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Biomedical subjects

J A Tainer

Publications and source records attributed to J A Tainer.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Protein mimicry of DNA from crystal structures of the uracil-DNA glycosylase inhibitor protein and its complex with Escherichia coli uracil-DNA glycosylase.

Uracil-DNA glycosylase (UDG), which is a critical enzyme in DNA base-excision repair that recognizes and removes uracil from DNA, is specifically and irreversably inhibited by the thermostable uracil-DNA glycosylase inhibitor protein (Ugi). A paradox for the highly specific Ugi inhibition of UDG is how Ugi can successfully mimic DNA backbone interactions for UDG without resulting in significant cross-reactivity with numerous other enzymes that possess DNA backbone binding affinity. High-resolution X-ray crystal structures of Ugi both free and in complex with wild-type and the functionally defective His187Asp mutant Escherichia coli UDGs reveal the detailed molecular basis for duplex DNA backbone mimicry by Ugi. The overall shape and charge distribution of Ugi most closely resembles a midpoint in a trajectory between B-form DNA and the kinked DNA observed in UDG:DNA product complexes. Thus, Ugi targets the mechanism of uracil flipping by UDG and appears to be a transition-state mimic for UDG-flipping of uracil nucleotides from DNA. Essentially all the exquisite shape, electrostatic and hydrophobic complementarity for the high-affinity UDG-Ugi interaction is pre-existing, except for a key flip of the Ugi Gln19 carbonyl group and Glu20 side-chain, which is triggered by the formation of the complex. Conformational changes between unbound Ugi and Ugi complexed with UDG involve the beta-zipper structural motif, which we have named for the reversible pairing observed between intramolecular beta-strands. A similar beta-zipper is observed in the conversion between the open and closed forms of UDG. The combination of extremely high levels of pre-existing structural complementarity to DNA binding features specific to UDG with key local conformational changes in Ugi resolves the UDG-Ugi paradox and suggests a potentially general structural solution to the formation of very high affinity DNA enzyme-inhibitor complexes that avoid cross- reactivity.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1999

Envisioning the molecular choreography of DNA base excision repair.

Recent breakthroughs integrate individual DNA repair enzyme structures, biochemistry and biology to outline the structural cell biology of the DNA base excision repair pathways that are essential to genome integrity. Thus, we are starting to envision how the actions, movements, steps, partners and timing of DNA repair enzymes, which together define their molecular choreography, are elegantly controlled by both the nature of the DNA damage and the structural chemistry of the participating enzymes and the DNA double helix.

Base Pair Mismatch↗
PubMed1999

Evolution and mechanism from structures of an ADP-ribosylating toxin and NAD complex.

A member of the Bacillus-produced vegetative insecticidal proteins (VIPs) possesses high specificity against the major insect pest, corn rootworms, and belongs to a class of binary toxins and regulators of biological pathways distinct from classical A-B toxins. The 1.5 A resolution crystal structure of the enzymatic ADP-ribosyltransferase component, VIP2, from Bacillus cereus reveals structurally homologous N- and C-terminal alpha/beta domains likely representing the entire class of binary toxins and implying evolutionary relationships between families of ADP-ribosylating toxins. The crystal structure of the kinetically trapped VIP2-NAD complex identifies the NAD binding cleft within the C-terminal enzymatic domain and provides a structural basis for understanding the targeting and catalysis of the medically and environmentally important binary toxins. These structures furthermore provide specific experimental results to help resolve paradoxes regarding the specific mechanism of ADP-ribosylation of actin by implicating ground state destabilization and nicotinamide product sequestration as the major driving forces for catalysis.

Actins↗
PubMed1999

Crystallographic structure reveals phosphorylated pilin from Neisseria: phosphoserine sites modify type IV pilus surface chemistry and fibre morphology.

