Modulation of the reactivity of the essential cysteine residue of betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase (BADH) catalyses the irreversible NAD(P)(+)-dependent oxidation of betaine aldehyde to glycine betaine. In the human opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa this reaction is an obligatory step in the assimilation of carbon and nitrogen when bacteria are growing in choline or choline precursors. As with every aldehyde dehydrogenase studied so far, BADH possesses an essential cysteine residue involved in the formation of the intermediate thiohemiacetal with the aldehyde substrate. We report here that the chemical modification of this residue is conveniently measured by the loss in enzyme activity, which allowed us to explore its reactivity in a pH range around neutrality. The pH dependence of the observed second-order rate constant of BADH inactivation by methyl methanethiosulphonate (MMTS) suggests that at low pH values the essential cysteine residue exists as thiolate by the formation of an ion pair with a positively charged residue. The estimated macroscopic pK values are 8.6 and 4.0 for the free and ion-pair-forming thiolate respectively. The reactivity towards MMTS of both thiolate forms is notably lower than that of model compounds of similar pK, suggesting a considerable steric inhibition by the structure of the protein. Binding of the dinucleotides rapidly induced a significant and transitory increment of thiolate reactivity, followed by a relatively slow change to an almost unreactive form. Thus it seems that to gain protection against oxidation without compromising catalytic efficiency, BADH from P. aeruginosa has evolved a complex and previously undescribed mechanism, involving several conformational rearrangements of the active site, to suit the reactivity of the essential thiol to the availability of coenzyme and substrate.