PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 8800474

Protein function in the crystal.

A Mozzarelli·G L Rossi
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Protein crystals contain wide solvent-filled channels that allow for traffic of metabolites and intramolecular motility. Ligand binding, catalysis and allosteric regulation occur in the crystalline environment but intermolecular interactions may hinder function-associated transitions and alter activity with respect to solution. Lattice constraints have, however, provided the opportunity to isolate and characterize conformational states that are poorly populated in solution. New methods are being developed to initiate reactions rapidly and synchronously throughout the crystal and to monitor their time course. A model consistent with kinetics in the crystal is necessary to interpret the results of time-resolved macromolecular crystallography.

Explore related subjects

Allosteric RegulationCatalysisCrystallizationCrystallography, X-RayLigandsProtein ConformationStructure-Activity RelationshipJournal ArticleReview

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

A Mozzarelli, G L Rossi. 1996. Protein function in the crystal.. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.bb.25.060196.002015

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2026

Design and optimization of a kinase-controlled allosteric switch.

Post-translational control enables rapid and precise regulation of cell behavior. Despite these advantages, general strategies to build phosphorylation-based synthetic circuits are limited. Here we reasoned that engineered allostery, a technique that has been applied to design light- and chemically gated protein switches, could also be used to engineer phosphorylation-controlled protein switches (phospho-switches). Using an allosterically controllable Gal4 transcription factor as a scaffold, we show that a classic kinase Förster resonance energy transfer biosensor architecture can be used as a starting point for phospho-switch design. We optimize all features of the phospho-switch to develop an ERK-controlled transcription factor with a 20-fold phosphorylation-dependent change in transcriptional output. The resulting synthetic ERK-responsive transcription factor responds with comparable sensitivity to the c-fos promoter and reveals spatial ERK signaling patterns in mammalian developmental organoids. We further show that our switch architecture can be generalized to other input kinases and allosterically controlled targets. This work provides a general platform for a new generation of kinase-responsive tools for biosensing and synthetic biology applications.

Allosteric Regulation↗
PubMed1998

Allosteric regulation of a ribozyme activity through ligand-induced conformational change.

An allosteric ribozyme has been designed using the hammerhead ribozyme as the active site and aflavin-specific RNA aptamer as a regulatory site. We constructed six variants with a series of base pairs in the linker region (stem II). Under single turnover conditions, kinetic studies were carried out in the absence and presence of flavin mononucleotide (FMN). Interestingly, FMN addition did not influence the cleavage rate of constructs with a 5-6 bp linker but stimulated the catalytic activity of those bearing a shorter linker. In particular, the apparent k cat of Rz3 increases by approximately 10-fold upon addition of saturating amounts of FMN. To determine the rate constants( K m4and k cat), the ribozyme regulated most effectively by FMN was further investigated. FMN mainly affected the k cat value, reflecting the rate limiting conformational change step of the overall cleavage reaction, depending on helix formation in stem II. Probably, FMN influences the orientation of structures necessary for the cleavage reaction through stem II formation. The result of chemical modification revealed that binding of FMN to the aptamer domain induced the helix formation in stem II required for catalytic activity. Therefore, a specific FMN-mediated allosteric interaction seems to promote a conformational alteration from an open to a closed structure in stem II. The concept of conformational modification in the allosteric effect is consistent with other allosteric enzymes, suggesting that such a conformational change is a fundamental feature of allosteric enzymes in biological systems.

Allosteric Regulation↗
PubMed1998

Tyrosine and tryptophan act through the same binding site at the dimer interface of yeast chorismate mutase.

Tyrosine and tryptophan are the regulators of the dimeric yeast chorismate mutase. Biochemical studies reveal two binding sites per molecule for both effectors, tyrosine or tryptophan. A single binding site is built up by helix 8 and helices 4 and 5 of two different subunits. The binding sites have been analyzed in the active enzyme by site directed mutagenesis of critical codons of the coding gene, ARO7. Gly-141 and Ser-142, which both reside on helix 8, are involved in the binding of tyrosine or tryptophan presumably by interacting specifically with the amino- and carboxylate-groups of these amino acid effectors. Interaction with Thr-145 of helix 8 is required for a strong tyrosine binding to the allosteric site. Replacement of Arg-75, which connects helices 4 and 5 or of Arg-76, which is part of helix 5 by alanine residues, resulted in unregulated enzymes. These two residues are bonded to the carboxylate group and phenolic hydroxyl group of tyrosine, respectively, but do not interact with tryptophan by hydrogen bonding in the crystal structures. Phenylalanine, which has low binding affinity slightly activated the chorismate mutase. A T145V mutant chorismate mutase, however, showed increased activation by phenylalanine. Our results support a mechanism by which tyrosine contracts the allosteric site by interacting with its phenolic hydroxyl group. Tryptophan works in an inverse way by opening the allosteric site through the steric size of its side chain.

Allosteric Regulation↗