The hydrolytic dehalogenation of rac-1,3-dibromobutane catalyzed by the haloalkane dehalogenase LinB from Sphingobium japonicum UT26 proceeds in a sequential fashion: initial formation of intermediate haloalcohols followed by a second hydrolytic step to produce the final diol. Detailed investigation of the course of the reaction revealed favored nucleophilic displacement of the sec-halogen in t...

Haloalkane dehalogenases (HLDs) have recently been discovered in a number of bacteria, including symbionts and pathogens of both plants and humans. However, the biological roles of HLDs in these organisms are unclear. The development of efficient HLD inhibitors serving as molecular probes to explore their function would represent an important step toward a better understanding of these interest...

Haloalkane dehalogenase (DhlA) hydrolyzes short-chain haloalkanes to produce the corresponding alcohols and halide ions. Release of the halide ion from the active-site cavity can proceed via a two-step and a three-step route, which both contain slow enzyme isomerization steps. Thermodynamic analysis of bromide binding and release showed that the slow unimolecular isomerization steps in the thre...

Sulfur mustard is a chemical agent of high military and terroristic significance. No effective antidote exists, and sulfur mustard can be fairly easily produced in large quantity. Rapid field testing of sulfur mustard is highly desirable. Existing analytical devices for its detection are available but can suffer from low selectivity, laborious sample preparation, and/or the need for complex ins...

DmmA is a haloalkane dehalogenase (HLD) identified and characterized from the metagenomic DNA of a marine microbial consortium. Dehalogenase activity was detected with 1,3-dibromopropane as substrate, with steady-state kinetic parameters typical of HLDs (K(m) = 0.24 ± 0.05 mM, k(cat) = 2.4 ± 0.1 s(-1) ). The 2.2-Å crystal structure of DmmA revealed a fold and active site similar to other HLDs...

Tuberculosis, an epidemic disease, affects one third of world population. The causative agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis is targeted in various approaches for the control of tuberculosis. The major factor of bacterial survival in the host depends on the proteins expressed in macrophages to overcome the host immunity. In this study, we carried out computational analysis on weak interactions to s...

Haloalkane dehalogenase (HD) catalyzes the hydrolysis of haloalkanes via a covalent enzyme-substrate intermediate. Fusing a target protein to an HD variant that cannot hydrolyze the intermediate enables labeling of the target protein with a haloalkane in cellulo. The utility of extant probes is hampered, however, by background fluorescence as well as limited membrane permeability. Here, we repo...

A putative haloalkane dehalogenase has been identified in a marine Rhodobacteraceae and subsequently cloned and over-expressed in Escherichia coli. The enzyme has highest activity towards the substrates 1,6-dichlorohexane, 1-bromooctane, 1,3-dibromopropane and 1-bromohexane. The crystal structures of the enzyme in the native and product bound forms reveal a large hydrophobic active site cavity....

Mechanistic insight into the biochemistry of carbon-halogen bond cleavage is rapidly growing because of recent structural, biochemical and computational studies that have provided further insight into how haloalkane dehalogenases achieve their impressive catalytic activity. An occluded water-free active-site cavity together with strong hydrogen bond donating groups reduce the transition state e...

Haloalkane dehalogenases (HLDs) are enzymes that catalyze the cleavage of carbon-halogen bonds by a hydrolytic mechanism. Although comparative biochemical analyses have been published, no classification system has been proposed for HLDs, to date, that reconciles their phylogenetic and functional relationships. In the study presented here, we have analyzed all sequences and structures of genuine...