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P Strittmatter

Publications and source records attributed to P Strittmatter.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Characterization of the role of lysine 110 of NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase in the binding and oxidation of NADH by site-directed mutagenesis.

An expression vector for bovine NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase was used for site-directed mutagenesis of lysine 110, the residue previously implicated in NADH interactions with this flavoprotein. Replacement of this basic residue with an uncharged glutamine resulted in an increase of 3 orders of magnitude in the Km for NADH and a decrease in kcat of an order of magnitude, strongly implicating lysine 110 in both binding of NADH to the reductase and the orientation of the reduced nicotinamide group for rapid hydride ion transfer to the flavin. Substitution of lysine 110 by histidine, to provide a pH-sensitive positive charge at this position in the neutral pH range, exhibited only a moderate 25-fold increase in Km and a normal kcat at pH 6.0, whereas at pH 8.5 the Km for NADH rose to 238 microM with a decrease of 45% over unmodified enzyme in the kcat. A similar pH sensitivity in the inhibition constant for adenosine diphosphate ribose, lacking only the nicotinamide moiety of NADH, emphasizes the crucial role of the positive charge at this locus and is consistent with charge-pairing of lysine 110 with the pyrophosphate group of NADH or adenosine diphosphate ribose.

Adenosine Diphosphate Ribose

Characterization of lysyl residues of NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase implicated in charge-pairing with active-site carboxyl residues of cytochrome b5 by site-directed mutagenesis of an expression vector for the flavoprotein.

An expression vector for bovine NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase was constructed from two DNA fragments that were derived from beef liver poly(A+) RNA using the polymerase chain reaction. Site-directed mutagenesis of the 3 lysine residues of the reductase, previously implicated in the formation of active-site charge pairs with carboxylate residues of cytochrome b5, was then used to obtain the purified catalytic domains of flavoproteins modified at each of these sites. The observed marked decreases in catalytic efficiencies of substitutions of a negative charge at the normally positively charged residues with the catalytic domain of cytochrome b5 are consistent with their participation in the formation of charge pairs with carboxylate groups of the hemeprotein to optimize rapid electron transfer from the reductase flavin to the heme of the cytochrome.

Amino Acid Sequence

Bilayer structure and physical dynamics of the cytochrome b5 dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine interaction.

Cytochrome b5 is a microsomal membrane protein which provides reducing potential to delta 5-, delta 6-, and delta 9-fatty acid desaturases through its interaction with cytochrome b5 reductase. Low angle x-ray diffraction has been used to determine the structure of an asymmetrically reconstituted cytochrome b5:DMPC model membrane system. Differential scanning calorimetry and fluorescence anisotropy studies were performed to examine the bilayer physical dynamics of this reconstituted system. These latter studies allow us to constrain structural models to those which are consistent with physical dynamics data. Additionally, because the nonpolar peptide secondary structure remains unclear, we tested the sensitivity of our model to different nonpolar peptide domain configurations. In this modeling approach, the nonpolar peptide moiety was arranged in the membrane to meet such chemically determined criteria as protease susceptibility of carboxyl- and amino-termini, tyrosine availability for pH titration and tryptophan 109 location, et cetera. In these studies, we have obtained a reconstituted cytochrome b5:DMPC bilayer structure at approximately 6.3 A resolution and conclude that the nonpolar peptide does not penetrate beyond the bilayer midplane. Structural correlations with calorimetry, fluorescence anisotropy and acyl chain packing data suggest that asymmetric cytochrome b5 incorporation into the bilayer increases acyl chain order. Additionally, we suggest that the heme peptide:bilayer interaction facilitates a discreet heme peptide orientation which would be dependent upon phospholipid headgroup composition.

Biophysical Phenomena

Characterization of the covalent cross-links of the active sites of amidinated cytochrome b5 and NADH:cytochrome b5 reductase.

