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D Ringe

Publications and source records attributed to D Ringe.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Analogous inhibitors of elastase do not always bind analogously.

It has been assumed that the structure of a single inhibitor complex is sufficient to define the available subsites of an enzyme that has a unique binding site and a uniquely defined mode for ligand binding--the specificity for these subsites can thus be probed by kinetic experiments. Elastase is an enzyme for which these traditional assumptions, which underlie such structural and kinetic studies, do not hold. Three new crystal structures of elastase complexed to chemically similar inhibitors with similar binding affinities reveal a diversity of binding modes as well as two new subsites on elastase. The existence of multiple binding sites and different binding modes for such similar inhibitors indicates that researchers must proceed with caution when using kinetics to map out protein subsites.

Anilides↗

The structural basis for the altered substrate specificity of the R292D active site mutant of aspartate aminotransferase from E. coli.

Two refined crystal structures of aspartate aminotransferase from E. coli are reported. The wild type enzyme is in the pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) form and its structure has been determined to 2.4 A resolution, refined to an R-factor of 23.2%. The structure of the Arg292Asp mutant has been determined at 2.8 A resolution, refined to an R-factor of 20.3%. The wild type and mutant crystals are isomorphous and the two structures are very similar, with only minor changes in positions of important active site residues. As residue Arg292 is primarily responsible for the substrate charge specificity in the wild type enzyme, the mutant containing a charge reversal at this position might be expected to catalyze transamination of arginine as efficiently as the wild type enzyme effects transamination of aspartate [Cronin, C.N. and Kirsch, J.F. (1988) Biochemistry, 27, 4572-4579]. This mutant does in fact prefer arginine over aspartate as a substrate, however, the rate of catalysis is much slower than that of the wild type enzyme with its physiological substrate, aspartate. A comparison of these two structures indicates that the poorer catalytic efficiency of R292D, when presented with arginine, is not due to a gross conformational difference, but is rather a consequence of both small side chain and main chain reorientations and the pre-existing active site polar environment, which greatly favors the wild type ion pair interaction.

Arginine↗

Iron, DtxR, and the regulation of diphtheria toxin expression.

In recent years considerable advances have been made in the understanding of the molecular basis of iron-mediated regulation of diphtheria toxin expression. The tox gene has been shown to be regulated by the heavy metal ion-activated regulatory element DtxR. In the presence of divalent heavy metal ions, DtxR becomes activated and binds to a 9 bp interrupted palindromic sequence. The consensus-binding site has been determined by both the sequence analysis of DtxR-responsive operators cloned from genomic libraries of Corynebacterium diphtheriae as well as by in vitro genetic methods using cyclic amplification of selected targets (CASTing). It is now clear that DtxR functions as a global iron-sensitive regulatory element in the control of gene expression in C. diphtheriae. In addition, the metal ion-activation domain of DtxR is being characterized by both mutational analysis and determination of the X-ray structure at 3.0 A resolution.

Bacterial Proteins↗

Structure of the Mg(2+)-bound form of CheY and mechanism of phosphoryl transfer in bacterial chemotaxis.

The response regulator protein of bacterial chemotaxis, CheY, is representative of a large family of signal transduction proteins that function as phosphorylation-activated switches to regulate the activities of associated effector domains. These regulators catalyze the metal ion-dependent phosphoryl transfer and dephosphorylation reactions that control the effector activities. The crystal structures of Salmonella typhimurium CheY with and without Mg2+ bound at the active site have been determined and refined at 1.8-A resolution. While the overall structures of metal-bound and metal-free CheY are similar, significant rearrangements occur within the active site involving the three most highly conserved residues of the response regulator family. Conservation of the cluster of carboxylate side chains at the active site of response regulator domains can be rationalized in terms of their role in coordinating the catalytically essential divalent metal ion. The Mg2+ coordination geometry provides insights to the mechanism of phosphoryl transfer.

Bacterial Proteins↗

Enzyme crystal structure in a neat organic solvent.

The crystal structure of the serine protease subtilisin Carlsberg in anhydrous acetonitrile was determined at 2.3 A resolution. It was found to be essentially identical to the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme in water; the differences observed were smaller than those between two independently determined structures in aqueous solution. The hydrogen bond system of the catalytic triad is intact in acetonitrile. The majority (99 of 119) of enzyme-bound, structural water molecules have such a great affinity to subtilisin that they are not displaced even in anhydrous acetonitrile. Of the 12 enzyme-bound acetonitrile molecules, 4 displace water molecules and 8 bind where no water had been observed before. One-third of all subtilisin-bound acetonitrile molecules reside in the active center, occupying the same region (P1, P2, and P3 binding sites) as the specific protein inhibitor eglin c.

