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J Janin

Publications and source records attributed to J Janin.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Errors in three dimensions.

Now that some protein X-ray structures have been proved to contain major errors, the question of the precision of 3-dimensional structures is taken seriously by crystallographers and NMR spectroscopists. Errors which cannot be avoided during model building in electron density maps, should correct themselves during crystallographic refinement, and the precision of the refined model should reach 0.15 to 0.25 A depending on the resolution of the data. Independent estimates based on homologous protein structures confirm that better than 0.5 A precision is commonly achieved, at least for C alpha and main chain atoms. The precision of NMR structures is less easily evaluated, but it should be better than 2 A when a sufficient number of NOE distance constraints are available. One may deplore the fact that not all published structures meet these standards, but possible errors should not be an excuse for not depositing atomic co-ordinates in data banks.

Crystallography↗
PubMed1988

Surface, subunit interfaces and interior of oligomeric proteins.

The solvent-accessible surface area (As) of 23 oligomeric proteins is calculated using atomic co-ordinates from high-resolution and well-refined crystal structures. As is correlated with the protein molecular weight, and a power law predicts its value to within 5% on average. The accessible surface of the average oligomer is similar to that of monomeric proteins in its hydropathy and amino acid composition. The distribution of the 20 amino acid types between the protein surface and its interior is also the same as in monomers. Interfaces, i.e. surfaces involved in subunit contacts, differ from the rest of the subunit surface. They are enriched in hydrophobic side-chains, yet they contain a number of charged groups, especially from Arg residues, which are the most abundant residues at interfaces except for Leu. Buried Arg residues are involved in H-bonds between subunits. We counted H-bonds at interfaces and found that several have none, others have one H-bond per 200 A2 of interface area on average (1 A = 0.1 nm). A majority of interface H-bonds involve charged donor or acceptor groups, which should make their contribution to the free energy of dissociation significant, even when they are few. The smaller interfaces cover about 700 A2 of the subunit surface. The larger ones cover 3000 to 10,000 A2, up to 40% of the subunit surface area in catalase. The lower value corresponds to an estimate of the accessible surface area loss required for stabilizing subunit association through the hydrophobic effect alone. Oligomers with small interfaces have globular subunits with accessible surface areas similar to those of monomeric proteins. We suggest that these oligomers assemble from preformed monomers with little change in conformation. In oligomers with large interfaces, isolated subunits should be unstable given their excessively large accessible surface, and assembly is expected to require major structural changes.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1988

Structural analysis of the 2.8 A model of Xylose isomerase from Actinoplanes missouriensis.

The structure of Xylose isomerase (X.I.) from Actinoplanes missouriensis has been solved to 2.8 Angstroms resolution. Phases were determined from a single Eu3+ derivative and from the noncrystallographic 222 symmetry of the tetrameric molecule. An atomic model was built and subjected to restrained crystallographic refinement. The resulting model is shown to be closely similar to the recently reported X.I.'s structures from three other bacterial sources. Each monomer is found to be composed of an eight-stranded alpha/beta "T.I.M." barrel forming an N-terminal domain of 328 residues followed by a large loop of 66 residues embracing an adjacent subunit. Analysis of intersubunit packing shows that the X.I. tetramer is an assembly of two tight dimers. The beta barrel fits a simple hyperboloid model as other T.I.M. barrels do. The active site, identified as the binding site for the inhibitor xylitol, is located at the carboxyl end of the beta strands in the barrel next to a pair of binding sites for Eu3+ ions, which are assumed to be sites for the divalent ions involved in catalysis. Active sites in the tetramer are oriented towards the interface between dimers. It is suggested that subunit interfaces might stabilize the active site region and this might explain the oligomeric nature of other alpha/beta barrel enzymes.

Actinomycetales↗
PubMed1987

Interior and surface of monomeric proteins.

