Enzymes for the homeland defense: Optimizing phosphotriesterase for the hydrolysis of organophosphate nerve agents

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/bi300811t

Phosphotriesterase (PTE) from soil bacteria is known for its ability to catalyze the detoxification of organophosphate pesticides and chemical warfare agents. Most of the organophosphate chemical warfare agents are a mixture of two stereoisomers at the phosphorus center, and the S_P-enantiomers are significantly more toxic than the R_P-enantiomers. In previous investigations, PTE variants were created through the manipulation of the substrate binding pockets and these mutants were shown to have greater catalytic activities for the detoxification of the more toxic S_P-enantiomers of nerve agent analogues for GB, GD, GF, VX, and VR than the less toxic R _P-enantiomers. In this investigation, alternate strategies were employed to discover additional PTE variants with significant improvements in catalytic activities relative to that of the wild-type enzyme. Screening and selection techniques were utilized to isolate PTE variants from randomized libraries and site specific modifications. The catalytic activities of these newly identified PTE variants toward the S_P-enantiomers of chromophoric analogues of GB, GD, GF, VX, and VR have been improved up to 15000-fold relative to that of the wild-type enzyme. The X-ray crystal structures of the best PTE variants were determined. Characterization of these mutants with the authentic G-type nerve agents has confirmed the expected improvements in catalytic activity against the most toxic enantiomers of GB, GD, and GF. The values of k_cat/K_m for the H257Y/L303T (YT) mutant for the hydrolysis of GB, GD, and GF were determined to be 2 ×10⁶, 5 ×10⁵, and 8 ×10⁵ M^-1 s^-1, respectively. The YT mutant is the most proficient enzyme reported thus far for the detoxification of G-type nerve agents. These results support a combinatorial strategy of rational design and directed evolution as a powerful tool for the discovery of more efficient enzymes for the detoxification of organophosphate nerve agents.

Full text of DOI:10.1021/bi300811t

Article
pubs.acs.org/biochemistry
Enzymes for the Homeland Defense: Optimizing Phosphotriesterase
for the Hydrolysis of Organophosphate Nerve Agents
Ping-Chuan Tsai,† Nicholas Fox,† Andrew N. Bigley,† Steven P. Harvey,‡ David P. Barondeau,*,†
and Frank M. Raushel*,†
†Department of Chemistry, P.O. Box 30012, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77842, United States
‡U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, 5183 Blackhawk Road, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 21010-5424, United
States
ABSTRACT: Phosphotriesterase (PTE) from soil bacteria is
known for its ability to catalyze the detoxification of
organophosphate pesticides and chemical warfare agents.
Most of the organophosphate chemical warfare agents are a
mixture of two stereoisomers at the phosphorus center, and
the SP-enantiomers are significantly more toxic than the RP-
enantiomers. In previous investigations, PTE variants were
created through the manipulation of the substrate binding
pockets and these mutants were shown to have greater
catalytic activities for the detoxification of the more toxic SP-
enantiomers of nerve agent analogues for GB, GD, GF, VX,
and VR than the less toxic RP-enantiomers. In this
investigation, alternate strategies were employed to discover additional PTE variants with significant improvements in catalytic
activities relative to that of the wild-type enzyme. Screening and selection techniques were utilized to isolate PTE variants from
randomized libraries and site specific modifications. The catalytic activities of these newly identified PTE variants toward the SP-
enantiomers of chromophoric analogues of GB, GD, GF, VX, and VR have been improved up to 15000-fold relative to that of the
wild-type enzyme. The X-ray crystal structures of the best PTE variants were determined. Characterization of these mutants with
the authentic G-type nerve agents has confirmed the expected improvements in catalytic activity against the most toxic
enantiomers of GB, GD, and GF. The values of kcat/Km for the H257Y/L303T (YT) mutant for the hydrolysis of GB, GD, and
GF were determined to be 2 × 106, 5 × 105, and 8 × 105 M−1 s−1, respectively. The YT mutant is the most proficient enzyme
reported thus far for the detoxification of G-type nerve agents. These results support a combinatorial strategy of rational design
and directed evolution as a powerful tool for the discovery of more efficient enzymes for the detoxification of organophosphate
nerve agents.
and co-workers created a randomized PTE library by DNA
hosphotriesterase (PTE) from Pseudomonas diminuta
Pcatalyzes the detoxification of a wide range of organo- shuffling and saturation mutagenesis. They identified two distal
mutations, K185R and I274N, which are apparently important
for the improvement of the catalytic activity toward the
insecticides paraoxon, parathion, chlorpyrifos, and couma-
phos.13,14 Tawfik and colleagues utilized DNA shuffling to
construct randomized PTE libraries that contained variants
with enhanced protein stability and increased enzymatic
activity. One of these variants had three mutations located
outside of the substrate binding pocket (K185R, D208G, and
R319S) that increased the level of net protein expression by
∼20-fold.15 The organophosphate-degrading enzyme OpdA
from Agrobacterium radiobacter P230 is ∼90% identical to PTE.
The Ollis group mutated OpdA, and libraries of these variants
were created by error-prone polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
and DNA shuffling. Some of these mutants were shown to have
phosphate insecticides and chemical warfare agents, including
tabun (GA), sarin (GB), soman (GD), cyclosarin (GF), and
VX.1−3 The structures of these compounds are illustrated in
Scheme 1. The catalytic proficiency of PTE for the hydrolysis of
the insecticide paraoxon is close to the diffusion-controlled
limit (kcat/Km ∼ 108 M−1 s−1),4 and the stereoselectivity of the
wild-type enzyme for chiral organophosphate substrates has
been determined.5−8 Wild-type PTE prefers to hydrolyze the
RP-enantiomers of GB, GD, GF, and their chromophoric
analogues.5,9 However, the SP-enantiomers of these nerve
agents are substantially more toxic than the RP-enantiomers.10
PTE mutants with an inverted stereoselectivity have been
constructed by alteration of the active site residues, and these
modified enzymes catalyze the hydrolysis of the toxic SP-
enantiomers faster than the wild-type enzyme.5,11,12
In addition to the rational redesign of the PTE active site,
directed evolution of catalytic activity toward toxic organo-
phosphates has been undertaken by several laboratories. Chen
Received: June 18, 2012
Revised: July 12, 2012
Published: July 18, 2012
© 2012 American Chemical Society
6463
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
Scheme 1
Scheme 2
improved protein expression and better activity toward methyl
paraoxon, methyl parathion, and demeton-S.16 Many of the
amino acid changes that originated from randomized mutations
were localized to the surface of the protein, and these
alterations may have also contributed to an increase in protein
stability.17,18
that of the wild-type enzyme for specific enantiomers of
organophosphate nerve agent analogues. The analogue results
have been validated by tests using the authentic nerve agents.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
■
Materials. The preparation and isolation of the chiral
organophosphonates used in this investigation have been
previously described.5 The structures of these compounds are
illustrated in Scheme 2. These compounds are toxic and should
be used with the appropriate safeguards.
In this paper, multiple directed evolution techniques were
utilized to obtain mutant forms of PTE that are significantly
enhanced in their ability to catalyze the hydrolysis of the most
toxic forms of selected organophosphate nerve agents. We
initiated this investigation using highly sensitive chromophoric
assays to identify alterations in PTE that allow the most toxic
stereoisomers of the G-agent analogues to be hydrolyzed more
efficiently. An in vivo selection technique was subsequently
exploited that incorporates the phosphonate assimilation
pathway in Escherichia coli to identify beneficial PTE variants
in larger, more randomized libraries. These in vivo assays
utilized the coexpression of glycerophosphodiesterase (GpdQ)
from Enterobacter aerogenes and PTE in E. coli. This selection
method requires the enzymatic hydrolysis of phosphonate
esters by PTE when these cells are grown in the absence of
phosphate.19,20 We have identified mutants of PTE with rate
enhancements of more than 4 orders of magnitude relative to
Plasmid Construction. For single-protein expression
experiments, the gene for PTE was inserted between the
NdeI and EcoRI restriction sites of pET20b (EMD Millipore).