Understanding the structural biology of type IV pili, fibres responsible for the virulent attachment and motility of numerous bacterial pathogens, requires a detailed understanding of the three-dimensional structure and chemistry of the constituent pilin subunit. X-ray crystallographic refinement of Neisseria gonorrhoeae pilin against diffraction data to 2.6 A resolution, coupled with mass spectrometry of peptide fragments, reveals phosphoserine at residue 68. Phosphoserine is exposed on the surface of the modelled type IV pilus at the interface of neighbouring pilin molecules. The site-specific mutation of serine 68 to alanine showed that the loss of the phosphorylation alters the morphology of fibres examined by electron microscopy without a notable effect on adhesion, transformation, piliation or twitching motility. The structural and chemical characterization of protein phosphoserine in type IV pilin subunits is an important indication that this modification, key to numerous regulatory aspects of eukaryotic cell biology, exists in the virulence factor proteins of bacterial pathogens. These O-linked phosphate modifications, unusual in prokaryotes, thus merit study for possible roles in pilus biogenesis and modulation of pilin chemistry for optimal in vivo function.

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid↗
PubMed1999

Purification and characterization of Thermotoga maritima endonuclease IV, a thermostable apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease and 3'-repair diesterase.

An endonuclease IV homolog was identified as the product of a conceptual open reading frame in the genome of the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima. The T. maritima endonuclease IV gene encodes a 287-amino-acid protein with 32% sequence identity to Escherichia coli endonuclease IV. The gene was cloned, and the expressed protein was purified and shown to have enzymatic activities that are characteristic of the endonuclease IV family of DNA repair enzymes, including apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease activity and repair activities on 3'-phosphates, 3'-phosphoglycolates, and 3'-trans-4-hydroxy-2-pentenal-5-phosphates. The T. maritima enzyme exhibits enzyme activity at both low and high temperatures. Circular dichroism spectroscopy indicates that T. maritima endonuclease IV has secondary structure similar to that of E. coli endonuclease IV and that the T. maritima endonuclease IV structure is more stable than E. coli endonuclease IV by almost 20 degrees C, beginning to rapidly denature only at temperatures approaching 90 degrees C. The presence of this enzyme, which is part of the DNA base excision repair pathway, suggests that thermophiles use a mechanism similar to that used by mesophiles to deal with the large number of abasic sites that arise in their chromosomes due to the increased rates of DNA damage at elevated temperatures.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1999

DNA repair mechanisms for the recognition and removal of damaged DNA bases.

Recent structural and biochemical studies have begun to illuminate how cells solve the problems of recognizing and removing damaged DNA bases. Bases damaged by environmental, chemical, or enzymatic mechanisms must be efficiently found within a large excess of undamaged DNA. Structural studies suggest that a rapid damage-scanning mechanism probes for both conformational deviations and local deformability of the DNA base stack. At susceptible lesions, enzyme-induced conformational changes lead to direct interactions with specific damaged bases. The diverse array of damaged DNA bases are processed through a two-stage pathway in which damage-specific enzymes recognize and remove the base lesion, creating a common abasic site intermediate that is processed by damage-general repair enzymes to restore the correct DNA sequence.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Newly discovered archaebacterial flap endonucleases show a structure-specific mechanism for DNA substrate binding and catalysis resembling human flap endonuclease-1.

Mammalian flap endonuclease-1 (FEN-1) is a structure-specific metalloenzyme that acts in processing of both the Okazaki fragments during lagging strand DNA synthesis and flap intermediates during DNA damage repair. We identified and cloned three open reading frames encoding a flap endonuclease from Archaeglobus fulgidus, Methanococcus jannaschii, and Pyrococcus furiosus, respectively. The deduced FEN-1 protein sequences share approximately 75% similarity with the human FEN-1 nuclease in the conserved nuclease domains, and extensive biochemical experiments indicate that the substrate specificities and catalytic activities of these enzymes have overall similarities with those of the human enzyme. Thus, FEN-1 enzymes and likely reaction mechanisms are conserved across the eukaryotic and archaeal kingdoms. Detailed comparative analysis, however, reveals subtle differences among these four enzymes including distinctive substrate specificity, tolerance of the archaebacterial enzymes for acidic pHs and elevated temperatures, and variations in the metal-ion dependence of substrate cleavage. Although the archaebacterial enzymes were inactive at temperatures below 30 degreesC, DNA binding occurred at temperatures as low as 4 degreesC and with or without metal ions. Thus, these archaeal enzymes may provide a means to dissect the specific binding and catalytic mechanisms of the entire FEN-1 family of structure-specific nucleases.

Acids↗
PubMed1998

Structure of the DNA repair and replication endonuclease and exonuclease FEN-1: coupling DNA and PCNA binding to FEN-1 activity.

