Abstact

The X-ray crystal structure of the Co(II)-loaded form of the aminopeptidase from Aeromonas proteolytica ([CoCo(AAP)]) was solved to 2.2A resolution. [CoCo(AAP)] folds into an alpha/beta globular domain with a twisted beta-sheet hydrophobic core sandwiched between alpha-helices, identical to [ZnZn(AAP)]. Co(II) binding to AAP does not introduce any major conformational changes to the overall protein structure and the amino acid residues ligated to the dicobalt(II) cluster in [CoCo(AAP)] are the same as those in the native Zn(II)-loaded structure with only minor perturbations in bond lengths. The Co(II)-Co(II) distance is 3.3A. Tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris) coordinates to the dinuclear Co(II) active site of AAP with one of the Tris hydroxyl oxygen atoms (O4) forming a single oxygen atom bridge between the two Co(II) ions. This is the only Tris atom coordinated to the metals with Co1-O and Co2-O bonds distances of 2.2 and 1.9A, respectively. Each of the Co(II) ions resides in a distorted trigonal bipyramidal geometry. This important structure bridges the gap between previous structural and spectroscopic studies performed on AAP and is discussed in this context.