Plasmid GpdQ-pETDuet was constructed by inserting the gene
for glycerophosphodiesterase (GpdQ) from En. aerogenes into
the first T7 promoter site on the pETDuet (EMD Millipore)
vector.19 The PTE/GpdQ-pETDuet plasmid was created by
inserting the PTE gene into the second T7 promoter site on
the GpdQ-pETDuet plasmid using the NdeI and AvrII
restriction sites.
Site-Directed Mutagenesis. The A80V, K185R, and
I274N mutations in PTE were constructed using the
QuikChange site-directed mutagenesis method from Agilent.
6464
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
Oligonucleotide pairs that contained the mutated codons at the
specified sites were used as primers to amplify the genes for the
wild-type enzyme and the following mutant enzymes: QF, YT,
and GWT. The complete identities of mutants are listed in
Table 1. The mutations were added to each template
sequentially to make the following mutant proteins: RN,
QFRN, YTRN, GWT-d1, and GWT-d2.
Leu-271, Phe-306, Ser-308, and Tyr-309. The substitutions for
the Ile-106 site were alanine, cysteine, glycine, isoleucine, and
valine. The variations for Phe-132 were alanine, cysteine,
phenylalanine, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, proline,
arginine, serine, threonine, and tyrosine. The randomized
residues for the Leu-271 site consisted of phenylalanine,
isoleucine, leucine, tyrosine, and glutamine. The substitution of
residues for Phe-306 were phenylalanine, isoleucine, and
methionine. For Ser-308, the substitutions were alanine,
cysteine, glycine, serine, threonine, glutamate, leucine, gluta-
mine, valine, and asparagine. The variants of Tyr-309 were
alanine, cysteine, aspartate, phenylalanine, glycine, leucine,
isoleucine, asparagine, serine, threonine, valine, tyrosine, and
tryptophan.
Table 1. Identification of Mutants Created for This
Investigation
abbreviation
mutations
RN
K185R/I274N
QF
H254Q/H257F
GWT
H254G/H257W/L303T
The multisite partially randomized PTE library was
constructed by combining five separate segments of the gene
for PTE as illustrated in Scheme 3 using primerless PCR for 15
cycles and then amplified by PCR for 55 cycles using primers
specific for the 5′- and 3′-termini. The potential size of this
multisite library is 1.9 × 105 variants. In this scheme, the
numbers below the residue identifier indicate the number of
amino acids that were allowed during the construction of the
library. The amplified PTE library was digested with NdeI and
AvrII restriction enzymes and ligated into the GpdQ-pETDuet
plasmid using T4 DNA ligase. The ligation mixture was purified
using the QIAquick Kit (Qiagen) and then transformed into
freshly made E. coli Top10 competent cells (Life Technolo-
gies). The transformants were incubated at 37 °C for 1 h and
then plated on Luria-Bertani (LB)-ampicillin agarose. Approx-
imately 5.7 × 105 colony-forming units (CFU) were collected
and grown in LB medium for 6 h at 37 °C. The plasmids from
the PTE library were extracted using the Promega Wizard Plus
Miniprep kit.
Construction of the PTE Library by Error-Prone PCR.
Random error-prone PCR was performed using the Gene-
Morph II system (Agilent). The gene for GWT-f4 served as the
template, and approximately ∼1.5 mutations per 1000 bp were
introduced. The amplified PTE library and the GpdQ-pETDuet
plasmid were digested with NdeI and AvrII and then ligated
using T4 DNA ligase. The library was transformed into fresh E.
coli Top10 competent cells (Life Technologies). The trans-
formants were incubated at 37 °C for 1 h and then plated on
LB-ampicillin agarose. Approximately 6 × 105 CFU were
collected and then grown in LB medium for 6 h at 37 °C.
Growth Assays. The PTE/GpdQ-pETDuet plasmids were
transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3) competent cells and grown
on LB plates containing 0.1 mg/mL ampicillin. The colonies
from fresh transformations were inoculated and grown
overnight in Super Broth (32 g/L tryptone, 20 g/L yeast
extract, 5 g/L NaCl, and 5 mM NaOH) at 30 °C. Overnight
cultures were washed four times with sterile water to remove all
QF-RN
YT-RN
GWT-d1
GWT-d2
GWT-d3
GWT-f1
GWT-f2
GWT-f3
H254Q/H257F/K185R/I274N
H257Y/L303T/K185R/I274N
H254G/H257W/L303T/K185R/I274N
H254G/H257W/L303T/K185R/I274N/A80V
H254G/H257W/L303T/K185R/I274N/A80V/S61T
H254G/H257W/L303T/M317L/K185R/I274N
H254G/H257W/L303T/M317L
H254G/H257W/L303T/M317L/I106C/F132I/L271I/
K185R/I274N
GWT-f4
GWT-f5
H254G/H257W/L303T/M317L/I106C/F132I/L271I/
K185R/I274N/A80V
H254G/H257W/L303T/M317L/I106C/F132I/L271I/
K185R/I274N/A80V/R67H
Construction of Single- and Double-Substitution
Libraries. Single-substitution (M317X) and double-substitu-
tion (W131X/F132X, S308X/Y309X, and L271X/S308X)
libraries were constructed from the gene for GWT-d1 using
the QuikChange (Agilent) protocol. The primers contained the
degenerate codon NNS at the targeted position where N is A,
T, G, or C and S is C or G. The M317X, W131X/F132X,
F306X/Y309X, and S308X/Y309X libraries were created with a
single set of primers. The I106X/S308X library was made using
two sets of degenerate primers for the randomization of Ile-106
and Ser-308. Bacterial colonies from the unfractionated I106X
library were collected, and plasmids from this library were
isolated for a second round of mutagenesis using primers for
the randomization of Ser-308. The double-substitution libraries,
C59X/S61X and I255X/W302X, were constructed using the
GWT-d2 mutant as the starting template. A single set of
degenerate primers randomized the Cys-59 and Ser-61 sites.
Two pairs of primers with degenerate codons for the Ile-255
and Trp-302 sites were utilized sequentially.
Construction of a Multisite Randomized Library. A
multisite PTE library was constructed using the gene for GWT-
f1 as the initial template. Six residues in the substrate binding
pocket were partially randomized, including Ile-106, Phe-132,
Scheme 3
6465
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
traces of the rich medium. A 20 mL phosphate-free minimal
medium (MOPS minimal medium) culture was inoculated with
a 2% fresh and previously washed overnight culture as
previously described.19 The minimal medium was supple-
mented with 0.1% glucose as the carbon source and 0.1 mg/mL
thiamine.19 Various organophosphonate compounds were
added to the cultures to a final concentration of 1.0 mM. For
control experiments, BL21(DE3) cells with the empty vector
(PTE-/GpdQ-) were grown in the presence and absence of
inorganic phosphate. BL21(DE3) cells containing the PTE/
GpdQ-pETDuet vector were induced with 0.5 mM IPTG for
protein expression. Cell growth was monitored by measuring
the OD600 for 5−10 days at 30 °C.
Screening Single- and Double-Substitution Libraries.
The products of the QuikChange mutagenesis experiments
were transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3) competent cells and
inoculated in 96-deep well culture blocks containing 1.0 mL of
Super Broth supplemented with 0.5 mM CoCl2 and 0.1 mg/mL
ampicillin. Variants of the single- and double-substitution
libraries were screened with paraoxon and p-nitrophenol
containing versions of SP-4, and SP-5 in the presence of 2%
Bug Buster. The hydrolysis of paraoxon, SP-4, and SP-5 were
measured by monitoring the formation of p-nitrophenol at 400
nm (ε400 = 17000 M−1 cm−1) in 50 mM CHES buffer (pH 9.0)
using a plate reader at 30 °C.
In Vivo Selection on Phosphate-Free Minimal
Medium Plates. The PTE/GpdQ-pETDuet library was
transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3) cells and plated on LB-
ampicillin agarose. The cells were collected and grown in Super
Broth at 30 °C for 12 h. The cells were washed four times with
sterile water to remove any traces of the rich medium. The cells
were plated on MOPS phosphate-free minimal medium agarose
with 0.4 mg/mL ampicillin and 0.5 mM IPTG and grown for
7−10 days at 30 °C in the presence of 1.0 mM SP-5.19 The
colonies with sizes larger than background were selected. The
first round of selection used the GWT-f2 mutant as the
background, and the second round used the GWT-f4 mutant as
the background. Approximately 6 × 105 colonies from the
multi-site-randomized PTE and the error-prone PTE libraries
were plated for selection.
