F-type ATPases: are nucleotide domains in adenylate kinase appropriate models for nucleotide domains in ATP synthase/ATPase complexes?
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P L Pedersen.
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Experiments have demonstrated that the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein (CFTR), containing the most common cystic fibrosis (CF)-causing mutation (delta F508), reaches the plasma membrane in reduced amounts. Studies of a peptide model of CFTR indicate that the delta F508 mutated region is more sensitive to denaturating conditions. This paper proposes that altered protein folding accounts for these findings, and, thus, most cases of CF. Significantly, the hypothesis makes specific predictions about the effect of stabilizing conditions on mutant CFTR, and, further, suggests a new class of pharmaceuticals that may prove effective in the treatment of this important genetic disease.
The coupling step in the biosynthesis of ATP in biological systems is generally believed to involve an energy-requiring release of ATP bound to the beta-subunit of the ATP synthase complex. A molecular description of the ATP binding site on the beta-subunit is, therefore, critical to understanding the mechanism of coupling in the enzyme. Previously, we reported that a purified, bacterially expressed rat liver beta-subunit binds adenine nucleotides tightly and specifically (Garboczi, D. N., Hullihen, J. H., and Pedersen, P. L. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 15694-15698). In order to assess the contribution of various regions of the isolated beta-subunit to the ATP binding site we have systematically deleted four different regions: the N-terminal region, the Walker A consensus region, the Walker B consensus region (Walker, J. E., Saraste, M., Runswick, M. J., and Gay, N. (1982) EMBO J. 1, 945-951), and a "C" region, which, like the A and B regions, bears homology to adenylate kinase. Plasmids directing the expression of double deletions of A and B regions, and B and C regions were also constructed. In addition, 2 residues outside of these regions, His-177 and Tyr-345, which have been predicted to play a central role in nucleotide binding, were mutated. Rabbit antisera to synthetic peptides of the A and C regions verified the identity of the bacterially expressed mutant proteins. Seven of the eight mutant proteins overexpressed in Escherichia coli were resistant to E. coli proteases in the preparative stages, as predicted for compact folded proteins. Furthermore, circular dichroism spectropolarimetry revealed no profound structural alterations in the purified mutant proteins. Relative to the overexpressed full-length beta-subunit, the mutant lacking the A consensus region suffered a 30-fold loss of affinity for ATP and a loss of specificity for 2'(3')-O-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl)adenosine 5'-triphosphate (TNP-ATP) over 2'(3')-O-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl)adenosine 5'-monophosphate. The mutant proteins lacking either the N-terminal region or the B region exhibited nucleotide binding properties similar to the full-length beta-subunit, whereas the mutant protein lacking the C region suffered an order of magnitude reduction in affinity for ATP. The affinity of the A and B region double deletion was indistinguishable from the A region deletion in regard to TNP-ATP binding, while the double deletion mutant lacking the B and C regions was not stably expressed in the E. coli SE6004.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
PP-50, a peptide based on residues 141-190 of the beta-subunit of mitochondrial F1-ATPase, contains the GX4GKT consensus region for nucleoside triphosphate binding and has been shown to bind ATP [Garboczi, D.N., Shenbagamurthi, W.K., Hullihen, J., & Pedersen, P.L. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 812-816]. At pH 4.0, appropriate for NMR studies, PP-50 retains the ability to bind ATP tightly (KD = 17.5 microM) with a 1:1 stoichiometry as shown by titrations measuring the partial quenching of ATP fluorescence by PP-50. CD spectra of PP-50 at pH 4.0 and at low ionic strength show 5.8% helix, 30.2% beta-structure, and 64% coil. ATP binding increases the structure of PP-50, changing the CD to 7.5% helix, 44.5% beta-structure, and 48% coil. Increasing the ionic strength to 50 mM KCl also increases the structure, changing the CD to 7.4% helix, 64.4% beta-structure, and 28.2% coil. The 600-MHz proton NMR spectrum of PP-50, at pH 4.0 and low ionic strength, has been assigned by 2D methods (TOCSY, DQF-COSY, and NOESY with jump-return water suppression). Based on strong d alpha N NOEs, J alpha N values, and NH chemical shifts differing from random coil values, regions of extended structure are detected from residues 1-7 and 43-48. Based on dNN, dNN(i,i+2), and d alpha N(i,i+2) NOEs and 3J alpha N values, possible type I' and type I turns are found from residues 11-14 and 31-34, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Recent work has focused on obtaining a better understanding of the three-dimensional structural relationships between the alpha and beta subunits of the F1 moiety and the location of nucleotide binding domains within these subunits. Four types of approach are currently being pursued: X-ray crystallographic, chemical, molecular biological and biochemical. Here we briefly review some of the major conclusions of these studies, and point out some of the problems that must be resolved before an adequate model that relates structure to function in the ATP synthase molecule can be formulated.
