Temperature-sensitive mutants of reovirus. 3. Evidence that mutants of group D ("RNA-negative") are structural polypeptide mutants.
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The cell-cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin plays an essential role in the maintenance and function of epithelial tissues. Altered expression of E-cadherin has been implicated in tumor invasion. Analysis of mutations of the human E-cadherin gene in gastric carcinoma of the diffuse type has revealed that deletion of exon 8 or 9 in its cDNA appears to be predominant. In this study, we carried out structural and functional analyses of a mutant form of E-cadherin in a cell line, HSC45-M2, established from a human signet ring-cell carcinoma. Although immunohistochemical analysis showed that the mutant cadherin was localized at cell-cell contact sites as usually seen with the wild type, these cells did not form compact colonies. HSC45-M2 cells expressed aberrant E-cadherin with an m.w. larger than that of the wild type. In these cells, we found deletion of the exon 9-intron 9 boundary including the splicing donor site in E-cadherin genomic DNA. RT-PCR indicated 2 transcripts, which appeared to be caused by the splicing defect. Northern blotting, however, showed that the transcript lacking exon 9 was predominantly detected in these cells. The electrophoretic mobilities on SDS-PAGE of the mutant E-cadherin protein in HSC45-M2 cells and the protein expressed from cDNA lacking exon 9 appeared identical. Analysis of the amino-terminal region of the mutant E-cadherin protein revealed that the cadherin was capable of becoming a mature form by removal of its amino-terminal peptide. However, the mutant E-cadherin was susceptible to trypsinization in the presence of Ca(2+), which is not the case for wild-type E-cadherin, suggesting that the mutant E-cadherin frequently found in diffuse-type gastric carcinoma may have lost its Ca(2+)-binding ability, leading to disruption of the tight cell-cell association.
Nine mutants within a 23 nucleotide sequence of the trpE gene of Salmonella typhimurium have been characterized. trpE91, a mutant which is externally suppressible has a single base deletion. Eight (or nine) nucleotides upstream of this deletion, two independently isolated mutations have the same transversion. In combination with trpE91 these mutations lead to partial restoration of synthesis of anthranilate synthetase in the absence of external suppressors. In the transversion the sequence A CA is changed to A AA and this new sequence may be the site where frameshifting occurs to allow leakiness. Leakiness is displayed by two further mutants of the same sign as trpE91, and one of the opposite sign, in the absence of any base substitution or external suppressors. Specific sequences, e.g., UUUC, may be especially prone to frameshifting and this sequence is created at the site of the +1 frameshift mutant which displays leakiness. In the new reading frame generated by the two -1 frame leaky mutants, a tryptophan codon is encountered. Leakiness is necessarily detected in the absence of tryptophan and under these conditions there will be a shortage of charged tryptophan tRNA. The possibility of such functional imbalance leading to frameshifting in these mutants is discussed.
Double mutant cycles provide a method for analyzing the effects of a mutation at a defined position in the protein structure on the properties of an amino acid at a second site. This approach was used to map potential interactions between aspartates 69, 97, and 103 in the m2 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor transmembrane helices 2 and 3. Receptors containing single and double aspartate to asparagine mutants were expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells and their effects on ligand binding, signal transduction, and thermal stability determined. Analysis of the double mutant cycles showed that the mutations had approximately additive effects on ligand binding, signal transduction, and thermal stability. Ligand binding and thermal inactivation results support the conclusion that aspartate-103 is the ligand amine counterion. Effector coupling properties of the mutant receptors showed that aspartate-103 was also required for signal transduction activity. The mutation of aspartate-69 to asparagine completely eliminated signal transduction by the agonists acetylcholine, carbachol, and pilocarpine but not oxotremorine M, which caused reduced but significant inhibition of adenylyl cyclase and stimulation of phospholipase C. In contrast, adenylyl cyclase stimulation by the asparagine-69 mutant was elicited only by acetylcholine and carbachol but not by oxotremorine M. The variation in agonist-dependent effector coupling properties provides evidence that the asparagine-69 mutant can exist in activated receptor states that are different from the wild-type m2 muscarinic receptor.