Expression, Growth, and Purification of Phospho-
triesterase Mutants. The mutant phosphotriesterase plas-
mids were transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3) cells. The
transformed cells were grown in LB broth overnight at 37 °C.
The overnight cultures were used to inoculate 1 L of Terrific
Broth (TB) containing 25 μg/mL ampicillin and 1.0 mM
CoCl2 at 30 °C. The expression of PTE was induced by the
addition of 1.0 mM IPTG when OD600 reached 0.4. The cells
were harvested at 4 °C by centrifugation at 6000 rpm for 10
min after the culture had been allowed to reach stationary
phase after 36−42 h at 30 °C. The mutant proteins were
purified according to previously reported protocols.18
mM CoCl2, and either 0.1 M imidazole (pH 7.0) or 0.1 M
HEPES (pH 7.5)], and used as microseeds to grow crystals of
the other PTE variants. Crystals of GWT-d2 (12 mg/mL),
GWT-f5 (8 mg/mL), and GWT-d3 (10 mg/mL) were grown
using the imidazole seeding solution. GWT-d2 crystallized in
26% PEG MME 5000; GWT-f5 crystallized in 22% PEG MME
5000 with 100 mM diethyl phosphate (6), and GWT-d3
crystallized in 18% PEG MME 5000. Crystals of RN (11.5 mg/
mL) were generated with the HEPES seeding solution with 100
mM diethyl phosphate and 25% PEG MME 5000 as the
precipitant. One large crystal of QFRN (11 mg/mL) was
produced in 0.1 M MES (pH 6.0) with 18% PEG MME 5000.
GWT-f5 and GWT-d3 were crystallized from the seeding
solutions in the presence of 100 mM cyclohexyl methyl-
phosphonate (7) using similar conditions [26% PEG MME
5000, 0.1 M imidazole (pH 7.0), and 1 mM CoCl2 and 24%
PEG MME 5000, 0.1 M imidazole (pH 7.0), and 1 mM CoCl2,
respectively]. The crystals were immersed in the well solution
containing 13% ethylene glycol for 30 s and then immediately
frozen in liquid nitrogen. The frozen crystals were transferred
to a cassette and shipped to the Stanford Synchrotron
Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) for remote data collection.
Mutants RN, GWT-f5, and GWT-d3 were collected on SSRL
beamline 11-1; the rest were collected on SSRL beamline 7-1.
The structures of compounds 6 and 7 are presented in Scheme
4.
Scheme 4
The data sets were indexed and scaled with the HKL2000
package,22 and phases were determined by molecular
replacement with Phaser version 2.1.23 The search model was
a previously refined PTE structure [Protein Data Bank (PDB)
entry 1HZY]. Initial refinement of the structures was
performed using Refmac5 from the CCP4 suite.24,25 Difference
electron density and omit maps were manually fit with the
XtalView package.26 After the cofactors (cobalt and inhibitor)
were added, further refinement was conducted with CNS.27 All
structures were superimposed with Sequoia.28 Data collection
and refinement statistics are summarized in Table 2.
Kinetic Measurements and Data Analysis. The kinetic
constants for each chromogenic substrate were determined by
monitoring the production of p-acetylphenol at 294 nm (ε294
=
7710 M−1 cm−1) in 50 mM CHES buffer (pH 9.0) using a plate
reader at 30 °C. The protein concentration in crude samples
was determined by measuring the absorbance at 280 nm. The
kinetic constants (kcat and kcat/Km) were obtained by fitting the
data to eq 1
Protein Crystallization, Data Collection, and Structure
Determination. Vapor diffusion techniques were used to grow
single crystals of five PTE mutants. The mutants (RN, QFRN,
GWT-d2, GWT-f5, and GWT-d3) crystallized after incubation
for 1 day at 22 °C. In a typical hanging drop experiment, 2 μL
of the protein and 2 μL of the precipitating agent were mixed
and placed on a siliconized coverslip over 500 μL of the
precipitating agent. Showers of small crystals of the GWT-f3
(12 mg/mL) variant were obtained using PEG MME 5000 as a
precipitant. The small crystals were crushed, serially diluted in a
stabilizing solution [24% PEG MME 5000, 4% dioxane, 1.0
v/Et = (kcat[A])/(Km + [A])
(1)
where v is the initial velocity, kcat is the turnover number, [A] is
the substrate concentration, Et is the enzyme concentration,
and Km is the Michaelis constant.
Kinetic constants for sarin (GB), soman (GD), and
cyclosarin (GF) were determined by monitoring the release
of free fluoride at 25 °C in 50 mM bis-tris-propane buffer (pH
7.2) using a fluoride electrode. Initial screenings were
6466
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
6467
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
conducted using a single fixed substrate concentration of 3.0
mM. Kinetic constants were determined for those mutants
showing the highest specific activity in the initial screenings.
Stereospecificity for hydrolysis of nerve agents was obtained
by following the complete hydrolysis of 0.5 mM racemic
mixtures of GB or GF. Reactions were conducted in 50 mM
bis-tris-propane buffer (pH 7.2) and followed by the release of
fluoride. Substantial stereospecificity was observed as biphasic
curves. Complementation assays were used to determine the
stereopreference for variants by mixing equal units of the
variant being tested with a variant with a known stereo-
preference. Variants with the same preference display biphasic
curves when mixed, while variants of opposite preference
complement each other's slow phase resulting in a single
hydrolytic phase being observed. The enantiomeric preference
for GB was determined by the ability of each variant to
complement the hydrolysis by the YT variant. The enantio-
meric preference for variants with GF was determined by the
ability to complement the hydrolysis catalyzed by GWT. The
enantiomeric preference of the GWT variant for GF was
previously confirmed by polarimetry.9
Figure 1. Screening of the M317X mutant library against SP-5 using
GWT-d1 as the parental template. The light green, purple, and dark
blue bars represent the relative catalytic activities of the GWT-d1,
GWT-f1, and GWT-d1-M317F mutants, respectively. Those mutants
represented by the gray bars were not characterized or sequenced.
RESULTS
■
Expression of PTE with K185R and I274N Mutations.
The K185R and I274N mutations were added to the parental
GWT mutant of PTE (GWT-d1). The net level of expression
of soluble protein for the GWT-d1 mutant was greater than
that for GWT, and approximately 10-fold more protein could
be obtained following purification (data not shown). The
addition of the K185R and I274N mutations to PTE variants
helped to increase the levels of expression and protein yields by
2−10-fold in each case.
expression of PTE.13 This mutant was denoted as GWT-d2 and
shown to have better protein expression levels and a higher
specific activity toward the hydrolysis of SPSC-4 and SPRC-4
than the GWT-d1 parent.
Double-substitution libraries that randomize the residues
close to the substrate binding pocket were constructed. The
I255X/W302X and C59X/S61X libraries were constructed
using the GWT-d2 mutant as the template. For each double-
substitution library, approximately 600 colonies were selected
and screened with the two SP-enantiomers of 4. From this
screen, a mutant was identified that had more activity for the
hydrolysis of SPSC-4 and SPRC-4. This mutant, designated
GWT-d3, contained a threonine substitution for Ser-61.
Coexpression of Phosphotriesterase and Phospho-
diesterase. Mutant PTE libraries were coexpressed with a
phosphodiesterase capable of hydrolyzing the reaction product
to methylphosphonate,19 and this compound is capable of
supporting bacterial growth in a phosphate-free medium
(Scheme 5).29,30 The GWT-f1 mutant was partially randomized
at six sites simultaneously. The total library contained 1.9 × 105
potential variants. Eight colonies from this library were selected
to verify that the targeted sites were randomized (data not
shown). The PTE/GpdQ-pETDuet plasmid library was
transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3) cells. Approximately 5.8
× 105 CFU were plated on phosphate-free minimal medium
with 1 mM SP-5 as the sole phosphorus source. The colonies
that contained beneficial mutations for the hydrolysis of SP-5
were identified as being larger in size than a background colony
of the parent GWT-f1 mutant. Approximately 30 of these
colonies were selected for growth in 96-well blocks and
subsequently assayed for catalytic activity with SP-5. The
screening of the partially randomized multisite library with SP-5
is shown in Figure 2a. The first nine samples include the empty
vector control, wild-type PTE, and the GWT-f1 parent. A single
variant was found to have more activity than the GWT-f1
parent. This mutant (GWT-f3) contained three additional
changes in the amino acid sequence: I106C, F132I, and L271I.
