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George M Sheldrick

Publications and source records attributed to George M Sheldrick.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Crystal structure and functional analysis of Drosophila Wind, a protein-disulfide isomerase-related protein.

In the developing Drosophila melanogaster embryo, dorsal-ventral patterning displays an absolute requirement for the product of the essential windbeutel gene, Wind. In homozygous windbeutel mutant flies, dorsal-ventral patterning fails to initiate because of the failure of the Golgi-resident proteoglycan-modifying protein, Pipe, to exit the endoplasmic reticulum, and this leads to the death of the embryo. Here, we describe the three-dimensional structure of Wind at 1.9-A resolution and identify a candidate surface for interaction with Pipe. This represents the first crystal structure of a eukaryotic protein-disulfide isomerase-related protein of the endoplasmic reticulum to be described. The dimeric protein is composed of an N-terminal thioredoxin domain and a C-terminal alpha-helical domain unique to protein-disulfide isomerase D proteins. Although Wind carries a CXXC motif that is partially surface accessible, this motif is redox inactive, and the cysteines are not required for the targeting of Pipe to the Golgi. However, both domains are required for targeting Pipe to the Golgi, and, although the mouse homologue ERp28 cannot replace the function of Wind, exchange of the Wind D-domain with that of ERp28 allows for efficient Golgi transport of Pipe.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2003

Structure of dimeric cytochrome c3 from Desulfovibrio gigas at 1.2 A resolution.

The structure of dimeric cytochrome c(3) from the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio gigas, diDg, obtained by ab initio methods was further refined to 1.2 A resolution, giving final reliability factors of R(free) = 14.8% and R = 12.4%. This cytochrome is a dimer of tetraheme cytochrome c(3) molecules covalently linked by two solvent-accessible disulfide bridges, a characteristic unique to members of the cytochrome c(3) superfamily. Anisotropic analysis using the semi-rigid TLS method shows different behaviour for analogous loops in each monomer arising from their different packing environments. A detailed sequence and structural comparison with all other known cytochrome c(3) domains in single- and multi-domain cytochromes c(3) shows the presence of structurally conserved regions in this family, despite the high variability of the amino-acid sequence. An internal water molecule is conserved in a common structural arrangement in all c(3) tetraheme domains, indicating a probable electron-transfer pathway between hemes I and II. Unique features of diDg are an internal methionine residue close to heme I and to one of the axial ligands of heme III, where all other structures of the cytochrome c(3) superfamily have a phenylalanine, and a rather unusual CXXXCH heme-binding motif only found so far in this cytochrome.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2003

In-house measurement of the sulfur anomalous signal and its use for phasing.

Five test structures (orthorhombic and trigonal trypsin, cubic and rhombohedral insulin and thaumatin) have been solved by the SAD (single-wavelength anomalous diffraction) method using highly redundant data collected at 100 K with a CCD detector, rotating-anode generator and three-circle goniometer. The very weak anomalous scattering (primarily from sulfur) was sufficient to locate all the anomalous scatterers using the integrated direct and Patterson methods in SHELXD. These positions and occupancies were used without further refinement to estimate phases that were extended to native (in-house) resolution by the sphere of influence algorithm in SHELXE. The final map correlation coefficients relative to the anisotropically refined structures were in the range 0.81-0.97. The use of highly redundant medium-resolution laboratory data for sulfur-SAD phasing combined with high-resolution synchrotron native data for phase expansion and structure refinement clearly has considerable potential.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2003

In-house phase determination of the lima bean trypsin inhibitor: a low-resolution sulfur-SAD case.

SAD (single-wavelength anomalous diffraction) has enormous potential for phasing proteins using only the anomalous signal of the almost ubiquitous native sulfur, but requires extremely precise data. The previously unknown structure of the lima bean trypsin inhibitor (LBTI) was solved using highly redundant data collected to 3 A using a CCD detector with a rotating-anode generator and three-circle goniometer. The seven 'super-S' atoms (disulfide bridges) were located by dual-space recycling with SHELXD and the high solvent content enabled the density-modification program SHELXE to generate high-quality maps despite the modest resolution. Subsequently, a 2.05 A synchrotron data set was collected and used for further phase extension and structure refinement.

Crystallography, X-Ray↗
PubMed2002

Is the bond-valence method able to identify metal atoms in protein structures?

The proper assignment of metal ions in X-ray structures of proteins is not always easy, but in many cases this knowledge can be important, e.g. for an understanding of enzyme mechanism. In this publication, the bond-valence approach is assessed critically. A simplified version, the calcium bond-valence sum (CBVS), is proposed for the convenient analysis of the geometric environment of potential sites with a view to metal-ion assignment. The bond-valence approach is found to be more reliable for structures determined from high-resolution data (1.5 A or better).

Algorithms↗
PubMed2002

Locating the anomalous scatterer substructures in halide and sulfur phasing.

