Myrosinase is a particular glucosidase which hydrolyzesa variety of plant 1-thio-
-
D-glucosidesknown as the glucosinolates. This enzyme, which is the onlyglycosidase able to hydrolyze these naturallyoccurring thioglucosides, has been found previously to display strongsequence similarities with family1
O-glycosidases. Myrosinase therefore offers theopportunity to compare the mechanism of enzymaticcleavage of
S- vs
O-glycosidic bonds. Thestereochemistry of hydrolysis of sinigrin by
Sinapisalbamyrosinase was followed by
1H NMR and the enzyme was foundto operate with a mechanism retainingthe anomeric configuration at the cleavage point exactly like therelated
O-glycosidases found in family1. Myrosinase was readily inactivated by2-deoxy-2-fluoroglucotropaeolin with inactivation kineticparameters of
Ki = 0.9 mM and
ki = 0.083 min
-1.Reactivation kinetic parameters were determined inbuffer only, with
kreact = 0.015h
-1 and
t1/2 = 46 h, and alsoin the presence of acceptors oftransglycosylation. No significant changes were observed in thepresence of methyl
-
D-glucoside, butwith azide anion the half-life of reactivation was found to be reducedto
t1/2 = 20 h. These resultssuggestthat myrosinase inhibition by 2-deoxy-2-fluoroglucotropaeolin occursvia the accumulation of a long-lifeglucosyl-enzyme intermediate and that the catalytic machinery of theenzyme is composed of only onecatalytic residue, a nucleophilic glutamate, while the acid catalystresidue found in the corresponding
O-glycosidases is missing.