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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 279, Issue 31, 32882-32896, July 30, 2004

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The Structure of Chondroitin B Lyase Complexed with Glycosaminoglycan Oligosaccharides Unravels a Calcium-dependent Catalytic Machinery^*

Gurvan Michel¶, Kevin Pojasek||, Yunge Li, Traian Sulea, Robert J. Linhardt**, Rahul Raman||, Vikas Prabhakar||, Ram Sasisekharan||, and Miroslaw Cygler

From the Biotechnology Research Institute, National Research Council of Canada, Montreal, Quebec H4P 2R2, Canada, the Montreal Joint Centre for Structural Biology, Montreal, Quebec H4P 2R2, Canada, the ^||Biological Engineering Division, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, and the ^**Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180

Received for publication, March 29, 2004 , and in revised form, May 21, 2004.

	ABSTRACT

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

 
Chondroitinase B from Pedobacter heparinus is the only known enzyme strictly specific for dermatan sulfate and is a widely used enzymatic tool for the structural characterization of glycosaminoglycans. This -helical polysaccharide lyase belongs to family PL-6 and cleaves the (1,4) linkage of dermatan sulfate in a random manner, yielding 4,5-unsaturated dermatan sulfate disaccharides as the product. The previously reported structure of its complex with a dermatan sulfate disaccharide product identified the -1 and -2 subsites of the catalytic groove. We present here the structure of chondroitinase B complexed with several dermatan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate oligosaccharides. In particular, the soaking of chondroitinase B crystals with a dermatan sulfate hexasaccharide results in a complex with two dermatan sulfate disaccharide reaction products, enabling the identification of the +2 and +1 subsites. Unexpectedly, this structure revealed the presence of a calcium ion coordinated by sequence-conserved acidic residues and by the carboxyl group of the L-iduronic acid at the +1 subsite. Kinetic and site-directed mutagenesis experiments have subsequently demonstrated that chondroitinase B absolutely requires calcium for its activity, indicating that the protein-Ca²⁺-oligosaccharide complex is functionally relevant. Modeling of an intact tetrasaccharide in the active site of chondroitinase B provided a better understanding of substrate specificity and the role of Ca²⁺ in enzymatic activity. Given these results, we propose that the Ca²⁺ ion neutralizes the carboxyl moiety of the L-iduronic acid at the cleavage site, whereas the conserved residues Lys-250 and Arg-271 act as Brønsted base and acid, respectively, in the lytic degradation of dermatan sulfate by chondroitinase B.

	INTRODUCTION

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

 
All metazoans synthesize highly sulfated, unbranched polysaccharides known as glycosaminoglycans (GAGs),¹ composed of alternating hexosamine (gluco- or galactosamine) and uronic acid (D-glucuronic or L-iduronic acid) moieties. These polysaccharides are found mainly in the extracellular matrix and on the cell surface, but are also present in secretory granules (1, 2). The numerous biological functions of GAGs, including a structural role as matrix polysaccharides and an active role in the modulation of cell signals, are derived from the heterogeneous sulfation patterns and different D-glucuronic/L-iduronic acid ratios found in the polymers (1-4).

Dermatan sulfate (DS) and chondroitin sulfate (CS) are structurally related GAGs, consisting of alternating 1,4--D-galactosamine (GalNac) and 1,3--L-iduronic acid (DS) or 1,3--D-glucuronic acid (CS) (5). The L-iduronic acid (IdoUA) present in DS results from a C5-epimerization of D-glucuronic acid (GlcUA) at the polymer level, leading to a mixture of IdoUA and GlcUA in the mature polysaccharide (6). Chondroitin sulfate is characterized by primary O-sulfation at either the C4 position (chondroitin 4-sulfate) or the C6 position (chondroitin 6-sulfate) of GalNac, whereas DS is primarily sulfated at the C4 position. Additional O-sulfation is also found at the C2 position of IdoUA and the C6 position of GalNac in DS creating disulfated disaccharide units that have been implicated in the regulating biological functions of this polymer (7).

Bacterial GAG degrading lyases from Pedobacter heparinus (formerly Flavobacterium heparinum (Ref. 8)) and other sources have been useful tools in dissecting how the complex structure of GAG polysaccharides dictate their various biological roles (4, 9). The concerted -elimination mechanism proposed for bacterial GAG lyases is initiated by the abstraction of the C5 proton on the hexosamine moiety forming a carbanion that is stabilized by the enzyme. Importantly, stabilization of the negative charge on the carboxylate moiety is required to reduce the pK_a of the C5 proton prior to abstraction. The final step of reaction mechanism involves protonation of the anomeric oxygen by an acidic residue with concomitant -elimination of the uronic acid resulting in an unsaturated ^4,5 bond in the product (10). Importantly, this double bond has UV absorbance with a _max at 232 nm, thereby providing an internal chromophore for measuring the formation of the reaction products.

Chondroitinase B (ChonB), a member of the chondroitinases family of GAG lyases, is the only known enzyme to cleave DS as its sole substrate (11-14). The crystal structure of chondroitinase B was determined at high resolution, in the native state and as a complex with an unsaturated DS disaccharide reaction product (15) (PDB codes 1DBO [PDB] and 1DBG [PDB] ). The enzyme adopts a right-handed, parallel -helix fold, an unusual fold observed primarily in enzymes that degrade polyanionic polysaccharides (15-19). This co-crystal structure also revealed the active site of the enzyme and the location of the disaccharide relative to the active site. Recently, a site-directed mutagenesis study identified Lys-250, His-272, Glu-333, and Arg-364 as residues potentially involved in substrate binding and catalysis (20).

Several enzymes that specifically degrade polysaccharides have been shown to require calcium for their enzymatic activity. In particular, pectate lyase C was shown to have several bound calcium ions (21, 22) that participate in substrate binding (23). In addition, heparinase I from P. heparinus contains two unique calcium binding sites, one of which is directly involved in enzymatic activity (24, 25). However, previous structural and kinetic studies of chondroitinase B have never suggested a role for calcium in enzyme activity (11, 12).