Screening Single- and Double-Substitution Libraries
with SP-5. The GWT mutant was previously shown to have the
highest activity for the hydrolysis of the toxic SP-enatiomers of
4 and 5.5 Mutant libraries were constructed using GWT-d1 as
the starting template to identify more active PTE variants for
the hydrolysis of SP-5. Nine amino acid residues in the substrate
binding pocket were considered as potential “hot spots” for the
construction of these PTE libraries. The single-substitution
library M317X was constructed first, followed by four double-
substitution libraries (W131X/F132X, F306X/Y309X, S308X/
Y309X, and I106X/Y308X). Approximately 60 colonies from
the M317X library and ∼550 colonies from each of the double-
substitution libraries were picked and subsequently screened
with SP-5.
The variants with catalytic activities higher than background
from the first round of screening were isolated and then
rescreened with the same substrate. No improvement in the
hydrolysis of SP-5 was found in the double-substitution
libraries, W131X/F132X, F306X/Y309X, S308X/Y309X, and
I106X/Y308X. Figure 1 illustrates the screening of the M317X
single-substitution library. The best mutant identified in this
screen contained a leucine substitution for Met-317 and is
denoted GWT-f1.
Screening Double-Substitution Libraries with SP-
Enantiomers of 4. Twelve amino acid residues in the
substrate binding pocket were chosen for double-substitution
libraries using the GWT-d1 mutant as the starting template.
The W131X/F132X, F306X/Y309X, S308X/Y309X, and
I106X/Y308X libraries were screened with SPSC-4 and SPRC-
4, but enhanced variants were not identified. The A80V
mutation was added to GWT-d1 to improve the net protein
6468
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
Scheme 5
empty vector, wild-type PTE, GWT-f3, GWT-f3-G129D,
GWT-f3-I288F, and GWT-f3-H254W. The new variant,
GWT-f5, contained a single mutation, relative to GWT-f4, at
Arg-67 with a change to histidine.
Kinetic Properties of the PTE Mutants. The kinetic
parameters of the purified wild-type PTE and its mutants with
the entire set of chiral organophosphonate compounds shown
in Scheme 2 are provided in Tables 3 and 4. The best mutant
(based on the value of kcat/Km) for the hydrolysis of SP-1 is
QFRN (kcat/Km = 8.0 × 106 M−1 s−1). This is also the best
mutant for the hydrolysis of SP-2 (kcat/Km = 1.6 × 106 M−1 s−1).
For the hydrolysis of SP-3, the best mutant identified to date is
GWT-f4 (kcat/Km = 2.3 × 106 M−1 s−1). For the two soman
analogues (SPSC-4 and SPRC-4), the best mutant is GWT-d3
(kcat/Km = 8.7 × 104 and 1.1 × 104 M−1 s−1, respectively).
GWT-f5 is the best mutant for the hydrolysis of the cyclosarin
analogue, SP-5 (kcat/Km = 3.2 × 105 M−1 s−1). The outline for
the discovery of PTE variants with enhanced activity for the
hydrolysis of the SP-enantiomers of compounds 4 and 5 by
directed evolution is shown in Figure 3.
Structural Analysis of Enhanced Mutants. The three-
dimensional structures of RN, QF-RN, GWT-d2, GWT-d3, and
GWT-f5 were determined. The backbone conformations of the
residues in these proteins are quite similar to one another.
Superposition of QF-RN, GWT-d3, and GWT-f5 with wild-
type PTE (PDB entry 1HZY) provides Cα atom rmsd values of
0.37, 0.38, and 0.71 Å, respectively. The locations of the
mutations within QF-RN, GWT-d3, and GWT-f5 are high-
lighted in Figure 4. The K185R and I274N mutations are on
the surface of the protein. Arg-185 extends outward from α-
helix 4, and Asn-274 is positioned in loop 7. The arginine in the
K185R mutation forms hydrogen bond interactions with Ser-
218 and Glu-219 (Figure 5A). In GWT-d3, the distance
between Nω of Arg-185 and the nearest carboxylate oxygen of
Glu-219 is 2.8 Å, whereas the distance to the hydroxyl group of
Ser-218 is 3.0 Å. The I274N mutation changes a hydrophobic
residue for a hydrophilic group. In GWT-d3, the carboxamide
group of Asn-274 forms a hydrogen bond interaction with the
main chain amide group of itself and an additional hydrogen
bond with the side chain carboxylate of Glu-263 (Figure 5B).
The mutation of Ala-80 to valine does not alter the orientation
of the side chain or backbone. However, the side chain of the
neighboring Lys-77 within GWT-f5 and GWT-d3 is displaced
up to 5.3 Å relative to the parental GWT structure (PDB
entries 1P6B and 1P6C, respectively). This movement
facilitates a hydrogen bond interaction between Lys-77 and
Glu-81 (Figure 5C). The R67H mutation in GWT-f5 is
positioned at the interface of two subunits. In the parental
structure, the arginines from different subunits appear to form a
hydrogen bond interaction with each other (3.1 Å). In the
structure of GWT-f5, there is an imidazole from solvent that is
Figure 2. (a) Screening of the six-site randomized library using GWT-
f1 as the parental template with SP-5. The light green and red bars
represent the relative catalytic activities of the GWT-f1 and GWT-f3
mutants, respectively. (b) Screening of the error-prone PCR library
using GWT-f4 as the parental template with SP-5. The light green,
cyan, dark blue, yellow, and red bars represent the relative catalytic
activities of the GWT-f4, GWT-f4-G129D, GWT-f4-I228F, GWT-f4-
G254W, and GWT-f5 mutants, respectively.
The A80V mutation was added to the GWT-f3 mutant to
create the GWT-f4 variant.
The GWT-f4 mutant served as the template for error-prone
PCR (epPCR). Random mutagenesis of the GWT-f4 gene was
conducted using the Mutazyme II DNA polymerase. Ten
colonies from this library were selected to establish an average
mutation rate of ∼1.5 mutations/1000 bp. The epPCR-
generated PTE/GpdQ-pETDuet library was transformed into
E. coli BL21(DE3). Approximately 6 × 105 CFU were plated on
phosphate-free minimal medium plates with 1 mM SP-5 as the
sole phosphorus source. Colonies larger in size than the
parental strain (GWT-f4) were assayed with SP-5, and the
results are shown in Figure 2b. The first 20 samples include the
6469
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
a
Table 3. Values of kcat (s−1) for Wild-Type PTE and Its Mutants
WT
QF
YT
RN
QFRN
YTRN
GWT GWT-d1 GWT-d2 GWT-d3 GWT-f1 GWT-f2 GWT-f3 GWT-f4 GWT-f5
RP-1
1.5e2
6.7e2
1.0e2
4.0e1
9.3e1
2.2e1
3.4e0
1.7e2
3.2e1
4.8e1
7.2e0
7.0e1
6.3e0
7.3e0
4.1e2
1.8e1
3.7e2
5.1e1
1.0e2
9.0e1
8.2e2
6.6e1
2.0e1
4.8e1
1.6e1
2.0e2
4.5e1
6.6e1
1.1e1
1.3e2
1.3e1
1.1e0
1.2e1
1.0e3
2.0e1
7.0e2
4.3e1
7.7e2
1.4e1
1.9e2
ND
1.4e1
2.9e2
2.1e1
8.6e1
8.0e0
5.5e1
2.4e0
1.4e0
1.4e1
6.5e0
ND
1.3e1
5.3e2
2.2e1
1.3e2
1.3e1
5.8e1
4.3e0
ND
9.6e0
4.0e2
5.9e1
2.0e2
2.2e1
6.0e1
ND
1.3e1
3.6e2
9.8e0
3.0e2
2.9e1
8.0e1
4.0e0
8.9e−1
3.1e1
5.7e1
ND
2.2e2
4.4e2
3.3e1
2.3e2
3.4e1
8.8e1
ND
7.9e1
6.6e2
ND
ND
ND
SP-1
1.1e3
ND
7.2e2
ND
RP-2
SP-2
9.2e1
2.0e1
5.0e1
6.2e2
1.3e1
1.4e2
ND
1.1e3
1.5e1
2.5e2
ND
5.9e2
ND
RP-3
SP-3
1.8e2
2.9e0
1.9e0
1.7e1
6.1e0
3.3e0
1.2e2
RPRC-4
RPSC-4
SPRC-4
SPSC-4
RP-5
5.5e−1 4.1e−1 4.5e0
5.8e−1 2.0e0
4.5e−1 1.7e−1 ND
7.7e−1 6.3e−1 6.3e0
1.6e−2 3.3e−1 2.1e0
4.2e−1 3.3e−1 1.9e0
1.3e0
2.1e−1
1.2e1
ND
1.9e0
3.1e1
8.1e0
ND
ND
ND
1.2e0
5.e-1
2.2e1
4.3e0
3.2e0
1.7e1
5.0e1
1.2e1
9.7e−1
4.7e1
6.4e1
2.4e1
ND
1.6e1
4.2e0
2.2e0
4.4e1
4.7e1
5.6e0
ND
ND
2.9e0
ND
3.8e1
5.9e0
2.5e1
8.1e−1
1.9e1
SP-5
ND
ND
5.1e0
1.3e−1 4.1e−1 7.2e0
3.1e0
4.4e1
2.6e1
3.1e1
1.2e2
a
The standard errors, from fits of the data to eq 1, are less than 20% of the stated values. ND, not determined.
