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At least 523 records · Page 29Linked to original sources

PubMed2005

Mesoscopic dynamic Monte Carlo simulations of the adsorption of proteinlike HP chains within laterally constricted spaces.

Two-dimensional dynamic Monte Carlo simulations are applied to the protein-like HP chain model to investigate the influence of lateral confinement of the adsorbed chain on adsorption thermodynamics and the ensemble of accessible chain conformations. The structure of the model makes it possible to enumerate all possible chain conformations and thereby define with precision the relation between adsorption thermodynamics and changes in accessible chain conformations resulting from the adsorption process. Lateral confinement of the adsorbed chain is shown to dramatically reduce the number of accessible energy states and unique chain conformations such that, under certain conditions, adsorption is predicted to actually stabilize the chain against denaturation. Lateral confinement preferentially eliminates expanded conformations of the adsorbed chain, shifting the equilibrium from the unfolded state toward the native state. As a result, the conformational entropy of the adsorbed chain is predicted to be lower than that of the chain free in solution. The protein-like HP chain responds to an increase in the hydrophobicity of the sorbent surface by strongly favoring those conformations that minimize the overall internal energy of the system. As a result, adsorption severely destabilizes the native-state conformation. The ability of our simulation results to provide insights into underlying mechanisms for nonspecific protein adsorption is illustrated through qualitative comparison with activity data for hen egg-white lysozyme adsorbed on silica at different surface concentrations.

Adsorption↗

PubMed2004

A captured folding intermediate involved in dimerization and domain-swapping of GB1.

Immunoglobulin binding domain B1 of streptococcal protein G (GB1), a small (56 residues), stable, single domain protein, is one of the most extensively used model systems in the area of protein folding and design. The recently determined NMR structure of a quadruple mutant (HS#124F26A, L5V/F30V/Y33F/A34F) revealed a domain-swapped dimer that dissociated into a partially folded, monomeric species at low micromolar protein concentrations. Here, we have characterized this monomeric, partially folded species by NMR and show that extensive conformational heterogeneity for a substantial portion of the polypeptide chain exists. Exchange between the conformers within the monomer ensemble on the microsecond to millisecond timescale renders the majority of backbone amide resonances broadened beyond detection. Despite these extensive temporal and spatial fluctuations, the overall architecture of the monomeric mutant protein resembles that of wild-type GB1 and not the monomer unit of the domain-swapped dimer.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2005

Oxidative refolding of amyloidogenic variants of human lysozyme.

The oxidative refolding of human lysozyme and its two best characterised amyloidogenic variants, Ile56Thr and Asp67His, has been investigated in vitro by means of the concerted application of a range of biophysical techniques. The results show that in each case the ensemble of reduced denatured conformers initially collapses into a large number of unstructured intermediates with one or two disulphide bonds, the majority of which then fold to form the native-like three-disulphide intermediate, des-[77-95]. The slow step in the overall folding reaction involves the rearrangement of the latter to the fully oxidised native protein containing four disulphide bonds. The Ile56Thr and Asp67His variants were found to fold faster than the wild-type protein by a factor of 2 and 3 respectively, an observation that can be attributed primarily to the reduction in the barriers to conformational rearrangements that results from both the mutations. The efficient folding of these variants despite their enhanced propensities to aggregate when compared to the wild-type protein is consistent with their ability to be secreted in sufficient quantities to give rise to the systemic amyloidoses with which they are associated.

Amyloid↗

PubMed2001

Solution structure of the carboxyl-terminal cysteine-rich domain of the VHv1.1 polydnaviral gene product: comparison with other cystine knot structural folds.

Polydnaviruses are an unusual group of insect viruses that have an obligate symbiotic association with certain parasitic wasps. These viruses are transmitted with the wasp egg during oviposition into lepidopteran insects, enabling the survival and development of the egg inside the host larvae. We report the three-dimensional structure of a novel polydnaviral cysteine-rich motif (cys-motif), identified as the carboxyl-terminal domain of a two cys-motif containing polydnaviral VHv1.1 gene product, abbreviated "C-term VHv1.1". This 65-residue domain was identified experimentally by limited proteolysis of the full-length protein and was subsequently cloned in a bacterial expression system for NMR studies. The C-term VHv1.1 3D structure was determined in solution by two-dimensional (1)H NMR spectroscopy. Calculation of the structure was based on a total of 300 upper distance restraints and 20 dihedral angle constraints, and resulted in an ensemble of 25 representative conformers with an average rmsd of 0.47 A from the mean structure for core backbone atoms. The protein core is made of a four beta-strand scaffold held together in a compact structure by three disulfide bonds, which form a cystine knot. The four beta-strands are arranged in an unusual configuration to form a triple-stranded beta-sheet and double-stranded beta-sheet. Comparison with other classes of cystine knots provides indication that C-term VHv1.1 represents a new and distinct cystine knot motif. This analysis provides a structural basis for interpretation of the genetic and amino acid sequence data classifying polydnavirus gene products as members of cysteine-rich protein families.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2003

