We proposed that the subset of JAMM domain proteins that contain a JAMM motif comprise a novel family of metallopeptidases (
Cope et al. 2002). To gain a clearer understanding of these putative enzymes—in particular the pertinent subunits of the proteasome lid and signalosome ()—we cloned and expressed in
Escherichia coli a variety of JAMM motif-containing proteins to find a suitable candidate for crystallographic analysis. The expression of all candidates except for AfJAMM led to insoluble aggregates. Unlike many JAMM proteins that contain an additional domain, the AfJAMM protein consists entirely of the JAMM domain. We were able to purify and crystallize native and selenomethionine-substituted AfJAMM; the latter was used for phasing by employing the multiwavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) technique (see for statistics).
AfJAMM consists of an eight-stranded β sheet (β1–β8), flanked by a long α helix (α1) between the first and second strand, and a short α helix (α2) between the fourth and fifth strand. This β sheet resembles a β barrel halved longitudinally and curled around α1 (A). The α2 helix is oriented lengthwise on the convex surface of the β sheet. The zinc-binding site is adjacent to a loop that spans the end of β4 to the beginning of α2 and is stabilized by a disulfide bond between C74 from this loop to C95 on β5. Although disulfide bonds are scarce in intracellular proteins, they are often present in homologous proteins found in hyperthermophiles (
Mallick et al. 2002). The overall fold resembles that of the zinc metalloenzyme cytidine deaminase (CDA). CDA from
Bacillus subtilis (
Johansson et al. 2002) can be superimposed onto AfJAMM with a root-mean squared (RMS) deviation of 3.0 Å over 79 α carbons, despite only 9% sequence identity over structurally aligned residues. The catalytic zinc ions of AfJAMM and CDA, 4.9 Å apart in the superposition, occupy the same general vicinity in the tertiary structures but are coordinated by entirely different protein ligands, two histidines and an aspartic acid in AfJAMM compared to three cysteines in CDA, located at different positions in the sequence (A). Consequently, the JAMM fold represents a departure from the papain-like cysteine protease architecture that underlies the deubiquitinating activity of the most thoroughly characterized deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs), the Ub carboxy-terminal hydrolases (UCHs) (
Johnston et al. 1997) and Ub-specific proteases (UBPs) (
Hu et al. 2002).
The two AfJAMM subunits in the asymmetric unit are connected through a parallel β sheet formed at the dimer interface (B). The subunits are related by a 2-fold screw axis along the crystallographic c-axis with a translation of 3.38 Å, corresponding to a displacement of one residue along the β3 strand. AfJAMM behaves as a monomer during size exclusion chromatography, suggesting that the dimer observed in the asymmetric unit is an artifact of crystallization. Yet the residues of β3 are highly conserved among JAMM proteins (see ) and predominantly hydrophobic, which makes it difficult to regard the observed interaction as completely insignificant. Flanking β3 to the carboxy-terminal side, there is a striking covariation of residues, MPQSGTG in Rpn11 orthologues and LPVEGTE in Csn5 orthologues. The potential of β3 and the flanking region to mediate specific protein–protein interactions, such as the assembly of Rpn11 and Csn5 into their respective complexes or their specificity towards Ub or Nedd8, warrants further investigation.
The zinc-binding site of AfJAMM is located in a furrow formed by the convex surface of the β2–β4 sheet and α2. The catalytic zinc has a tetrahedral coordination sphere (A), with ligands provided by N
2 of H67 and H69 on β4, the carboxylate of D80 on α2, and a water molecule. The latter hydrogen-bonds to the sidechain of E22 on β2. Thus, the crystal structure confirms previous predictions that the histidine and aspartic acid residues in the JAMM motif are ligands for a metal (
Cope et al. 2002;
Verma et al. 2002;
Yao and Cohen 2002). It must be noted that the identity of the physiological metal in AfJAMM and eukaryotic JAMM homologues is still unknown. The majority of metalloproteases naturally employ zinc but show altered activities with other substituted metals (
Auld 1995).
The arrangement of zinc ligands in AfJAMM resembles that found in thermolysin, the
Streptomyces caespitosus zinc endoprotease (ScNP), and neurolysin, a mammalian metalloprotease (
Kurisu et al. 2000;
Brown et al. 2001;
English et al. 2001). Thermolysin, neurolysin, and ScNP are homologues that have the classical HEXXH metalloprotease motif and adopt the same core fold. In contrast, the sequence, zinc-binding motif, and fold adopted by AfJAMM are entirely distinct. Nonetheless, the active site metal and ligand atoms of thermolysin and ScNP can be superimposed on those of AfJAMM with an RMS deviation of approximately 0.4–0.5 Å (B).
