Biomedical subjects

B Hazes

Publications and source records attributed to B Hazes.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1992

Effects of changing the interaction between subdomains on the thermostability of Bacillus neutral proteases.

Variants of the thermolabile neutral protease (Npr) of B. subtilis (Npr-sub) and the thermostable neutral protease of B. stearothermophilus (Npr-ste) were produced by means of site-directed mutagenesis and the effects of the mutations on thermostability were determined. Mutations were designed to alter the interaction between the middle and C-terminal subdomain of these enzymes. In all Nprs a cluster of hydrophobic contacts centered around residue 315 contributes to this interaction. In thermostable Nprs (like Npr-ste) a 10 residue beta-hairpin, covering the domain interface, makes an additional contribution. The hydrophobic residue at position 315 was replaced by smaller amino acids. In addition, the beta-hairpin was deleted from Npr-ste and inserted into Npr-sub. The changes in thermostability observed after these mutations confirmed the importance of the hydrophobic cluster and of the beta-hairpin for the structural integrity of Nprs. Combined mutants showed that the effects of individual mutations affecting the interaction between the subdomains were not additive. The effects on thermostability decreased as the strength of the subdomain interaction increased. The results show that once the subdomain interface is sufficiently stabilized, additional stabilizing mutations at the same interface do not further increase thermostability. The results are interpreted on the basis of a model for the thermal inactivation of neutral proteases, in which it is assumed that inactivation results from the occurrence of local unfolding processes that render these enzymes susceptible to autolysis.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1989

Crystallization properties and structure of Panulirus interruptus haemocyanin.

Electron-microscopic studies revealed that two types of subunits of Panulirus interruptus haemocyanin crystallize in different ways. Homohexamers of subunit a give close-packed two-dimensional crystals whereas homohexamers of subunit c form open two-dimensional arrays. We applied computer-image analysis to these arrays and studied the differences in crystallization properties by combining the electron-microscopic data with amino acid sequence information and the X-ray diffraction model of subunit a.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1988

Model building of disulfide bonds in proteins with known three-dimensional structure.

As an aid in the selection of sites in a protein where a disulfide bond might be engineered, a computer program has been developed. The algorithm starts with the generation of C beta positions from the N, C alpha and C atom coordinates available from a three-dimensional model. A first set of residue pairs that might form a disulfide bond is selected on the basis of C beta-C beta distances between residues. Then, for each residue in this set, S gamma positions are generated, which satisfy the requirement that, with ideal values for the C alpha-C beta and C beta-S gamma bond lengths and for the bond angle at C beta, the distance between S gamma of residue 1 and C beta of residue 2 in a pair (determined by the bond angle at S gamma 2) is at, or very close to its ideal value. Usually two acceptable S gamma positions are found for each half cystine, resulting in up to four different conformations for the disulfide bond. Finally, these conformations are subjected to an energy minimization procedure to remove large deviations from ideal geometry and their final energies are calculated. User input determines which final conformations are energetically acceptable. These conformations are written to a file to allow further analysis and e.g. inspection on a computer graphics device.

Algorithms↗