a
Table 4. Values of kcat/Km (M−1 s−1) for Wild-Type PTE and Its Mutants
WT
QF
YT
RN
QFRN YTRN
GWT GWT-d1 GWT-d2 GWT-d3 GWT-f1 GWT-f2 GWT-f3 GWT-f4 GWT-f5
RP-1
4.9e5
1.2e6
5.8e5
2.7e4
8.5e5
3.4e4
1.3e3
2.0e2
1.1e2
3.2e0
1.6e4
2.1e1
1.5e6
7.1e6
8.2e5
1.2e6
3.1e5
1.6e6
1.9e2
5.5e1
1.6e3
6.2e1
5.2e3
3.3e2
2.4e3
1.6e5
2.5e3
1.1e5
1.3e4
7.3e4
5.8e1
1.6e1
1.8e3
2.5e2
1.9e3
5.8e3
1.7e5
7.4e5
2.8e5
2.6e4
4.0e5
4.8e4
3.0e3
4.6e2
2.3e2
1.5e1
1.7e4
2.8e1
3.0e6
8.0e6
1.6e6
1.6e6
1.3e6
1.4e6
2.8e2
7.4e1
1.8e3
9.6e1
9.0e3
3.6e2
4.3e3
1.7e5
3.4e3
1.4e5
1.3e4
3.9e5
3.0e2
1.9e2
1.2e3
4.8e2
3.5e3
1.4e4
1.5e3
2.2e5
1.8e3
5.9e4
1.5e3
1.8e5
2.2e2
1.3e2
8.1e3
1.7e3
2.5e2
2.8e4
2.5e3
1.9e5
3.5e3
8.6e4
3.0e3
5.0e5
6.8e2
1.2e2
2.3e4
4.2e3
3.0e2
1.0e4
6.1e3
1.2e6
6.0e3
4.6e5
5.4e3
1.1e6
6.4e2
1.5e2
6.0e4
8.1e3
5.4e2
5.2e4
9.1e3
1.2e6
8.1e3
4.3e5
7.6e3
1.2e6
5.6e2
1.4e2
8.7e4
1.1e4
5.5e2
1.5e5
1.0e5
7.2e5
1.4e4
1.4e5
3.3e3
6.7e5
4.2e2
2.1e2
1.3e4
2.6e3
6.0e2
3.9e4
5.2e4
6.2e5
4.7e3
1.9e5
3.8e3
1.0e6
4.1e2
1.4 e2
1.4e4
2.5e3
8.6e2
7.7e4
6.1e3
1.3e5
3.4e3
1.2e5
8.2e2
1.1e6
6.3e2
1.4e2
3.2e3
1.5e3
4.5e2
1.2e5
7.2e3
2.3e5
4.2e3
2.4e5
2.6e3
2.3e6
7.9e2
2.0e2
5.0e3
1.5e3
5.1e2
2.5e5
8.5e3
2.9e5
6.1e3
4.2e5
2.2e3
1.9e6
8.5e2
1.8e2
3.8e3
1.2e3
7.7e2
3.2e5
SP-1
RP-2
SP-2
RP-3
SP-3
RPRC-4
RPSC-4
SPRC-4
SPSC-4
RP-5
SP-5
a
The standard errors, from fits of the data to eq 1, are less than 20% of the stated values.
positioned between the side chains of the two histidine residues
(Figure 5D).
substrate (Table 5). The YT mutant was very active with all
three substrates, and the YT-RN mutant had higher activity
than the wild type with GD. Therefore, kinetic constants were
determined for these enzyme−substrate combinations (Table
6). The stereospecificity of variants was determined by
following the fluoride released during the complete hydrolysis
of GB or GF using the 0.5 mM racemic substrate. Substantial
differences in the rates for the individual enantiomers result in
biphasic curves (data not shown). The specificity of GWT
toward GF is known from polarimetry experiments,9 while the
stereopreference of the remaining variants was determined by
the ability of the variant to complement the slow phase in the
GWT-catalyzed reaction (Table 5). YT has the same
stereopreference as GWT for GF and has previously been
shown to have the same preference as GWT for GD.5 The
stereopreference for the variants toward GB was determined by
the ability to complement the slow phase in the YT-catalyzed
reaction (Table 5).
Several changes in structure are observed in GWT-d3
without bound ligands compared to the structures of GWT-
d3 complexed with compound 7 and GWT (PDB entries 1P6B
and 1P6C, respectively). The indole ring of Trp-257 moves 1.2
Å closer to the glycine at position 254; the phenyl group of
Phe-306 is 0.98 Å closer to the binuclear metal center, and Thr-
303 is twisted with the side chain hydroxyl group pointing
inward toward the binding pocket surface. However, there are
no major differences in the active site residues in the GWT-d3
structure complexed with compound 7 and GWT.
The amino acid residues in the binding pocket of GWT-f5
with compounds 6 and 7 exhibit several alterations compared
to the parental GWT structure (PDB entries 1P6B and 1P6C,
respectively). The indole ring of Trp-257 moves 2.0 Å closer to
the leucine at residue position 317 because more space is
provided by the shorter leucine side chain than by methionine.
The indole ring of Trp-131 is displaced around 1.0 Å, and the
mutation of residue 132 shifts the main chain 1.1 Å (Figure
6A). In a comparison of the structures of GWT-f5 with
compounds 6 and 7, the side chains of the isoleucine at
position 271 are twisted; Cδ and Cγ2 of Ile-271 are displaced 1.5
and 3.0 Å, respectively. The large O-cyclohexyl group of
compound 7 is pointed toward the enlarged small pocket, and
the small methyl group is between the smaller large pocket and
the leaving group pocket.
DISCUSSION
■
Wild-type PTE catalyzes the hydrolysis of the insecticide
paraoxon with kinetic constants that approach values of ∼104
s−1 and ∼108 M−1 s−1 for kcat and kcat/Km, respectively.21
However, the catalytic efficiency of the wild-type enzyme for
the hydrolysis of organophosphorus nerve agents is significantly
lower, and the enzyme prefers the less toxic RP-enantiomers
relative to the more toxic SP-enantiomers.5 The degree of
stereoselectivity exhibited by the wild-type enzyme for chiral
substrates is dependent to a significant extent on the size of the
substituents attached to the central phosphorus core.6 The QF
Screening and Kinetic Analysis of Wild-Type and
Mutant Enzymes on GB, GD, and GF. For the purposes of
initial screening, specific activities were determined with 3 mM
6470
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
Figure 3. Outline of the parental lineage for the construction of
mutants of PTE that are enhanced for the hydrolysis of SP-4 and SP-5.
mutant was shown previously to exhibit the highest activity
toward the more toxic SP-enantiomers of compounds 1−3,
which are analogues of VX, GB, and VR, respectively.5 The
GWT mutant possessed the highest hydrolytic activity toward
the more toxic SP-enantiomers of compounds 4 and 5, which
are analogues of soman and cyclosarin, respectively.5 These
mutants were selected for further modification in an attempt to
increase the catalytic activity of PTE through directed
evolution.