While this manuscript was under revision, an independent report of a crystal structure of the
AF2198 gene product appeared (
Tran et al. 2003). These authors used the fold similarity to CDA as a framework to evaluate the function of the JAMM motif. Given the biochemical data supporting the JAMM motif's role in proteolysis, the common active site architecture seen in AfJAMM and thermolysin, and the similarity of zinc ligands between thermolysin and AfJAMM, we believe that the extensive body of mechanistic studies on thermolysin and related metalloproteases provide a better framework for the analysis of JAMM function than CDA. In addition to the correspondence between zinc ligands, the glutamic acid residue (E166) downstream of the HEXXH motif of thermolysin is functionally equivalent to the aspartic acid ligand of AfJAMM (D80). E22 in AfJAMM is functionally equivalent to the glutamic acid in thermolysin's HEXXH motif, which serves as the general acid-base catalyst. The conserved serine between the histidine ligands interacts with E22 through a sidechain–main chain hydrogen bond. In more distant JAMM relatives, the serine is replaced by a threonine or asparagine (
Aravind and Ponting 1998), both of which are capable of the same bracing function. Meanwhile, the γ-hydroxyl group of the highly conserved S77 in AfJAMM occupies a position similar to N
2 of H231 in thermolysin. This atom flanks the ‘oxyanion hole’ and is implicated in stabilizing the tetrahedral intermediate formed during hydrolysis of the scissile bond (
Matthews 1988;
Lipscomb and Strater 1996).
AfJAMM was tested for the ability to hydrolyze a number of substrates, including Ub derivatives, resofurin-labeled casein, and D-alanine compounds. Unfortunately, none of the in vitro assays yielded positive results. As nothing is known about AfJAMM in the context of
A. fulgidus biology, these negative results do not rule out the possibility that AfJAMM functions as a peptide hydrolase in vivo. To validate the suitability of the AfJAMM structure as a basic model for eukaryotic JAMM proteins, we performed site-directed mutagenesis of
Schizosaccharomyces pombe csn5+. The zinc ligands of Csn5 were previously established to be essential for its role in sustaining cleavage of the isopeptide bond that links Nedd8 to Cul1 (
Cope et al. 2002). Alanine substitutions for the putative general acid-base catalyst (E56A) and the catalytic serine (S128) in the JAMM motif of Csn5 likewise abolished its ability to remove the Nedd8 moiety from Cul1 in a
csn5+ background (A). The E56A mutation had no effect on the assembly of Csn5 with Csn1
myc13, while assembly with S128A was slightly hindered (A). Mutation of the equivalent serine codon in
RPN11 destroyed complementing activity without altering assembly of Rpn11 into the lid. However, the effect of this mutation on Rpn11 isopeptidase activity was not evaluated (
Maytal-Kivity et al. 2002). Alanine substitutions for a catalytic residue (E56) or zinc ligands (H118A, D131N) exerted a modest dominant-negative phenotype in
csn5+ cells (B).
We have been able to assign biochemical functions to Csn5 and Rpn11 (
Cope et al. 2002;
Verma et al. 2002;
Yao and Cohen 2002), but the functions of other eukaryotic JAMM proteins (C) such as AMSH and C6.1A, as well as the prokaryotic protein RadC and the viral phage λ tail assembly protein K, remain unknown. The structure of AfJAMM provides a useful tool for dissecting the functions of JAMM motifs in these varied contexts and inspires the search for specific JAMM active site inhibitors. The mechanistic implications of the AfJAMM structure explain why the deubiquitinating activity of the lid was unaffected by inhibitors of classical DUBs, the UCHs and UBPs. In classical DUBs, the nucleophile that attacks the carbon of the scissile bond is provided by a cysteine residue in the active site. This property is exploited by using the irreversible inhibitor Ub–aldehyde, which forms a nonhydrolyzable bond to the nucleophilic cysteine (
Johnston et al. 1999). In contrast, JAMM proteins likely hydrolyze Ub conjugates in a manner similar to thermolysin, in which the zinc-polarized aqua ligand serves as the nucleophile (
Lipscomb and Strater 1996). In the case of thermolysin, metal chelators and phosphonamidate peptides are effective inhibitors (
Bartlett and Marlowe 1987), whereas other zinc metalloproteases are sensitive to peptidomimetic substrates bearing a hydroxamate group (
Skiles et al. 2001). Metal chelators have been shown to be effective inhibitors of JAMM proteins (
Cope et al. 2002;
Verma et al. 2002); it would be interesting to see whether phosphonamidate and hydroxamate peptide mimics of Ub conjugate isopeptides would be equally effective.
The proteasome inhibitor PS-341 has gained attention for its novelty and effectiveness in treating various forms of cancer (
Adams 2002). PS-341 was recently approved by the United States' Food and Drug Administration for treatment of relapsed multiple myeloma, thereby validating the proteasome as a target for anticancer therapies. The active site of JAMM proteins is an intriguing target for second-generation therapeutics targeted at the Ub–proteasome pathway for two reasons: the JAMM motif in the proteasome lid is essential for the proteasome to function and the JAMM motif in the CSN specifically regulates the activity of a critical family of E3 Ub ligases (
Nalepa and Harper 2003). Inhibition of SCF and other Cullin-based ligases by way of the JAMM motif may be a more specific means of modulating levels of key proteasome substrates in cancer cells.