Impact of Mutation at Position 330 of Luciferase on the Structure and Function

Luciferase from firefly Photinus pyralis (P .py) is a peroxisomal enzyme that converts a heterocyclic substrate luciferin to an excited state oxyluciferin in the presence of Mg+2-ATP and O2. Excited oxyluciferin with the emission of visible light is changed to its ground state. The combination of rapidity, sensitivity, and convenience has led to the development of a broad range of luminescence applications. In spite of wide ranges applications, firefly luciferase is unstable against changes in chemical and physical conditions, thereby reduce its precision and sensitivity. The most undesirable instability of the luciferase is low thermostability and high susceptibility to proteolytic degradation. According to previous studies, limited proteolysis by trypsin of P .py luciferase indicated six cleavage sites on two accessible regions: 206-220 (Including K206, R213, and R218) and 329-341 (Including K329, R330, and R337) on N-terminal domain. In this study, we used site-directed mutagenesis to introduce one point mutation on the 329-341 accessible regions of P. py luciferase, in order to investigate the role of R330 on the enzyme structure and function which R330 changed to Q. Based on limited proteolysis data, R330Q mutant didn’t significantly change compared to wild type, but this mutation caused several alterations in enzymatic properties including shifting the pH optimum from 7.5 to 8 and increasing the thermal inactivation. Based on the results, it can be concluded that whilst Arg330 is a conserved residue but not effects on trypsinolysis stability.