Flexibility of the coordination geometry around the cupric ions in Cu(II)-rat dipeptidyl peptidase III is important for the expression of enzyme activity.

Dipeptidyl peptidase III (DPP III), the zinc peptidase, has a unique helix portion in the metal-binding motif (HELLGH). The enzyme activity of the cupric derivative of rat DPP III (Cu(II)-rat DPP III) for Lys-Ala-β-NA is about 30% of that of the wild-type enzyme. On the other hand, the enzyme activity of Cu(II)-rat del-DPP III, in which Leu453 is deleted from the metal-binding motif, possesses only 1-2% of the enzyme activity of rat del-DPP III.

Metal preferences of zinc-binding motif on metalloproteases.

Almost all naturally occurring metalloproteases are monozinc enzymes. The zinc in any number of zinc metalloproteases has been substituted by some other divalent cation. Almost all Co(II)- or Mn(II)-substituted enzymes maintain the catalytic activity of their zinc counterparts.

In rat dipeptidyl peptidase III, His⁵⁶⁸ is essential for catalysis, and Glu⁵⁰⁷ or Glu⁵¹² stabilizes the coordination bond between His⁴⁵⁵ or His⁴⁵⁰ and zinc ion.

Dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP) III is a zinc-dependent exopeptidase that has a unique motif, "HELLGH," as the zinc-binding site. In the present study, a three-dimensional (3D) model of rat DPP III was generated with the X-ray crystal structure of human DPP III (PDB: 3FVY [Dobrovetsky E. et al.

Characterization of the metal-binding site in aminopeptidase B.

A recombinant rat aminopeptidase-B (Ap-B) was expressed as a glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion protein in Escherichia coli BL21 harboring a plasmid pGEX-Ap-B and was purified by glutathione-Sepharose 4B and Q-Sepharose columns. The metal-substituted derivatives of Ap-B, Co(II)- and Cu(II)-Ap-B contain almost 1 mole of cobalt(II) and copper(II) ions per enzyme molecule, respectively. The specific activity of Co(II)-Ap-B is very similar to that of recombinant Ap-B but that of Cu(II)-Ap-B is very low.

Aspartic acid 405 contributes to the substrate specificity of aminopeptidase B.

Aminopeptidase B (EC 3.4.11.

Identification and characterization of two dipeptidyl-peptidase III isoforms in Drosophila melanogaster.

Dipeptidyl-peptidase III (DPP III) hydrolyses small peptides with a broad substrate specificity. It is thought to be involved in a major degradation pathway of the insect neuropeptide proctolin. We report the purification and characterization of a soluble DPP III from 40 g Drosophila melanogaster.

The metal-binding motif of dipeptidyl peptidase III directly influences the enzyme activity in the copper derivative of dipeptidyl peptidase III.

The zinc-binding motif (HELLGH) of dipeptidyl peptidase III (DPP III) is different from the common zinc-binding motif (HExxH) of metallopeptidases. To clarify the importance of the zinc-binding motif part of DPP III for enzymatic activity, we measured the recovery of the enzyme activity of apo-Leu(453)-deleted dipeptidyl peptidase III (apo-Leu(453)-del-DPP III), which has a motif (HELGH) like that of the common peptidase (HExxH), in the presence of various metal ions. The enzyme activity of apo-Leu(453)-deleted DPP III could not be recovered by the addition of cupric ions, while apo-DPP III could be easily reactivated by the addition of cupric ions.

Characterization of a functionally expressed dipeptidyl aminopeptidase III from Drosophila melanogaster.

A Drosophila melanogaster cDNA clone (GH01916) encoding a putative 723-residue long (82 kDa) protein (CG 7415) and displaying 50% identity with mammalian cytosolic dipeptidyl aminopeptidase (DPP) III was functionally expressed in Schneider S2 cells. Immunocytochemical studies using anti-(rat liver DPP III) Ig indicated the expression of this putative DPP III at the outer cell membrane and into the cytosol of transfected cells. Two protein bands (82 and 86 kDa) were immunologically detected after PAGE and Western blot of cytosol or membrane prepared from transfected cells.