Herein, we present novel co-crystal structures of chondroitinase B complexed with several DS and CS oligosaccharides. In particular, soaking chondroitinase B crystals with a DS hexasaccharide revealed two DS disaccharide reaction products bound in the active site, suggesting that the crystallized enzyme retains its activity. Unexpectedly, this structure also uncovered the presence of a Ca²⁺ ion coordinated by conserved acidic residues in the enzyme active site and by the carboxyl group of the IdoUA in the complexed DS reaction product. Through kinetic and site-directed mutagenesis studies, we have subsequently shown that chondroitinase B demonstrates an absolute requirement of calcium for its activity and that Asn-213, Glu-243, and Glu-245, which coordinate the calcium ion in the co-crystal structure, are important for the enzymatic activity. Furthermore, modeling studies of an intact DS tetrasaccharide into the chondroitinase B active site suggest that calcium is essential for the proper positioning of the substrate in the active site and plays an important role in specificity of chondroitinase B toward IdoUA-containing DS substrates. Therefore, we conclude that the Ca²⁺ ion contributes to determining the substrate specificity of the enzyme as well as plays a direct role in neutralizing the carboxyl moiety of the IdoUA. The results of the current study demonstrate for the first time the structural basis for the role of calcium in chondroitinase B activity and further elucidate the role of specific amino acids in the degradation of DS.

	MATERIALS AND METHODS

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

 
Porcine intestinal mucosa dermatan sulfate, chondroitin 4-sulfate, and chondroitin 6-sulfate were purchased from Sigma. Disaccharide standards were from Seikagaku/Associates of Cape Cod (Falmouth, MA). Oligonucleotide primers for PCR mutagenesis were from Invitrogen. The sources of all other reagents used are from common sources or are as noted below.

Preparation of the Dermatan and Chondroitin Sulfate Oligosaccharides—The dermatan sulfate pentasaccharide (DS^penta) and hexasaccharide (DS^hexa) and chondroitin-4-sulfate tetrasaccharide (C4S^tetra) were prepared and purified as previously described (26). The reduced dermatan sulfate tetrasaccharide (DS^red) was prepared by an adaptation of a method shown in the literature (27). Briefly, DS^hexa (5 mg) in 0.5 ml of water was reacted with 1-ethyl-3-dimethyl(aminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (30 mg) at room temperature while maintaining the pH at 4.75 with 0.1 N hydrochloric acid. The reaction was considered complete when the pH remained stable ( 1 h). The product was recovered by gel permeation chromatography on a Bio-Gel P4 column (1.25 x 25 cm) at 4 °C and freeze-dried. The carbodiimide derivative was dissolved in 50 µl of water containing sodium borohydride (4 mg), heated at 50 °C for 2 h, cooled to room temperature, and neutralized with acetic acid, and the product was purified by gel permeation chromatography on a Bio-Gel P4 column (1.25 x 25 cm) at 4 °C and freeze-dried. The product showed the correct mass by electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry, and its NMR spectrum was consistent with structure (28).

X-ray Data Collection and Processing—Wild type chondroitinase B was expressed, purified, and crystallized as described previously (15, 29). Prior to the data collection, crystals were soaked for 18 h in drops of cryoprotectant solution (22.5% (w/v) polyethylene glycol 8000, 0.1 M Tris-HCl, pH 8.7, 15% (v/v) 2-methyl-2,4-pentadiol, 0.25 M ammonium acetate) to which 10 mM DS^penta, DS^hexa, DS^red, or C4S^tetra oligosaccharides were added. The crystals were picked up in a rayon loop, transferred to the goniometer head, and flash-frozen in a stream of nitrogen gas at 100 K. Diffraction data were collected on a Quantum-4 CCD detector (ADSC, San Diego, CA) at beamline X8C, National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Data indexing, merging, and scaling were performed using the HKL2000 package (30). Data collection and processing statistics for the DS^hexa and CS^tetra complexes are listed in Table I. The crystals belongs to space group P2₁, with one molecule in the asymmetric unit and cell parameters a = 50.6 (50.5) Å, b = 74.0 (74.1) Å, c = 59.1 (59.0) Å, = = 90.00°, and = 93.9 (93.8)° for the ChonB-DS^hexa and ChonB-CS^tetra complexes, respectively.

The protein sequence for chondroitin B lyase (GenBank^TM accession no. AAC83384 [GenBank] Ref. 34) was used to search for homologous proteins against the nonredundant sequence data base with the programs Blastp (35). The initial sequence alignment was obtained using the MAFFT program (36). In the most divergent regions, this sequence alignment was manually improved on the basis of the conservation of structural features specific to the parallel -helix fold, such as asparagine ladders and aromatic stacks (37).

PCR Site-directed Mutagenesis of Chondroitinase B—Asn-213 was mutated to glutamine, Glu-243 and Glu-245 were mutated to alanine, and the E243A/E245A mutant was created using E243A as the DNA template for E245A PCR mutagenesis. In addition, the putative active site residue Arg-271 was mutated to lysine and glutamic acid. The site-directed mutants were created using overlap extension PCR for 15 cycles as previously described for chondroitinase B (20). The primer sequences for each of the mutants are listed below. The N213Q mutant primers have the sequences 5'-CAA AAA CCG GGT CAG GCC GGA GGG GGA-3' and 5'-TCC CCC TCC GGC CTG ACC CGG TTT TTG-3'. The E243A mutant primers have the sequences 5'-GCG TCA GGA TTC GGC AGC AGA GAT CAT CAC C-3' and 5'-GGT GAT GAT CTC TGC TGCC GAA TCC TGA CGC-3'. The E245A mutant primers have the sequences 5'-TCG GAA GCA GCG ATC ATC ACC-3' and 5'-GGT GAT GAT CGC TGC TTC CGA-3'. The R271E mutant primers have the sequences 5'-ATG AAC TTT GAA CAC GGT GAT-3' and 5'-ATC ACC GTG TTC AAA GTT CAT-3'. The R271K mutant primers have the sequences 5'-ATG AAC TTT AAA CAC GGT GAT-3' and 5'-ATC AAC GTG TTT AAA GTT CAT-3'. The N- and C-terminal primer sequences are as previously described (38). The PCR reaction products were separated on an agarose gel, and the band corresponding to the proper length was excised. The DNA was extracted from the gel using a Gel Purification Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA), the insert was subcloned into pCR4-TOPO (Invitrogen), and the plasmid was prepared using a Miniprep kit (Qiagen). Each of the clones was sequenced to verify the presence of the individual point mutations. Each chondroitinase B mutant was excised from pCR4-TOPO using NdeI and BamHI (New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA) enzyme mixture and subcloned into a pET28a expression vector (Novagen, Madison, WI) that had been digested previously with these same enzymes. Recombinant chondroitinase B that had been cloned in a similar fashion was also expressed and compared with each of the alanine mutants. Expression and purification of each of the site-directed mutants and the recombinant chondroitinase B were performed as previously described (20).

