Biomedical subjects

F van Voorst

Publications and source records attributed to F van Voorst.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

The high affinity ATP binding site modulates the SecA-precursor interaction.

SecA is the central component of the protein-translocation machinery of Escherichia coli. It is able to interact with the precursor protein, the chaperone SecB, the integral membrane protein complex SecYEG, acidic phospholipids and its own mRNA. We studied the interaction between prePhoE and SecA by using a site-specific photocrosslinking strategy. We found that SecA is able to interact with both the signal sequence and the mature domain of prePhoE. Furthermore, this interaction was dependent on the type of nucleotide bound. SecA in the ADP-bound conformation was unable to crosslink with the precursor, whereas the ATP-bound conformation was active in precursor crosslinking. The SecA-precursor interaction was maintained in the presence of E. coli phospholipids but was loosened by the presence of phosphatidylglycerol bilayers. Examining SecA ATP binding site mutants demonstrated that ATP hydrolysis at the N-terminal high affinity binding site is responsible for the changed interaction with the preprotein.

Adenosine Diphosphate↗

PubMed1998

Translocase-bound SecA is largely shielded from the phospholipid acyl chains.

Protein translocation in Escherichia coli is mediated by the SecA ATPase bound to the SecYEG membrane protein complex. SecA translocation ATPase activity as well as protein translocation is dependent on the presence of negatively charged lipids. By using a phospholipid with an acyl chain linked photoactivatable group, the lipid accessibility of SecA bound at the translocase was explored. SecA bound to lipid vesicles containing negatively charged lipids was found to be readily accessible for labeling by the photoactivatable phospholipid. The presence of an excess amount of SecYEG complex resulted in a remarkable reduction in the amount of lipid-accessible SecA irrespective of the nucleotide-bound form of SecA. These data demonstrate that the SecYEG-bound SecA is largely shielded from the phospholipid acyl chains and suggest the presence of two distinct pools of membrane-bound SecA that differ in the degree of lipid association.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

PubMed1996

Mutational analysis of the vacuolar sorting signal of procarboxypeptidase Y in yeast shows a low requirement for sequence conservation.

The core of the vacuolar targeting signal of yeast carboxypeptidase Y (CPY) is recognized by the receptor Vps10p and consists of four contiguous amino acid residues, Gln24-Arg-Pro-Leu27, near the amino terminus of the propeptide (Valls, L.A., Winther, J. R., and Stevens, T. H. (1990) J. Cell Biol. 111, 361-368; Marcusson, E. G., Horazdovsky, B. F., Cereghino, J. L., Gharakhanian, E., and Emr, S. D. (1994) Cell 77, 579-586). In order to determine the sequence specificity of the interaction with the sorting receptor, substitutions were introduced into this part of the propeptide by semirandom site-directed mutagenesis. The efficiency of vacuolar sorting by the mutants was determined by immunoprecipitation of CPY from pulse-labeled cells. It was found that amino acid residues Gln24 and Leu27 were the most important ones. While it appears that Gln24 is essential for proper function, Leu27 can be exchanged with the other hydrophobic amino acid residues, isoleucine, valine, and phenylalanine. Tolerance toward various substitutions for Arg25 is fairly high, while substitution of Pro26 for uncharged amino acid residues also resulted in only weak missorting. In addition to the low requirement for sequence conservation, the position of the targeting element relative to the amino terminus of the propeptide was analyzed and found not to be critical.

Amino Acid Sequence↗