Transgenic tobacco plants expressing the wild-type (wt) coat protein (CP) gene of alfalfa mosaic virus (AIMV) have been shown to be resistant to infection with viral particles and RNAs or to infection with viral particles only. The difference in resistance of these plants to RNA inocula was found to correlate with a difference in the expression level of the transgene. Plants expressing a mutant AIMV CP with the N-terminal serine residue changed to glycine have been shown to be susceptible to infection with wt viral particles or RNAs. By site-directed mutagenesis of AIMV cDNA a viable mutant virus encoding CP with the same N-terminal mutation was obtained. Plants expressing wt or mutant CP were resistant to the mutant virus, demonstrating that a single amino acid substitution in CP did not permit the virus to overcome CP-mediated resistance. Although the mutant CP did not confer resistance to wt virus when expressed in transgenic plants, it was still effective in classical cross-protection: plants infected with the mutant virus were resistant to severe strain of AIMV. A model to explain the data is discussed.
Previously we reported that null mutant viruses of UL19 (VP5) or of UL18 (VP23), essential components of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) capsid shells, do not form precursor capsid structures as judged by sedimentation and electron microscope analysis. A goal of the present experiments was to isolate a null mutant virus for the remaining essential component of capsid shells, VP19C, encoded by the UL38 open reading frame (ORF). Furthermore, we wished to determine if a virus altered in the UL26 maturation cleavage site at residues 610 and 611 produced a lethal phenotype. Therefore, we decided to isolate cell lines that encode and express multiple capsid genes. Several cell lines were isolated by transformation of Vero cells and one designated C32 expressed all of the essential capsid proteins. Using this cell line we isolated a null mutant virus in the UL38 ORF and a mutant virus that was altered at residues 610 and 611 of the UL26 and UL26.5 gene products. We found that the null mutant in VP19C did not form a detectable product as judged by sedimentation and electron microscope analyses following infection of nonpermissive cells. The mutant virus altered at the UL26 maturation site resulted in the accumulation of B capsids. Therefore, cleavage at this site was essential for the maturation of B capsids into C capsids. Interestingly, the absence of cleavage at the maturation site was required for the retention of VP24 in the capsid.
In an effort to understand the genetic regulation of membrane morphogenesis, twenty-nine temperature-sensitive mutants of the membrane-containing bacteriophage PM2 were isolated. Characterization at restrictive temperature revealed groups showing no lysis (Groups I--IV), partial lysis (Groups V--VIII), and full lysis (groups IX--XII) of the host Pseudomonas BAL-31. When the cell lysis data are considered in conjunction with data on stimulation of viral DNA synthesis, at least six mutant groups are defined. Analysis by gel electrophoresis of the pattern of viral proteins synthesized under restrictive conditions further divides the mutants into twelve groups. Temperature shift experiments delineate early, intermediate and late mutants. Complementation data support some of these groupings. The observed low levels of complementation and recombination are discussed in terms of gene product/genome restriction, bound to the membrane at the site of infection. It is of particular interest to membrane morphogenesis that under restrictive conditions late mutants in Groups II, III and IV make empty-appearing vesicles inside the cell that are the size of virus membranes as seen in thin sections of cells in the electron microscope. Mutants ts 1 (Group II) and ts 12 (Group III) show defects in their ability to incorporate into membranes viral structural proteins sp 13 and sp 6.6. The possibility is discussed that either of these proteins control the size and shape of the viral membrane.
Purine biosynthesis was studied in 8 mutants of Chinese hamster cells which require purines for growth and in wild-type cells which do not show this nutritional requirement. Of these, 6 mutants, ade-B, ade-D, ade-E, ade-F, GAT-, and AT-, were shown to accumulate metabolic intermediates not accumulated by wild-type cells. These intermediates were shown to be compounds unique to the adenylic acid biosynthetic pathway by the following criteria: (a) their radioisotopic labeling properties, (b) their response to agents which specifically inhibit known enzymatic steps in the pathway, (c) their chromatographic properties, and (d) spectrophotometric analysis. Two mutants, ade-A and ade-C, accumulate no detectable compounds not accumulated by the wild type. These 2 mutants are believed to be defective in steps very early in the purine biosynthetic pathway. The sites of the defects in the other mutants are proposed, and the usefulness of these mutants is discussed.
