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Thioredoxin superfamily proteins introduce disulfide bonds into substrates, catalyze the removal of disulfides, and operate in electron relays. These functions rely on one or more dithiol/disulfide exchange reactions. The flavoenzyme quiescin sulfhydryl oxidase (QSOX), a catalyst of disulfide bond formation with an interdomain electron transfer step in its catalytic cycle, provides a unique opportunity for exploring the structural environment of enzymatic dithiol/disulfide exchange. Wild-type Rattus norvegicus QSOX1 (RnQSOX1) was crystallized in a conformation that juxtaposes the two redox-active di-cysteine motifs in the enzyme, presenting the entire electron-transfer pathway and proton-transfer participants in their native configurations. As such a state cannot generally be enriched and stabilized for analysis, RnQSOX1 gives unprecedented insight into the functional group environments of the four cysteines involved in dithiol/disulfide exchange and provides the framework for analysis of the energetics of electron transfer in the presence of the bound flavin adenine dinucleotide cofactor. Hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) free energy simulations based on the X-ray crystal structure suggest that formation of the interdomain disulfide intermediate is highly favorable and secures the flexible enzyme in a state from which further electron transfer via the flavin can occur., (© 2014 The Protein Society.)

Protein stability, assembly, localization and regulation often depend on the formation of disulphide crosslinks between cysteine side chains. Enzymes known as sulphydryl oxidases catalyse de novo disulphide formation and initiate intra- and intermolecular dithiol/disulphide relays to deliver the disulphides to substrate proteins. Quiescin sulphydryl oxidase (QSOX) is a unique, multi-domain disulphide catalyst that is localized primarily to the Golgi apparatus and secreted fluids and has attracted attention owing to its overproduction in tumours. In addition to its physiological importance, QSOX is a mechanistically intriguing enzyme, encompassing functions typically carried out by a series of proteins in other disulphide-formation pathways. How disulphides are relayed through the multiple redox-active sites of QSOX and whether there is a functional benefit to concatenating these sites on a single polypeptide are open questions. Here we present the first crystal structure of an intact QSOX enzyme, derived from a trypanosome parasite. Notably, sequential sites in the disulphide relay were found more than 40?Å apart in this structure, too far for direct disulphide transfer. To resolve this puzzle, we trapped and crystallized an intermediate in the disulphide hand-off, which showed a 165° domain rotation relative to the original structure, bringing the two active sites within disulphide-bonding distance. The comparable structure of a mammalian QSOX enzyme, also presented here, shows further biochemical features that facilitate disulphide transfer in metazoan orthologues. Finally, we quantified the contribution of concatenation to QSOX activity, providing general lessons for the understanding of multi-domain enzymes and the design of new catalytic relays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]