Improved data quality now makes it feasible to exploit the weak anomalous signal derived only from the sulfurs inherent to the protein or in particular from halide ions incorporated by soaking. The latter technique requires the location of a high number of partially occupied halide sites. This number appears to be roughly proportional to the exposed protein surface. This paper explores the application of dual-space ab initio methods as implemented in the program SHELXD to the location of substructures of sulfur in SAD experiments, bromide in SAD and MAD experiments and iodide using SAD and SIRAS to determine the anomalous-atom substructure. Sets of atoms consistent with the Patterson function were generated as a starting point for the dual-space recycling procedure in SHELXD. The substructure is then expanded to the full structure by maximum-likelihood phasing with SHARP and density modification with the program DM. Success in the location of the substructures and subsequent phasing depends critically on the quality of the data and on the extent of the anomalous signal. This varies with each crystal and soak, but for the same crystal the significance of the anomalous signal was found to be highly sensitive to the redundancy of the intensity measurements, which in some cases made all the difference. This is illustrated by the determination of the previously unknown structure of repeat 11 of the human mannose-6-phosphate/insulin-like growth factor II receptor (Man6P/IGFII-receptor), with 310 amino acids in the asymmetric unit, which was phased by soaking the crystals in a cryoprotectant solution containing halide anions.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2002

Substructure solution with SHELXD.

Iterative dual-space direct methods based on phase refinement in reciprocal space and peak picking in real space are able to locate relatively large numbers of anomalous scatterers efficiently from MAD or SAD data. Truncation of the data at a particular resolution, typically in the range 3.0-3.5 A, can be critical to success. The efficiency can be improved by roughly an order of magnitude by Patterson-based seeding instead of starting from random phases or sites; Patterson superposition methods also provide useful validation. The program SHELXD implementing this approach is available as part of the SHELX package.

Crystallography, X-Ray↗
PubMed2002

Atomic resolution structure of squash trypsin inhibitor: unexpected metal coordination.

CMTI-I, a small-protein trypsin inhibitor, has been crystallized as a 4:1 protein-zinc complex. The metal is coordinated in a symmetric tetrahedral fashion by glutamate/glutamic acid side chains. The structure was solved by direct methods in the absence of prior knowledge of the special position metal centre and refined with anisotropic displacement parameters using diffraction data extending to 1.03 A. In the final calculations, the main-chain atoms of low B(eq) values were refined without restraint control. The two molecules in the asymmetric unit have a conformation that is very similar to that reported earlier for CMTI-I in complex with trypsin, despite the Met8Leu mutation of the present variant. The only significant differences are in the enzyme-binding epitope (including the Arg5 residue) and in a higher mobility loop around Glu24. The present crystal structure contains organic solvent molecules (glycerol, MPD) that interact with the inhibitor molecules in an area that is at the enzyme-inhibitor interface in the CMTI-I-trypsin complex. A perfectly ordered residue (Ala18) has an unusual Ramachandran conformation as a result of geometrical strain introduced by the three disulfide bridges that clamp the protein fold. The results confirm deficiencies of some stereochemical restraints, such as peptide planarity or the N-C(alpha)-C angle, and suggest a link between their violations and hydrogen bonding.

Crystallography, X-Ray↗
PubMed2002

Refinement of obverse/reverse twins.

Two examples of structures of obverse/reverse twins are presented. Example (1) is the structure of 2,2,4,4,6,6-hexa-tert-butylcyclotrisiloxane. It crystallizes in R3 macro c. Example (2) is the structure of [[Li(Me(3)Si)(3)CAlF(3)(thf)](3)LiF(thf)], tris[lithium tetrahydrofuran (trimethylsilyl)methyltrifluoroaluminate]lithium fluoride tetrahydrofuran. It crystallizes in R3. Additional to the obverse/reverse twinning this structure shows merohedral twinning. It will be shown how these two structures can be refined with the SHELXL program.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2002

Structures of glycopeptide antibiotics with peptides that model bacterial cell-wall precursors.

The vancomycin-related antibiotics balhimycin and degluco-balhimycin have been crystallized in complexes with di-, tri- and pentapeptides that emulate bacterial cell-wall precursors, and four structures determined at atomic resolution (<1 A). In addition to the features expected from previous structural and spectroscopic studies, two new motifs were observed that may prove important in the design of antibiotics modified to overcome bacterial resistance. A changed binding mode was found in two dipeptide complexes, and a new type of face-to-face oligomerization (in addition to the well-established back-to-back dimerization) was seen when the model peptide reaches a critical fraction of the size of the cell-wall precursor pentapeptide. The extensive interactions involving both antibiotic and peptide molecules in this interface should appreciably enhance the kinetic and thermodynamic stability of the complexes. In the pentapeptide complex, the relative positions of the peptides are close to those required for d-Ala elimination, so this structure may provide a realistic model for the prevention of the enzyme-catalyzed cell-wall crosslinking by antibiotic binding.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