of snoRNA-guided ribose 2′-O-MTases related to fibrillarin (represented by the Mj0697 protein structure; 1fbn in PDB). The corresponding functional groups of putative catalytic tetrads of RrmJ and Mj0697 may be superimposed in space. However, one of the invariant residues (K164 in RrmJ and K179 in Mj0697) is observed in two distinct locations in the primary sequence, suggesting an interesting case of ‘migration’ of the conserved side chain within the framework of the active site. RrmJ and Mj0697 sequences were used as starting points to carry out comprehensive sequence database searches, resulting in identification of a similar conserved tetrad (and hence, prediction of a ribose 2′-O-specificity) in several families of putative MTases, including TlyA hemolysins, novel proteins from Trypanosoma, and large multidomain proteins from Flaviviriruses, Nidoviruses, and Alphaviruses. The results of our analysis of phylogenetic relationships in the RrmJ/fibrillarin superfamily provide insight into the evolution of site-specific and snoRNA-guided ribose 2′-O-MTases from a common ancestor. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Biotin synthase (BioB), an iron–sulfur enzyme, catalyzes the last step of the biotin biosynthesis pathway. The reaction consists in the introduction of a sulfur atom into two non-activated C–H bonds of dethiobiotin. Substrate radical activation is initiated by the reductive cleavage of S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) into a 5′-deoxyadenosyl radical. The recently described pyridoxal 5′-phosphate-bound enzyme was used to show that only one molecule of AdoMet, and not two, is required for the formation of one molecule of biotin. Furthermore 5′-deoxyadenosine, a product of the reaction, strongly inhibited biotin formation, an observation that may explain why BioB is not able to make more than one turnover. However this enzyme inactivation is not irreversible. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We present the results of in vitro DNA-binding assays for a mutant protein (Q44K) of the E. coli methionine repressor, MetJ, as well as the crystal structure at 2.2 A˚ resolution of the apo-mutant bound to a 10-mer oligonucleotide encompassing an 8 bp met-box sequence. The wild-type protein binds natural operators co-operatively with respect to protein concentration forming at least a dimer of repressor dimers along operator DNAs. The minimum operator length is thus 16 bp, each MetJ dimer interacting with a single met-box site. In contrast, the Q44K mutant protein can also bind stably as a single dimer to 8 bp target sites, in part due to additional contacts made to the phosphodiester backbone outside the 8 bp target via the K44 side-chains. Protein–protein co-operativity in the mutant is reduced relative to the wild-type allowing the properties of an intermediate on the pathway to operator site saturation to be examined for the first time. The crystal structure of the decamer complex shows a unique conformation for the protein bound to the single met-box site, possibly explaining the reduced protein–protein co-operativity. In both the extended and minimal DNA complexes formed, the mutant protein makes slightly different contacts to the edges of DNA base-pairs than the wild-type, even though the site of amino acid substitution is distal from the DNA-binding motif. Quantitative binding assays suggest that this is not due to artefacts caused by the crystallisation conditions but is most likely due to the relatively small contribution of such direct contacts to the overall binding energy of DNA–protein complex formation, which is dominated by sequence-dependent distortions of the DNA duplex and by the protein–protein contact between dimers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Escherichia coli dam adenine-N6 methyltransferase modifies DNA at GATC sequences. It is involved in post-replicative mismatch repair, control of DNA replication and gene regulation. We show that E. coli dam acts as a functional monomer and methylates only one strand of the DNA in each binding event. The preferred way of ternary complex assembly is that the enzyme first binds to DNA and then to S-adenosylmethionine. The enzyme methylates an oligonucleotide containing two dam sites and a 879 bp PCR product with four sites in a fully processive reaction. On λ-DNA comprising 48,502 bp and 116 dam sites, E. coli dam scans 3000 dam sites per binding event in a random walk, that on average leads to a processive methylation of 55 sites. Processive methylation of DNA considerably accelerates DNA methylation. The highly processive mechanism of E. coli dam could explain why small amounts of E. coli dam are able to maintain the methylation state of dam sites during DNA replication. Furthermore, our data support the general rule that solitary DNA methyltransferase modify DNA processively whereas methyltransferases belonging to a restriction-modification system show a distributive mechanism, because processive methylation of DNA would interfere with the biological function of restriction-modification systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]