The solvent-accessible surface area (As) of 46 monomeric proteins is calculated using atomic co-ordinates from high-resolution and well-refined crystal structures. The As of these proteins can be determined to within 1 to 2% and that of their individual residues to within 10 to 20%. The As values of proteins are correlated with their molecular weight (Mr) in the range 4000 to 35,000: the power law As = 6.3 M0.73 predicts protein As values to within 4% on average. The average water-accessible surface is found to be 57% non-polar, 24% polar and 19% charged, with 5% root-mean-square variations. The molecular surface buried inside the protein is 58% non-polar, 39% polar and 4% charged. The buried surface contains more uncharged polar groups (mostly peptides) than the surface that remains accessible, but many fewer charged groups. On average, 15% of residues in small proteins and 32% in larger ones may be classed as "buried residues", having less than 5% of their surface accessible to the solvent. The accessibilities of most other residues are evenly distributed in the range 5 to 50%. Although the fraction of buried residues increases with molecular weight, the amino acid compositions of the protein interior and surface show no systematic variation with molecular weight, except for small proteins that are often very rich in buried cysteines. From amino acid compositions of protein surfaces and interiors we calculate an effective coefficient of partition for each type of residue, and derive an implied set of transfer free energy values. This is compared with other sets of partition coefficients derived directly from experimental data. The extent to which groups of residues (charged, polar and non-polar) are buried within proteins correlates well with their hydrophobicity derived from amino acid transfer experiments. Within these three groups, the correlation is low.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1987

The pAR5 mutation and the allosteric mechanism of Escherichia coli aspartate carbamoyltransferase.

Mutation pAR5 replaces residues 145'-153' at the C terminus of the regulatory (r) chains of Escherichia coli ATCase by a new sequence of six residues. The mutated enzyme has been shown to lack substrate cooperativity and inhibition by CTP. Solution X-ray scattering curves demonstrate that, in the absence of ligands, its structure is intermediate between the T form and the R form. In the presence of N-phosphonacetyl-L-aspartate, the mutant is similar to the wild type. An examination of the crystal structure of unligated ATCase reveals that the mutated site is at an interface between r and catalytic (c) chains, which exists only in the T allosteric form. A computer simulation by energy minimization suggests that the pAR5 mutation destabilizes this interface and induces minor changes in the tertiary structure of r chains. The resulting lower stability of the T form explains the loss of substrate cooperativity. The lack of allosteric inhibition may be related to a new electrostatic interaction made in mutant r chains between the C-terminal carboxylate and a lysine residue of the allosteric domain.

Allosteric Regulation↗
PubMed1985

Haemoglobin: the surface buried between the alpha 1 beta 1 and alpha 2 beta 2 dimers in the deoxy and oxy structures.

Using the newly available refined co-ordinates of deoxy and oxyhaemoglobin, we have re-examined and compared the interfaces between the dimers alpha 1 beta 1 and alpha 2 beta 2. The most extensive monomer-monomer contacts are between alpha 1 and beta 2, and, symmetrically, alpha 2 and beta 1. In oxyhaemoglobin these interfaces bury 700 A2 less protein surface than in deoxyhaemoglobin. The alpha 1 alpha 2 interface involves similar salt bridges in both forms, but in oxyhaemoglobin buries 240 A2 more surface than in deoxyhaemoglobin. There is a loosely packed beta 1 beta 2 interface burying 320 A2 of surface in oxyhaemoglobin; there is no beta 1 beta 2 interface in deoxyhaemoglobin. The greater stability of the deoxy form, in the absence of ligands, can be attributed to a combination of hydrophobic, van der Waals' and electrostatic interactions.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1984

Consequences of diabetes mellitus or liver cirrhosis on total collagen in human skin biopsies.

In this work, we studied the changes in human skin collagen occurring in diabetes mellitus and liver cirrhosis. The original methodology, based on the determination of the amino acids proline, 4-hydroxyproline, hydroxylysine, glycine and alanine, allowed us to reveal in skin a change in collagen in diabetes mellitus but none in liver cirrhosis. This biochemical evidence was correlated to the histological investigation. Moreover, diabetes mellitus did not involve any changes in hydroxylation of polypeptidic lysine. This latter observation was in accordance with the accumulation of normal collagen regarding amino acid composition only, and the results suggest a preferential accumulation of collagen type III in skin, in diabetes mellitus.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Crystallographic studies of Escherichia coli citrate synthase.