Kinetic Analysis—The activity of chondroitinase B and the various site-directed mutants was determined by adding 5-10 µl of the sample to a 1-ml cuvette containing 1 mg/ml DS in 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, at 30 °C with or without the addition of exogenous calcium as noted. Product formation was monitored as an increase in absorbance at 232 nm as a function of time (20, 38). The kinetic parameters, K_m and k_cat, were calculated for chondroitinase B and the site-directed mutants by obtaining the initial reaction rate (v₀) as a function of substrate concentration at various calcium concentrations. Approximately 1 µg (13 pmol) of enzyme was added to 1 ml of DS at concentrations ranging from 0.010 µg/ml to 2 mg/ml. The initial rate was measured for 4-10 s at 30 °C in the same Tris-HCl buffer used for the activity assay. The kinetics of chondroitinase B were tested in Tris-HCl buffer to which calcium chloride was added to the final concentrations of 0.01, 0.1, and 5.0 mM. The slope of the resulting line, assuming zero order kinetics, was plotted versus the substrate concentration using SigmaPlot (SSPS, Inc., Chicago, IL). The K_m (µM) and V_max (µM/s) were calculated using the Michaelis-Menten equation: v₀ = (V_max x [S])/(K_m + [S]). The k_cat (s^-1) was calculated by dividing the V_max by the concentration of enzyme in the reaction. Kinetic reactions were repeated in triplicate and reported as an average ± standard error.

Dermatan Sulfate Digestion and Capillary Electrophoresis—To examine changes in product profile of each site-directed mutant (20 µg) when compared with recombinant chondroitinase B (20 µg), digests of 1 mg/ml DS in 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, with 5 mM calcium chloride were performed for 12-14 h at 30 °C. The digests were analyzed using capillary electrophoresis as previously described (20). Briefly, the chondroitinase B and site-directed mutant digests were diluted 2-fold and analyzed with an extended path-length cell and a voltage of 30 kV applied using reverse polarity. The running buffer consisted of 50 mM Tris, 10 µM dextran sulfate that had been brought to a pH of 2.5 using phosphoric acid, and the reaction products were detected by monitoring at 232 nm. The total peak areas for the recombinant chondroitinase B and mutant digest profiles were calculated by totaling the areas of the oligosaccharide peaks and the UA-GalNAc4S peak. The ratio of the UA-GalNAc4S peak area to the total peak area was then calculated for the recombinant chondroitinase B and each mutant as a metric for comparing overall enzymatic activity.

Modeling of a DS Tetrasaccharide Substrate at the Cleavage Subsite—The crystal structure of ChonB complexed with GalNac-4S-UA disaccharides determined in this work was used as a starting point for the molecular modeling of a DS tetrasaccharide substrate occupying subsites -2 through +2 of ChonB. Two different modeling techniques were utilized to investigate the interactions between the enzyme and substrate.

The first approach was energetics-driven, where the strain created by directly forming a 3.0-Å bond between the O1 atom of GalNac-4S in the -1 subsite to the C4 atom of IdoUA in the +1 subsite of the co-crystal structure was relaxed by molecular mechanics calculations. The O4 atom was added to UA at the -2 subsite, and the C4 and C5 atoms of both UA residues were assigned the sp³ hybridization. Hydrogen atoms were added to the protein, substrate, and retained buried water molecules, and oriented to favor hydrogen-bonding networks. The protonation state at physiological pH was adopted, except for the active site putative general base Lys-250 that was treated neutral. The AMBER all-atom force field with the PARM94 parameter set for proteins (39) augmented with the GLYCAM50 parameter set for glycosides and glycoproteins (40) and the General AMBER Force Field parameter set for organic compounds (41) were used for molecular mechanics energy calculations. Partial atomic charges for the DS tetrasaccharide were obtained by a two-stage restrained fitting procedure to the single-point HF 6-31G^* electrostatic potential (42).

Conjugate gradient energy minimizations were carried out with an 8-Å nonbonded cutoff and a distance-dependent dielectric function (4r_ij). In the final stage of a stepwise energy minimization protocol, the substrate and water molecules, as well as protein residues within 10 Å from the ligand, were free to relax up to a root-mean-square gradient of 0.01 kcal/(mol·Å), whereas the Ca²⁺ ion and its 7 coordinating oxygen atoms were kept close to their crystallographic positions with harmonic constraints of 20 and 5 kcal/(mol·Å²), respectively. Quantitative characterization of the six-membered ring conformations adopted by the modeled tetrasaccharide was performed by expressing each ring conformation as a linear combination of the most suitable set of chair, boat, and skew-boat ideal basic conformations (43).

The second approach was geometric and stereochemical, in which the conformation of GalNac-4S-IdoUA disaccharide in the -1 and +1 was allowed to sample the stereochemically accessible domain for discrete low energy conformations of the IdoUA (¹C₄, ²S₀, and ⁴C₁). The coordinates of a dermatan sulfate tetrasaccharide with sequence (IdoUAGalNac-4S)₂ were obtained from the recently solved chondroitinase AC co-crystal structures (15) and were used to generate the model dermatan sulfate substrates. The ring conformation of the iduronic acid close to the reducing end of the tetrasaccharide (involved in catalysis) was modified to ²S₀ and ¹C₄ to generate different model substrates. For each model substrate, the location of the nonreducing IdoUA was fixed to the location of UA^B2 in the -2 subsite. The reducing end GalNac-4S was fixed to that of GalNac-4S^C1 in the +2 subsite. The glycosidic torsion angles 1 (H1-C1-O-C4), 1 (C1-O-C4-H4), 2 (H1-C1-O-C3), and 2 (C1-O-C3-H3) of the internal GalNac-4S-IdoUA unit were allowed to sample different values in the stereochemically accessible domains for different IdoUA ring conformations (44, 45). For each set of (1, 1, 2, 2) torsion angles, the distances between the critical sulfate groups and the basic amino acids in the active site, the carboxylate group of the IdoUA in the +1 subsite and the Ca²⁺ ion, and the C5 atom of the IdoUA in the +1 subsite and Lys-250 were all calculated. From the final matrix of distance and bond angle values, representative substrates that satisfied the constraints obtained from the interactions in the DS^hexa co-crystal structure were chosen for each ring conformation of the IdoUA. These representative substrates were docked into the active site to obtain the theoretical enzyme-substrate complex.

