Effects of hydrogen sulfide on the heme coordination structure and catalytic activity of the globin-coupled oxygen sensor AfGcHK
Abstract
AfGcHK is a globin-coupled histidine kinase that is one component of a two-component signal transduction system. The catalytic activity of this heme-based oxygen sensor is due to its C-terminal kinase domain and is strongly stimulated by the binding of O-2 or CO to the heme Fe(II) complex in the N-terminal oxygen sensing domain.
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is an important gaseous signaling molecule and can serve as a heme axial ligand, but its interactions with heme-based oxygen sensors have not been studied as extensively as those of O-2, CO, and NO. To address this knowledge gap, we investigated the effects of H2S binding on the heme coordination structure and catalytic activity of wild-type AfGcHK and mutants in which residues at the putative O-2-binding site (Tyr45) or the heme distal side (Leu68) were substituted.
Adding Na2S to the initial OH-bound 6-coordinate Fe(III) low-spin complexes transformed them into SH-bound 6-coordinate Fe(III) low-spin complexes. The Leu68 mutants also formed a small proportion of verdoheme under these conditions.
Conversely, when the heme-based oxygen sensor EcDOS was treated with Na2S, the initially formed Fe(III)-SH heme complex was quickly converted into Fe(II) and Fe(II)-O-2 complexes. Interestingly, the autophosphorylation activity of the heme Fe(III)-SH complex was not significantly different from the maximal enzyme activity of AfGcHK (containing the heme Fe(III)-OH complex), whereas in the case of EcDOS the changes in coordination caused by Na2S treatment led to remarkable increases in catalytic activity.