Relative influence of hydrophobicity and net charge in the aggregation of two homologous proteins.

A potentially amyloidogenic protein has to be at least partially unfolded to form amyloid aggregates. However, aggregation of the partially or totally unfolded state of a protein is modulated by at least three other factors: hydrophobicity, propensity to form secondary structure, and net charge of the polypeptide chain. We propose to evaluate the relative importance of net charge, as opposed to the other factors, on protein aggregation and amyloidogenicity. For this aim, we have used two homologous proteins that were previously shown to be able to form amyloid fibrils in vitro, the N-terminal domain of HypF from Escherichia coli (HypF-N) and human muscle acylphosphatase (AcP). The aggregation process from an ensemble of partially unfolded conformations is ca. 1000-fold faster for HypF-N than for AcP. This difference can mainly be attributed to a higher hydrophobicity and a lower net charge for HypF-N than for AcP. By using protein engineering methods, we have decreased the net charge of AcP to a value identical to that of wild-type HypF-N and increased the net charge of HypF-N to a value identical to that of wild-type AcP. Amino acid substitutions were selected to minimize changes in hydrophobicity and secondary structure propensities. We were able to estimate that the difference in net charge between the two wild-type proteins contributes to 20-25% of the difference in their aggregation rates. An understanding of the relative influences of these forces in protein aggregation has implications for elucidating the complexity of the aggregation process, for predicting the effect of natural mutations, and for accurate protein design.

Acid Anhydride Hydrolases↗

PubMed2004

Glutathione induces helical formation in the carboxy terminus of human glutathione transferase A1-1.

The structure and dynamic properties of the C-terminal region of the human class alpha glutathione transferase A1-1 have been investigated with high-resolution NMR methods. On the basis of crystallographic and fluorescence measurements, this 13-residue segment of the enzyme is presumed to be disordered in the unliganded enzyme. When the product or product analogue is bound, a C-terminal alpha-helix is observed in crystal structures. Conflicting data exists regarding the structure of this region when one of the substrates, glutathione (GSH), is bound. The NMR studies presented here show that in the unliganded protein, this region of the protein samples different conformations, most likely an ensemble of helix-like structures. Addition of either GSH or the conjugate between GSH and ethacrynic acid (EASG) causes this segment to become a stable alpha-helix. In the GSH complex, the ends of this helix exhibit dynamic behavior on both the millisecond and nanosecond time scales. In contrast, there is no evidence of millisecond dynamics in the EASG complex. The ligand-induced ordering of the enzyme reduces the intrinsic affinity of the enzyme for its product, facilitating enzymatic turnover.

Amides↗

PubMed2006

Hydrodynamic analysis of the human progesterone receptor A-isoform reveals that self-association occurs in the micromolar range.

Human progesterone receptors exist as two functionally distinct isoforms, an 83 kDa A-receptor (PR-A) and a 99 kDa B-receptor (PR-B). The isoforms are identical except that PR-B has an additional 164 amino acids at its N-terminus. We have previously characterized the hydrodynamics and solution assembly energetics of PR-B [Heneghan, A. F., et al. (2005) Biochemistry 44, 9528-9537], and here we present an analysis of PR-A. At micromolar concentrations of the receptor, sedimentation velocity studies demonstrate that PR-A undergoes a concentration-dependent change in its sedimentation coefficient distribution, indicative of a self-associating system. Global analysis of data sets collected at multiple PR-A concentrations supports the presence of a hydrodynamically homogeneous 3.50 S monomer species in equilibrium with a 7.15 S dimer species. Sedimentation equilibrium analysis demonstrates that self-association can be rigorously described by a monomer-dimer assembly reaction and a dimerization free energy of -7.6 +/- 0.6 kcal/mol. Both the PR-A monomer and dimer are structurally asymmetric, although the extent of asymmetry is significantly decreased for the dimer, indicative of quaternary-induced hydrodynamic compaction. Limited proteolysis studies suggest that PR-A asymmetry arises from an ensemble of partially folded conformations within the N-terminal half of the molecule. Finally, comparison to our previous work on PR-B self-association energetics demonstrates that it dimerizes, under identical solution conditions, with an affinity at least 8-fold weaker than that of PR-A. Thus, residues unique to the B-isoform destabilize receptor assembly energetics. Importantly, the physical and chemical driving forces underlying isoform-specific dimerization suggest that B-unique amino acids modulate the energetics through an allosteric mechanism.