Second-step mutants highly resistant to the protein synthesis inhibitor emetine (Emt(RII) have been selected from emetine resistant (Emt(RI)) Chinese hamster ovary cells described earlier. The frequency of the Emt(RII) mutants was increased 50- to 75-fold after mutagenesis, and none of these highly resistant mutants could be selected in one step using wild-type cells. Like the Emt(RI) mutants, the increased resistance of Emt(RII) mutants results from another lesion in the polyribosomal fraction, as measured by the effects of emetine in fractionated extracts. As with the first-step mutants, the Emt(RII) isolates behave recessively in somatic cell hybrids. Segregation studies have shown that the Emt(R) lesions are not on the X chromosome, and in at least one isolate there is evidence that the Emt(RI) and Emt(RII) mutations may occur at different sites.
The effect of ethidium bromide on the growth of a yeast mutant with an impaired mitochrondrial translocation system of adenine nucleotides (op-1 mutant) was investigated. It was found that the op-1 mutant stops growing both under growing and non-growing conditions after treatment with ethidium bromide and that the growth cannot be restored by adding low-molecular compounds to the growth medium. It was the aim of the experiments to clarify whether the cessation of growth of the op-1 mutant after induction of the rho- mutation can be simulated by inhibitors phenotypically changing the mitochondrial function. It appears likely that the op-1 mutant stops growing only after the rho- mutation has been induced, because the phenotypic simulation of the rho- mutation does not lead the cessation of growth of the op-1 mutant.
The mitochondrial (mt) genomes of three spontaneous cytoplasmic "palindromic" petite mutants of yeast were studied by restriction-enzyme analysis. These mt genomes were shown to be made up of an amplified "master basic unit" consisting of two inverted segments (a and A) and of two different unique segments (d and t) separating them. The basic unit was called "amphimeric", this term having been first proposed for certain lambda-phage mutants. We propose that in the mt genomes of the petite mutants studied, the four possible variants of the amphimeric basic unit form two - "flip" and "flop" - tetra-amphimeric repeat units datA-datA-DaTA-DaTA and DatA-DatA-daTA-daTA, respectively. These repeat units make two types of "amphimeric" mt genomes which exist in equal proportions in the cell. In each mt genome, the duplicated segment regularly alternates in its direct and inverted orientation (a...A...a...A...), whereas the unique segments are arranged twice in tandem fashion and twice in inverted fashion (d...d...D...D...d...d...andt...t...T...T...t...t...). The only difference between flip and flop amphimeric mt petite genomes is the different relative orientation of the unique segments in the mono-amphimers. In the mono-amphimers of flip mt genomes, both unique segments are arranged in the same direction (d...t and D...T), whereas in the mono-amphimers of flop mt genomes, both unique segments are arranged in opposite directions (D...t and d...T). Control experiments on one spontaneous petite mutant (which was an ancestor of the mutants studied here) and on three independent, previously investigated, EtBr-induced mutants showed that all of them were, in fact, organized in the same way. Analysing our experimental data and the results published by others, we conclude that amphimeric organization is a general feature of mt petite genomes of yeast previously called "palindromic" or "rearranged".
Recombination-deficient (rec) mutants of Staphylococcus aureus strains 152 and Ps29 were sought by initially screening mutagenized cultures for mutants exhibiting increased sensitivity to both ultraviolet (UV) radiation and N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (NG). Mutants thus isolated were analyzed for recombinational ability by transduction, and further characterized in terms of sensitivity to UV, NG, ability to repair UV-irradiated bacteriophage, and spontaneous and UV-induced DNA degradation. Mutagenesis of strain 152 yielded three isolates, one of which was rec, the second potentially lex, and the third possessing an undetermined repair deficiency. Mutagenesis of strain Ps29 resulted in the isolation of one mutant, which exhibited a rec genotype. In searching for rec mutants of S. aureus, the value of initially screening mutagenized cultures for mutants exhibiting concurrent sensitivity to UV and NG, as opposed to screening for UV sensitivity alone, is discussed.