	RESULTS

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

 
The Overall Structure of the Complexes—Protein-carbohydrate complexes of ChonB with DS or CS oligosaccharides were obtained by soaking protein crystals in a cryoprotectant solution containing 10 mM amounts of a specific oligosaccharide. Four oligosaccharides were used: dermatan sulfate pentasaccharide (DS^penta) and hexasaccharide (DS^hexa), reduced dermatan sulfate tetrasaccharide (DS^red), and chondroitin-4-sulfate tetrasaccharide (C4S^tetra). DS^red corresponds to an oligosaccharide with the carboxyl moiety of the uronic acid replaced by a hydroxymethylene group. This substitution was expected to prevent the substrate cleavage, because the neutralization of the carboxylate moiety was proposed to be a critical step in the -elimination mechanism (10).

The electron density corresponding to these oligosaccharides was found in the previously identified substrate binding site in the C-terminal portion of the enzyme (Figs. 1 and 2) (15). For the ChonB-C4S^tetra complex, all four-sugar units are well defined in the electron density map. The tetrasaccharide adopts a fully extended conformation and occupies subsites -1 to -4, the sites on the nonreducing side of the cleavage site (between subsites -1 and +1). The 4-O-sulfo-N-acetylgalactosamine residue at the reducing end, GalNac-4S^B1, occupies the -1 subsite and superimposes very well with the equivalent residue of the DS disaccharide product from the previous structure (15). In the -2 subsite, GlcUA^B2 is shifted slightly in comparison with the unsaturated IdoUA in the previous structure. The next disaccharide-repeating unit, GalNac-4S^B3-GlcUA^B4, extends toward the solvent, almost perpendicularly to the -helix axis and defines subsites -3 and -4 of the enzyme. In the crystal, the last sugar makes contacts with a symmetry-related molecule.

View larger version (70K): [in this window] [in a new window]   FIG. 1. Chondroitinase B. A, ribbon representation of the ChonB-DShexa complex with the secondary structures colored according to a blue-red gradient from the N to the C terminus. B, view of the molecular surface of ChonB. The three dermatan sulfate oligosaccharides near the active site are shown in a stick representation. The calcium ion is shown as a yellow sphere. This and subsequent figures was prepared using the program PyMOL (DeLano Scientific, pymol.sourceforge.net/).

View larger version (60K): [in this window] [in a new window]   FIG. 2. Fo-Fc electron density map of the dermatan sulfate disaccharides bound to the active site of ChonB and the Ca2+-binding site (A) and the dermatan sulfate disaccharide bound on the outer surface of ChonB (B). The oligosaccharides and the Ca2+ ion were excluded from the calculations of phases.

A second disaccharide, GalNac-4S^C1-UA^C2, is deeply buried in the groove, parallel to the -helix axis (Fig. 2A). The conformation of UA^C2 is similar to that of UA^B2, with the hydroxyl groups O2 and O3 nearly equatorial. Like GalNac-4S^B1-UA^B2, this DS disaccharide exposes the B-face of the N-acetylgalactosamine residue toward the solvent, whereas its A-face and its sulfo group are located in a basic pocket within the cleft. This disaccharide is located between GalNac-4S^B1-UA^B2 and a cluster of polar amino acids separating the N- and C-terminal cavities of the active site. Both DS disaccharides are similarly oriented, with the reducing end positioned toward the N terminus of the protein. Moreover, the O1 hydroxyl of GalNac-4S^B1 (the -1 subsite) is at a distance of 3.0 Å from the C4 of UA^C2, which enable the accommodation a (1,4) linkage in the context of an intact DS substrate. The binding of a DS reaction product in this area together with the proximity of GalNac-4S^B1 and UA^C2 strengthens the previous prediction (15) that this region corresponds to the subsites +1 (UA^C2) and +2 (GalNac-4S^C1).

The third DS disaccharide, GalNac-4S^D1-UA^D2, binds near the end of the active site (Fig. 2A), in the general region of +3 and +4 subsites, contacting the fourth T3 loop and the C-terminal -helix, as well as the last -helical turn of a symmetry related molecule. It makes only two direct hydrogen bonds to the protein backbone atoms of Pro-211 and Asn-213, as well as several others through bridging water molecules. The orientation of this disaccharide is approximately perpendicular to the disaccharide located at the +1 and +2 subsites, with the distance from its C4 atom to the anomeric O1 of the sugar in the +2 subsite greater than 6 Å. Although this third disaccharide does not bind in exactly the same way as would a longer oligosaccharide extending from +1 and +2 subsites, nevertheless it identifies the approximate location of the +3 and +4 subsites.

We found electron density on the concave surface of the -helix, on the opposite side to where the active site is located that was interpreted as a fourth DS disaccharide, GalNac-4S^E1-UA^E2 (Fig. 2B). This disaccharide is partially buried in a depression lined with basic residues formed by the first T2 loop, the long C-terminal loop, and the O-linked heptasaccharide attached to the protein at Ser-234 (15). The GalNac-4S residue is in the vicinity of the arginine stack consisting of Arg-129 - Arg-161-Arg-199, whereas the UA residue is oriented toward the solvent. In contrast to the DS disaccharides bound in the active site, the O2 and O3 hydroxyl groups of UA^D2 and UA^E2 are axial. Finally, the O1 hydroxyl group of GalNac-4S^E1 has an anomeric conformation, whereas only the anomer is observed in the other CS and DS oligosaccharides described here or in the previous studies (15, 26). This anomer may have been produced by mutarotation of the pyranose ring.

The soaking of DS^penta resulted in the binding of an oligosaccharide to the C-terminal cavity with only the reducing end disaccharide occupying the -2 and -1 subsites visible in the 2F_o - F_c electron density map. No other sites were occupied. Because the well defined sugars overlap the DS disaccharide product previously characterized (15), this complex will not be further described.

No electron density corresponding to an oligosaccharide was found in the structure of chondroitin B lyase soaked with DS^red, indicating that the carboxyl-reduced DS oligosaccharide does not bind to the enzyme with high affinity.