Acetonitriles↗

Role reversal for substrates and inhibitors. Slow inactivation of D-amino acid transaminase by its normal substrates and protection by inhibitors.

D-Amino acid transaminase, which catalyzes the synthesis of D-alanine and D-glutamate for the bacterial cell wall, is a candidate for the design of specific inhibitors that could be novel antimicrobial agents. Under the experimental conditions usually employed for enzyme assays, kinetic parameters for its substrates were determined for short incubation periods, when intermediates and products do not accumulate and the enzyme activity is linear with time. Such kinetic analyses indicate that the enzyme accepts most D-amino acids but D-aspartate and D-glutamate are the best substrates. Under a different type of experimental conditions when the enzyme is exposed to D-alanine, intermediates, and products for periods of hours, it slowly becomes inactivated (Martinez del Pozo, A., Yoshimura, T., Bhatia, M. B., Futaki, S., and Manning, J. M. (1992) Biochemistry 31, 6018-6023). We now report that D-aspartate, D-glutamate, and L-alanine also lead to slow inactivation. Methylation or amidation of the alpha-COOH group of D-alanine prevents inactivation, indicating that decarboxylation is required for inactivation; the slow release of CO2 from substrate is demonstrated. The alpha-methyl analog of D-alanine, D-aspartate, and D-glutamate do not lead to inactivation, showing that the alpha-hydrogen of the substrate is required, i.e. that some processing is required. Lys145, which binds pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in the wild-type enzyme, is not involved in the inactivation since two active site mutant enzymes, K145Q and K145N, are also inactivated. Reactivation of the inactive enzyme at acidic pH is accompanied by the release of ammonia corresponding to 1 mol/mol of dimeric enzyme. Competitive inhibitors, amine-containing buffers, and thiols effectively impede the inactivation. This reversal in the roles of substrates and inhibitors, i.e. when a substrate can be an inactivator and an inhibitor can act as a protector, occurs during a time period not usually used to measure steady-state kinetics or initial velocities of enzyme reactions and could have physiological relevance in cells.

Amino Acids↗

Modularity of protein function: chimeric interleukin 1 beta s containing specific protease inhibitor loops retain function of both molecules.

Although it is widely recognized that many proteins contain discrete functional domains, it is less certain whether smaller, less obviously discrete, units of structure will retain their specific function when transplanted into a different context. The observation that the potent inflammatory cytokine human interleukin 1 beta has the same overall structure as soybean trypsin inhibitor (STI) (Kunitz) prompted us to replace a tight turn in the cytokine sequence with the large loop in soybean trypsin inhibitor that binds to the active site of trypsin. Wild-type interleukin 1 beta (IL-1 beta) is highly resistant to proteolysis, but the chimeric STI/IL is specifically cleaved by trypsin, apparently in the inserted loop. Other chimeric interleukins have also been constructed, by replacing the same tight turn with inhibitory loops from other protein protease inhibitors: turkey ovomucoid inhibitor (TOI), a chymotrypsin inhibitor, and alpha 1-antitrypsin (AT), an elastase inhibitor. Although these loops come from proteins not related structurally to interleukin 1, they confer specific protease sensitivity or inhibition on the chimeric cytokine. The cytokine properties of these chimeric interleukins have also been evaluated. The chimeras formed from human IL-1 beta and all inhibitory loops tested bind to the interleukin 1 receptor with reasonable affinity. The typical cellular effects of IL-1, however, are not observed with all the recombinant proteins, thus confirming that receptor binding and signal transduction can be uncoupled. When these results are taken together with the results of site-directed mutagenesis of IL-1, reported in this paper and elsewhere, they allow the receptor and intracellular transduction sites on the protein to be mapped in detail.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Kinetic and stereochemical comparison of wild-type and active-site K145Q mutant enzyme of bacterial D-amino acid transaminase.

