Penicillium camemberti galacturonate reductase: C-1 oxidation/reduction of uronic acids and substrate inhibition mitigation by aldonic acids.

The enzyme galacturonate oxidoreductase PcGOR from Penicillium camemberti reduces the C-1 carbon of D-glucuronate and C-4 epimer D-galacturonate to their corresponding aldonic acids, important reactions in both pectin catabolism and ascorbate biosynthesis. PcGOR was active on both glucuronic acid and galacturonic acid, with similar substrate specificities (k cat / K m) using the preferred co-substrate NADPH. Substrate acceptance extended to lactone congeners, and D-glucurono-3,6-lactone was converted to L-gulono-1,4-lactone, an immediate precursor of ascorbate. Reaction with glucuronate showed only minor substrate inhibition, and the product L-gulonate and L-gulono-1,4-lactone were both found to be competitive inhibitors with K i in the low mM range. In contrast, reaction with C-4 epimer galacturonate displayed marked substrate inhibition. Moreover, the product L-galactonate and L-galactono-1,4-lactone were observed to mitigate substrate inhibition by galacturonate, with the lactone having a greater effect than the acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]