Preparations of amidinated cytochrome b5 and cytochrome b5 reductase, cross-linked by using a soluble carbodiimide to promote the formation of covalent bonds between carboxyl groups of the hemeprotein and nucleophilic residues of the flavoprotein at the surfaces involved in protein-protein contacts during electron transfer, have been used to characterize the charge pair interactions that occur during electron transfer between the free proteins. Sequence analyses of tryptic, V8 protease-, and Asp-N protease-generated peptides show that the heme propionyl carboxyl group at the surface of the cytochrome forms an ester bond with Ser162 of the reductase, thus implicating Lys163 as the normal participant in ionic bonding between the active sites of the two proteins. Moreover, Lys41 and Lys125 directly form amide bonds with carboxyl residues on the active-site surface of the cytochrome. In the case of Lys41, this involves Glu52 and/or Glu60, and Glu47 and/or Glu48 for Lys125, again implicating these residues as the groups that form charge pairs during normal interactions between the active sites of the two proteins.

Amides

NADH binding to cytochrome b5 reductase blocks the acetylation of lysine 110.

Lysine residues outside of the NADH-binding site in the soluble catalytic fragment of cytochrome b5 reductase were modified with ethyl acetimidate and acetic anhydride while the binding site was protected by formation of the stable oxidized nucleotide-reduced flavoprotein complex. This treatment had a minimal effect on enzyme activity; the turnover number with potassium ferricyanide was 45,300 in the native reductase and 39,200 in the derivative. Subsequent reaction with [3H]acetic anhydride after the removal of NADH resulted in the loss of 91% of the enzyme activity and the incorporation of 1.9 eq of acetyl groups into the protein. Treatment with 1 M hydroxylamine at pH 13 indicated that only lysine residues were acetylated, and fragmentation of the derivative with cyanogen bromide and subfragmentation with trypsin and chymotrypsin demonstrated that only Lys110 was labeled at high specific activity, with a stoichiometry of 0.83 acetyl groups/mol, in good agreement with the loss of enzyme activity observed. The remaining label was distributed at low levels among four or more additional lysine residues. These results demonstrate that only Lys110 is specifically protected by NADH and is therefore the residue which provides the epsilon-amino group implicated in NADH binding in cytochrome b5 reductase.

Acetylation

Bacterial synthesis of active rat stearyl-CoA desaturase lacking the 26-residue amino-terminal amino acid sequence.

Two clones containing inserts in pBR322 that together include the entire 1074-base open reading frame coding for the 358 amino acids of rat liver stearyl-CoA desaturase have been used to construct expression vectors for residues 3-358 and 27-358 fused to the first 6 residues of beta-galactosidase and several amino acids of the multiple cloning site of pUC8. Growth of transformed Escherichia coli under conditions for suppression of the lac promoter, followed by subsequent induction of these cultures results in the synthesis of higher levels of desaturase proteins than those found in induced rat liver. The proteins are almost completely associated with the membrane fraction of cell homogenates. Posttranslational iron insertion into the apoproteins, either in vitro with membrane preparations or by iron addition during induction, results in the formation of active holoenzyme which can be reconstituted with NADH cytochrome b5 reductase and cytochrome b5 to form an active stearyl-CoA desaturase system. The deletion of the first 26 amino-terminal amino acid residues does not affect either enzyme activity or membrane binding. Therefore, the unusual sequence of 11 residues containing 10 amino acids with hydroxyl groups plays no apparent significant role in either protein insertion into membranes or iron chelation. Since the protein product for residues 3-358 is processed even further to delete the initial 33 amino-terminal residues, the limiting polypeptide primary structure required for an active membrane-bound catalyst is even smaller than this initial deletion mutation indicates.

Amino Acid Sequence

Construction and sequence of cDNA for rat liver stearyl coenzyme A desaturase.

