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Fluorescence quenching and time resolved fluorescence studies of wild type recombinant cinnamoyl CoA reductase (Ll-CCRH1), a multitryptophan protein from Leucaena leucocephala and 10 different active site mutants were carried out to investigate tryptophan environment. The enzyme showed highest affinity for feruloyl CoA (K(a)  = 3.72 × 10(5) M(-1)) over other CoA esters and cinnamaldehydes, as determined by fluorescence spectroscopy. Quenching of the fluorescence by acrylamide for wild type and active site mutants was collisional with almost 100% of the tryptophan fluorescence accessible under native condition and remained same after denaturation of protein with 6 M GdnHCl. In wild type Ll-CCRH1, the extent of quenching achieved with iodide (f(a) = 1.0) was significantly higher than cesium ions (f(a) = 0.33) suggesting more density of positive charge around surface of trp conformers under native conditions. Denaturation of wild type protein with 6 M GdnHCl led to significant increase in the quenching with cesium (f(a) = 0.54), whereas quenching with iodide ion was decreased (f(a) = 0.78), indicating reorientation of charge density around trp from positive to negative and heterogeneity in trp environment. The Stern-Volmer plots for wild type and mutants Ll-CCRH1 under native and denatured conditions, with cesium ion yielded biphasic quenching profiles. The extent of quenching for cesium and iodide ions under native and denatured conditions observed in active site mutants was significantly different from wild type Ll-CCRH1 under the same conditions. Thus, single substitution type mutations of active site residues showed heterogeneity in tryptophan microenvironment and differential degree of conformation of protein under native or denatured conditions.

Conformational transitions of cinnamoyl CoA reductase, a key regulatory enzyme in lignin biosynthesis, from Leucaena leucocephala (Ll-CCRH1) were studied using fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopy. The native protein possesses four trp residues exposed on the surface and 66% of helical structure, undergoes rapid structural transitions at and above 45 °C and starts forming aggregates at 55 °C. Ll-CCRH1 was transformed into acid induced (pH 2.0) molten globule like structure, exhibiting altered secondary structure, diminished tertiary structure and exposed hydrophobic residues. The molten globule like structure was examined for the thermal and chemical stability. The altered secondary structure of L1-CCRH1 at pH 2.0 was stable up to 90 °C. Also, in presence of 0.25 M guanidine hydrochloride (GdnHCl), it got transformed into different structure which was stable in the vicinity of 2M GdnHCl (as compared to drastic loss of native structure in 2M GdnHCl) as seen in far UV-CD spectra. The structural transition of Ll-CCRH1 at pH 2.0 followed another transition after readjusting the pH to 8.0, forming a structure with hardly any similarity to that of native protein., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Lack of three dimensional crystal structure of cinnamoyl CoA reductase (CCR) limits its detailed active site characterization studies. Putative active site residues involved in the substrate/NADPH binding and catalysis for Leucaena leucocephala CCR (Ll-CCRH1; GenBank: DQ986907) were identified by amino acid sequence alignment and homology modeling. Putative active site residues and proximal H215 were subjected for site directed mutagenesis, and mutated enzymes were expressed, purified and assayed to confirm their functional roles. Mutagenesis of S136, Y170 and K174 showed complete loss of activity, indicating their pivotal roles in catalysis. Mutant S212G exhibited the catalytic efficiencies less than 10% of wild type, showing its indirect involvement in substrate binding or catalysis. R51G, D77G, F30V and I31N double mutants showed significant changes in Km values, specifying their roles in substrate binding. Finally, chemical modification and substrate protection studies corroborated the presence Ser, Tyr, Lys, Arg and carboxylate group at the active site of Ll-CCRH1., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Recombinant cinnamoyl CoA reductase 1 (Ll-CCRH1) protein from Leucaena leucocephala was overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) strain and purified to apparent homogeneity. Optimum pH for forward and reverse reaction was found to be 6.5 and 7.8 respectively. The enzyme was most stable around pH 6.5 at 25°C for 90 min. The enzyme showed Kcat/Km for feruloyl, caffeoyl, sinapoyl, coumaroyl CoA, coniferaldehyde and sinapaldehyde as 4.6, 2.4, 2.3, 1.7, 1.9 and 1.2 (×10(6) M(-1) s(-1)), respectively, indicating affinity of enzyme for feruloyl CoA over other substrates and preference of reduction reaction over oxidation. Activation energy, Ea for various substrates was found to be in the range of 20-50 kJ/mol. Involvement of probable carboxylate ion, histidine, lysine or tyrosine at the active site of enzyme was predicted by pH activity profile. SAXS studies of protein showed radius 3.04 nm and volume 49.25 nm(3) with oblate ellipsoid shape. Finally, metal ion inhibition studies revealed that Ll-CCRH1 is a metal independent enzyme., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Leucaena leucocephala is a leguminous tree species accounting for one-fourth of raw material supplied to paper and pulp industry in India. Cinnamate 4-Hydroxylase (C4H, EC 1.14.13.11) is the second gene of phenylpropanoid pathway and a member of cytochrome P450 family. There is currently intense interest to alter or modify lignin content of L. leucocephala. Three highly similar C4H alleles of LlC4H1 gene were isolated and characterized. The alleles shared more than 98 % sequence identity at amino acid level to each other. Binding of partial promoter of another C4H gene LlC4H2, to varying amounts of crude nuclear proteins isolated from leaf and stem tissues of L. leucocephala formed two loose and one strong complex, respectively, suggesting that the abundance of proteins that bind with the partial C4H promoter is higher in stem tissue than in leaf tissue. Quantitative Real Time PCR study suggested that among tissues of same age, root tissues had highest level of C4H transcripts. Maximum transcript level was observed in 30 day old root tissue. Among the tissues investigated, C4H activity was highest in 60 day old root tissues. Tissue specific quantitative comparison of lignin from developing seedling stage to 1 year old tree stage indicated that Klason lignin increased in tissues with age.