Flap endonuclease (FEN-1) removes 5' overhanging flaps in DNA repair and processes the 5' ends of Okazaki fragments in lagging strand DNA synthesis. The crystal structure of Pyrococcus furiosus FEN-1, active-site metal ions, and mutational information indicate interactions for the single- and double-stranded portions of the flap DNA substrate and identify an unusual DNA-binding motif. The enzyme's active-site structure suggests that DNA binding induces FEN-1 to clamp onto the cleavage junction to form the productive complex. The conserved FEN-1 C terminus binds proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and positions FEN-1 to act primarily as an exonuclease in DNA replication, in contrast to its endonuclease activity in DNA repair. FEN-1 mutations altering PCNA binding should reduce activity during replication, likely causing DNA repeat expansions as seen in some cancers and genetic diseases.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

Screening a peptidyl database for potential ligands to proteins with side-chain flexibility.

The three key challenges addressed in our development of SPECITOPE, a tool for screening large structural databases for potential ligands to a protein, are to eliminate infeasible candidates early in the search, incorporate ligand and protein side-chain flexibility upon docking, and provide an appropriate rank for potential new ligands. The protein ligand-binding site is modeled by a shell of surface atoms and by hydrogen-bonding template points for the ligand to match, conferring specificity to the interaction. SPECITOPE combinatorially matches all hydrogen-bond donors and acceptors of the screened molecules to the template points. By eliminating molecules that cannot match distance or hydrogen-bond constraints, the transformation of potential docking candidates into the ligand-binding site and the shape and hydrophobic complementarity evaluations are only required for a small subset of the database. SPECITOPE screens 140,000 peptide fragments in about an hour and has identified and docked known inhibitors and potential new ligands to the free structures of four distinct targets: a serine protease, a DNA repair enzyme, an aspartic proteinase, and a glycosyltransferase. For all four, protein side-chain rotations were critical for successful docking, emphasizing the importance of inducible complementarity for accurately modeling ligand interactions. SPECITOPE has a range of potential applications for understanding and engineering protein recognition, from inhibitor and linker design to protein docking and macromolecular assembly.

Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases↗
PubMed1998

Base excision repair initiation revealed by crystal structures and binding kinetics of human uracil-DNA glycosylase with DNA.

Three high-resolution crystal structures of DNA complexes with wild-type and mutant human uracil-DNA glycosylase (UDG), coupled kinetic characterizations and comparisons with the refined unbound UDG structure help resolve fundamental issues in the initiation of DNA base excision repair (BER): damage detection, nucleotide flipping versus extrahelical nucleotide capture, avoidance of apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) site toxicity and coupling of damage-specific and damage-general BER steps. Structural and kinetic results suggest that UDG binds, kinks and compresses the DNA backbone with a 'Ser-Pro pinch' and scans the minor groove for damage. Concerted shifts in UDG simultaneously form the catalytically competent active site and induce further compression and kinking of the double-stranded DNA backbone only at uracil and AP sites, where these nucleotides can flip at the phosphate-sugar junction into a complementary specificity pocket. Unexpectedly, UDG binds to AP sites more tightly and more rapidly than to uracil-containing DNA, and thus may protect cells sterically from AP site toxicity. Furthermore, AP-endonuclease, which catalyzes the first damage-general step of BER, enhances UDG activity, most likely by inducing UDG release via shared minor groove contacts and flipped AP site binding. Thus, AP site binding may couple damage-specific and damage-general steps of BER without requiring direct protein-protein interactions.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

Crystal structure of Y34F mutant human mitochondrial manganese superoxide dismutase and the functional role of tyrosine 34.