Deletion of phenylalanine 508 (delta Phe-508) in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein causes approximately 70% of all cases of cystic fibrosis. This residue lies in a region of the protein that we have synthesized chemically and shown to bind adenine nucleotides (Thomas, P. J., Shenbagamurthi, P., Ysern, X., and Pedersen, P. L. (1991) Science 251, 555-557). A peptide lacking this critical residue, but otherwise corresponding to this crucial part of the protein, now also has been chemically synthesized and purified. This mutant peptide (P-66) exhibits a significant loss of beta-sheet structure as compared with the wild type peptide (P-67). Furthermore, urea denaturation of peptide structure reveals that P-66 is less stable than P-67. Although under non-denaturing conditions both peptides bind adenine nucleotides with high affinity, the loss of structural stability is reflected in the binding function of the peptides. Thus, P-67, in contrast to P-66, retains a significant capacity for nucleotide binding in 4 M urea. These results suggest a model for impaired delta Phe-508 CFTR function.
In order to better understand why higher eukaryotic membrane proteins, in contrast to soluble proteins, are not readily expressed in Escherichia coli, the gene encoding the liver mitochondrial phosphate transporter (H+/Pi symporter) (Ferreira, G. C., Pratt, R. D., and Pedersen, P. L. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 15628-15633), was subcloned into a plasmid (pFOG402) containing the alkaline phosphatase promoter and leader sequence. Although this system is highly efficient in overexpressing soluble mitochondrial proteins in E. coli, e.g. alpha and beta subunits of the liver ATP synthase, it fails to express the H+/Pi transporter. Expression is not obtained by truncation of the transporter gene from either the 3' or 5' end, by fusing the mature transporter gene to genes encoding either the alpha or beta ATP synthase subunits, or by using different expression plasmids. Significantly, the H+/Pi transporter is overexpressed in E. coli provided its cDNA is first truncated at the 3' end (carboxyl-terminal end) and fused to a cDNA fragment derived from the ATP synthase alpha subunit gene. In fact, progressive deletions from the 3' end of the transporter cDNA produce a ladder of increasingly overexpressed fusion proteins which account from the largest to the smallest for approximately 2.5-14% of the total bacterial cell protein. The minimal truncation necessary from the 3' end is 192 base pairs corresponding to 64 COOH-terminal amino acids. This corresponds to 20% of the transporter and involves removal of one of the six predicted membrane-spanning segments. In a variety of additional experiments designed to define the molecular basis for E. coli's inability to express the complete liver H+/Pi transporter, problems related to cell toxicity and transcription were ruled out. However, in vitro transcription-translation assays revealed that the complete transporter is readily expressed when eukaryotic, but not prokaryotic, ribosomes are present. Significantly, the fused transporter gene (i.e. Pi transporter cDNA truncated at the 3' end + ATP synthase alpha subunit cDNA) is expressed when prokaryotic ribosomes are present. These results support the view that the difficulty in expressing higher eukaryotic membrane proteins in bacteria may be related in some cases to a problem at the level of translation.
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It has been proposed that during ATP synthesis/hydrolysis F1 ATPases experience a complex pattern of nucleotide binding and release during the catalytic cycle (binding change mechanism). This type of mechanism has implications that can be correlated with the structure of the enzyme. F1-ATPases (stoichiometry alpha 3 beta 3 gamma delta epsilon) are essentially a symmetrical trimer of pairs of the major subunits (alpha and beta); the minor subunits (gamma, delta and epsilon) are in single copies and interact with the trimer in an asymmetrical fashion. The asymmetry introduced by the minor subunits has important structural and functional consequences: (1) it introduces differences between the potentially equivalent binding and catalytic sites in the major subunits, (2) it restricts the ways in which a binding change mechanism can occur, and (3) it governs the way in which the F1 interacts with the (asymmetrical) F0 sector.