Protein-DS^hexa/CS^tetra Oligosaccharide Interactions—All the interactions between ChonB and the DS/CS oligosaccharides are summarized in Table II and Fig. 3. Most of the interactions for DS^hexa and C4S^tetra sugars in subsites (-2, -1) are as previously described (15). For both types of GAGs, the Gal-NAc-4S residue at -1 subsite is anchored by numerous hydrogen bonds and ionic interactions with basic residues. The guanidinium group of Arg-271 forms hydrogen bonds with the anomeric hydroxyl group O1 and the cyclic oxygen atom O5, whereas the neighboring His-272 contacts the oxygen atom O7 of the N-acetyl group. The sulfate substituent forms salt bridges with Arg-318 and Arg-364. In the previously described complex, Arg-318 had a different conformation and formed indirect interaction with the sulfo group via a water molecule (15). In contrast, the uronic acid at subsite -2 (UA^B2 or GlcUA^B2) makes few contacts with the protein, mainly with Arg-318 and Arg-363. However, the strength of the interaction involving Arg-363 differs according to the nature of the sugar unit in this subsite. This arginine interacts only weakly with the carboxyl group of the unsaturated L-iduronic acid (3.3 Å) but makes a stronger salt bridge with the carboxyl group of GlcUA^B2 of C4S^tetra (2.8 Å). There are very few contacts between the sugars in the -4 and -3 subsites and the protein. Only one direct hydrogen bond is observed, between the hydroxyl group O6 of GalNac-4S^B3 and Arg-363^NE. The carboxyl group of GlcUA^B4 is hydrogen-bonded to Lys-316 through a water molecule.

View larger version (40K): [in this window] [in a new window]   FIG. 3. Stereo view of the active site of ChonB (subsites +1, +2, and -1, -2). A, the close-up of the Ca2+ coordination. The DS disaccharide in subsites +1 and +2 is colored by atom colors, the one in subsites -1 and -2 is shown in red, and the disaccharide in subsites +3 and +4 is shown in thin lines. B, the disposition of the putative catalytic residues relative to the disaccharide reaction products.

Although located far from the active site, the fourth DS disaccharide forms specific interactions with the enzyme, notably with the arginine stack distinctive of ChonB (15). The sulfo group of GalNac-4S^E1 establishes a salt bridge with Arg-199 and a hydrogen bond with Arg-161 through a water molecule. The hydroxyl group O1 and the N-acetyl group are hydrogen-bonded to the main chain carbonyl group of Tyr-197 and His-159, respectively. The L-iduronic acid does not interact with the enzyme, but is stabilized by an intramolecular hydrogen bond between its hydroxyl group O3 and the sulfo group of GalNac-4S^E1.

The Active Site of Chondroitin B Lyase Contains a Calcium Ion—In the DS^hexa complex, an additional spherical electron density was identified within the active site located between the IdoUA at subsite +1 (UA^C2) and the sixth and seventh T3 loops (Fig. 2A). Its intensity in the 2F_o - F_c map is 11, a value greater than for the sulfur atoms, the heaviest atom found in either the protein or the DS oligosaccharides. Based on the strong electron density and the coordination geometry, we have modeled this electron density feature as a Ca²⁺ ion with full occupancy. In the refined structure, its thermal factor (6.9 Ų) is close to that of the surrounding protein atoms (B_average = 6.1 Ų) and there are no positive or negative peaks nearby in the final F_o - F_c map. This ion has seven oxygen ligands arranged in pentagonal bipyramidal coordination with distances in the range of 2.32-2.45 Å (Fig. 3A). The five equatorial ligands are carboxyl oxygens OE1 and OE2 of Glu-243, carboxyl oxygen OE1 of Glu-245, the carbonyl oxygen OE2 of Asn-243, as well as the carboxyl oxygen O6_A of UA^C2 in the disaccharide (+1 subsite). The two axial ligands are water molecules. The comparison of this ChonB-DS complex with the native ChonB (1DBG [PDB] ; Ref. 15) shows that the Ca²⁺ binding site is only partially preformed; the Glu-243 and Glu-245 side chains maintain the same conformation in the native and Ca²⁺-bound forms, whereas Asn-213 changes the orientation of its side chain (1 = 120°, 2 = 60°) upon binding.

Effect of Calcium on the Activity of Chondroitinase B—Although the activities of pectate lyases show an absolute requirement for calcium (46), previous reports suggested that ChonB does not require Ca²⁺ ions for activity (11, 12). This assertion remained undisputed in the most recent work on this enzyme. However, the presence of this unexpected Ca²⁺ ion in the active site led us to reconsider the potential influence of this ion on ChonB activity.

The enzyme was incubated with 1 mg/ml DS at 30 °C, and the appearance of product was monitored as an increase in absorbance at 232 nm, the _max of the ^4,5 bond formed in the product (38). Increasing the calcium concentration led to a significant increase in the activity of the enzyme, with maximal observed activity at 5 mM calcium (Fig. 4). In addition, the presence of 5 mM EGTA, a specific chelator of calcium, led to a complete ablation of chondroitinase B activity. In accordance with earlier studies (11, 12), the addition of increasing amounts of other divalent ions such as magnesium, manganese, and zinc had no significant enhancing effect on the activity of enzyme (data not shown). Therefore, chondroitinase B appears to demonstrate an absolute and specific requirement for calcium for maximal activity.

View larger version (8K): [in this window] [in a new window]   FIG. 4. Effect of Ca2+ on the activity of chondroitinase B. The activity of ChonB toward dermatan sulfate (1 mg/ml) was measured in the presence of increasing calcium concentrations. The enzyme demonstrated maximal activity in the presence of 5 mM Ca2+.

View this table: [in this window] [in a new window]   TABLE IV Ratio of di4S to total peak area for chondroitinase B and mutants

In the first approach, the conformations of the IdoUA in the +1 and -2 subsites were not fixed. The perturbation induced by reducing the bond distance from approximately 3.0 Å to 1.4 Å between GalNac-4S in the -1 subsite and IdoUA in the +1 subsite was distributed to the remaining structure using force field-based energy minimization. The modeled tetrasaccharide substrate, which preserves closely the interactions with the active site amino acids and the calcium ion, displayed a highly constrained structure compared with the uniform extended helical conformation of free DS (Fig. 5, Table V). In addition, the model shows a strained endocyclic conformation for the iduronic acid that binds at the +1 subsite. It is known that the pyranose ring of the L--iduronic acid is characterized by conformational equilibrium between three almost equi-energetic conformers: ¹C₄, ⁴C₁ chair, and the ²S₀ skew-boat (see Ref. 47 and references therein). As listed in Table VI, the pyranose ring of this iduronate adopts a distorted conformation with the major contribution from the less stable ^2,5B boat conformer. We note that the other three residues of the modeled ChonB-bound DS tetrasaccharide adopt their respective preferred ring conformations, ⁴C₁ for GalNac-4S and ²S₀ for the terminal IdoUA.

