Molecular Identification of Human Glutamine- and Ammonia-dependent NAD Synthetases

NAD synthetase catalyzes the final step in the biosynthesis of NAD. In the present study, we obtained cDNAs for two types of human NAD synthetase (referred as NADsyn1 and NADsyn2). Structural analysis revealed in both NADsyn1 and NADsyn2 a domain required for NAD synthesis from ammonia and in only NADsyn1 an additional carbon-nitrogen hydrolase domain shared with enzymes of the nitrilase family that cleave nitriles as well as amides to produce the corresponding acids and ammonia. Consistent with the domain structures, biochemical assays indicated (i) that both NADsyn1 and NADsyn2 have NAD synthetase activity, (ii) that NADsyn1 uses glutamine as well as ammonia as an amide donor, whereas NADsyn2 catalyzes only ammonia-dependent NAD synthesis, and (iii) that mutant NADsyn1 in which Cys-175 corresponding to the catalytic cysteine residue in nitrilases was replaced with Ser does not use glutamine. Kinetic studies suggested that glutamine and ammonia serve as physiological amide donors for NADsyn1 and NADsyn2, respectively. Both synthetases exerted catalytic activity in a multimeric form. In the mouse, NADsyn1 was seen to be abundantly expressed in the small intestine, liver, kidney, and testis but very weakly in the skeletal muscle and heart. In contrast, expression of NADsyn2 was observed in all tissues tested. Therefore, we conclude that humans have two types of NAD synthetase exhibiting different amide donor specificity and tissue distributions. The ammonia-dependent synthetase has not been found in eucaryotes until this study. Our results also indicate that the carbon-nitrogen hydrolase domain is the functional domain of NAD synthetase to make use of glutamine as an amide donor in NAD synthesis. Thus, glutamine-dependent NAD synthetase may be classified as a possible glutamine amidase in the nitrilase family. Our molecular identification of NAD synthetases may prove useful to learn more of mechanisms regulating cellular NAD metabolism.