Hexokinase plays an important role in normal glucose-utilizing tissues like brain and kidney, and an even more important role in highly malignant cancer cells where it is markedly overexpressed. In both cell types, normal and transformed, a significant portion of the total hexokinase activity is bound to particulate material that sediments upon differential centrifugation with the crude "mitochondrial" fraction. In the case of brain, particulate binding may constitute most of the total hexokinase activity of the cell, and in highly malignant tumor cells as much as 80 percent of the total. When a variety of techniques are rigorously applied to better define the particulate location of hexokinase within the crude "mitochondrial fraction," a striking difference is observed between the distribution of hexokinase in normal and transformed cells. Significantly, particulate hexokinase found in rat brain, kidney, or liver consistently distributes with nonmitochondrial membrane markers whereas the particulate hexokinase of highly glycolytic hepatoma cells distributes with outer mitochondrial membrane markers. These studies indicate that within normal tissues hexokinase binds preferentially to nonmitochondrial receptor sites but upon transformation of such cells to yield poorly differentiated, highly malignant tumors, the overexpressed enzyme binds preferentially to outer mitochondrial membrane receptors. These studies, taken together with the well-known observation that, once solubilized, the particulate hexokinase from a normal tissue can bind to isolated mitochondria, are consistent with the presence in normal tissues of at least two different types of particulate receptors for hexokinase with different subcellular locations. A model which explains this unique transformation-dependent shift in the intracellular location of hexokinase is proposed.
The beta-subunit of the mitochondrial ATP synthase complex comprises the bulk, if not all, of the catalytic nucleotide binding site on the enzyme. A region of homologous sequence rich in glycines (G) and containing a basic lysine (K) and a threonine (T) is found in the beta-subunit as well as many other purine nucleotide binding proteins. The consensus sequence of this region is Gx4GKT, where x represents any amino acid, and is called the A region or glycine-rich loop. The related function of these proteins implies that the glycine-rich loop is directly involved in nucleotide binding. Here we directly test the involvement of the beta-subunit's glycine-rich region in adenine nucleotide binding using two independent approaches. A synthetic fifty amino acid peptide, PP-50, containing the glycine-rich region and the surrounding sequence was assessed for secondary structure and interaction with potential ligands. Circular dichroism spectropolarimetry indicates that PP-50 assumes a predominantly beta-sheet conformation in solution. Significantly, the peptide precipitates from solution when ATP, ADP, GTP, ITP, and pyrophosphate are added, but not when AMP or phosphate are included. Magnesium is not required for the interaction with the purine nucleotides. Complimentary to these studies, the sequence around the Gx4GKT motif was deleted from a recombinant rat liver beta-subunit overexpressed in E. coli. While the wild type beta-subunit showed specificity for the tri- and diphosphonucleotides, the deletion mutant bound tri-, di-, and monophosphate nucleotides with equal affinity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The F1 moiety of the mitochondrial ATP synthase is composed of five different subunits with stoichiometry alpha 3 beta 3 gamma delta epsilon and exhibits the capacity to synthesize ATP from ADP and Pi. We have previously crystallized rat liver F1 and described its structure at 9-A resolution (Amzel, L. M., McKinney, M., Narayanan, P., and Pedersen, P. L. (1982) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 79, 5852-5856). Here we present an x-ray map of this complex enzyme at 3.6 A, which provides a much more informative description of its quaternary structure. The overall dimensions of the F1 molecule are 120 A x 120 A x 74 A. The enzyme exhibits 3-fold symmetry relating the three copies of each of the two major subunits, alpha and beta. As the alpha subunits (but not the beta subunits) contain cysteine residues, it has been possible to identify the alpha subunits by heavy atom labeling with mersalyl and to relate their positions in the F1 molecule to the beta subunits. Significantly, the alpha and beta subunits each exist as trimeric arrays which are organized in two slightly offset, interdigitated layers along the 3-fold axis. In one trimeric layer the alpha subunits are located close to the axis with homologous subunits interacting with each other; in the other trimeric layer the beta subunits are far from the axis, and they interact only with alpha subunits and not with one another. At one end of the structure, part of the interface between each alpha and beta subunit encloses a space or "pocket" that is accessible to the solvent; at the other end the interfaces between the subunits are more open and exposed. The present work represents the highest resolution map reported to date for the F1 moiety of an ATP synthase complex.
