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Cyanuric acid hydrolase (CAH) catalyzes the hydrolytic ring-opening of cyanuric acid (2,4,6-trihydroxy-1,3,5-triazine), an intermediate in s-triazine bacterial degradation and a by-product from disinfection with trichloroisocyanuric acid. In the present study, an X-ray crystal structure of the CAH-barbituric acid inhibitor complex from Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS 571 has been determined at 2.7 Å resolution. The CAH protein fold consists of three structurally homologous domains forming a β-barrel-like structure with external α-helices that result in a three-fold symmetry, a dominant feature of the structure and active site that mirrors the three-fold symmetrical shape of the substrate cyanuric acid. The active site structure of CAH is similar to that of the recently determined AtzD with three pairs of active site Ser-Lys dyads. In order to determine the role of each Ser-Lys dyad in catalysis, a mutational study using a highly sensitive, enzyme-coupled assay was conducted. The 109-fold loss of activity by the S226A mutant was at least ten times lower than that of the S79A and S333A mutants. In addition, bioinformatics analysis revealed the Ser226/Lys156 dyad as the only absolutely conserved dyad in the CAH/barbiturase family. These data suggest that Lys156 activates the Ser226 nucleophile which can then attack the substrate carbonyl. Our combination of structural, mutational, and bioinformatics analyses differentiates this study and provides experimental data for mechanistic insights into this unique protein family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The known enzymes that open the s-triazine ring, the cyanuric acid hydrolases, have been confined almost exclusively to the kingdom Bacteria and are all homologous members of the rare cyanuric acid hydrolase/barbiturase protein family. In the present study, a filamentous fungus, Sarocladium sp. strain CA, was isolated from soil by enrichment culturing using cyanuric acid as the sole source of nitrogen. A reverse-genetic approach identified a fungal cyanuric acid hydrolase gene composed of two exons and one intron. The translated spliced sequence was 39 to 53% identical to previously characterized bacterial cyanuric acid hydrolases. The sequence was used to generate a gene optimized for expression in Escherichia coli and encoding an N-terminally histidine-tagged protein. The protein was purified by nickel affinity and anion-exchange chromatography. The purified protein was shown by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-NMR) to produce carboxybiuret as the product, which spontaneously decarboxylated to yield biuret and carbon dioxide. The protein was very narrow in substrate specificity, showing activity only with cyanuric acid and N-methyl cyanuric acid. Barbituric acid was an inhibitor of enzyme activity. Sequence analysis identified genes with introns in other fungi from the Ascomycota that, if spliced, are predicted to encode proteins with cyanuric acid hydrolase activity. The Ascomycota cyanuric acid hydrolase homologs are most closely related to cyanuric acid hydrolases from Actinobacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyanuric acid hydrolases (AtzD) and barbiturases are homologous, found almost exclusively in bacteria, and comprise a rare protein family with no discernible linkage to other protein families or an X-ray structural class. There has been confusion in the literature and in genome projects regarding the reaction products, the assignment of individual sequences as either cyanuric acid hydrolases or barbiturases, and spurious connection of this family to another protein family. The present study has addressed those issues. First, the published enzyme reaction products of cyanuric acid hydrolase are incorrectly identified as biuret and carbon dioxide. The current study employed 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry to show that cyanuric acid hydrolase releases carboxybiuret, which spontaneously decarboxylates to biuret. This is significant because it revealed that homologous cyanuric acid hydrolases and barbiturases catalyze completely analogous reactions. Second, enzymes that had been annotated incorrectly in genome projects have been reassigned here by bioinformatics, gene cloning, and protein characterization studies. Third, the AtzD/barbiturase family has previously been suggested to consist of members of the amidohydrolase superfamily, a large class ofmetallohydrolases. Bioinformatics and the lack of bound metals both argue against a connection to the amidohydrolase superfamily. Lastly, steady-state kinetic measurements and observations of protein stability suggested that the AtzD/barbiturase family might be an undistinguished protein family that has undergone some resurgence with the recent introduction of industrial s-triazine compounds such as atrazine and melamine into the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]