Dimerization↗

PubMed1998

NMR solution structure of type II human cellular retinoic acid binding protein: implications for ligand binding.

The structure of human apo-cellular retinoic acid binding protein II (apo-CRABPII) in solution at pH 7.3 has been determined by NMR spectroscopy. The sequential assignments of the 1H, 13C, and 15N resonances of apo-CRABPII were established by multinuclear, multidimensional NMR spectroscopy. The solution structure of apo-CRABPII was derived from 2382 experimental NMR restraints using a hybrid distance geometry-simulated annealing protocol. The root-mean-square deviation of the ensemble of 25 refined conformers that represent the structure from the mean coordinate set derived from them was 0.54 +/- 0.18 and 0.92 +/- 0.20 A for the backbone atoms and all heavy atoms, respectively, of all residues except Ala32-Pro39 and Thr57-Glu62, which are in disordered regions. The solution structure of apo-CRABPII is similar to the crystal structure of holo-CRABPII [Kleywegt, G. J., Bergfors, T., Senn, H., Le Motte, P., Gsell, B., Shudo, K., and Jones, T. A. (1994) Structure 2, 1241-1258] except the ligand entrance, which is sufficiently enlarged in the apoprotein to be readily accessible to retinoic acid. The enlargement of the ligand entrance of apo-CRABPII relative to that of holo-CRABPII is due mainly to a concerted conformational change in three structural elements, namely, the second helix, the betaC-betaD loop, and the betaE-betaF loop. Furthermore, the ligand-binding pocket of apo-CRABPII showed evidence of dynamic disorder; among the 21 residues that constitute this pocket, 16 residues had weak or no detectable cross-peaks in the two-dimensional 1H-15N HSQC spectrum recorded under conditions of minimal water saturation or dephasing. Apo-CRABPII is largely monomeric in solution, with no evidence for the dimeric structure shown in the crystal structure of apo-CRABPI which was suggested to be a prerequisite for ligand entry [Thompson, J. R., Bratt, J. M., and Banaszak, L. J. (1995) J. Mol. Biol. 252, 433-446]. Thus, the widening of the ligand entrance required for entry of retinoic acid appears to be a property of monomeric apo-CRABPII.

Crystallization↗

PubMed1998

NMR study suggests a major role for Arg111 in maintaining the structure and dynamical properties of type II human cellular retinoic acid binding protein.

The solution structure of a site-directed mutant of type-II human cellular retinoic acid binding protein (CRABPII) with Arg111 replaced by methionine (R111M) has been determined by NMR spectroscopy. The sequential assignments of the 1H and 15N resonances of apo-R111M were established by multinuclear multidimensional NMR. The solution structure was calculated from 2302 distance restraints and 77 phi dihedral restraints derived from the NMR data. The root-mean-square deviation of the ensemble of 28 refined conformers that represent the structure from the mean coordinate set derived from them was 0.54 +/- 0.26 and 0.98 +/- 0.23 A for the backbone atoms and all heavy atoms, respectively. The solution structure of apo-R111M is similar to that of wild-type apo-CRABPII. However, there are significant conformational differences between the two proteins, localized mainly to three segments (Leu19-Ala36, Glu73-Cys81, and Leu99-Pro105) clustered around the ligand entrance more than 17 A away from the point mutation. In apo-R111M, all the three segments move toward the center of the ligand entrance so that the opening of the ligand-binding pocket in apo-R111M is much smaller than that in wild-type apo-CRABPII. Furthermore, the ligand-binding pocket of apo-R111M, especially the ligand entrance, is much less flexible than that of apo-CRABPII. Surprisingly, apo-R111M is more similar to holo-CRABPII than to apo-CRABPII in both structure and dynamical properties. The conformational and dynamical changes caused by the mutation are similar to those induced by binding of RA, although the magnitudes of the changes caused by the mutation are smaller than those induced by binding of RA. The results suggest that Arg111 plays a critical role in determining the structure and dynamical properties of CRABPII.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1996

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of the Iron-Molybdenum Cofactor of Clostridium pasteurianum Nitrogenase.

