Replacement of Pro109 by His in TlpA, a thioredoxin-like protein from Bradyrhizobium japonicum, alters its redox properties but not its in vivo functions.

TlpA, the membrane-anchored, thioredoxin-like protein from Bradyrhizobium japonicum, is essential for cytochrome aa3 biogenesis. The periplasmic domain of TlpA was previously shown to have protein thiol:disulfide oxidoreductase activity and reducing properties similar to those of cytoplasmic thioredoxins. Here, we replaced the proline-109 in its active-site sequence C107 V108 P109 C110 by a histidine residue. The resulting active-site motif (CVHC) resembles that of oxidizing thiol:disulfide oxidoreductases such as protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) and DsbA. Indeed, the TlpA variant P109H was by 66 mV more oxidizing than the wild-type protein. Nevertheless, the altered protein was even more efficient in catalyzing the reduction of insulin disulfides by dithiothreitol than the wild-type due to a faster recycling of its catalytically active, reduced form. Cells of B. japonicum expressing only the mutated tlpA gene had the same phenotypes as wild-type cells, suggesting that the change in the redox potential of TlpA was not critical for its in vivo function.