View larger version (50K): [in this window] [in a new window]   FIG. 5. Model of the DS tetrasaccharide substrate at the active site of ChonB. A, the electrostatic complementarity between the negatively charged sulfate and carboxylate groups of the substrate and the positive electrostatic potential at the molecular surface of the binding site. The electrostatic potential is calculated using the AMBER charge set (39) with a protein interior dielectric constant of 4 and an ionic strength of 0.150 M and is displayed between -15 kT/e (deep red)to +15 kT/e (deep blue) using the program GRASP (67). All hydrogen and non-hydrogen atoms of the protein, the Ca2+ ion, and its two coordinating water molecules are included for the construction of the molecular surface and calculation of the electrostatic potential. B, zoom of the active site region displaying the proximity of the putative catalytic residues Lys-250 and Arg-271 to the cleavage site of the substrate. The molecular surface patches associated with the NH2 group of the putative general base Lys-250 are colored in green, and those belonging to the guanidinium group of putative general acid Arg-271 are colored in magenta.

Sequence Conservation in Family 6 Polysaccharide Lyases—To aid in the identification of functionally important residues, we have analyzed the pattern of amino acid conservation in chondroitinase B. This enzyme was classified to family 6 of polysaccharide lyases in CAZy data base (afmb.cnrs-mrs.fr/~cazy/CAZY/index.html), which was composed until recently of only two other enzymes, a bacterial alginate lyase and a putative polysaccharide lyase from Streptomyces coelicolor (48). In the draft genome of the marine bacterium Microbulbifer degradans (49), we have identified four open reading frames of unknown specificity, which display clear sequence similarities to ChonB. An updated sequence alignment of the PL-6 family is shown in Fig. 6.

View larger version (71K): [in this window] [in a new window]   FIG. 6. Structure-based sequence alignment of the family 6 of polysaccharide lyases. Members of the PL-6 family are compared with the secondary structures of P. heparinus chondroitin B lyase. Alpha helices and beta strands are represented as helices and arrows, respectively, and beta turns are marked with TT. This sequence alignment was created using the following sequences from GenBankTM: P. heparinus ChonB (AAC83384 [GenBank] residues 43-418), Pseudomonas sp. alginate lyase (BAA01182 [GenBank] residues 2-346), S. coelicolor A3(2) putative lyase (CAB61820 [GenBank] residues 70-408), and four open reading frames from M. degradans (ZP_00068043, residues 53-413; ZP_00068303, residues 112-478; ZP_00068304, residues 39-428; ZP_00065540, residues 396-456). Dark shaded boxes enclose conserved positions, and light shaded boxes show positions with homologous residues. Figure was prepared using the program ESPript (68).

	DISCUSSION

TOP ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION REFERENCES

GAG-Protein Interactions in the Active Site—Based on analysis of the present co-crystal structures, ChonB binds DS essentially through ionic interactions involving its anionic groups. These interactions are either direct, with basic residues of the protein (Arg-219, Lys-250, Arg-318, Arg-363, and Arg-364), or indirect, with a Ca²⁺ ion coordinated by acidic residues (Glu-243 and Glu-245). ChonB also establishes numerous specific hydrogen bonds with the hydroxyl groups of the sugars, but does not utilize aromatic staking with the pyranose rings of DS.

Thus, ChonB displays a mechanism of GAG recognition, which significantly differs from that of chondroitin AC lyases, which degrade chondroitin, chondroitin-4-S, chondroitin-6-S, and also hyaluronic acid (13, 14). These enzymes adopt a fold radically different from the right-handed -helix fold and recognize its various substrates mainly through the stacking of aromatic rings against the pyranose rings, with only some contribution from ionic interactions (26, 50, 51). This interaction mode is rather typical of enzymes acting on neutral polysaccharides (52) and probably facilitates the binding of GAGs with various patterns of sulfation. In contrast, the strong electrostatic binding of the sulfate groups by Arg-318/Arg-264 in the -1 subsite and Gln-175/Lys-250 in the +2 subsite is likely responsible for the specificity of ChonB for the O-sulfation at the C4 position of the GalNac residues, one of the hallmark modifications of DS.

The chondroitinase B resembles other -helical polysaccharide lyases, rather than the chondroitin AC lyases, not only in its fold but also in the nature of its interactions with the oligosaccharide substrate. This unusual fold has been proposed to be well adapted for the recognition of highly polyanionic polysaccharides (19). ChonB displays a recognition mechanism in between those of family GH-28 endopolygalacturonases (53), family GH-82 -carrageenases (54), and family PL-1 pectate lyases (23). The first two enzymes, glycosyl hydrolases, recognize the anionic groups of their respective substrate (carboxyl groups for polygalacturonic acids, sulfo groups for -carrageenan) through direct ionic interactions with conserved basic amino acids (53, 54). In contrast, PL-1 pectate lyases bind polygalacturonic acids mainly through indirect ionic interactions involving the coordination of calcium ions (23). The presence of both modes of interaction in ChonB may suggest an evolutionary adaptation of the -helix fold to the hybrid nature of dermatan sulfate composed of alternating sulfohexamine and uronic acid moieties.

Structural Basis for Substrate Recognition—Understanding the structural basis for specificity of chondroitinase B involved determining the role of the C5 epimerization and 4-O sulfation modifications in recognition and binding of dermatan sulfate in the active site of the enzyme. The role of the 4-sulfation was attributed to the specific ionic contacts made by the 4-O sulfate groups of the substrate in the -1 and +2 subsites with the basic amino acids in the active site, and which act as anchor points that support bending of the substrate oligosaccharide as it binds to the enzyme. The next step was to understand how chondroitinase B distinguishes glucuronic acid containing 4-sulfated CS substrates from iduronic acid containing DS substrates.

The binding of C4S^tetra in the "-" subsites demonstrates that the discrimination by ChonB between the L-iduronic and D-glucuronic acid occurs not in the - subsites but in the + subsites of the binding site. Given that the carboxyl group of the L-iduronate at the +1 subsite coordinates the Ca²⁺ ion, a productive binding of a DS substrate seems to require its interaction with this Ca²⁺ and the formation of a proper Ca²⁺-binding site. This conclusion is strongly supported by the inability of the reduced DS tetrasaccharide to bind the active site as well as by the lack of ChonB activity in the presence of the calcium chelator, EGTA (Table IV). Because DS and chondroitin-4-sulfate only differ by the epimerization of their uronic acid residues, the carboxyl group of a D-glucuronic acid is likely not correctly oriented to coordinate the Ca²⁺ ion, precluding CS to simultaneously bind the - and + subsites. The Ca²⁺ ion has been observed neither in the native ChonB structure nor in the complexes with oligosaccharides occupying only the - subsites.

