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Biomedical subjects

R A Grayling

Publications and source records attributed to R A Grayling.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Directed evolution study of temperature adaptation in a psychrophilic enzyme.

We have used laboratory evolution methods to enhance the thermostability and activity of the psychrophilic protease subtilisin S41, with the goal of investigating the mechanisms by which this enzyme can adapt to different selection pressures. A combined strategy of random mutagenesis, saturation mutagenesis and in vitro recombination (DNA shuffling) was used to generate mutant libraries, which were screened to identify enzymes that acquired greater thermostability without sacrificing low-temperature activity. The half-life of seven-amino acid substitution variant 3-2G7 at 60 degrees C is approximately 500 times that of wild-type and far surpasses those of homologous mesophilic subtilisins. The dependence of half-life on calcium concentration indicates that enhanced calcium binding is largely responsible for the increased stability. The temperature optimum of the activity of 3-2G7 is shifted upward by approximately 10 degrees C. Unlike natural thermophilic enzymes, however, the activity of 3-2G7 at low temperatures was not compromised. The catalytic efficiency, k(cat)/K(M), was enhanced approximately threefold over a wide temperature range (10 to 60 degrees C). The activation energy for catalysis, determined by the temperature dependence of k(cat)/K(M) in the range 15 to 35 degrees C, is nearly identical to wild-type and close to half that of its highly similar mesophilic homolog, subtilisin SSII, indicating that the evolved S41 enzyme retained its psychrophilic character in spite of its dramatically increased thermostability. These results demonstrate that it is possible to increase activity at low temperatures and stability at high temperatures simultaneously. The fact that enzymes displaying both properties are not found in nature most likely reflects the effects of evolution, rather than any intrinsic physical-chemical limitations on proteins.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1998

Thermodynamic stability of archaeal histones.

The temperature, salt, and pH dependencies of unfolding of four recombinant (r) archaeal histones (rHFoB from the mesophile Methanobacterium formicicum, and rHMfA, rHMfB, and rHPyA1 from the hyperthermophiles Methanothermus fervidus and Pyrococcus strain GB-3a) have been determined by circular dichroism spectroscopy (CD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermal unfolding of these proteins is > 90% reversible, with concentration-dependent apparent Tm values and asymmetric unfolding transitions that are fit well by a two-state unfolding model in which a histone dimer unfolds to two random coil monomers. rHPyA1 dimers are stable in the absence of salt, whereas rHMfA, rHMfB, and rHFoB dimers unfold at 20 degrees C and pH 2 in solutions containing < 200 mM, < 400 mM, and < 1.5 M KCl, respectively. rHMfA, rHMfB, and rHFoB also experience significant cold denaturation in low salt concentrations and at low pH. The midpoint of thermal unfolding of a 1 M protein solution (T degree value) and the temperature dependency of the free energy of unfolding have been established for each histone, and both parameters correlate with the growth temperature of the originating archaeon. The changes in heat capacity upon unfolding are similar for the four histones, indicating that enhanced thermostability is not obtained by altering the curvature of the stability curve. Rather, the stability curves for the histones from the hyperthermophiles are displaced vertically to higher energies and laterally to higher Tmax values relative to the stability curve for rHFoB. The maximal free energies of unfolding for rHFoB, rHMfA, rHMfB, and rHPyA1 are 7.2, 15.5, 14.6, and 17.2 kcal/mol at 32, 35, 40, and 44 degrees C, respectively. T degree values for rHFoB, rHMfA, rHMfB, and rHPyA1 are 75, 104, 113, and 114 degrees C, respectively, at pH 5 in 0.2 M KCl. Structural features within the conserved histone fold that might confer these stability differences are discussed.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1997

Archaeal nucleosomes.

Archaea contain histones that have primary sequences in common with eukaryal nucleosome core histones and a three-dimensional structure that is essentially only the histone fold. Here we report the results of experiments that document that archaeal histones compact DNA in vivo into structures similar to the structure formed by the histone (H3+H4)2 tetramer at the center of the eukaryal nucleosome. After formaldehyde cross-linking in vivo, these archaeal nucleosomes have been isolated from Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum and Methanothermus fervidus, visualized by electron microscopy on plasmid and genomic DNAs, and shown by immunogold labeling, SDS/PAGE, and immunoblotting to contain archaeal histones, cross-linked into tetramers. Archaeal nucleosomes protect approximately 60 bp of DNA and multiples of approximately 60 bp from micrococcal nuclease digestion, and immunoprecipitation has demonstrated that most, but not all, M. fervidus genomic DNA sequences are associated in vivo with archaeal histones.