A rapid, sensitive, and reproducible method for the isolation of human cell clones containing nonconditional, replication-defective (rd) mutants of Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (M-PMV), the prototype of the D-type retroviruses is described. The two mutants, rd1 and rd2, thus far isolated have been analyzed for virus particle production (using radiolabeled precursors and by electron microscopy) and for the status of intracellular viral precursors. Thin sections of rd1 and rd2 infected cells showed typical M-PMV particles when observed under electron microscope. A more direct assay of virus production, by labeling the mutant cell clones with [3H]uridine, also showed a distinct virus peak at an approximate density of 1.16 g/ml when culture fluids from rd1 and rd2 were analyzed. Analyses of these two mutants showed no defect in either gag or env gene products, however, further analysis of rd1 showed that the Pr180gag-pol was altered in its migration on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and no reverse transcriptase activity could be detected in rd1 virions. Mutant rd2, on the other hand, assembles noninfectious virus particles that are otherwise indistinguishable from those produced by wild-type cell clones. The biochemical basis for the defect in this mutant remains to be established.
Seven thermosensitive mutants of the F5 deletion mutant of the mycobacteriophage D29 were described. The mutants were obtained using N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) mutagenesis, and were characterized using temperature shift assays, complementation and recombination tests, electron microscopy of infected host bacteria at non-permissive temperature, and serum blocking power. Mutants deficient in tail assembly, and mutants deficient in head and tail assembly were described. Mutants deficient in head assembly but capable of assembling tails were not isolated during this study. From the data, 3 provisional linkage map of the phage F5 was proposed.
BACKGROUND: Current approaches to homology modeling predict how amino acid substitutions will alter a protein's structure, primarily by modeling sidechain conformations upon essentially immobile backbone frameworks. However, recent crystal structures of T4 lysozyme mutants reveal significant shifts of the mainchain and other potentially serious problems for sidechain rotamer-based modeling. This paper evaluates the accuracy of structural and thermodynamic predictions from two common sidechain modeling approaches to measure errors caused by the fixed-backbone approximation. RESULTS: Tested on a series of T4 lysozyme mutants, this sidechain rotamer library approach did not handle mainchain shifts well, correctly predicting the sidechain conformations of only two of six mutants. By contrast, allowing sidechains to move more flexibly appeared to compensate for the rigidity of the mainchain and gave reasonably accurate coordinate predictions (rms errors of 0.5-1.0 A for each mutated sidechain), better on average than 90% of possible conformations. The calculated packing energies correlated well with experimental stabilities (r2 = 0.81) and correctly captured the cooperative interactions of several neighboring mutations. CONCLUSIONS: Mutant modeling can be relatively accurate despite the fixed-backbone approximation. Mainchain shifts (0.2-0.5 A) cause increased sidechain coordinate errors of 0.1-0.8 A, torsional errors of 10-30 degrees, and exaggerated strain energy for overpacked mutants, compared with the same calculations performed with the correct mutant backbones.
We have studied the catalytic activity and some other properties of mutants of Escherichia coli plasmid-encoded RTEM beta-lactamase (EC 3.5.2.6) with all combinations of serine and threonine residues at the active-site positions 70 and 71. (All natural beta-lactamases have conserved serine-70 and threonine-71.) From the inactive double mutant Ser-70----Thr, Thr-71----Ser [Dalbadie-McFarland, G., Cohen, L. W., Riggs, A. D., Morin, C., Itakura, K., & Richards, J. H. (1982) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 79, 6409-6413], an active revertant, Thr-71----Ser (i.e., residue 70 in the double mutant had changed from threonine to the serine conserved at position 70 in the wild-type enzyme), was isolated by an approach that allows identification of active revertants in the absence of a background of wild-type enzyme. This mutant (Thr-71----Ser) has about 15% of the catalytic activity of wild-type beta-lactamase. The other possible mutant involving serine and threonine residues at positions 70 and 71 (Ser-70----Thr) shows no catalytic activity. The primary nucleophiles of a serine or a cysteine residue [Sigal, I. S., Harwood, B. G., & Arentzen, R. (1982) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 79, 7157-7160] at position 70 thus seem essential for enzymatic activity. Compared to wild-type enzyme, all three mutants show significantly reduced resistance to proteolysis; for the active revertant (Thr-71----Ser), we have also observed reduced thermal stability and reduced resistance to denaturation by urea.