Hepatic poly(A+) RNA from rats induced for stearyl-CoA desaturase was used for primer-extension of cDNA coding for stearyl-CoA desaturase. Previously, Northern blot analysis showed that translatable desaturase mRNA is 4,900 nucleotides in length (Thiede, M. A., and Strittmatter, P. (1985) J. Biol. Chem. 260, 14459-14463). Six overlapping cDNAs, ranging from 850 to 1450 bases, were used to compile the 4,689-nucleotide sequence. The cDNA includes a 1,074-base open reading frame coding for 358 amino acids, corresponding to a molecular mass of 41,400 daltons. Positive identification of this open reading frame was accomplished by matching the amino acid sequence of both amino-terminal and cyanogen bromide peptides of the purified enzyme with regions of the sequence deduced from the cDNA. Amino acid composition data from the cDNA compares well with that from the desaturase. The protein contains 62% hydrophobic amino acids. An interesting feature of this mRNA is the 3,500-base 3' noncoding region, which has been localized on a single 3' exon by Southern blot analysis.

Amino Acid Sequence

The induction and characterization of rat liver stearyl-CoA desaturase mRNA.

Poly(A+) RNA isolated from livers of rats induced for stearyl-CoA desaturase contains elevated levels of mRNA for this enzyme which is translated in a rabbit reticulocyte system. The protein is immunologically and by peptide fingerprinting following Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease digestion identical to the isolated enzyme and, therefore, not synthesized in a detectable larger precursor form. The desaturase mRNA is selectively translated on free cytoplasmic polysomes from rat liver and represents at least a 40-fold increase in translatable mRNA in livers of induced animals. Northern blot analysis, using a cDNA probe complementary to rat liver desaturase mRNA, demonstrated that the desaturase is encoded by a 4900-base mRNA which is elevated approximately 50-fold in induced liver.

Animals

Intramembrane positions of membrane-bound chromophores determined by excitation energy transfer.

A detailed theory has been derived to evaluate the efficiency of nonradiative transfer of electronic excitation energy between nonassociated membrane-bound chromophores. Two different approaches are presented and shown to lead to identical numerical results. In the first of these the efficiency of transfer is computed from the decay with time of the donor excited state. In the second approach, the efficiency is calculated directly, demonstrating that to a high degree of accuracy the array of acceptors can be represented as consisting of a single nearest acceptor plus a continuum of secondary acceptors. A general expression is derived for the dipole-dipole orientation factor as a function of the position of an acceptor. It is shown that, by invoking the range of orientations that must be present at the very least in a particular case, the expected values of transfer efficiency may be limited to a relatively narrow band of uncertainty about those predicted for total randomization. In the limit of total randomization, the theory reduces to functions of but two dimensionless parameters: an effective number of acceptors and a normalized distance of closest approach, a parameter which in turn is a function of an excluded surface area and the depth in the membrane of a donor relative to that of an acceptor. Finally, data analysis procedures are presented whereby one can determine the surface density of acceptors for a known geometry or, alternatively, determine the distance of closest approach for known surface densities.

Energy Transfer

Intramembrane position of the fluorescent tryptophanyl residue in membrane-bound cytochrome b5.

We have developed a method to measure the intramembrane position of the fluorescent tryptophanyl residue in whole cytochrome b5 and the nonpolar membrane binding segment when these molecules are bound to phospholipid vesicles [Koppel, D.E., Fleming, P., & Strittmatter, P. (1979) Biochemistry (preceding paper in this issue)]. The method utilizes excitation energy transfer from the donor tryptophanyl residue in the protein to trinitrophenyl or danysl acceptor groups on the surface of the phospholipid bilayer. It was determined that that single fluorescent tryptophanyl residue in vesicle-bound cytochrome b5 and the nonpolar segment is located approximately 20-22 A below the surface of the bilayer. This position represents a minimum depth of penetration of this portion of the cytochrome in the membrane.

Animals

Formation and properties of 1000-A-diameter, single-bilayer phospholipid vesicles.

