Biomedical subjects

Andrea J Berman

Publications and source records attributed to Andrea J Berman.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

The phi29 DNA polymerase:protein-primer structure suggests a model for the initiation to elongation transition.

The absolute requirement for primers in the initiation of DNA synthesis poses a problem for replicating the ends of linear chromosomes. The DNA polymerase of bacteriophage phi29 solves this problem by using a serine hydroxyl of terminal protein to prime replication. The 3.0 A resolution structure shows one domain of terminal protein making no interactions, a second binding the polymerase and a third domain containing the priming serine occupying the same binding cleft in the polymerase as duplex DNA does during elongation. Thus, the progressively elongating DNA duplex product must displace this priming domain. Further, this heterodimer of polymerase and terminal protein cannot accommodate upstream template DNA, thereby explaining its specificity for initiating DNA synthesis only at the ends of the bacteriophage genome. We propose a model for the transition from the initiation to the elongation phases in which the priming domain of terminal protein moves out of the active site as polymerase elongates the primer strand. The model indicates that terminal protein should dissociate from polymerase after the incorporation of approximately six nucleotides.

Bacillus Phages↗

PubMed2006

A native to amyloidogenic transition regulated by a backbone trigger.

Many polypeptides can self-associate into linear, aggregated assemblies termed amyloid fibers. High-resolution structural insights into the mechanism of fibrillogenesis are elusive owing to the transient and mixed oligomeric nature of assembly intermediates. Here, we report the conformational changes that initiate fiber formation by beta-2-microglobulin (beta2m) in dialysis-related amyloidosis. Access of beta2m to amyloidogenic conformations is catalyzed by selective binding of divalent cations. The chemical basis of this process was determined to be backbone isomerization of a conserved proline. On the basis of this finding, we designed a beta2m variant that closely adopts this intermediate state. The variant has kinetic, thermodynamic and catalytic properties consistent with its being a fibrillogenic intermediate of wild-type beta2m. Furthermore, it is stable and folded, enabling us to unambiguously determine the initiating conformational changes for amyloid assembly at atomic resolution.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2005

A specific subdomain in phi29 DNA polymerase confers both processivity and strand-displacement capacity.

Recent crystallographic studies of phi29 DNA polymerase have provided structural insights into its strand displacement and processivity. A specific insertion named terminal protein region 2 (TPR2), present only in protein-primed DNA polymerases, together with the exonuclease, thumb, and palm subdomains, forms two tori capable of interacting with DNA. To analyze the functional role of this insertion, we constructed a phi29 DNA polymerase deletion mutant lacking TPR2 amino acid residues Asp-398 to Glu-420. Biochemical analysis of the mutant DNA polymerase indicates that its DNA-binding capacity is diminished, drastically decreasing its processivity. In addition, removal of the TPR2 insertion abolishes the intrinsic capacity of phi29 DNA polymerase to perform strand displacement coupled to DNA synthesis. Therefore, the biochemical results described here directly demonstrate that TPR2 plays a critical role in strand displacement and processivity.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2004

Correction of X-ray intensities from single crystals containing lattice-translocation defects.

In 1954, Howells and colleagues described an unusual diffraction pattern from imidazole methemoglobin crystals caused by lattice-translocation defects. In these crystals, two identical lattices coexist as a single coherent mosaic block, but are translated by a fixed vector with respect to each other. The observed structure is a weighted sum of the two identical but translated structures, one from each lattice; the observed structure factors are a weighted vector sum of the two structure factors with identical unit amplitudes but shifted phases. A general procedure is described to obtain the unit amplitudes of observed structure factors from a realigned single lattice through an X-ray intensity correction. An application of this procedure is made to determine the crystal structure of phi29 DNA polymerase at 2.2 A resolution using multiple isomorphous replacement and multiwavelength anomalous dispersion methods.

Bacillus Phages↗

PubMed2004

Insights into strand displacement and processivity from the crystal structure of the protein-primed DNA polymerase of bacteriophage phi29.

The DNA polymerase from phage phi29 is a B family polymerase that initiates replication using a protein as a primer, attaching the first nucleotide of the phage genome to the hydroxyl of a specific serine of the priming protein. The crystal structure of phi29 DNA polymerase determined at 2.2 A resolution provides explanations for its extraordinary processivity and strand displacement activities. Homology modeling suggests that downstream template DNA passes through a tunnel prior to entering the polymerase active site. This tunnel is too small to accommodate double-stranded DNA and requires the separation of template and nontemplate strands. Members of the B family of DNA polymerases that use protein primers contain two sequence insertions: one forms a domain not previously observed in polymerases, while the second resembles the specificity loop of T7 RNA polymerase. The high processivity of phi29 DNA polymerase may be explained by its topological encirclement of both the downstream template and the upstream duplex DNA.

Amino Acid Sequence↗