Archaea↗
PubMed1997

DNA binding and nuclease protection by the HMf histones from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Methanothermus fervidus.

The DNA-binding and nuclease-protection properties of the HMf histones from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Methanothermus fervidus have been shown to be consistent with the formation of nucleosome-like structures (NLS). These proteins bind to DNA molecules as short as 20 bp and form complexes that protect DNA fragments from micrococcal nuclease (MNase) digestion that are 30 bp, approximately 60 bp and multiples of approximately 60 bp in length. The sequences of 49 of the approximately 60-bp DNA fragments protected from MNase digestion by HMfA have been determined and their intrinsic curvatures calculated. A circular permutation gel mobility-shift assay was used to determine directly the curvatures for five of these sequences. HMfA bound to intrinsically curved and noncurved DNAs, but exhibited a slight preference for the model curved DNA in binding competitions with a model noncurved DNA. The results obtained are consistent with the concept that the archaeal NLS is analogous, and possibly homologous, to the central core of the eukaryal nucleosome formed by a histone (H3 + H4)2 tetramer.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1996

Histones and chromatin structure in hyperthermophilic Archaea.

HMf is a histone from the hyperthermophile Methanothermus fervidus. It is the archetype and most studied member of a family of archaeal histones that have primary sequences and three-dimensional structures in common with the eukaryal nucleosome core histones and that bind and compact DNA molecules into nucleosome-like structures (NLS). HMf preparations are mixtures of two similar, small (approximately 7.5 kDa) polypeptides designated HMfA and HMfB that in vivo form both homodimers and heterodimers. HMfA synthesis predominates during exponential growth but the relative amount of HMfB increases as M. fervidus cells enter the stationary growth phase. Analyses of homogeneous preparations of recombinant (r) (HMfA)2 and (rHMfB)2 have demonstrated that these proteins have different DNA-binding and compaction properties in vitro, consistent with different roles in vivo for the (HMfA)2, (HMfB)2 and HMfA. HmfB dimers, and for the NLS that they form, in regulating gene expression and in genome compaction and stability.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1995

Structure and stability of histone HMf from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Methanothermus fervidus.

The secondary and quaternary structures and stabilities of recombinant (r) forms of the HMfA and HMfB histones from Methanothermus fervidus have been investigated by CD spectroscopy and formaldehyde-mediated protein-protein cross-linking. Both proteins were shown to be dimers in solutions containing 5-1300 mM KCl, at pH 6-10 and 25-83 degrees C, and specifically in 1 M KCl, at pH 7.5 and 83 degrees C, conditions which approximate those in vivo in M. fervidus cells. Heat treatment of a mixture of rHMfA and rHMfB homodimers resulted in the formation of rHMfA.rHMfB heterodimers, as demonstrated by two-dimensional PAGE. Heterodimer formation did not result in a CD-detectable conformational change from the homodimer states, indicating that homogeneous (rHMfA)2 and (rHMfB)2 preparations may be considered as structural models of heterodimers. At pH 2, both rHMfA and rHMfB were denatured under low-salt (< 0.2 M KCl) conditions, and their conformations were stabilized in a cooperative manner by increasing KCl concentration, with cooperativity constants for KCl uptake of 2.7 and 3.1, respectively. The alpha-helical conformations of rHMfA and rHMfB were salt-dependent, at both pH 2 and pH 7.5, with maximal helicities in 1 M KCl of 84% and 63% at pH 2, and 72% and 65% at pH 7.5, respectively. The data obtained indicate that the structures of HMfA and HMfB, in 100-200 mM KCl at pH 7.5 and 25 degrees C, are likely to be very similar to their in vivo structures, even though these conditions are far removed from those found in vivo.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1995

Improved N-terminal processing of recombinant proteins synthesized in Escherichia coli.