Two methods are reported for the formation of large, uniform-sized phospholipid vesicles. The methods involve the treatment of phospholipid, in the form of either small, sonicated vesicles or a dry lipid film, at a molar ratio of deoxycholate to phospholipid of 1:2. Subsequent removal of deoxycholate yields a stable preparation of vesicles. These vesicles are bounded by a single bilayer, have an average diameter of 1000 A, and are readily separated from sonicated vesicles (230 A) by gel filtration on Sepharose 4B. Since the 1000-A vesicles are capable of trapping enzymes and other macromolecules, they may prove valuable for the delivery of liposome-entrapped solutes to cells and for the localization of peptide segments of a spectrum of membrane-bound proteins.

Bile Acids and Salts

The nonpolar peptide segment of cytochrome b5. Binding to phospholipid vesicles and identification of the fluorescent tryptophanyl residue.

The nonpolar peptide segment of cytochrome b5 consisting of the COOH-terminal 43 amino acid residues binds rapidly to dimyristyl lecithin vesicles above the transition temperature of the phospholipid. The binding is complete as indicated by density gradient centrifugation and is accompanied by approximately a 2-fold increase in the fluorescence emission of the protein, and insertion in the bilayer is apparently in an orientation indistinguishable from that of the whole cytochrome b5 molecule. Quantitative reaction of the protein with N-bromosuccinimide destroys the fluorescence of the protein with a stoichiometry which indicates that a single tryptophanyl residue is responsbile for the fluorescence. The fluorescent tryptophanyl residue is one of 2 adjacent residues, Trp-108 or Trp-109, as shown by carboxypeptidase digestion of N-bromosuccinimide-reacted nonpolar peptide.

Animals

Structural and functional properties of the membrane binding segment of cytochrome b5.

Derivatives of cytochrome b5 that had been selectively shortened at the COOH-terminal, membrane binding segment of this amphipathic protein were employed to examine the minimum structural requirements for binding to phospholipid vesicles and for catalytic interactions in the stearyl-CoA desaturase system. Three derivatives shortened by 6, 18, and 27 amino acid residues were produced by controlled proteolysis with carboxypeptidases. The two largest derivatives bound to synthetic lipid vesicles and interacted with cytochrome b5. The third derivative neither bound to vesicles nor reacted with the desaturase. Whole nonpolar peptide and the nonpllar peptides of the two largest derivates contain only 29 to 34% polar residues, whereas the nonpolar peptide of the third derivative contains 44% polar residues. The secondary structure of the membrane binding segment was studied by circular dichroism of whole nonpolar peptide and the corresponding peptides of the three derivatives. The data for whole nonpolar peptide are consistent with a structure containing approximately 50% helical and 25% beta sheet structure. The CD of the nonpolar peptides of the two largest derivatives are consistent with structures containing 56% helix and 19% beta sheet structure, and 40% helix and 20% beta sheet structure. These data support a predicted model for secondary structure, proposed previously, based upon the primary structure (Fleming, P. J., Dailey, H. A., Corcoran D., and Strittmatter, P. (1978) J. Biol. Chem. 253, 5369-5372).

Amino Acid Sequence

The primary structure of the nonpolar segment of bovine cytochrome b5.

The primary structure of the membrane bound segment of amphipathic bovine liver microsomal cytochrome b5 has been determined. This 43 residue nonpolar polypeptide is present at the COOH terminus of cytochrome b5. The sequence was obtained by automated sequence analysis and carboxypeptidase digestions. The sequence obtained is: Ile-Thr-Lys-Pro-Ser-Glu-Ser-Ile-Ile-Thr-Ile-Asp-Ser-Asn-Pro-Ser-Trp-Trp-Thr-Asn-Trp-Leu-Ile-Pro-Ala-Ile-Ser-Ala-Leu-Phe-Val-Ala-Leu-Ile-Tyr-His-Leu-Tyr-Thr-Ser-Glu-Asn. Conformational analysis using predictive algorithms is presented along with circular dichroism data on the peptide bound to phospholipid vesicles.

Amino Acid Sequence