Cloning and characterization of a sulfonate/α-ketoglutarate dioxygenase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae open reading frame YLL057c is predicted to encode a gene product with 31.5% amino acid sequence identity to Escherichia coli taurine/alpha-ketoglutarate dioxygenase and 27% identity to Ralstonia eutropha TfdA, a herbicide-degrading enzyme. Purified recombinant yeast protein is shown to be an Fe(II)-dependent sulfonate/alpha-ketoglutarate dioxygenase, Although taurine is a poor substrate, a variety of other sulfonates are utilized, with the best natural substrates being isethionate and taurocholate, Disruption of the gene encoding this enzyme negatively affects the use of isethionate and taurine as sulfur sources by S. cerevisiae, providing strong evidence that YLL057c plays a role in sulfonate catabolism.