Pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC; EC 4.1.1.1) is a thiamine pyrophosphate- and Mg
2+ ion-dependent enzyme that catalyses the non-oxidative decarboxylation o
f pyruvate to acetaldehyde and carbon dioxide. It is rare in bacteria, but is a key enzyme in homo
fermentative metabolism, where ethanol is the major product. Here, the previously unreported crystal structure o
f the bacterial pyruvate decarboxylase
from
Zymobacter palmae is presented. The crystals were shown to di
ffract to 2.15 Å resolution. They belonged to space group
P2
1, with unit-cell parameters
a = 204.56,
b = 177.39,
c = 244.55 Å and
Rr.i.m. = 0.175 (0.714 in the highest resolution bin). The structure was solved by molecular replacement using PDB entry
f="http://scripts.iucr.org/cgi-bin/explore.cgi?pdbid=2vbi" rel="references:http://scripts.iucr.org/cgi-bin/explore.cgi?pdbid=2vbi">2vbi as a model and the
final
R values were
Rwork = 0.186 (0.271 in the highest resolution bin) and
Rfree = 0.220 (0.300 in the highest resolution bin). Each o
f the six tetramers is a dimer o
f dimers, with each monomer sharing its thiamine pyrophosphate across the dimer inter
face, and some contain ethylene glycol mimicking the substrate pyruvate in the active site. Comparison with other bacterial PDCs shows a correlation o
f higher thermostability with greater tetramer inter
face area and number o
f interactions.