Biomedical subjects

Xavier Robert

Publications and source records attributed to Xavier Robert.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Thermostability enhancement and change in starch hydrolysis profile of the maltohexaose-forming amylase of Bacillus stearothermophilus US100 strain.

The implications of Asn315 and Val450 in the atypical starch hydrolysis profile of Bacillus stearothermophilus Amy (a-amylase) US100 have been suggested previously [Ben Ali, Mhiri, Mezghani and Bejar (2001) Enzyme Microb. Tech. 28, 537-542]. In order to confirm this hypothesis, three mutants were generated. Of these two have a single mutation, N315D or V450G, whereas the third contains both mutations. Analysis of the starch breakdown-profile of these three mutants, as well as of the wild-type, allowed us to conclude that each single mutation induces a small variation in the hydrolysis product. However, the major end product produced by the double mutant shifts from maltopentaose/maltohexaose to maltose/maltotriose, confirming the involvement of these two residues in starch hydrolysis. The superimposition of AmyUS100 model with that of Bacillus licheniformis shows in AmyUS100 an additional loop containing residues Ile214 and Gly215. Remarkably, the deletion of these two residues increases the half-life at 100 degrees C from 15 min to approx. 70 min. Moreover, this engineered amylase requires less calcium, 25 p.p.m. instead of 100 p.p.m., to reach maximal thermostability.

Amino Acid Substitution↗

PubMed2005

Oligosaccharide binding to barley alpha-amylase 1.

Enzymatic subsite mapping earlier predicted 10 binding subsites in the active site substrate binding cleft of barley alpha-amylase isozymes. The three-dimensional structures of the oligosaccharide complexes with barley alpha-amylase isozyme 1 (AMY1) described here give for the first time a thorough insight into the substrate binding by describing residues defining 9 subsites, namely -7 through +2. These structures support that the pseudotetrasaccharide inhibitor acarbose is hydrolyzed by the active enzymes. Moreover, sugar binding was observed to the starch granule-binding site previously determined in barley alpha-amylase isozyme 2 (AMY2), and the sugar binding modes are compared between the two isozymes. The "sugar tongs" surface binding site discovered in the AMY1-thio-DP4 complex is confirmed in the present work. A site that putatively serves as an entrance for the substrate to the active site was proposed at the glycone part of the binding cleft, and the crystal structures of the catalytic nucleophile mutant (AMY1D180A) complexed with acarbose and maltoheptaose, respectively, suggest an additional role for the nucleophile in the stabilization of the Michaelis complex. Furthermore, probable roles are outlined for the surface binding sites. Our data support a model in which the two surface sites in AMY1 can interact with amylose chains in their naturally folded form. Because of the specificities of these two sites, they may locate/orient the enzyme in order to facilitate access to the active site for polysaccharide chains. Moreover, the sugar tongs surface site could also perform the unraveling of amylose chains, with the aid of Tyr-380 acting as "molecular tweezers."

Acarbose↗

PubMed2003

ESPript/ENDscript: Extracting and rendering sequence and 3D information from atomic structures of proteins.

The fortran program ESPript was created in 1993, to display on a PostScript figure multiple sequence alignments adorned with secondary structure elements. A web server was made available in 1999 and ESPript has been linked to three major web tools: ProDom which identifies protein domains, PredictProtein which predicts secondary structure elements and NPS@ which runs sequence alignment programs. A web server named ENDscript was created in 2002 to facilitate the generation of ESPript figures containing a large amount of information. ENDscript uses programs such as BLAST, Clustal and PHYLODENDRON to work on protein sequences and such as DSSP, CNS and MOLSCRIPT to work on protein coordinates. It enables the creation, from a single Protein Data Bank identifier, of a multiple sequence alignment figure adorned with secondary structure elements of each sequence of known 3D structure. Similar 3D structures are superimposed in turn with the program PROFIT and a final figure is drawn with BOBSCRIPT, which shows sequence and structure conservation along the Calpha trace of the query. ESPript and ENDscript are available at http://genopole.toulouse.inra.fr/ESPript.

DNA-Binding Proteins↗

PubMed2003

The structure of barley alpha-amylase isozyme 1 reveals a novel role of domain C in substrate recognition and binding: a pair of sugar tongs.

Though the three-dimensional structures of barley alpha-amylase isozymes AMY1 and AMY2 are very similar, they differ remarkably from each other in their affinity for Ca(2+) and when interacting with substrate analogs. A surface site recognizing maltooligosaccharides, not earlier reported for other alpha-amylases and probably associated with the different activity of AMY1 and AMY2 toward starch granules, has been identified. It is located in the C-terminal part of the enzyme and, thus, highlights a potential role of domain C. In order to scrutinize the possible biological significance of this domain in alpha-amylases, a thorough comparison of their three-dimensional structures was conducted. An additional role for an earlier-identified starch granule binding surface site is proposed, and a new calcium ion is reported.

Acarbose↗

PubMed2002

Expression, purification and preliminary crystallographic studies of alpha-amylase isozyme 1 from barley seeds.

The germinating barley seed contains two major alpha-amylase isozyme families, AMY1 and AMY2, involved in starch degradation to provide energy used by the plant embryo for growth. Many years of difficulty in growing three-dimensional crystals of natural AMY1 have now been overcome by a nonapeptide truncation of the enzyme C-terminus. The truncated enzyme was overexpressed in Pichia pastoris, purified and crystallized by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method using polyethylene glycol 8000 as precipitant and 2-propanol as an additive. Crystals belong to the orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2, with unit-cell parameters a = 88.36, b = 72.82, c = 61.74 A and one molecule per asymmetric unit.

Crystallography, X-Ray↗