RESEARCH ARTICLE The D-Lactate Dehydrogenase from Sporolactobacillus inulinus Also Possessing Reversible Deamination Activity

Hydroxyacid dehydrogenases are responsible for the conversion of 2-keto acids to 2-hydro-xyacids and have a wide range of biotechnological applications. In this study, a D-lactate dehydrogenase (D-LDH) from a Sporolactobacillus inulinus strain was experimentally veri-fied to have both the D-LDH and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) activities (reversible deamination). The catalytic mechanism was demonstrated by identification of key residues from the crystal structure analysis and site-directed mutagenesis. The Arg234 and Gly79 resi-dues of this enzyme play a significant role in both D-LDH and GDH activities. His295 and Phe298 in DLDH744 were identified to be key residues for lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity only whereas Tyr101 is a unique residue that is critical for GDH activity. Characteriza-tion of the biochemical properties contributes to understanding of the catalytic mechanism of this novel D-lactate dehydrogenase enzyme