We report a computer simulation study of the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectral line shape of the iron-molybdenum cofactor of nitrogenase. The unusually broad and asymmetric line shape of the EPR spectrum can be interpreted in terms of a distribution of zero-field splitting parameters called D-strain. The best fit simulations were computed using D = 2.5 cm(-1) and E = 0.317 cm(-1) and distributions in D and E approximated by Gaussians of half-widths 0.446 cm(-1) and 0.108 cm(-1), respectively. The value of D estimated in the present work is smaller than previous estimates by others but consistent with the temperature dependence of the EPR spectrum. The large D-strain is most likely caused by an ensemble of nearly isoenergetic conformational states and should not be considered as being indicative of chemical inhomogeneity.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1999

Enzymes that push DNA around.

DNA topoisomerases are proteins that regulate DNA topology in cells through selective cycles of DNA cleavage, manipulation, and religation. Two papers describe an ensemble of different protein conformations and nucleotide-protein complexes of Escherichia coli topoisomerase. These results lead to new insights about how this enzyme recognizes DNA and catalyzes supercoil relaxation.

Binding Sites↗

PubMed1997

From Levinthal to pathways to funnels.

While the classical view of protein folding kinetics relies on phenomenological models, and regards folding intermediates in a structural way, the new view emphasizes the ensemble nature of protein conformations. Although folding has sometimes been regarded as a linear sequence of events, the new view sees folding as parallel microscopic multi-pathway diffusion-like processes. While the classical view invoked pathways to solve the problem of searching for the needle in the haystack, the pathway idea was then seen as conflicting with Anfinsen's experiments showing that folding is pathway-independent (Levinthal's paradox). In contrast, the new view sees no inherent paradox because it eliminates the pathway idea: folding can funnel to a single stable state by multiple routes in conformational space. The general energy landscape picture provides a conceptual framework for understanding both two-state and multi-state folding kinetics. Better tests of these ideas will come when new experiments become available for measuring not just averages of structural observables, but also correlations among their fluctuations. At that point we hope to learn much more about the real shapes of protein folding landscapes.

Kinetics↗

PubMed2005

High-resolution protein folding with a transferable potential.

A generalized computational method for folding proteins with a fully transferable potential and geometrically realistic all-atom model is presented and tested on seven helix bundle proteins. The protocol, which includes graph-theoretical analysis of the ensemble of resulting folded conformations, was systematically applied and consistently produced structure predictions of approximately 3 A without any knowledge of the native state. To measure and understand the significance of the results, extensive control simulations were conducted. Graph theoretic analysis provides a means for systematically identifying the native fold and provides physical insight, conceptually linking the results to modern theoretical views of protein folding. In addition to presenting a method for prediction of structure and folding mechanism, our model suggests that an accurate all-atom amino acid representation coupled with a physically reasonable atomic interaction potential and hydrogen bonding are essential features for a realistic protein model.

Animals↗

PubMed2000

Single-molecule protein folding: diffusion fluorescence resonance energy transfer studies of the denaturation of chymotrypsin inhibitor 2.

We report single-molecule folding studies of a small, single-domain protein, chymotrypsin inhibitor 2 (CI2). CI2 is an excellent model system for protein folding studies and has been extensively studied, both experimentally (at the ensemble level) and theoretically. Conformationally assisted ligation methodology was used to synthesize the proteins and site-specifically label them with donor and acceptor dyes. Folded and denatured subpopulations were observed by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) measurements on freely diffusing single protein molecules. Properties of these subpopulations were directly monitored as a function of guanidinium chloride concentration. It is shown that new information about different aspects of the protein folding reaction can be extracted from such subpopulation properties. Shifts in the mean transfer efficiencies are discussed, FRET efficiency distributions are translated into potentials, and denaturation curves are directly plotted from the areas of the FRET peaks. Changes in stability caused by mutation also are measured by comparing pseudo wild-type CI2 with a destabilized mutant (K17G). Current limitations and future possibilities and prospects for single-pair FRET protein folding investigations are discussed.