The citrate synthase from Escherichia coli B has been crystallized in a cubic space group with a unit cell spacing of 220 A. X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, symmetry considerations, and low resolution projection Patterson syntheses are consistent with a model proposed in which 24 tetrameric molecules of Mr = 188,000 +/- 12,000 occupy the unit cell. The space group is apparently P23, although at low resolution the observed systematic absences in reflections are consistent with the space group P43n, a space group not allowed for asymmetric molecules. Estimates of VM suggest that in the true space group, P23, two tetrameric molecules occupy the asymmetric unit.

Chemical Phenomena↗
PubMed1983

Reversal of changes in lipoprotein A and lipoprotein B cholesterol during and for a year after a detoxication treatment program in chronic alcoholism.

We studied the individual and occasional changes in lipid metabolism induced by chronic alcohol abuse. In addition, the influence of a detoxication treatment program on the evolutionary changes in some serum lipidic components was studied for a one-year period. Before this program, total cholesterol was above normal, with high values for LP-A cholesterol, whereas for some patients LP-B cholesterol was increased. After the program, there was an increase in total cholesterol, LP-B cholesterol, and apolipoprotein B, with a decrease in LP-A cholesterol. These evolutionary changes continued during the one-year period after the end of the inpatient program.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Orthogonal packing of beta-pleated sheets in proteins.

Two classes of beta-sheet to beta-sheet packing can be distinguished in globular proteins. Both classes have beta sheets with the usual right-handed twist packed face to face. In orthogonal beta-sheet packings, the strand directions of the different beta sheets are 90 degrees to each other. Twisted beta sheets in this orientation have anticomplementary surfaces: one pair of diagonally opposite corners in the beta sheets is very close, and the other pairs of corners splay apart. At the close corners, the beta sheets are usually covalently connected: a strand that is part of one beta sheet turns through a right-handed bend to become part of the second beta sheet. The bend may occur at a beta bulge, or over a stretch of residues with a characteristic conformation, forming what we call a beta bend. Contacts between the beta sheets occur along the diagonal joining the close corners. They improve about one-fourth of the beta-sheet residues, and two-thirds of them are Val, Ile, or Leu. Elsewhere, the space between the beta sheets is filled by side chains from other parts of the protein, often alpha helices placed at the splayed corners. Examples of orthogonal beta-sheet packing are found in alcohol dehydrogenase, the acid proteases, the trypsin family, papain, staphylococcal nuclease, and thermolysin. In aligned beta-sheet packings, the angle between the strand directions of the packed beta sheets is approximately -30 degrees. In this orientation, the twisted beta-sheet surfaces are complementary. The principles governing this class of beta-sheet packings have been described previously. Here we discuss the difference and similarities of the aligned and orthogonal packing classes.

Alcohol Oxidoreductases↗
PubMed1981

Location of structural domains in protein.

We are surface area measurements based on atomic positions to give a quantitative definition of structural domains in proteins. Segments of the polypeptide chain making a minimum of interactions with the rest of the protein structure are identified on interface area scans, where the area B of the interface between a N-terminal segment of i residues and the complementary C-terminal segment is plotted as a function of i. Domain boundaries appear as minima of B in the scans. The procedure may be iterated to build a hierarchy of subdomains. It detects only continuous domains made of a single stretch of polypeptide chain but may be extended to detect such domains in the presence of discontinuous ones. Domains defined from interface area scans fit very well with globular structural regions identified by inspection of protein models [Wetlaufer, D. B. (1973) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci U.S.A. 70, 697-701]. They do not in general correspond to the repeated structural units observed in some proteins by superposition studies. In hemoglobin and hen lysozyme, the domains do not correspond to the coding sequences separated by introns in the genes.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Relative orientation of close-packed beta-pleated sheets in proteins.

When beta-pleated sheets pack face to face in proteins, the angle between the strand directions of the two beta-sheets is observed to be near -30 degrees . We propose a simple model for beta-sheet-to-beta-sheet packing in concanavalin A, plastocyanin, gamma-crystallin, superoxide dismutase, prealbumin, and the immunoglobin fragment V(REI). This model shows how the observed relative orientation of two packed beta-sheets is a consequence of (i) the rows of side chains at the interface being approximately aligned and (ii) the beta-sheet having a right-handed twist. The special amino acid composition of residues at the beta-sheet-to-beta-sheet interfaces makes the contact surfaces essentially smooth and hydrophobic.

Journal Article↗