The introduction of the K185R and I274N modifications
into PTE was initiated in an attempt to increase net protein
expression levels and solubility. These two mutations also
enhanced the hydrolytic activity for some of the compounds
presented in Scheme 2. The QF-RN mutant has higher values
of kcat and kcat/Km for most of the compounds tested, relative to
those of the parent QF mutant. QF-RN has the best activity
toward SP-1 and SP-2, analogues of VX and sarin, respectively.
Overall, the values of kcat/Km for these two compounds are 7-
and 60-fold higher, respectively, than that of wild-type PTE,
and the absolute magnitude of kcat/Km exceeds 106 M−1 s−1 for
each compound.
An in vitro screening strategy was utilized to identify mutants
that are further optimized starting from the GWT-d1 parent.
The GWT-f1 enzyme contains an additional M317L mutation
and is ∼4-fold better in terms of kcat/Km than the GWT-d1
mutant for the hydrolysis of SP-5 and ∼2000-fold better than
wild-type PTE. The GWT-f1 mutant was subsequently
Figure 4. Localization of the mutations in QFRN (A), GWT-d3 (B),
and GWT-f5 (C). The mutated residues are colored green.
coexpressed with GpdQ in E. coli cells. These cells can grow
in a phosphate-free minimal medium with a 165 h lag phase
using SP-5 as the sole phosphorus source. Therefore, the in vivo
selection method is practical when SP-5 is used to screen large
mutant libraries. GWT-f3 was identified from a mutant library
containing six partially randomized residues within the active
site of PTE. The additional changes to the protein sequence
included I106C, F132I, and L271I. GWT-f3 was ∼3-fold better
in terms of kcat/Km than the GWT-f1 parent and ∼6000-fold
better than wild-type PTE for the hydrolysis of SP-5.
The A80V mutation was added to GWT-f3 to create the
GWT-f4 mutant. This change increased the catalytic efficiency
for the hydrolysis of SP-5 ∼2-fold. The GWT-f4 mutant was
subjected to error-prone PCR mutagenesis, and GWT-f5 with
6471
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
Table 5. Activity of Wild-Type and Mutant Enzymes with
a
Racemic G-Agents
b
b
GB preferred
GF preferred
enzyme
GB
GD
GF
enantiomer
enantiomer
c
WT
303
843
263
32
14
212
115
363
240
116
41
NA
RP
SP
SP
YT
SP
SP
YT-RN
QF-RN
GWT
c
c
1.0
NA
NA
20
2.0
2.0
1.0
8
44
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
GWT-d1
GWT-d2
GWT-d3
GWT-f3
GWT-f5
57
7
52
211
35
48
142
240
10
19
94
59
SP
b
a
In micromoles per minute per milligram of protein. Determined
with 0.5 mM racemic substrate. No significant stereopreference under
c
these conditions.
Table 6. Kinetic Constants for Hydrolysis of GB, GD, and
a
GF
enzyme
substrate
kcat (s−1
430 50
12
)
Km (μM)
kcat/Km (M−1 s−1
)
Figure 5. Structural perturbations at the mutated sites in GWT-d3 and
GWT-f5. (A) The parent enzyme (GWT) in the region of Lys-185 is
colored yellow and the mutant, GWT-d3, cyan. (B) The parent
enzyme (GWT) in the region of I274 is colored yellow and the
mutant, GWT-d3, cyan. (C) The parent enzyme (GWT) in the region
of Ala-80 is colored yellow and the mutant, GWT-f5, cyan. (D) The
parent enzyme (GWT) in the region of Arg-67 is colored yellow and
the mutant, GWT-f5, green. An imidazole is found in a π-stacking
arrangement between the two histidine residues at the subunit
interface.
WT
WT
WT
YT
GB
GD
GF
GB
GD
GF
GD
1800 400
800 200
900 300
260 50
460 90
170 50
300 100
2.4 (0.6) × 105
1.5 (0.4) × 104
2.3 (0.8) × 105
2.0 (0.4) × 106
5 (1) × 105
8 (2) × 105
4 (2) × 105
1
210 30
520 30
240 20
130 10
100 10
YT
YT
YTRN
a
Racemic mixtures of GB, GD, and GF were used for these
measurements.
enzyme. GWT-f5 is also the best mutant for the hydrolysis of
SP-3, the analogue of the nerve agent VR. For this compound,
the value of kcat/Km is ∼2 × 106 M−1 s−1 and the rate
enhancement, relative to that of the wild-type enzyme, is
increased by nearly 2 orders of magnitude.
We have previously shown that the GpdQ diesterase is
unable to hydrolyze the product produced by the action of PTE
on SPSC-4 and SPRC-4, analogues of the two most toxic
diastereomers of soman.21,31 Therefore, the selection strategy
for the identification of beneficial mutations for the hydrolysis
of these compounds could not be utilized. Nevertheless,
utilization of the in vitro screening approach yielded mutants
with substantially enhanced kinetic constants. GWT was
previously identified as being a good catalyst for the hydrolysis
of the two SP-diastereomers of compound 4. The addition of
the RN mutations to this variant gave GWT-d1. These changes
enhanced the values of kcat/Km by a factor of ∼3 for the
hydrolysis of each compound relative to that of GWT. The
addition of the A80V mutation to GWT-d1 further enhanced
the hydrolysis rates an additional 2−3-fold. Finally, the GWT-
d2 mutant was modified with two double-substitution libraries,
and the S61T change was identified via screening of individual
colonies. GWT-d3 is nominally better than GWT-d2 for the
hydrolysis of the SP-diastereomers of compound 4. Overall,
GWT-d2 is enhanced ∼800-fold, relative to the wild-type
enzyme, for the hydrolysis of SPRC-4 and ∼3500-fold for the
hydrolysis of SPSC-4. The absolute values of kcat/Km for the
hydrolysis for SPRC-4 are ∼105 and 104 M−1 s−1 for the
hydrolysis of SPSC-4.
Figure 6. Substrate binding pocket of GWT-d3 (A) and GWT-f5 (B)
complexed with compound 7.
an R67H substitution was identified using the selection strategy
in phosphate-free medium with SP-5 as the sole phosphorus
source. GWT-f5 was ∼50% more active for the hydrolysis of SP-
5 than the parent enzyme, and the value of kcat/Km was ∼3 ×
105 M−1 s−1. This is the best mutant for the hydrolysis of the
GF analogue, and it is ∼15000-fold better than the wild-type
While analogues 1−5 contain the authentic chiral centers
seen in the nerve agents, the leaving groups are very different,
6472
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
Figure 7. Bar graphs illustrating enhanced values for kcat/Km (M−1 s−1) for the SP-enantiomer of compounds 1 (a), 2 (b), 3 (c), SPRC-4 (d), SPSC-4
(e), and 5 (f) as catalyzed by the wild-type and engineered mutants of PTE.
making verification of the analogue data important. Variant
GWT-d3 was developed with the GD analogue (4) and displays
a 4-fold improvement over the GWT parent with authentic GD.