Recent studies from this and other laboratories have resulted in the cloning and sequencing of hexokinases from a variety of tissues including yeast, human kidney, rat brain, rat liver, and mouse hepatoma. Significantly, studies on the hepatoma enzyme conducted in this laboratory (Arora, K.K., Fanciulli, M., and Pedersen, P.L. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 6481-6488) resulted also in its overexpression in Escherichia coli in active form. We have now used site-directed mutagenesis for the first time in studies of hexokinase to evaluate the role of amino acid residues predicted to interact with either glucose or ATP. Four amino acid residues (Ser-603, Asp-657, Glu-708, and Glu-742) believed to interact with glucose were mutated to alanine or glycine, whereas a lysine residue (Lys-558) thought to be directly involved in binding ATP was mutated to either methionine or arginine. Of all the mutations in residues believed to interact with glucose, the Asp-657----Ala mutation is the most profound, reducing the hexokinase activity to a level less than 1% of the wild type. The relative Vmax values for Ser-603----Ala, Glu-708----Ala, and Glu-742----Ala enzymes are 6, 10, and 6.5%, respectively, of the wild-type enzyme. Glu-708 and Glu-742 mutations increase the apparent Km for glucose 50- and 14-fold, respectively, while the Ser-603----Ala mutation decreases the apparent Km for glucose 5-fold. At the putative ATP binding site, the relative Vmax for Lys-558----Arg and Lys-558----Met enzymes are 70 and 29%, respectively, of the wild-type enzyme with no changes in the apparent Km for glucose. No changes were observed in the apparent Km for ATP with any mutation. These results support the view that all 4 residues predicted to interact with glucose from earlier x-ray studies may play a role in binding and/or catalysis. The Asp-657 and Ser-603 residues may be involved in both, while Glu-708 and Glu-742 clearly contribute to binding but are not essential for catalysis. In contrast, Lys-558 appears to be essential neither for binding nor catalysis.
Multiple mutations in the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis are located within a region predicted to encode a nucleotide-binding fold in the amino terminal half of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator protein. A 67-amino acid peptide (P-67) that corresponds to the central region of this putative nucleotide binding site was chemically synthesized and purified. This peptide bound adenine nucleotides. The apparent dissociation constants (Kd's) for the trinitrophenyl (TNP) adenine nucleotides, TNP-adenosine triphosphate, TNP-adenosine diphosphate, and TNP-adenosine monophosphate, were 300 nanomolar, 200 nanomolar, and greater than 1 micromolar, respectively. The Kd for adenosine triphosphate was 300 micromolar. Circular dichroism spectroscopy was used to show that P-67 assumes a predominantly beta sheet structure in solution, a finding that is consistent with secondary structure predictions. On the basis of this information, the phenylalanine at position 508, which is deleted in approximately 70 percent of individuals with cystic fibrosis, was localized to a beta strand within the nucleotide binding peptide. Deletion of this residue is predicted to induce a significant structural change in the beta strand and altered nucleotide binding.
The rat liver mitochondrial phosphate transporter contains a 44-amino acid presequence. The role of this presequence is not clear since the ADP/ATP carrier and the brown fat uncoupling protein, related members of a family of inner membrane anion transporters, lack a presequence and contain targeting information within the mature protein. Here, we present evidence that the rat liver mitochondrial phosphate transporter can be synthesized in vitro, imported into mitochondria, and processed to a protein of Mr 33,000. Import requires the membrane potential and external nucleotide triphosphate. The presequence inserts into the outer mitochondrial membrane, and import proceeds via a process similar to other proteins destined for the inner membrane or matrix. A mutant phosphate transporter lacking 35 amino acids at the NH2 terminus of the presequence has little capacity for mitochondrial import. The rat liver phosphate transporter is also imported and processed by rat kidney mitochondria and by mitochondria from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A site-directed mutation of the N-ethyl-maleimide reactive cysteine 41 does not affect import or processing. The results presented show that optimal import of the mitochondrial phosphate transporter, unlike the ADP/ATP carrier and the brown fat uncoupling protein, is dependent on a presequence. As these carriers are believed to have evolved from a single gene, it seems likely that the H+/Pi carrier, known to be present in prokaryotes, appeared first and that subsequent evolutionary events leading to the other anion carriers eliminated the presequence.