D-Amino acid transaminase (EC 2.6.1.21), from Bacillus sp. YM-1, a thermostable enzyme with pyridoxal 5'-phosphate as coenzyme and a target for the design of novel antimicrobial agents, catalyzes the reversible transfer of an amino group between D-alanine and alpha-ketoglutarate to form pyruvate and D-glutamate, respectively. To explore the catalytic role of Lys-145, which binds the coenzyme, a site-specific mutant enzyme, K145Q (in which Lys-145 had been mutated to glutamine) constructed earlier (Futaki, S., Ueno, H., Martinez del Pozo, A., Pospischil, M. A., Manning, J. M., Ringe, D., Stoddard, B., Tanizawa, K., Yoshimura, T., and Soda, K. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 22306-22312) was compared to the wild-type enzyme for its kinetic parameters. Initial velocity studies and partial reaction isotope exchange experiments showed that the low activity of the mutant enzyme (about 1.5% the activity of the wild-type enzyme with saturating substrates) is an intrinsic property, confirming that contaminating enzymes do not account for the low activity of the K145Q mutant enzyme. The rates of the forward reaction for both wild-type and mutant enzymes were 30-40 times higher than the rates of the reverse reaction. KM values for the four substrates were 10 to 100 higher for the mutant compared to the wild-type enzyme. Whereas D-alanine is preferred over L-alanine by the wild-type enzyme (10(3) higher kcat/KM for D- over L-alanine), the K145Q enzyme does not efficiently discriminate between L- and D-alanine. Both wild-type and mutant enzymes also catalyze the slow racemization of L- and D-alanine. Proton NMR studies showed that wild-type enzyme catalyzed a time-dependent exchange of the C alpha proton of D-alanine with solvent D2O and a slow exchange of the alpha proton of L-alanine; the latter slow exchange rate is the same for the C alpha proton of both L- and D-alanine with the K145Q mutant enzyme. Thus, in addition to binding pyridoxal 5'-phosphate, the active-site Lys-145 of D-amino acid transaminase is involved in several other important functions, i.e. it optimizes catalytic efficiency and it maintains stereochemical fidelity. The steady-state kinetic results on the K145Q mutant enzyme together with the findings on the relative racemization rates and the NMR protein exchange data suggest that an alternate base catalyzes abstraction of the alpha proton of substrate in this mutant D-amino acid transaminase.

Bacillus↗

On the origin of enzymatic species.

The diversity of enzyme catalytic function is remarkable, particularly when one considers that ancestral life forms must have started with a much smaller ensemble of proteins. In this article, we discuss the evolution of the mandelate pathway in pseudomonads as an example of how catalytic diversity may have evolved. We suggest that existing enzymes that catalyse the chemistry needed to accomplish a transformation were recruited, followed by the evolution of specific binding.

Binding Sites↗

Partial reactions of bacterial D-amino acid transaminase with asparagine substituted for the lysine that binds coenzyme pyridoxal 5'-phosphate.

In bacterial D-amino acid transaminase (EC 2.6.1.21) replacement of Lys-145, which is covalently linked to the coenzyme pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in the wild-type enzyme, by an Asn residue gave a mutant enzyme (K145N) that slowly performed each half-reaction, as determined by spectral measurements. With the wild-type enzyme, the kinetics of these events were so rapid that pre-steady-state conditions were needed for their determination. The internal aldimine between coenzyme and Lys-145 was rapidly reduced with NaCNBH3 in the wild-type enzyme, whereas in the mutant enzyme the coenzyme, which is not covalently linked to the protein, was more resistant to reduction; the reduced forms of both wild-type and mutant enzymes were inactive. With large amounts of the K145N mutant enzyme and either amino acid or keto acid substrate alone, the formation of some reaction intermediates, i.e., the external aldimine with D-alanine and the ketimine with alpha-ketoglutarate, can be measured by conventional spectroscopy. Suicide substrates also induced slow spectral shifts of the E-PLP form of the enzyme. For the K145N enzyme, exogenous amines affected only the rate of the transaldimination but not the removal of the alpha-proton of the substrate. These results suggest that in the mutant enzyme some amino acid side chain other than Lys-145 performs this function. In order to identify this site, the K145N mutant enzyme was completely inactivated by the radiolabeled suicide substrate D-serine. Peptide mapping of tryptic digests showed that Lys-267 was the modified site.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Alanine↗

Inactivation of dimeric D-amino acid transaminase by a normal substrate through formation of an unproductive coenzyme adduct in one subunit.

D-amino acid transaminase, which contains pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (vitamin B6) as coenzyme, catalyzes the formation of D-alanine and D-glutamate from their corresponding alpha-keto acids; these D-amino acids are required for bacterial cell wall biosynthesis. Under conditions usually used for kinetic assay of enzyme activity, i.e., short incubation times with dilute enzyme concentrations, D-alanine behaves as one of the best substrates. However, the enzyme slowly loses activity over a period of hours when exposed to substrates, intermediates, and products at equilibrium. The rate of inactivation is dependent on enzyme concentration but independent of substrate concentration greater than Km values. Continuous removal of the product pyruvate by enzymic reduction precludes the establishment of equilibrium and prevents inactivation. The formation of small but detectable amounts of a quinonoid intermediate absorbing at 493 nm is proportional to inactivation. Studies with [14C]-D-alanine labeled on different carbon atoms indicate that the alpha-carboxyl group of the substrate is absent in the inactive enzyme; such decarboxylation is not a usual function of this enzyme. The inactive transaminase contains 1.1 mol of [14C]-D-alanine-derived adduct per mole of dimeric enzyme; this finding is consistent with the 50% reduction in the fluorescence intensity at 390 nm (due to the PMP form of the coenzyme) for the inactive enzyme. Thus, inactivation of one subunit of the dimeric enzyme renders the entire molecule inactive. Inactivation may occur when a coenzyme intermediate, perhaps the ketimine, is slowly decarboxylated and then undergoes a conformational change from its catalytically competent location.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Alanine↗

Crystalline ribonuclease A loses function below the dynamical transition at 220 K.