This correlates well with the 6-fold improvement predicted by
the analogue. It is important to note that the wild-type enzyme
hydrolyzes the toxic SPSC-enantiomer of GD more than 15-fold
slower than the other three enantiomers, while GWT
hydrolyzes this enantiomer with a rate similar to that of the
SPRC-enatiomer.5 The measured rate of hydrolysis of racemic
GD is relatively low, but the enhancements in the GWT-d3
variant, which has the same stereoselectivity profile as GWT,
represent a >60-fold improvement against the toxic enan-
tiomers of GD. Similarly, the variants that were developed for
the hydrolysis of GF (GWT-f3 and GWT-f5) are specific for
the hydrolysis of the SP-enantiomer. Wild-type PTE is known
to hydrolyze the SP-enantiomer ∼20-fold slower than the RP-
enantiomer, while the GWT variant prefers the SP-enantiomer
by 6-fold.9 The absolute value of the measured activity against
the racemic GF is lower for the improved variants, but when
the switch in specificity is taken into account, the activity
against the SP-enantiomer of GF improved ∼3-fold for GWT
and GWT-f5 and ∼5-fold for the GWT-f3 variant as predicted
from the analogue studies.
seen for both nerve agents. Similarly, the GWT-d2 variant is 5-
fold better than GWT against GF and, when the different
stereopreference is taken into account, >1 order of magnitude
better than the wild type for the hydrolysis of the SP-
enantiomer. The best variant identified to date against GB, GD,
and GF is the YT variant with kcat/Km values of 2.0 × 106, 5 ×
105, and 8 × 105 M−1 s−1, respectively. Not only is this variant
significantly improved over wild-type PTE for all of the nerve
agents, it also prefers the more toxic SP-enantiomers.
The other enzymes that are known to hydrolyze the G-type
nerve agents, organophosphorus acid anhydrolase (OPAA),
diisopropylfluorophosphatase (DFPase), and human para-
oxonase 1 (hPON1), have catalytic efficiencies that lag behind
that of the YT variant of PTE. The G-agents are hydrolyzed by
OPAA with high kcat values of ∼600 s−1 (GB), 3100 s−1 (GD),
and 1700 s−1 (GF), but the Km values for all of the G-agents are
estimated to be between 1 and 10 mM; it is known that OPAA
is selective for the less toxic RP-enantiomers of the G-
agents.32−34 The YT mutant of PTE has an ∼1 order of
magnitude better catalytic efficiency against GB. Similarly, the
high Km values of OPAA for GD and GF and the known
preference for the hydrolysis of the RP-enantiomers make the
activity of the YT variant active substantially better against the
more toxic SP-enantiomers.
The data collected with authentic nerve agents did contain
some unexpected results. Variants GWT-f3 and GWT-f5 were
substantially enhanced versus GWT for the hydrolysis of both
GB and GD with a nearly 1 order of magnitude improvement
Variants optimized for the SP-enantiomers of the G-agents
have been reported for both DFPase and hPON1. The
improved hPON1 variant shows little stereoselectivity against
6473
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
GB, but the reported kcat/Km value of 5 × 103 M−1 s−1 is
significantly below that of the YT variant.35 The best DFPase
variant is selective for the SP-enantiomer of GB and has a kcat/
Km value of 2.3 × 105 M−1 s−1, but the Km is greater than 10
mM.36 The optimized DPFase variants prefer the SP-
enantiomers of GD and GF, but the Km values are in excess
of 10 mM. For GF, the best variant of DFPase has a kcat/Km
value of 2.3 × 105 M−1 s−1, which is somewhat below that
measured for the YT variant.36 The optimized hPON1 variant
has kcat/Km values for the two SP-enantiomers of GD of 1.2 ×
105 and 1 × 104 M−1 s−1, both of which are below the values
measured for the YT variant of PTE, and the kcat/Km value for
SP-GF of 2.9 × 105 M−1 s−1 is ∼2.5-fold lower than that of the
YT variant.35
The X-ray crystal structures of QF-RN, GWT-d3, and GWT-
f5 show that the K185R and I274N mutations provide
additional hydrogen bonding interactions with adjacent amino
acid resides. Molecular modeling of the RN mutations
predicted that Glu-219 and Glu-181 could form hydrogen
bonds with the newly introduced Arg-185 and that Glu-263
could potentially form a hydrogen bond with the newly
introduced Asn-274 residue.28 The crystal structures of QF-RN,
GWT-d3, and GWT-f5 demonstrated that Ser-218 can also
form hydrogen bond with Arg-185. These crystal structures
demonstrate that the K185R and I274N mutations provide
more hydrogen bonding interactions with neighboring amino
acid residues that could enhance the conformational stability. In
the GWT-d3 and GWT-f5 structures with compound 7, the
large cyclohexyl group of compound 7 points toward the
enlarged small pocket. This suggests that the more toxic SP-
diastereomers of compounds 1−5 may enter active site of PTE
with the larger substituents of these compounds pointing
toward the enlarged small pocket and preferentially hydrolyzed
with higher activities.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
■
Corresponding Author
*F.M.R.: telephone, (979) 845-3373; fax, (979) 845-9452; e-
mail, raushel@tamu.edu. D.P.B.: telephone, (979) 458-0735;
fax, (979) 845-4719; e-mail, barondeau@chem.tamu.eu.
Funding
This work was supported in part by the NIH (GM 68550).
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
ABBREVIATIONS
■
PTE, phosphotriesterase; GpdQ, glycerophosphodiesterase;
OpdA, organophosphate degrading enzyme from A. radiobacter;
PEG MME, polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether; rmsd, root-
mean-square deviation.
REFERENCES
■
(1) Dumas, D. P., Durst, H. D., Landis, W. G., Raushel, F. M., and
Wild, J. R. (1990) Inactivation of organophosphorus nerve agents by
the phosphotriesterase from Pseudomonas diminuta. Arch. Biochem.
Biophys. 277, 155−159.
(2) Lai, K., Grimsley, J. K., Kuhlmann, B. D., Scapozza, L., Harvey, S.
P., DeFrank, J. J., Kolakowski, J. E., and Wild, J. R. (1996) Rational
enzyme design: Computer modeling and site-directed mutagenesis for
the modification of catalytic specificity in organophosphorus hydro-
lase. Chimia 50, 430−431.
(3) Raveh, L., Segall, Y., Leader, H., Rothschild, N., Levanon, D.,
Henis, Y., and Ashani, Y. (1992) Protection against tabun toxicity in
mice by prophylaxis with an enzyme hydrolyzing organophosphate
esters. Biochem. Pharmacol. 22, 397−400.
(4) Caldwell, S. R., Newcomb, J. R., Schlecht, K. A., and Raushel, F.
M. (1991) Limits of diffusion in the hydrolysis of substrates by the
phosphotriesterase from Pseudomonas diminuta. Biochemistry 30,
7438−7444.
Given the dramatic changes in activity, it is somewhat
surprising that no major structural changes to the active site are
observed in the improved variants. The majority of changes to
active site residues involve the movement of side chains by only
1−2 Å. The slight changes to the protein scaffold caused by the
new hydrogen bonding networks and alterations to the active
site combine to bring about dramatic changes in the activity
and stereoselectivity. The diminutive nature of these changes
makes them hard to predict, but the strategy outlined in Figure
3 has allowed significantly improved variants to be identified.
This combination of site-directed mutagenesis, active site
library screening, and in vivo selection has allowed the
development of variants with altered stereoselectivity and rate
enhancements for hydrolysis of compounds 1−5. GWT from
the first generation of mutants was demonstrated to have an
inverted stereoselectivity and enhanced catalytic activity toward
the more toxic SP-enantiomers of the soman and cyclosarin
analogues.5 The structural modifications to GWT within the
substrate binding pocket, surface, and dimer interface have
substantially enhanced substrate binding and catalytic turnover.
The changes in the kcat/Km values of the SP-enantiomers of the
organophosphonates are illustrated in Figure 7.
(5) Tsai, P. C., Bigley, A., Li, Y., Ghanem, E., Cadieux, C. L., Kasten,
S. A., Reeves, T. E., Cerasoli, D. M., and Raushel, F. M. (2010)
Stereoselective hydrolysis of organophosphate nerve agents by the
bacterial phosphotriesterase. Biochemistry 49, 7978−7987.
(6) Chen-Goodspeed, M., Sogorb, M. A., Wu, F., Hong, S. B., and
Raushel, F. M. (2001) Structural determinants of the substrate and
stereochemical specificity of phosphotriesterase. Biochemistry 40,
1325−1331.
(7) Chen-Goodspeed, M., Sogorb, M. A., Wu, F., and Raushel, F. M.
(2001) Enhancement, relaxation, and reversal of the stereoselectivity
for phosphotriesterase by rational evolution of active site residues.