To better understand the structural basis for substrate recognition by ChonB, intact tetrasaccharide substrates were modeled into the active site of the enzyme using two different approaches. The models of the tetrasaccharide from both these approaches revealed a significant deviation in the conformation of the bound tetrasaccharide in the active site from the uniform helical conformation (extended) of a free substrate to make optimal contacts with the active site amino acids and importantly the calcium ion. The two molecular models constructed here can also be viewed as two snapshots in the recognition of the DS tetrasaccharide substrate at the ChonB active site. In an early substrate-enzyme encounter complex, the dermatan sulfate substrate would fold into the required constrained compact conformation at the scissile glycosidic linkage, which is facilitated by one of the several low energy conformations characteristic to the iduronic acid. Final docking of the DS substrate in the productive binding mode and with the correct intermolecular contacts would then be accomplished at the cost of deforming the low energy ring conformation of the IdoUA at the +1 subsite into a higher energy one. It is quite plausible that the introduction of conformational strain, both glycosidic and endocyclic, around the substrate cleavage site in the substrate-enzyme adduct would represent one of the mechanisms by which ChonB achieves its catalytic efficiency in DS lysis.

Calculation of the helical parameters of the substrate highlight its sharp bend by deviation from the uniform helical conformation. Furthermore, the modeling studies also indicate that the relatively rigid ring conformation of the glucuronic acid (predominantly the ⁴C₁ form) in chondroitin sulfates is not able to accommodate the highly constrained conformation of the substrate in the active site. Thus, the topology and distribution of basic amino acids of the chondroitinase B active site and the Ca²⁺ ion coordination impose unique structural constraints in terms of sulfation pattern and conformation of the substrate that can be satisfied only by an iduronic acid-containing dermatan sulfate substrate.

Catalytic Machinery of ChonB and the Role of Ca²⁺—Although the glycosyl hydrolases cleave glycosidic bonds through an acid/base hydrolysis mechanism releasing a saturated oligosaccharide, the polysaccharide lyases perform a -elimination reaction resulting in a 4,5-unsaturated product. This mechanism consists of three steps: neutralization of the carboxyl group of the uronic acid, lowering the pK_a of the H5 proton; abstraction of this proton by a Brønsted base; and -elimination of the substituent at O4 with concomitant formation of a C4-C5 double bond within the uronic acid at the nonreducing end. This substituent is protonated either by a Brønsted acid or by proton abstraction from a water molecule (10). Three different mechanistic pathways are possible. In the E1-type reaction, the C-X bond is cleaved before C-H, resulting in a carbocation intermediate. The E1cb pathway involves a carbanion intermediate formed by -carbon proton abstraction with subsequent leaving-group elimination. In the E2 reaction the proton abstraction and leaving-group elimination occur simultaneously (55).

The location of the Ca²⁺ ion in the active site of the DS^hexa co-crystal provided insight into the role of specific residues in the active site of chondroitinase B. Asn-213, Glu-243, and Glu-245 clearly are important for chelating the Ca²⁺ ion, as indicated by both the co-crystal structures and the site-directed mutagenesis data (Fig. 3 and Table IV). These residues along with the active site water molecules position the Ca²⁺ ion for a specific interaction with the C5 carboxyl group on the iduronic acid in subsite +1. Therefore, the Ca²⁺ ion, not Lys-250 as previously suggested (20), appears to neutralize the negative charge on the carboxylate group, effectively lowering the pK_a of the C5 proton (Fig. 7). This is the requisite first step in the -elimination mechanism by which chondroitinase B degrades DS. The calcium ligands, Asn-213, Glu-243, and Glu-245, are conserved in the family PL-6 (Fig. 6), suggesting that all the members of this family also display a calcium-dependent catalytic machinery. Interestingly, calcium bound within the active site of heparinase I (CB1) was proposed to play a similar role in the degradation of its heparin substrate (24).

View larger version (16K): [in this window] [in a new window]   FIG. 7. Putative mechanism for P. heparinus chondroitin B lyase and related enzymes from family PL-6. The calcium ion binds the carboxylic group of the L-iduronic acid at subsite +1, lowering the pKa of the H5-proton. The proton abstraction is performed by Lys-250, whereas the glycosidic bond is protonated by Arg-271, followed by leaving group elimination. The order of bond cleavage remains uncertain.

The -NH₃ moiety of Lys-250 is the only functional group that is in the vicinity of the C5 proton of the iduronic acid in subsite +1 (Fig. 3B). Therefore, given the complete lack of activity of the K250A mutant (20), this lysine likely acts as a base in the abstraction of the C5 proton from the iduronate. The theoretical pK_a of the terminal amine of the lysine side chain is 10.5, relatively high for the residue to be acting as a general base. However, an arginine residue (theoretical pK_a of 12.5) has been shown to act as a base in the -elimination of pectin substrates by members of the PL-1 and PL-10 pectate lyase families (23, 56). Therefore, it is not unlikely that the local microenvironment stabilizes the deprotonated form of Lys-250, allowing it to abstract the C5 proton from the iduronic acid.

Based on their position in the vicinity of the DS reaction product, His-272 and Glu-333 were suggested as potential Brønsted bases (15, 20). Their involvement in the catalysis seems supported by the significant decrease of turnover ratio resulting from their replacement by alanines. Nevertheless, these substitutions do not completely abolish the activity, and the product profiles of these mutants after 12 h of digestion are identical to that of the wild-type ChonB (20). In the DS^hexa complex, His-272 and Glu-333 are both hydrogen-bonded to the hydroxyl O3 of the L-iduronic acid at the +1 subsite, but are far from the C5 carbon atom (5.6 and 5.5 Å, respectively) (Fig. 3B). Although His-272 is almost invariant in the family PL-6, Glu-333 is located in the loop 31-32, which is highly divergent in length and sequence in this family. Taken together, these biochemical and structural data rule out a direct involvement of His-272 and Glu-333 in the proton abstraction from C5 atom in the family PL-6. However, the role of these residues in ChonB seems to be related to proper substrate binding rather than directly to catalysis.