When the dynamic properties of many different proteins are plotted as a function of temperature, biphasic behaviour is observed, with a broad transition centred around 220 K. Atomic mean-square displacements from X-ray crystallography and Mössbauer scattering show this behaviour, as do electron transfer rates and dynamic information from inelastic neutron scattering. Molecular dynamics simulations over a range of temperatures also exhibit a transition at about 220 K: high-temperature atomic fluctuations are dominated by anharmonic collective motions of bonded and nonbonded groups of atoms, but below 220 K the predominant dynamic behaviour is harmonic vibration of individual atoms. Here we show by high-resolution X-ray diffraction that crystalline ribonuclease A does not bind substrate or inhibitor at 212 K but will bind either rapidly at 228 K. Once bound at the higher temperature, inhibitor cannot be washed off after the enzyme is cooled to below the transition temperature. These results suggest that enzyme flexibility is required for catalytic function.

Animals↗

Molecular modeling studies in the complex between cyclophilin and cyclosporin A.

The structure of the complex between cyclophilin and cyclosporin A is predicted by combining X-ray crystallographic and NMR spectroscopic data using molecular modeling. The drug was placed at the receptor site using a directed docking procedure in which an impulse is imparted to a pre-oriented ligand along an established path. Both ligand and receptor atoms are flexible during the procedure. Two conformers of the MeBMT side chain are shown to result in similar ligand-receptor interaction energies. The models for the drug-receptor complex appear consistent with known experimental data and provide a significant opportunity for the design of compounds with enhanced therapeutic value.

Amino Acid Isomerases↗

Observation of the light-triggered binding of pyrone to chymotrypsin by Laue x-ray crystallography.

Crystals of gamma-chymotrypsin inhibited with the photodissociable group trans-p-diethylamino-o-hydroxy-alpha-methylcinnamate were irradiated with a 1-msec flash from a high-energy xenon flashlamp in the presence of the mechanism-based inhibitor 3-benzyl-6-chloro-2-pyrone. The ensuing reaction was monitored by collection of sequential, single-exposure Laue x-ray diffraction patterns. The experiment was also performed in solution to verify the regeneration of catalytic activity and the subsequent inhibition of the enzyme by pyrone after photolysis. The resulting crystallographic structures show the presence of covalently bound cinnamate prior to photolysis, the generation of "free" enzyme after irradiation of the crystal, and the slow formation of a pyrone-inhibited complex several hours after photolysis. The structure of the free enzyme shows a significant proportion of the active sites in the crystal to contain a naturally occurring, noncovalently bound tetrapeptide inhibitor [Dixon, M.M. & Matthews, B.W. (1989) Biochemistry 28, 7033-7038], even after cinnamate acylation and photolysis. Data collected simultaneously with irradiation show the crystal to be slightly disordered during photolysis, leading to streaked x-ray photos. The resulting maps are suggestive of a bicyclic coumarin species produced by photolysis and deacylation; however, the electron density is difficult to model unambiguously by one unique chemical state. Nevertheless, Laue crystallography is shown to be capable of visualizing time-dependent chemical changes in the active site of an enzyme.

Binding Sites↗

Structure of the triosephosphate isomerase-phosphoglycolohydroxamate complex: an analogue of the intermediate on the reaction pathway.

The glycolytic enzyme triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) catalyzes the interconversion of the three-carbon sugars dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and D-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (GAP) at a rate limited by the diffusion of substrate to the enzyme. We have solved the three-dimensional structure of TIM complexed with a reactive intermediate analogue, phosphoglycolohydroxamate (PGH), at 1.9-A resolution and have refined the structure to an R-factor of 18%. Analysis of the refined structure reveals the geometry of the active-site residues and the interactions they make with the inhibitor and, by analogy, the substrates. The structure is consistent with an acid-base mechanism in which the carboxylate of Glu-165 abstracts a proton from carbon while His-95 donates a proton to oxygen to form an enediol (or enediolate) intermediate. The conformation of the bound substrate stereoelectronically favors proton transfer from substrate carbon to the syn orbital of Glu-165. The crystal structure suggests that His-95 is neutral rather than cationic in the ground state and therefore would have to function as an imidazole acid instead of the usual imidazolium. Lys-12 is oriented so as to polarize the substrate oxygens by hydrogen bonding and/or electrostatic interaction, providing stabilization for the charged transition state. Asn-10 may play a similar role.

Amino Acid Sequence↗