Crystal structure of UDP-glucose:anthocyanidin 3--glucosyltransferase from

Hiromoto, Takeshi; Honjo, Eijiro*; Tamada, Taro; Noda, Hisanobu*; Kazuma, Kohei*; Suzuki, Masahiko*; Kuroki, Ryota

Flowers of the butterfly pea () accumulate a group of polyacylated anthocyanins, named ternatins, in their petals. The first step in ternatin biosynthesis is the transfer of glucose from UDP-glucose to anthocyanidins such as delphinidin, a reaction catalyzed in by UDP-glucose:anthocyanidin 3--glucosyltransferase (3GT-A; AB185904). To elucidate the structure-function relationship of 3GT-A, recombinant 3GT-A was expressed in and its tertiary structure was determined to 1.85 , resolution by using X-ray crystallography. The structure of 3GT-A shows a common folding topology, the GT-B fold, comprised of two Rossmann-like // domains and a cleft located between the N- and C-domains containing two cavities that are used as binding sites for the donor (UDP-Glc) and acceptor substrates. By comparing the structure of 3GT-A with that of the flavonoid glycosyltransferase GT1 from red grape () in complex with UDP-2-deoxy-2-fluoro glucose and kaempferol, locations of the catalytic His-Asp dyad and the residues involved in recognizing UDP-2-deoxy-2-fluoro glucose were essentially identical in 3GT-A, but certain residues of GT1 involved in binding kaempferol were found to be substituted in 3GT-A. These findings are important for understanding the differentiation of acceptor-substrate recognition in these two enzymes.