The primary structure of thermostable D-amino acid aminotransferase from a thermophilic Bacillus species and its correlation with L-amino acid aminotransferases

The gene for thermostable D-amino acid aminotransferase from a thermophile, Bacillus species YM-1 was cloned and expressed efficiently in Escherichia coli. The entire covalent structure of the enzyme was determined from the nucleotide sequence of the cloned gene and mostly confirmed by amino acid sequences of tryptic peptides from the gene product. The polypeptide is composed of 282 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular weight of 32,226. Comparison of the primary structure with those of various proteins registered in a protein data bank revealed a significant sequence homology between D-amino acid aminotransferase and the L-branched chain amino acid aminotransferase of E. coli (Kuramitsu, S., Ogawa, T., Ogawa, H., and Kagamiyama, H. (1985) J. Biochem. (Tokyo) 97, 993-999); the active site lysyl residue is located in an equivalent position in both enzyme sequences of similar size. Despite the difference in subunit composition and no immunochemical cross-reactivity, the sequences of the two enzymes show similar hydropathy profiles, and spectrophotometric properties of the enzyme-bound cofactor are also similar. The sequence homology suggests that the structural genes for D-amino acid and L-branched chain amino acid aminotransferases evolved from a common ancestral gene.