Arginase of Helicobacter Gastric Pathogens Uses a Unique Set of Non-catalytic Residues for Catalysis

Helicobacter pylori arginase, a bimetallic enzyme, is crucial for pathogenesis of the bacterium in human stomach. Despite conservation of the signature motifs in all arginases, the H. pylori homolog has a non-conserved motif (¹⁵³ESEEKAWQKLCSL¹⁶⁵), whose role was recently shown to be critical for its stability and function. The sequence analysis also reveals the presence of this motif with critical residues in the homolog of other Helicobacter gastric pathogens. However, the underlying mechanism for its significance in catalytic function is not clearly understood. Using H. pylori arginase, our studies reveal that the interactions of His122 and Tyr125 with Trp159 are indispensable for tertiary structural intactness through optimal positioning of the motif and thus for the catalytic function. The single and double mutants of His122 and Tyr125 not only enhanced the solvent accessibility and conformational flexibility of Trp159 in the holo protein, but also showed complete loss of catalytic activity. An intact bimetallic center and unaltered substrate binding indicate that proper positioning of the motif by aromatic-aromatic contact is vital for the generation of a catalytically active conformation. Additionally, the metal ions provide higher stability to the holo protein. We also identified the presence of these two residues exclusively in arginase of other Helicobacter gastric pathogens, which may have similar function. Therefore, to the best of our knowledge, these findings highlight for the first time that arginase of all Helicobacter gastric pathogens utilizes a unique non-catalytic triad for catalysis, which could be exploited for therapeutics.