Biochemistry 40, 1332−1339.
(8) Nowlan, C., Li, Y., Hermann, J. C., Evans, T., Carpenter, J.,
Ghanem, E., Shoichet, B. K., and Raushel, F. M. (2006) Resolution of
chiral phosphate, phosphonate, and phosphinate esters by an
enantioselective enzyme library. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128, 15892−15902.
(9) Harvey, S. P., Kolakowski, J. E., Chen, T. C., Rastogi, V. K., Reiff,
L. P., DeFrank, J. J., Raushel, F. M., and Hill, C. (2005)
Stereospecificity in the enzymatic hydrolysis of cyclosarin (GF).
Enzyme Microb. Technol. 37, 547−555.
(10) Benschop, H. P., and Dejong, L. P. A. (1988) Nerve Agent
Stereoisomers: Analysis, Isolation, and Toxicology. Acc. Chem. Res. 21,
368−374.
(11) Hill, C. M., Li, W. S., Thoden, J. B., Holden, H. M., and Raushel,
F. M. (2003) Enhanced degradation of chemical warfare agents
through molecular engineering of the phosphotriesterase active site. J.
Am. Chem. Soc. 125, 8990−8991.
(12) Li, W. S., Lum, K. T., Chen-Goodspeed, M., Sogorb, M. A., and
Raushel, F. M. (2001) Stereoselective detoxification of chiral sarin and
soman analogues by phosphotriesterase. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 9, 2083−
2091.
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
■
Accession Codes
The X-ray coordinates and structure factors for the PTE
mutants have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank: 3UR2,
3UPM, 3URA, 3URN, 3URB, 3URQ and 3UR5.
6474
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475

Biochemistry
Article
(13) Cho, C. M.-H., Mulchandani, A., and Chen, W. (2006)
Functional analysis of organophosphorus hydrolase variants with high
degradation activity towards organophosphate pesticides. Protein Eng.,
Des. Sel. 19, 99−105.
(14) Cho, C. M.-H., Mulchandani, A., and Chen, W. (2004) Altering
the substrate specificity of organophosphorus hydrolase for enhanced
hydrolysis of chlorpyrifos. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70, 4681−4685.
(15) Roodveldt, C., and Tawfik, D. S. (2005) Directed evolution of
phosphotriesterase from Pseudomonas diminuta for heterologous
expression in Escherichia coli results in stabilization of the metal-free
state. Protein Eng., Des. Sel. 18, 51−58.
(16) Yang, H., Carr, P. D., McLoughlin, S. Y., Liu, J. W., Horne, I.,
Qiu, X., Jeffries, C. M., Russell, R. J., Oakeshott, J. G., and Ollis, D. L.
(2003) Evolution of an organophosphate-degrading enzyme: A
comparison of natural and directed evolution. Protein Eng. 16, 135−
145.
(17) Reetz, M. T., Carballeira, J. D., and Vogel, A. (2006) Iterative
saturation mutagenesis on the basis of B factors as a strategy for
increasing protein thermostability. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 45, 7745−
7751.
(32) DeFrank, J. J., Beaudry, W. T., Cheng, T.-C., Harvey, S. P.,
Stroup, A. N., and Szafraniec, L. L. (1993) Screening of halophilic
bacteria and Alteromonas species for organophosphorus hydrolyzing
enzyme activity. Chem.-Biol. Interact. 87, 141−148.
(33) Cheng, T.-C., Liu, L., Wang, B., Wu, J., DeFrank, J. J., Anderson,
D. M., Rastogi, V. K., and Hamilton, A. B. (1997) Nucleotide sequence
of a gene encoding an organophosphorus nerve agent degrading
enzyme from Alteromonas haloplanktis. J. Ind. Microbiol. Technol. 18,
49−55.
(34) Hill, C. M., Li, W.-S., Cheng, T.-C., DeFrank, J. J., and Raushel,
F. M. (2001) Stereochemical specificity of organophosphorus acid
anhydrolase toward p-nitrophenyl analogs of soman and sarin. Bioorg.
Chem. 29, 27−35.
(35) Gupta, R. D., Goldsmith, M., Ashani, Y., Simo, Y., Mullokandov,
G., Bar, H., Ben-David, M., Leader, H., Margalit, R., Silman, I.,
Sussman, J. L., and Tawfik, D. S. (2011) Directed evolution of
hydrolases for prevention of G-type nerve agent intoxication. Nat.
Chem. Biol. 7, 120−125.
(36) Melzer, M., Chen, J. C.-H., Heidenreich, A., Gab, J., Koller, M.,
Kehe, K., and Blum, M. M. (2009) Reversed enantioselectivity of
diisopropyl fluorophosphatase against organophosphorus nerve agents
by rational design. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131, 17226−17232.
(18) Machius, M., Declerck, N., Huber, R., and Wiegand, G. (2003)
Kinetic stabilization of Bacillus licheniformis α-amylase through
introduction of hydrophobic residues at the surface. J. Biol. Chem.
278, 11546−11553.
(19) Ghanem, E., Li, Y., Xu, C., and Raushel, F. M. (2007)
Characterization of a phosphodiesterase capable of hydrolyzing EA
2192, the most toxic degradation product of the nerve agent VX.
Biochemistry 46, 9032−9040.
(20) McLoughlin, S. Y., Jackson, C., Liu, J. W., and Ollis, D. L.
(2004) Growth of Escherichia coli coexpressing phosphotriesterase and
glycerophosphodiester phosphodiesterase, using paraoxon as the sole
phosphorus source. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 70, 404−412.
(21) Aubert, S. D., Li, Y., and Raushel, F. M. (2004) Mechanism for
the hydrolysis of organophosphates by the bacterial phosphotriester-
ase. Biochemistry 43, 5707−5715.
(22) Otwinowski, Z., and Minor, W. (1997) Processing of X-ray
diffraction data collected in oscillation mode. Methods Enzymol. 276,
307−326.
(23) McCoy, A. J., Grosse-Kunstleve, R. W., Adams, P. D., Winn, M.
D., Storoni, L. C., and Read, R. J. (2007) Phaser crystallographic
software. J. Appl. Crystallogr. 40, 658−674.
(24) Murshudov, G. N., Vagin, A. A., and Dodson, E. J. (1997)
Refinement of macromolecular structures by the maximum-likelihood
method. Acta Crystallogr. D53, 240−255.
(25) Collaborative Computational Project, Number 4 (1994) The
CCP4 suite: Programs for protein crystallography. Acta Crystallogr.
D50, 760−763.
(26) McRee, D. E. (1999) XtalView/Xfit: A Versatile Program for
Manipulating Atomic Coordinates and Electron Density. J. Struct. Biol.
125, 156−165.
(27) Brunger, A. T., Adams, P. D., Clore, G. M., DeLano, W. L.,
Gros, P., Grosse-Kunstleve, R. W., Jiang, J.-S., Kuszewski, J., Nilges, N.,
Pannu, N. S., Read, R. J., Rice, L. M., Simonson, T., and Warren, G. L.
(1998) Crystallographic and NMR system (CNS): A new software
system for macromolecular structure determination. Acta Crystallogr.
D54, 905−921.
(28) Bruns, C. M., Hubatsch, I., Ridderstrom, M., Mannervik, B., and
Tainer, J. A. (1999) Human glutathione transferase A4-4 crystal
structures and mutagenesis reveal the basis of high catalytic efficiency
with toxic lipid peroxidation products. J. Mol. Biol. 288, 427−439.
(29) Wanner, B. L. (1994) Molecular genetics of carbon-phosphorus
bond cleavage in bacteria. Biodegradation 5, 175−184.
(30) Kononova, S. V., and Nesmeyanova, M. A. (2002)
Phosphonates and their degradation by microorganisms. Biochemistry
(Moscow, Russ. Fed.) 67, 184−195.
(31) Benschop, H. P., Konings, C. A. G., Genderen, J. V., and
DeJong, L. P. A. (1984) Isolation, anticholinesterase properties, and
acute toxicity in mice of the four stereoisomers of the nerve agent
soman. Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 72, 61−74.
6475
dx.doi.org/10.1021/bi300811t | Biochemistry 2012, 51, 6463−6475