Regulation of a phage endolysin by disulfide caging.

In contrast to canonical phage endolysins, which require holin-mediated disruption of the membrane to gain access to attack the cell wall, signal anchor release (SAR) endolysins are secreted by the host sec system, where they accumulate in an inactive form tethered to the membrane by their N-terminal SAR domains. SAR endolysins become activated by various mechanisms upon release from the membrane. In its inactive form, the prototype SAR endolysin, Lyz(P1), of coliphage P1, has an active-site Cys covalently blocked by a disulfide bond; activation involves a disulfide bond isomerization driven by a thiol in the newly released SAR domain, unblocking the active-site Cys.

Regulation of a muralytic enzyme by dynamic membrane topology.

R(21), the lysozyme of coliphage 21, has an N-terminal signal-anchor-release (SAR) domain that directs its secretion in a membrane-tethered, inactive form and then its release and activation in the periplasm. Both genetic and crystallographic studies show that the SAR domain, once extracted from the bilayer, refolds into the body of the enzyme and effects muralytic activation by repositioning one residue of the canonical lysozyme catalytic triad.

Annotating enzymes of unknown function: N-formimino-L-glutamate deiminase is a member of the amidohydrolase superfamily.

The functional assignment of enzymes that catalyze unknown chemical transformations is a difficult problem. The protein Pa5106 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been identified as a member of the amidohydrolase superfamily by a comprehensive amino acid sequence comparison with structurally authenticated members of this superfamily. The function of Pa5106 has been annotated as a probablechlorohydrolase or cytosine deaminase.