Human cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein has secondary thermal 9-cis-retinal isomerase activity.

Journal of the American Chemical Society 2014 Jan 08

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Cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein (CRALBP) chaperones 11-cis-retinal to convert opsin receptor molecules into photosensitive retinoid pigments of the eye. We report a thermal secondary isomerase activity of CRALBP when bound to 9-cis-retinal. UV/vis and (1)H NMR spectroscopy were used to characterize the product as 9,13-dicis-retinal. The X-ray structure of the CRALBP mutant R234W:9-cis-retinal complex at 1.9 Å resolution revealed a niche in the binding pocket for 9-cis-aldehyde different from that reported for 11-cis-retinal. Combined computational, kinetic, and structural data lead us to propose an isomerization mechanism catalyzed by a network of buried waters. Our findings highlight a specific role of water molecules in both CRALBP-assisted specificity toward 9-cis-retinal and its thermal isomerase activity yielding 9,13-dicis-retinal. Kinetic data from two point mutants of CRALBP support an essential role of Glu202 as the initial proton donor in this isomerization reaction.

Citation

Christin S Bolze, Rachel E Helbling, Robin L Owen, Arwen R Pearson, Guillaume Pompidor, Florian Dworkowski, Martin R Fuchs, Julien Furrer, Marcin Golczak, Krzysztof Palczewski, Michele Cascella, Achim Stocker. Human cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein has secondary thermal 9-cis-retinal isomerase activity. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2014 Jan 08;136(1):137-46