Role of S114 in the NADH-induced conformational change and catalysis of 3α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/carbonyl reductase from Comamonas testosteroni

3α-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/carbonyl reductase reversibly catalyzes the oxidation of androsterone with NAD+ to form androstanedione and NADH. In this study, we characterize the role of the conserved residue S114 in cofactor binding and catalysis, using site-directed mutagenesis, steady-state kinetics, fluorescence quenching and anisotropy measurements. The catalytic efficiency of V/KNADHEt for wild-type and S114A is 1.5 × 107 and 3.8 × 103 M− 1 s− 1, respectively, suggesting that NADH association to wild-type and S114A mutant enzymes involves two steps, a bimolecular binding step and isomerization. The binding of NADH into a hydrophobic pocket in the active site of wild-type and S114A mutant enzymes restricts its motion and shields the fluorescence quenching from solvent, with an increase in the fluorescence intensity and a blue shift at the maximum wavelength. Furthermore, the binding of NADH leads to the protein fluorescence quenching, mainly due to fluorescence resonance energy transfer to NADH. S114A mutant enzyme decreases 3100-fold in V/Et with no apparent change in Km for substrates. Addition of NADH to S114A mutant enzyme induces a secondary structural change. These results suggest that S114 is important to maintain the correct conformation for the nucleotide binding and facilitate the reaction. Substitution of alanine for S114 eliminates the hydrogen bonding interaction with P185, causing a conformational change in a nonproductive binding of NADH and a significant loss of activity.