Glycosyl hydrolase family 1 β-glucosidases are important enzymes that serve many diverse functions in plants including defense, whereby hydrolyzing the defensive compounds such as hydroxynitrile glucosides. A hydroxynitrile glucoside cleaving β-glucosidase gene (Llbglu1) was isolated from Leucaena leucocephala, cloned into pET-28a (+) and expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) cells. The recombinant enzyme was purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. The optimal temperature and pH for this β-glucosidase were found to be 45 °C and 4.8, respectively. The purified Llbglu1 enzyme hydrolyzed the synthetic glycosides, pNPGlucoside (pNPGlc) and pNPGalactoside (pNPGal). Also, the enzyme hydrolyzed amygdalin, a hydroxynitrile glycoside and a few of the tested flavonoid and isoflavonoid glucosides. The kinetic parameters K (m) and V (max) were found to be 38.59 μM and 0.8237 μM/mg/min for pNPGlc, whereas for pNPGal the values were observed as 1845 μM and 0.1037 μM/mg/min. In the present study, a three dimensional (3D) model of the Llbglu1 was built by MODELLER software to find out the substrate binding sites and the quality of the model was examined using the program PROCHEK. Docking studies indicated that conserved active site residues are Glu 199, Glu 413, His 153, Asn 198, Val 270, Asn 340, and Trp 462. Docking of rhodiocyanoside A with the modeled Llbglu1 resulted in a binding with free energy change (ΔG) of -5.52 kcal/mol on which basis rhodiocyanoside A could be considered as a potential substrate.

KEY MESSAGE : LlMYB1 , a subgroup 4 R2R3-type MYB transcription factor gene from Leucaena leucocephala appears to be a repressor of lignin biosynthesis pathway by regulating the transcription of general phenylpropanoid pathway genes. R2R3MYB transcription factors are known to play a wide role in regulating the phenylpropanoid pathway in plants. In this study, we report isolation, cloning and characterization of an R2R3MYB transcription factor gene (LlMYB1) from an economically important tree species, Leucaena leucocephala. LlMYB1 consists of 705 bp coding sequence corresponding to 235 amino acids. Sequence alignment revealed that the N-terminal (MYB) domain of the gene shares up to 95 % similarity with subgroup 4 (Sg4) members of R2R3Myb gene family functionally known to be lignin repressors. Highly divergent C-terminal region of the gene carried an ERF-associated amphiphilic repression (EAR) motif, another characteristic of the Sg4. The gene was phylogenetically grouped closest with AmMYB308, a known repressor of monolignol biosynthetic pathway genes. Spatio-temporal expression studies at different ages of seedlings using quantitative real-time PCR (QRT-PCR) showed highest transcript level of the gene in 10 day old stem tissues. Over-expression of the gene in transgenic tobacco showed statistically significant decline in the transcript levels of the general phenylpropanoid pathway genes and reduction in lignin content. Our study suggests that LlMYB1 might be playing the role of a repressor of lignin biosynthesis in L. leucocephala.

Removal of lignin is a major hurdle for obtaining good quality pulp. Leucaena leucocephala (subabul) is extensively used in paper industry in India; therefore, as a first step to generate transgenic plants with low lignin content, cDNA and genomic clones of CCR gene were isolated and characterized. The cDNA encoding CCR (EC 1.2.1.44) was designated as Ll-CCR; the sequence analysis revealed an Open Reading Frame (ORF) of 1005 bp. Phylogenetic analysis showed that Ll-CCR sequence is highly homologous to CCRs from other dicot plants. The 2992 bp genomic clone of Leucaena CCR consists of 5 exons and 4 introns. The haploid genome of L. leucocephala contains two copies as revealed by DNA blot hybridization. Ll-CCR gene was over-expressed in Escherichia coli, which showed a molecular mass of approximately 38 kDa. Protein blot analysis revealed that Ll-CCR protein is expressed at higher levels in root and in stem, but undetectable in leaf tissues. Expression of CCR gene in Leucaena increased up to 15 d in case of roots and stem as revealed by QRT-PCR studies in 0-15 d old seedlings. ELISA based studies of extractable CCR protein corroborated with QRT-PCR data. CCR protein was immuno-cytolocalized around xylem tissue. Lignin estimation and expression studies of 5, 10 and 15 d old stem and root suggest that CCR expression correlates with quantity of lignin produced, which makes it a good target for antisense down regulation for producing designer species for paper industry., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)