out at 4 °C. Cell paste (∼15 g) was resuspended in 0.05
M potassium phosphate buffer containing 0.05 M imidazole and 1 mM
phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride at pH 7.4. Cells were lysed with a Branson
sonifier for a total of 15 min with 3 s bursts at 50% amplitude interspersed
with 6 s pauses to equilibrate temperature. Insoluble components were
removed by centrifugation at 18000g. Clarified lysate
was loaded onto a 5 mL HisTrapHP column (GE Healthcare). Protein was
eluted with a linear gradient from 0.05 M potassium phosphate buffer
containing 0.05 M imidazole at pH 7.4 to one containing 0.5 M imidazole
over 25 mL. Fractions containing TNHase were identified by an orange
color and by SDS-PAGE, pooled, and concentrated using an Amicon Vivaspin
Turbo centrifugal concentrator (PES 10K membrane). The protein was
exchanged into 0.05 M HEPES·NaOH (pH 7.5) using a Bio-Rad 10DG
column. Protein aliquots were frozen in liquid N2 and stored
at −80 °C.