The crystal structure of a hyperthermostable subfamily II isocitrate dehydrogenase from Thermotoga maritima

Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) from the hyperthermophile Thermotoga maritima ( Tm IDH) catalyses NADP + ‐ and metal‐dependent oxidative decarboxylation of isocitrate to α‐ketoglutarate. It belongs to the β‐decarboxylating dehydrogenase family and is the only hyperthermostable IDH identified within subfamily II. Furthermore, it is the only IDH that has been characterized as both dimeric and tetrameric in solution. We solved the crystal structure of the dimeric apo form of Tm IDH at 2.2 Å. The R ‐factor of the refined model was 18.5% ( R free 22.4%). The conformation of the Tm IDH structure was open and showed a domain rotation of 25–30° compared with closed IDHs. The separate domains were found to be homologous to those of the mesophilic mammalian IDHs of subfamily II and were subjected to a comparative analysis in order to find differences that could explain the large difference in thermostability. Mutational studies revealed that stabilization of the N‐ and C‐termini via long‐range electrostatic interactions were important for the higher thermostability of Tm IDH. Moreover, the number of intra‐ and intersubunit ion pairs was higher and the ionic networks were larger compared with the mesophilic IDHs. Other factors likely to confer higher stability in Tm IDH were a less hydrophobic and more charged accessible surface, a more hydrophobic subunit interface, more hydrogen bonds per residue and a few loop deletions. The residues responsible for the binding of isocitrate and NADP + were found to be highly conserved between Tm IDH and the mammalian IDHs and it is likely that the reaction mechanism is the same.