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E Breslow

Publications and source records attributed to E Breslow.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Hydrogen ion interactions of horse spleen ferritin and apoferritin.

The interactions of horse spleen ferritin and its derivative apoferritin with H+ ions were studied by potentiometric and spectrophotometric titration; to aid in data analysis, heats of ionization over a limited pH range and amide content were also determined. Per apoferritin subunit, all tyrosine and cysteine side chains, two of the nine lysine side chains and at least three of the six histidine side chains were found not to titrate; a preliminary but self-consistent analysis of the titration data is proposed. The titration curve of ferritin was identical with that of apoferritin in the pH range 5.5 to 3. In addition, under the conditions used, the reactivities of ferritin histidines to bromoacetate and of ferritin lysines to formaldehyde were identical with those in apoferritin. Above pH 8, a time-dependent titration of the ferritin core occurs which prevents comparison of the titration curves of the two proteins in this region. However, in the pH regions 5.5 to 7.5, two extra groups per subunit titrate reversibly in ferritin relative to apoferritin. Moreover, although the isoionic points of ferritin and apoferritin are identical in water, the isoionic point of ferritin is 0.5 pH unit lower than that of apoferritin in 0.16 to 1 M KCl. The different effects of KCl and NaCl on the two proteins indicate the presence of cation binding sites in ferritin that are absent in apoferritin and possibly also the presence of anion binding sites in apoferritin that are occupied in ferritin by anions of the core. The difference between the isoionic points of the two proteins in KCl has been interpreted to indicate the presence of approximately 2 phosphate residues per ferritin subunit which serve as cation binding sites and which are negatively charged at the isoionic point in KCl. These phosphates may also represent the additional residues that titrate in ferritin between pH 5.5 and 7.5, or may interact with positively charged residues on the inner surface of the ferritin shell, or both.

Animals↗

Chemical and physical properties of the disulfides of bovine neurophysin-II.

Bovine neurophysin-II is shown to be very susceptible to partial reduction in the absence of urea. Reduction of an average of one disulfide leads to major changes in conformation and disulfide optical activity, manifest in part by pronounced far-uv ellipticity changes, complete loss of the 248-nm ellipticity band, and a shift of the 278-nm ellipticity band to shorter wavelengths with loss of half its intensity; the reduction process generates a mixture of products and appears to be accompanied by disulfide interchange. The circular dichroism data indicate that the disulfide(s) most susceptible to reduction or interchange are either the principal contributors to the 248- and 278-nm ellipticity bands or that the optical activity of other disulfides is dependent on their integrity. Peptides that bind to the hormone-binding site of neurophysin-II protect against reduction. On reoxidation of partially reduced neurophysin-II there is only a partial return of the native circular dichroism spectrum and electrophoretic behavior. The percentage of native protein in samples reoxidized following different degrees of reduction was estimated by comparison of the circular dichroism spectra of these samples with those of the fractionated native and denatured components of monoreduced-reoxidized neurophysin. Under our reoxidation conditions, less than 50% native protein was found in monoreduced-reoxidized neurophysin and less than 10% native protein was found in completely reduced-reoxidized neurophysin. The results are interpreted with qualified reference to a model in which one or more disulfides are "strained" in the native state and in which the native protein is unstable relative to species in which the disulfides are differently paired.

Animals↗

The neurophysins.

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Amino Acid Sequence↗

Evolution of neurophysin proteins: the partial sequence of bovine neurophysin-I (vasopressin-oxytocin-carrier proteins-automated amino-acid-sequence analysis-homology-protein evolution).

The sequence of the first 50 amino-acid residues of bovine neurophysin-I was determined. A comparison of this sequence with that of the 97-residue bovine neurophysin-II and the 92-residue porcine neurophysin-I molecules reveals a high degree of homology among these proteins. It is suggested that the binding site of neurophysin proteins for neurohypophyseal hormones is located in the middle portion of these molecules, where their sequences are virtually identical. The sequence data, as well as the occurrence of at least two neurophysins in both the pig and the cow, suggest that each species inherited at least two structural genes controlling the synthesis of these proteins. The most striking finding in the study was the observation of internal sequence homologies within the neurophysins. This result implies that these molecules arose by way of a series of partial gene duplications of a primitive gene that coded for a smaller ancestral protein.

Acetamides↗

Optical activity of bovine neurophysins and their peptide complexes in the near ultraviolet.

Circular dichroism studies of the bovine neurophysins in the near ultraviolet show a strong negative band at 280 nm and a strong positive band at 248 nm, both of which are attributable almost exclusively to disulfide transitions. The ellipticities per disulfide bond of the unresolved bands in neurophysin-II are -2900 deg cm(2)/decimole and +2300 deg cm(2)/decimole at 280 nm and 248 nm, respectively. Binding of oxytocin, vasopressin, or the peptide S-methyl-L-cysteinyl-L-tyrosyl-L-phenylalanine amide lead to large changes in optical activity in the near and far ultraviolet. Of these circular dichroism changes above 290 nm are attributed to changes in the optical activity of neurophysin disulfides, while changes elsewhere are more generally ascribed to changes in either disulfide, tyrosine, or peptide bond transitions. Optical rotatory dispersion studies show that calcium ion, at concentrations of 0.01 M, has only trivial effects on the affinity of bovine neurophysins for oxytocin.

Animals↗