Molecular cloning and sequencing of a full-length cDNA encoding the rat liver mitochondrial phosphate transporter (H+/Pi symporter) has revealed its primary structure (Ferreira, G. C. Pratt, R. D., and Pedersen, P. L. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 15628-15633). To date, no experimental data pertinent to the membrane topology of this transporter are available. For this reason, four different peptides which represent different regions of the H+/Pi symporter were synthesized and used to raise polyclonal antibodies. Each of the antipeptide antibodies exhibits immunoreactivity with its synthetic peptide antigen, but only antiserum against a COOH-terminal peptide reacts with the native transporter, suggesting that the other peptides are either conformally restricted or located in the interior of the protein. Competitive radioimmunoassays, using intact "mitoplasts" (outer membrane-free mitochondria) and inverted inner membrane vesicles, show that the COOH-terminal antibodies bind only to the cytoplasmic surface of the inner membrane, indicating that the COOH terminus of the protein is normally exposed to the mitochondrial intermembrane space. In support of this conclusion, tryptic digestion of mitoplasts but not of the inside-out vesicles, cleaves the antigenic site for the COOH-terminal antibodies. In other experiments, it was shown that N-ethylmalemide, a sulfhydryl alkylating agent known to inhibit the mitochondrial phosphate transporter, markedly reduces the accessibility of the COOH terminus to trypsin. These studies provide the first direct experimental data relevant to the membrane topology of the mitochondrial H+/Pi symporter. In addition, they support the view that alkylation of a reactive cysteine residue induces a significant conformational change in the transporter.
The beta subunit of the rat liver mitochondrial ATP synthase contains a glycine-rich amino acid sequence implicated in binding nucleotides by its similarity to a sequence found in many other nucleotide-binding proteins. A C-terminal three-quarter-length rat liver beta subunit fragment (Glu122 through Ser479), containing this homology region, interacts with adenine nucleotides (Garboczi, D.N., Hullihen, J.H., and Pedersen, P.L. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 15694-15698). Here we directly test the involvement of the glycine-rich region in nucleotide binding by altering its amino acid sequence through mutation or deletion. Twenty-one mutations within the glycine-rich region of the beta subunit cDNA were randomly generated. Wild-type and mutant beta subunit proteins were purified from overexpressing Escherichia coli strains. The mutant proteins were screened for changes in their interaction with 2'(3')-O-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl)adenosine 5'-triphosphate (TNP-ATP), a fluorescent nucleotide analog. Only one mutant protein bearing two amino acid changes (Gly153----Val, Gly156----Arg) exhibited a fluorescence enhancement higher than that of the wild-type "control." Further analysis of this protein revealed a lower affinity for TNP-ATP (Kd = 10 microM) compared with wild type (Kd = 5 microM). In addition, a mutant from which amino acids Gly149-Lys214 had been deleted was prepared. This mutant protein, which lacks the entire glycine-rich region, also displayed a marked reduction in affinity for TNP-ATP (Kd greater than 60 microM). Prior addition of 0.5 mM ATP significantly reduced the binding of TNP-ATP to both the double and deletion mutants. The altered interaction of nucleotide with both glycine-rich region mutants points to the involvement of this region in the binding site. Further, this work shows that a beta subunit protein that lacks the glycine-rich homology region can still interact with nucleotide, indicating that one or more additional regions of this subunit contribute to the nucleotide binding site.
In rapidly growing tumor cells exhibiting high glucose catabolic rates, the enzyme hexokinase is markedly elevated and bound in large amounts (50-80% of the total cell activity) to the outer mitochondrial membrane (Arora, K.K., and Pedersen, P.L. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 17422-17428; Parry, D.M., and Pedersen, P.L. (1983) J. Biol. Chem. 258, 10904-10912). In extending these studies, we have isolated a cDNA clone of hexokinase from a lambda gt11 library of the highly glycolytic, c37 mouse hepatoma cell line. This clone, comprising 4,198 base pairs, contains a single open reading frame of 2,754 nucleotides which encode a 918-amino acid hexokinase with a mass of 102,272 daltons. This enzyme exhibits, respectively, 68 and 32 amino acid differences, including several charge differences, from the recently sequenced human kidney and rat brain enzymes. The putative glucose and ATP binding domains present in the latter two enzymes and in rat liver glucokinase are conserved in the tumor enzyme. At its N-terminal region, tumor hexokinase has a 12-amino acid hydrophobic stretch which is present in the rat brain enzyme but absent in the rat liver glucokinase, a cytoplasmic enzyme. The mature tumor hexokinase protein has been overexpressed in active form in Escherichia coli and purified 9-fold. The overexpressed enzyme binds to rat liver mitochondria in the presence of MgCl2. This is the first report describing the cloning and sequencing of a tumor hexokinase, and the first report documenting the overexpression of any hexokinase type in E. coli. Questions pertinent to the enzyme's mechanism, regulation, binding to mitochondria, and its marked elevation in tumor cells can now be addressed.