The Evolutionary Origins of Detoxifying Enzymes

Abstract

Serum paraoxonases (PONs) are detoxifying lactonases that were first identified in mammals. Three mammalian families are known, PON1, 2, and 3 that reside primarily in the liver. They catalyze essentially the same reaction, lactone hydrolysis, but differ in their substrate specificity. Although some members are highly specific, others have a broad specificity profile. The evolutionary origins and substrate specificities of PONs therefore remain poorly understood. Here, we report a newly identified family of bacterial PONs, and the reconstruction of the ancestor of the three families of mammalian PONs. Both the mammalian ancestor and the characterized bacterial PONX_OCCAL were found to efficiently hydrolyze N -acyl homoserine lactones that mediate quorum sensing in many bacteria, including pathogenic ones. The mammalian PONs may therefore relate to a newly identified family of bacterial, PON-like "quorum-quenching" lactonases. The appearance of PONs in metazoa is likely to relate to innate immunity rather than detoxification. Unlike the bacterial PON, the mammalian ancestor also hydrolyzes, with low efficiency, lactones other than homoserine lactones, thus preceding the detoxifying functions that diverged later in two of the three mammalian families. The bifunctionality of the mammalian ancestor and the trade-off between the quorum-quenching and detoxifying lactonase activities explain the broad and overlapping specificities of some mammalian PONs versus the singular specificity of others. Background: Serum paraoxonases (PONs) comprise a family of mammalian detoxifying lactonases with different substrate specificities. Results: A newly identified bacterial PON and the reconstructed ancestor of mammalian PONs are quorum-quenching lactonases. Conclusion: PONs originated from quorum-quenching lactonases that later acquired new detoxifying functions. Significance: The evolutionary history of detoxifying enzymes may explain their ambiguous and overlapping specificity profiles.