Functional properties of recombinant Azospirillum brasilense glutamate synthase, a complex iron–sulfur flavoprotein

Azospirillum brasilense glutamate synthase is a complex iron–sulfur flavoprotein that catalyses the NADPH‐dependent reductive transfer of glutamine amide group to the C(2) carbon of 2‐oxoglutarate to yield l‐glutamate. Its catalytically active αβ protomer is composed of two dissimilar subunits (α subunit, 164.2 kDa; β subunit, 52.3 kDa) and contains one FAD (at Site 1, the pyridine nucleotide site within the β subunit), one FMN (at Site 2, the 2‐oxoglutarate/l‐glutamate site in the α subunit) and three different iron–sulfur clusters (one 3Fe−4S center on the α subunit and two 4Fe−4S clusters of unknown location). A plasmid harboring the gltD and gltB genes, the genes encoding the glutamate synthase β and α subunits, respectively, each one under the control of the T7/lac promoter of pET11a was found to be suitable for the overproduction of glutamate synthase holoenzyme in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) cells. Recombinant A. brasilense glutamate synthase could be purified to homogeneity from overproducing E. coli cells by ion exchange chromatography, gel filtration and affinity chromatography on a 2′,5′ ADP–Sepharose 4B column. The purified enzyme was indistinguishable from that prepared from Azospirillum cells with respect to cofactor content, N‐terminal sequence of the subunits, aggregation state, kinetic and spectroscopic properties. The study of the recombinant holoenzyme allowed us to establish that the tendency of glutamate synthase to form a stable (αβ)4 tetramer at high protein concentrations is a property unique to the holoenzyme, as the isolated β subunit does not oligomerize, while the isolated glutamate synthase α subunit only forms dimers at high protein concentrations. Furthermore, the steady‐state kinetic analysis of the glutamate synthase reaction was extended to the study of the effect of adenosine‐containing nucleotides. Compounds such as cAMP, AMP, ADP and ATP have no effect on the enzyme activity, while the 2′‐phosphorylated analogs of AMP and NADP(H) analogs act as inhibitors of the reaction, competitive with NADPH. Thus, it can be ruled out that glutamate synthase reaction is subjected to allosteric modulation by adenosine containing (di)nucleotides, which may bind to the putative ADP‐binding site at the C‐terminus of the α subunit. At the same time, the strict requirement of a 2′‐phosphate group in the pyridine nucleotide for binding to glutamate synthase (GltS) was established. Finally, by comparing the inhibition constants exhibited by a series of NADP+ analogs, the contribution to the binding energy of the various parts of the pyridine nucleotide has been determined along with the effect of substituents on the 3 position of the pyridine ring. With the exception of thio‐NADP+, which binds the tightest to GltS, it appears that the size of the substituent is the factor that affects the most the interaction between the NADP(H) analog and the enzyme.