Metal ions control product specificity of isoprenyl diphosphate synthases in the insect terpenoid pathway.

ABSTRACT: Isoprenyl diphosphate synthases (IDSs) produce the ubiquitous branched-chain diphosphates of different lengths that are precursors of all major classes of terpenes. Typically, individual short-chain IDSs (scIDSs) make the C10, C15, and C20 isoprenyl diphosphates separately. Here, we report that the product length synthesized by a single scIDS shifts depending on the divalent metal cofactor present. This previously undescribed mechanism of carbon chain-length determination was discovered for a scIDS from juvenile horseradish leaf beetles, Phaedon cochleariae. The recombinant enzyme P. cochleariae isoprenyl diphosphate synthase 1 (PcIDS1) yields 96% C10-geranyl diphosphate (GDP) and only 4% C15-farnesyl diphosphate (FDP) in the presence of Co(2+) or Mn(2+) as a cofactor, whereas it yields on

SUBMITTER: Frick S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3600467 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature