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Structure of isocitrate lyase, a persistence factor of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Abstract

Isocitrate lyase (ICL) plays a pivotal role in the persistence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in mice by sustaining intracellular infection in inflammatory macrophages. The enzyme allows net carbon gain by diverting acetyl-CoA from β-oxidation of fatty acids into the glyoxylate shunt pathway. Given its potential as a drug target against persistent infections, we solved its structure without ligand and in complex with two inhibitors. Covalent modification of an active site residue, Cys 191, by the inhibitor 3-bromopyruvate traps the enzyme in a catalytic conformation with the active site completely inaccessible to solvent. The structure of a C191S mutant of the enzyme with the inhibitor 3-nitropropionate provides further insight into the reaction mechanism.

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Figure 1: Inhibition of ICL activity.
Figure 2: The structure of ICL.
Figure 3: Binding of 3-nitopropionate and glyoxylate.
Figure 4: Active site of ICL.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank F.J. Rotella at the SBC beam line 19-ID and W. Schildkamp and G. Navrotski at BioCARS beam line 14 for their help. Use of the Argonne National Laboratory Structural Biology Center beam lines at the Advanced Photon Source was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Research. Use of the BioCARS Sector 14 was supported by the NIH, National Center for Research Resources. K.H. zu B. and colleagues were responsible for generating data shown in Fig. 1. This work was supported by the NIH, the Robert A. Welch Foundation and Glaxo Wellcome.

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Correspondence to James C. Sacchettini.

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Sharma, V., Sharma, S., zu Bentrup, K. et al. Structure of isocitrate lyase, a persistence factor of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Nat Struct Mol Biol 7, 663–668 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/77964

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