Zhou N-Y., Al-Dulayyami J., Baird M.S. & Williams
P.A. (2002) Salicylate 5-hydroxylase from Ralstonia sp.
strain U2: a monooxygenase with close relationships to and shared electron
transport proteins with naphthalene dioxygenase. J.Bacteriol. 184:
(in
press).
ABSTRACT
The genes from the oxygenase cluster nagAaGHAbAcAd
of naphthalene-degrading Ralstonia sp. strain U2 were cloned and
overexpressed. Salicylate 5-hydroxylase (S5H) activity, converting salicylate
to gentisate, was present in vitro only in the single extract of cells
with over-expressed nagAaGHAb or in a mixture of three cell extracts
containing respectively NagGH (the oxygenase components), NagAa (ferredoxin
reductase) and NagAb (ferredoxin). Each of the three extracts required
for S5H activity was rate-limiting in the presence of excess of the others
but, when in excess, did not affect the rate of catalysis. S5H catalysed
the 5-hydroxylation of the aromatic rings of 3- and 4-substituted salicylates.
However the methyl group of 5-methylsalicylate was hydroxylated to produce
the 5-hydroxymethyl derivative and the 6-position on the ring of 5-chlorosalicylate
was hydroxylated producing 5-chloro-2,6-dihydroxybenzoate. In an assay
for the nag naphthalene dioxygenase (NDO) based on the indole-linked oxidation
of NADH, three extracts were essential for activity (NagAcAd, NagAa, NagAb).
NDO and S5H were assayed in the presence of all possible combinations of
the nag proteins and the corresponding nah NDO proteins from the 'classical'
naphthalene degrader P. putida NCIMB9816. All three oxygenase components
functioned with mixed combinations of the electron transport proteins from
either strain. The S5H from strain U2 is a unique monooxygenase which shares
both sequence similarity with dioxygenases such as NDO but is also sufficiently
similar in structure to interact with the same electron transport chain
and probably does so in vivo during naphthalene catabolism in strain U2.