The structure of flavin-dependent tryptophan 7-halogenase RebH

Enzyme catalyzed regio- and stereo-specific halogenations influence the biological activity of a diverse array of therapeutically important natural products, including the antibiotics vancomycin and chloramphenicol as well as the anticancer agents calicheamicin and rebeccamycin. The major class of enzymes responsible for this challenging synthetic reaction, the flavin-dependent halogenases, catalyzes the formation of carbon-halogen bonds using flavin, a halide ion (Cl{sup -}, Br{sup -} or I{sup -}), and O{sub 2}. Recent mechanistic and structural advances achieved with the model flavin-dependent tryptophan 7-halogenases PrnA and RebH have greatly enhanced the level of understanding of this unique reaction. According to these studies, the mechanism for tryptophan halogenation proceeds via FAD(C4a)-OOH activation of a chloride ion into the transient chlorinating species HOCl. The key evidence for the requirement of a transient chlorinating species is the discovery that a {approx}10-{angstrom}-long tunnel separates FAD and tryptophan in the ligand-bound form of PrnA. In a recent compelling study to elucidate the strategy by which RebH controls this highly reactive and indiscriminant oxidant, a Lys79-{var_epsilon}NH-Cl chloramine intermediate was implicated as the actual chlorinating species within RebH and a structural investigation of RebH was reported. Here we report our independent structural analysis of Lechevalieria aerocolonigenes RebH (Uni-Prot accession number Q8KHZ8, 530 amino acids) in its apo-form as well as in a complex with both tryptophan and FAD.