The class C β-lactamase of Cltrobacter freundii GN346 is a typical cephalosporinase comprising 361 amino acids. The aspartic acid at position 217 and glutamic acid at position 219 in this β-lactamase were, respectively, previously shown not to be the counterpart of Glu166 (ABL166) in class A β-lactamases, even though sequence alignment of class A and C enzymes strongly suggested this possibility [(1990) FEBS Lett. 264, 211-214; (1990) J. Bacteriol. 172, 4348-4351]. We tried again to assign candidates for the counterpart of Glu166 through sequence alignment based on other criteria, the glutamic acids at positions 195 and 205 in the class C β-lactamase being selected. To investigate this possibility, these two glutamic acids were changed to glutamine, lysine or alanine, respectively. All the mutant enzymes showed more than 50% of the activity of the wild-type enzyme, indicating that the possibility was ruled out. These results strongly suggested the possibility that the class C β-lactamase lacks a functional acidic residue corresponding to Glu166 in class A enzymes.