Tyrosine 34 is a prominent and conserved residue in the active site of the manganese superoxide dismutases in organisms from bacteria to man. We have prepared the mutant containing the replacement Tyr 34 --> Phe (Y34F) in human manganese superoxide dismutase (hMnSOD) and crystallized it in two different crystal forms, orthorhombic and hexagonal. Crystal structures of hMnSOD Y34F have been solved to 1.9 A resolution in a hexagonal crystal form, denoted as Y34Fhex, and to 2.2 A resolution in an orthorhombic crystal form, denoted as Y34Fortho. Both crystal forms give structures that are closely superimposable with that of wild-type hMnSOD, with the phenyl rings of Tyr 34 in the wild type and Phe 34 in the mutant very similar in orientation. Therefore, in Y34F, a hydrogen-bonded relay that links the metal-bound hydroxyl to ordered solvent (Mn-OH to Gln 143 to Tyr 34 to H2O to His 30) is broken. Surprisingly, the loss of the Tyr 34 hydrogen bonds resulted in large increases in stability (measured by Tm), suggesting that the Tyr 34 hydroxyl does not play a role in stabilizing active-site architecture. The functional role of the side chain hydroxyl of Tyr 34 can be evaluated by comparison of the Y34F mutant with the wild-type hMnSOD. Both wild-type and Y34F had kcat/Km near 10(9) M-1 s-1, close to diffusion-controlled; however, Y34F showed kcat for maximal catalysis smaller by 10-fold than the wild type. In addition, the mutant Y34F was more susceptible to product inhibition by peroxide than the wild-type enzyme. This activity profile and the breaking of the hydrogen-bonding chain at the active site caused by the replacement Tyr 34 --> Phe suggest that Tyr 34 is a proton donor for O2* - reduction to H2O2 or is involved indirectly by orienting solvent or other residues for proton transfer. Up to 100 mM buffers in solution failed to enhance catalysis by either Y34F or the wild-type hMnSOD, suggesting that protonation from solution cannot enhance the release of the inhibiting bound peroxide ion, likely reflecting the enclosure of the active site by conserved residues as shown by the X-ray structures. The increased thermostability of the mutant Y34F and equal diffusion-controlled activity of Y34F and wild-type enzymes with normal superoxide levels suggest that evolutionary conservation of active-site residues in metalloenzymes reflects constraints from extreme rather than average cellular conditions. This new hypothesis that extreme rather than normal substrate concentrations are a powerful constraint on residue conservation may apply most strongly to enzyme defenses where the ability to meet extreme conditions directly affects cell survival.

Binding Sites↗
PubMed1998

Probing the active site of human manganese superoxide dismutase: the role of glutamine 143.

Structural and biochemical characterization of the nonliganding residue glutamine 143 near the manganese of human Mn superoxide dismutase (hMnSOD), a homotetramer of 22 kDa, reveals a functional role for this residue. In the wild-type protein, the side-chain amide group of Gln 143 is about 5 A from the metal and is hydrogen-bonded to Tyr 34, which is a second prominent side chain adjacent to the metal. We have prepared the site-specific mutant of hMnSOD with the conservative replacement of Gln 143 --> Asn (Q143N). The crystal structure of Q143N shows that the side-chain amide nitrogen of residue 143 is 1.7 A more distant from the manganese than in the wild-type enzyme. The Tyr 34 side-chain hydroxyl in Q143N is also moved to become 0.6 A more distant from the metal due to an additional water molecule. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that Q143N is slightly more stable than the wild-type enzyme with Tm for the main unfolding transition increased by 2 degrees C to 90.7 degrees C. Pulse radiolysis and stopped-flow spectrophotometry reveal that unlike wild-type hMnSOD, which is strongly inhibited by peroxide, Q143N MnSOD exhibits no product inhibition even at concentrations of O2. - in the millimolar range, and its catalysis follows Michaelis kinetics with no evidence of cooperativity. However, the overall catalytic activity of this mutant was decreased 2-3 orders of magnitude compared with the wild-type MnSOD, which can account for its lack of product inhibition. Q143N MnSOD lacked the visible absorption spectrum typical of wild-type Mn(III)SOD. Also, unlike the wild-type Mn(III)SOD, which is electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) silent, Q143N MnSOD has a complex EPR spectrum with many resonances in the region below 2250 G. We conclude that the Gln 143 --> Asn mutation has increased the reduction potential of manganese to stabilize Mn(II), indicating that Gln 143 has a substantial role in maintaining a reduction potential favorable for the oxidation and reduction cycles in the catalytic disproportionation of superoxide. A solvent hydrogen isotope effect near 2 for kcat in catalysis by Q143N hMnSOD indicates rate-contributing proton transfers to form product hydroperoxide anion or hydrogen peroxide. The data demonstrate a prominent role for Gln 143 in maintaining the microenvironment of the manganese and in efficient catalysis of superoxide dismutation to oxygen and hydrogen peroxide.