Finally, the anomeric hydroxyl group O1 of the GalNac4S at the -1 subsite is involved in a network of interactions that include Arg-271 and Glu-333 (Fig. 3B). It is hydrogen-bonded to the NH₂ (2.74 Å) of Arg-271 and at a distance of 3.7 Å from OE2 of Glu-333. The NH₂ of Arg-271 and OE2 of Glu-333 are also hydrogen-bonded (3.0 Å). In addition, the OE2 of Glu-333 makes a hydrogen bond to O3 of L-iduronic acid in the +1 subsite, whereas the NE of Arg-271 is hydrogen-bonded to O5 of the +1 subsite GalNac4S. The guanidinium group of this invariant arginine is sandwiched between the aromatic side chains of Trp-298 and His-272. Based on the observed geometry, Arg-271 and Glu-333 could provide a relay system functioning as a Brønsted acid, giving a proton to the oxygen atom O1 of GalNac4S^B1 when the glycosidic bond is eliminated. However, Glu-333 is not conserved throughout the family PL-6, suggesting that an accessory function of this glutamate is limited to ChonB. Because of its invariance, Arg-271 is likely the key residue in the protonation of the (1,4) linkage (Fig. 7). The mutation R271A resulted in an insoluble protein (20), preventing the exact determination of the role of this residue in catalysis. In the current study, two other less drastic substitutions of Arg-271 to a lysine or glutamate led, as expected, to substantially reduced activity. R271K is 10-fold less active than the wild type enzyme, whereas R271E mutation results is complete loss of activity (Table IV). These effects of mutations of Arg-271 on activity are in agreement with the postulated role of this residue as a Brønsted acid during catalysis.

The bond cleavage order is difficult to predict based only on the structural data. Recently, Rye and Withers (57) have elegantly demonstrated that chondroitin AC lyase proceeds according to a stepwise mechanism, with the deprotonation as a rate-limiting step. However, this result is not directly applicable to ChonB, because the catalytic machineries of these two enzymes are unrelated. In the case of Pel10Acm, the lack of a Brønsted acid in the vicinity of the scissile glycosidic bond was proposed as a sign that no negative charge occurs at this center, ruling out the E1-type reaction (56). This argument does not apply here because of the presence of Arg-271 in a proximity to the glycosidic bond.

Polycationic Character of ChonB May Play a Role in the in Vivo Dissociation of Dermatan Sulfate Aggregates—The presence of a DS disaccharide bound to the external surface of ChonB on the opposite side to the active site raises intriguing questions concerning the potential function of this GAG-binding site. The electrostatic potential on this side of ChonB surface is markedly positive and is characterized by an unusual arginine stack (Arg-129, Arg-161, and Arg-199). The NE and NH₂ groups of Arg-129 are involved in a bidentate salt bridge with Asp-163, the carboxylic group of this latter residue interacting also with His-164 ND1. These residues form a sequence pattern (R¹²⁹, ¹⁶¹RXDH¹⁶⁴), which is conserved in five of the seven members of the PL-6 family (Fig. 6), suggesting that this carbohydrate-binding site may have a specific function in those polysaccharide lyases. Such an alignment of arginine residues was also found on the external surface of a -helical -carrageenase (19). This enzyme degrades the -carrageenan fibers according to a highly processive mechanism (54). These crystalline fibers are made of double helices of sulfated galactans aggregated through the chelation of Ca²⁺ ions (58, 59). Prior to the processive degradation of single -carrageenan chain, this -helical hydrolase first dissociates the crystalline fibers. The basic outer surface of -carrageenase was proposed to act as a polycation, which would displace the Ca²⁺ counter-ions to bind the sulfo groups of -carrageenan, thus resulting in the disruption of the fibers (54). According to the polyelectrolyte theory, a polycation indeed has a higher affinity for a polyanion than free counter-cations (60). The binding of a DS oligosaccharide in the vicinity of the arginine stack of ChonB is consistent with the hypothesis that the noncatalytic basic surface of some -helical polysaccharide lyases could interact with polyanionic polysaccharides. As in other -helical enzymes (23, 53, 54, 61, 62), the active site of ChonB can only accommodate a single polysaccharide chain. Therefore, DS chains that are either auto-aggregated through the chelation of cations (4, 63) or bound to basic domains of extracellular matrix proteins (64-66) are not available as proper substrates for ChonB. We propose that, similarly to -carrageenases (54), the basic outer surface of ChonB may disrupt these electrostatic interactions and liberate DS single chains that would then be suitable substrates for this enzyme.

Conclusions—In summary, this study has combined crystallographic structural data, enzyme kinetic analysis, and modeling to develop a more complete understanding of how chondroitinase B degrades DS. The crystal structures of DS^hexa and CS^tetra provide a more complete picture of the active site of the enzyme including the identification of the +1 and +2 subsites, as well as the putative -4, -3, +3, and +4 subsites. Additionally, the DS^hexa structure revealed for the first time the presence of a Ca²⁺ ion coordinated by amino acids in the protein, as well as by a carboxylate on the IdoUA in the substrate. Subsequent kinetic analysis and site-directed mutagenesis experiments confirmed that calcium is essential for the activity of chondroitinase B and that Glu-243, Glu-245, and Asn-213 are required for the proper chelation of Ca²⁺ ion in the active site. The structure of an intact tetrasaccharide substrate within the chondroitinase B active site was explored through two unique modeling approaches, the results of which shed further light onto the discrimination of DS versus CS substrates by chondroitinase B and the role of Ca²⁺ in proper substrate binding and catalysis. As such, this study represents a multifaceted endeavor to understand the active site chemistry of chondroitinase B, the only known enzyme that degrades DS as its sole substrate.

	FOOTNOTES

 
The atomic coordinates and structure factors (code 1OFL [PDB] and 1OFM [PDB] ) have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank, Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (http://www.rcsb.org/).

^* This work was supported in part by Canadian Institutes for Health Research Grant 200009MOP-84373-M-CFAA-26164 (to M. C.); National Institutes of Health Grants GM38060, HL52622, and HL62244 (to R. J. L.); and National Institutes of Health Grant GM57073 (to R. S.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

^¶ Present address: Végétaux Marins et Biomolécules, UMR 7139 (CNRS/UPMC/Goömar), Station Biologique, Place Georges Teissier, BP 74, 29682 Roscoff Cedex, Bretagne, France.

To whom correspondence should be addressed: Biotechnology Research Institute, National Research Council of Canada, 6100 Royalmount Ave., Montreal, Quebec H4P 2R2, Canada. Tel.: 514-496-6321; Fax: 514-496-5143; E-mail: mirek{at}bri.nrc.ca.

¹ The abbreviations used are: GAG, glycosaminoglycan; ChonB, chondroitinase B; DS, dermatan sulfate; CS, chondroitin sulfate; IdoUA, L-iduronic acid; GlcUA, D-glucuronic acid; DS^penta, dermatan sulfate pentasaccharide; DS^hexa, dermatan sulfate hexasaccharide; C4S^tetra, chondroitin-4-sulfate tetrasaccharide; DS^red, reduced dermatan sulfate tetrasaccharide; PDB, Protein Data Bank.

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