Preparations of rHMfA (recombinant histone A from Methanothermus fervidus) synthesized in E. coli by the heterologous expression of the hmfA gene were found to contain a mixture of rHMfA molecules, approximately 40% that retained the N-terminal formyl-methionyl residue (f-met-rHMfA), approximately 50% that lacked the formyl moiety but retained the methionyl residue (met-rHMfA), and only approximately 10% that had lost both components of the protein synthesis initiating amino acid residue and therefore had the same N-terminal sequence as native HMfA molecules synthesized in Mt. fervidus. Expression of the hmfA gene in E. coli cells grown in the presence of trimethoprim and thymidine, coupled with the concurrent over-expression of a methionine aminopeptidase-encoding map gene, has been shown to overcome this N-terminal heterogeneity problem and to result in rHMfA preparations in which > 85% of the molecules have the fully processed, native N-terminal sequence. This procedure should be generally useful for ensuring N-terminal processing of recombinant proteins synthesized in E. coli.

Archaea↗
PubMed1994

Growth-phase-dependent synthesis of histones in the archaeon Methanothermus fervidus.

Histone preparations from Methanothermus fervidus (HMf) contain two small polypeptides, HMfA and HMfB, which in solution are dimers and compact DNA to form nucleosome-like structures. These archaeal nucleosome-like structures constrain positive DNA supercoils, in contrast to the negatively supercoiled DNA in eukaryal nucleosomes. HMfA has been found to make up as much as 80% of HMf preparations synthesized by M. fervidus cells during the exponential growth phase of batch cultures but to decrease to approximately 50% as cultures enter the stationary phase. By using a nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel system at pH 6.1, we have demonstrated that HMf preparations contain HMfA homodimers, HMfB homodimers, and HMfA-HMfB heterodimers and that heating a mixture of recombinant HMfA and HMfB homodimers at 95 degrees C for 5 min generates HMfA-HMfB heterodimers. Circular dichroism spectroscopy indicates that HMfA and HMfB have very similar secondary structures, but based on agarose gel electrophoretic mobility shifts, DNA topology assays, and electron microscopy, they have different DNA binding properties. HMfA binding to DNA could be detected at lower protein/DNA ratios than HMfB, but HMfB binding resulted in more extensive DNA compaction. The increased HMfB synthesized in cells approaching the stationary phase and the highly compacted state of HMfB-bound DNA are consistent with preparations for the impending period of limited genome activity.

Archaea↗
PubMed1991

Cloning, sequence analysis, and expression in Escherichia coli of a gene coding for a beta-mannanase from the extremely thermophilic bacterium "Caldocellum saccharolyticum".

A lambda recombinant phage expressing beta-mannanase activity in Escherichia coli has been isolated from a genomic library of the extremely thermophilic anaerobe "Caldocellum saccharolyticum." The gene was cloned into pBR322 on a 5-kb BamHI fragment, and its location was obtained by deletion analysis. The sequence of a 2.1-kb fragment containing the mannanase gene has been determined. One open reading frame was found which could code for a protein of Mr 38,904. The mannanase gene (manA) was overexpressed in E. coli by cloning the gene downstream from the lacZ promoter of pUC18. The enzyme was most active at pH 6 and 80 degrees C and degraded locust bean gum, guar gum, Pinus radiata glucomannan, and konjak glucomannan. The noncoding region downstream from the mannanase gene showed strong homology to celB, a gene coding for a cellulase from the same organism, suggesting that the manA gene might have been inserted into its present position on the "C. saccharolyticum" genome by homologous recombination.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1990

celB, a gene coding for a bifunctional cellulase from the extreme thermophile "Caldocellum saccharolyticum".

"Caldocellum saccharolyticum" is an obligatory anaerobic thermophilic bacterium. A gene from this organism, designated celB, has been cloned in Escherichia coli as part of a bacteriophage lambda gene library. This gene produces a thermostable cellulase that shows both endoglucanase and exoglucanase activities on test substrates and is able to degrade crystalline cellulose to glucose. The sequence of celB has homology with both exo- and endoglucanases described by others. It appears to have a central domain without enzymatic activity which is joined to the enzymatic domains by runs of amino acids rich in proline and threonine (PT boxes). Deletion analysis shows that the exoglucanase activity is located in the amino-terminal domain of the enzyme and that endoglucanase activity is located in the carboxy-terminal domain. There are internal transcriptional and translational start sites within the gene. The intact gene has been cloned into a temperature-inducible expression vector, pJLA602, and overexpressed in E. coli. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that celB produced a protein with a molecular weight of 118,000 to 120,000. A number of smaller proteins with activity against carboxymethyl cellulose and 4-methyl umbelliferyl-beta-D-cellobioside were also produced. These are believed to be the result of alternative translational start sites and/or proteolytic degradation products of the translated gene product.

Amino Acid Sequence↗