Binding Sites↗
PubMed1998

Structure of nitric oxide synthase oxygenase dimer with pterin and substrate.

Crystal structures of the murine cytokine-inducible nitric oxide synthase oxygenase dimer with active-center water molecules, the substrate L-arginine (L-Arg), or product analog thiocitrulline reveal how dimerization, cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin, and L-Arg binding complete the catalytic center for synthesis of the essential biological signal and cytotoxin nitric oxide. Pterin binding refolds the central interface region, recruits new structural elements, creates a 30 angstrom deep active-center channel, and causes a 35 degrees helical tilt to expose a heme edge and the adjacent residue tryptophan-366 for likely reductase domain interactions and caveolin inhibition. Heme propionate interactions with pterin and L-Arg suggest that pterin has electronic influences on heme-bound oxygen. L-Arginine binds to glutamic acid-371 and stacks with heme in an otherwise hydrophobic pocket to aid activation of heme-bound oxygen by direct proton donation and thereby differentiate the two chemical steps of nitric oxide synthesis.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Substrate specificity of prostate-specific antigen (PSA).

BACKGROUND: The serine protease prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a useful clinical marker for prostatic malignancy. PSA is a member of the kallikrein subgroup of the (chymo)trypsin serine protease family, but differs from the prototypical member of this subgroup, tissue kallikrein, in possessing a specificity more similar to that of chymotrypsin than trypsin. We report the use of two strategies, substrate phage display and iterative optimization of natural cleavage sites, to identify labile sequences for PSA cleavage. RESULTS: Iterative optimization and substrate phage display converged on the amino-acid sequence SS(Y/F)Y decreases S(G/S) as preferred subsite occupancy for PSA. These sequences were cleaved by PSA with catalytic efficiencies as high as 2200-3100 M-1 s-1, compared with values of 2-46 M-1 s-1 for peptides containing likely physiological target sequences of PSA from the protein semenogelin. Substrate residues that bind to secondary (non-S1) subsites have a critical role in defining labile substrates and can even cause otherwise disfavored amino acids to bind in the primary specificity (S1) pocket. CONCLUSION: The importance of secondary subsites in defining both the specificity and efficiency of cleavage suggests that substrate recognition by PSA is mediated by an extended binding site. Elucidation of preferred subsite occupancy allowed refinement of the structural model of PSA and should facilitate the development of more sensitive activity-based assays and the design of potent inhibitors.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1998

MutY catalytic core, mutant and bound adenine structures define specificity for DNA repair enzyme superfamily.

The DNA glycosylase MutY, which is a member of the Helix-hairpin-Helix (HhH) DNA glycosylase superfamily, excises adenine from mispairs with 8-oxoguanine and guanine. High-resolution crystal structures of the MutY catalytic core (cMutY), the complex with bound adenine, and designed mutants reveal the basis for adenine specificity and glycosyl bond cleavage chemistry. The two cMutY helical domains form a positively-charged groove with the adenine-specific pocket at their interface. The Watson-Crick hydrogen bond partners of the bound adenine are substituted by protein atoms, confirming a nucleotide flipping mechanism, and supporting a specific DNA binding orientation by MutY and structurally related DNA glycosylases.

Adenine↗
PubMed1997

The crystal structure of the human DNA repair endonuclease HAP1 suggests the recognition of extra-helical deoxyribose at DNA abasic sites.

The structure of the major human apurinic/ apyrimidinic endonuclease (HAP1) has been solved at 2.2 A resolution. The enzyme consists of two symmetrically related domains of similar topology and has significant structural similarity to both bovine DNase I and its Escherichia coli homologue exonuclease III (EXOIII). A structural comparison of these enzymes reveals three loop regions specific to HAP1 and EXOIII. These loop regions apparently act in DNA abasic site (AP) recognition and cleavage since DNase I, which lacks these loops, correspondingly lacks AP site specificity. The HAP1 structure furthermore suggests a mechanism for AP site binding which involves the recognition of the deoxyribose moiety in an extrahelical conformation, rather than a 'flipped-out' base opposite the AP site.

Amino Acid Sequence↗