Energy Transfer↗

PubMed2002

An atomically detailed study of the folding pathways of protein A with the stochastic difference equation.

An algorithm is applied here to compute folding pathways of staphylococcal protein A, fragment B. Emphasis is on studies of the complete process, starting from an ensemble of fully denatured conformations and ending at the folded state. The stochastic difference equation algorithm is based on optimization of an action that makes it possible to use a large integration step. Motions with typical displacements that change rapidly on the size scale of the step are filtered out, providing numerically stable and approximate solutions. The present approach is unique in maintaining an atomically detailed picture while providing a systematic, controlled approximation to the classical equations of motion. Analysis of 130 trajectories suggests the following folding mechanism for protein A: At an early precollapse phase of the process, a few native hydrogen bonds form near the C terminus of the protein. The hydrogen bonds are formed mostly within the third helix. The next step is chain collapse that occurs in parallel to additional growth of secondary structure seeds. Therefore, the present study does not support a pure hydrophobic collapse, or substantial early formation of secondary structure. At the last step, native tertiary contacts are formed at the same time as the completion of the secondary structure elements. To a large extent, the process is parallel and not sequential. The early formation of the third helix of protein A, fragment B (in the calculation), is consistent with experimental data.

Algorithms↗

PubMed1999

NMR solution structure of domain 1 of human annexin I shows an autonomous folding unit.

Annexins are excellent models for studying the folding mechanisms of multidomain proteins because they have four-eight homologous helical domains with low identity in sequence but high similarity in folding. The structure of an isolated domain 1 of human annexin I has been determined by NMR spectroscopy. The sequential assignments of the 1H, 13C, and 15N resonances of the isolated domain 1 were established by multinuclear, multidimensional NMR spectroscopy. The solution structure of the isolated domain 1 was derived from 1,099 experimental NMR restraints using a hybrid distance geometry-simulated annealing protocol. The root mean square deviation of the ensemble of 20 refined conformers that represent the structure from the mean coordinate set derived from them was 0. 57 +/- 0.14 A and 1.11 +/- 0.19 A for the backbone atoms and all heavy atoms, respectively. The NMR structure of the isolated domain 1 could be superimposed with a root mean square deviation of 1.36 A for all backbone atoms with the corresponding part of the crystal structure of a truncated human annexin I containing all four domains, indicating that the structure of the isolated domain 1 is highly similar to that when it folded together with the other three domains. The result suggests that in contrast to isolated domain 2, which is largely unfolded in solution, isolated domain 1 constitutes an autonomous folding unit and interdomain interactions may play critical roles in the folding of annexin I.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2002

Design of an optimal Chebyshev-expanded discrimination function for globular proteins.

We describe the construction of a scoring function designed to model the free energy of protein folding. An optimization technique is used to determine the best functional forms of the hydrophobic, residue-residue and hydrogen-bonding components of the potential. The scoring function is expanded by use of Chebyshev polynomials, the coefficients of which are determined by minimizing the score, in units of standard deviation, of native structures in the ensembles of alternate decoy conformations. The derived effective potential is then tested on decoy sets used conventionally in such studies. Using our scoring function, we achieve a high level of discrimination between correct and incorrect folds. In addition, our method is able to represent functions of arbitrary shape with fewer parameters than the usual histogram potentials of similar resolution. Finally, our representation can be combined easily with many optimization methods, because the total energy is a linear function of the parameters. Our results show that the techniques of Z-score optimization and Chebyshev expansion work well.

Amino Acids↗

PubMed2006

Assessing the role of aromatic residues in the amyloid aggregation of human muscle acylphosphatase.

Among the many parameters that have been proposed to promote amyloid fibril formation is the pi-stacking of aromatic residues. We have studied the amyloid aggregation of several mutants of human muscle acylphosphatase in which an aromatic residue was substituted with a non-aromatic one. The aggregation rate was determined using the Thioflavin T test under conditions in which the variants populated initially an ensemble of partially unfolded conformations. Substitutions in aggregation-promoting fragments of the sequence result in a dramatically decreased aggregation rate of the protein, confirming the propensity of aromatic residues to promote this process. Nevertheless, a statistical analysis shows that the measured decrease of aggregation rate following mutation arises predominantly from a reduction of hydrophobicity and intrinsic beta-sheet propensity. This suggests that aromatic residues favor aggregation because of these factors rather than for their aromaticity.

Acid Anhydride Hydrolases↗