T4溶菌酶晶体分子堆积的研究

以不对称单位中只有一个分子的１０种不同晶型的Ｔ４溶菌酶晶体为材料,对晶体中的分子堆积进行了研究,结果表明,在溶剂含量较高的晶型中,非极性基团在接触面积中所占的比例略高于溶剂含量较低的晶型,而其极性和带电荷基团在接触面积中所占的比例略低于溶剂含量较低的晶型。溶剂含量较高的晶型多含有晶体学二重轴,二重轴相关的分子间的接触与其他接触相比,含有较少的极性相互作用。这些结果说明溶剂含量的高低可能是由不同结晶     

富硒螺旋藻中含硒藻蓝蛋白的纯化、结晶及初步晶体学研究

从富硒螺旋藻中提取含硒藻蓝蛋白,经凝胶色谱和离子交换色谱纯化,应用悬滴气相扩散法,采用(NH4)2SO4和PEG4000作沉淀剂,获得了该蛋白质晶体的两种晶型.晶型Ⅰ属于单斜晶系,晶胞参数a=10.80 nm,b=11.70 nm,c=18.40 nm,β=90.2°,晶体空间群属于P21.单位晶胞中每个晶体学不对称单位含12个(αβ)单体,晶体衍射的最高分辨率达0.28 nm.晶型Ⅱ为六方晶系,晶胞参数为a=b=15.5 nm,c=4.03 nm,晶体空间群属于P63.晶体衍射的最高分辨率达0.28 nm.单位晶胞中每个晶体学不对称单位含1个(αβ)单体.对分子在晶体中的可能堆积方式进行了讨论.     

胰岛素单斜晶体(B型)结构的分子置换法研究

在含有ZnCl₂的柠檬酸缓冲体系中,保持苯酚浓度在0.76％～1.25％之间,获得了胰岛素单斜晶体(B型),空间群为P2₁,晶胞参数为:a=4.924 nm,b=6.094nm,c=4.818nm,β=95.8°,每个独立区包含有由6个胰岛素分子构成的1个六聚体。以四锌牛胰岛素六聚体作模型,用X-PLOR软件中的旋转函数程序和本实验室的分子密堆积程序,获得了胰岛素单斜晶体(B型)结构的初始相位。借助生物大分子刚体精化技术对模型进行了初步精化,用能量极小化的立体化学制约的最小二乘精化技术并辅以差值Fourier图人工分析对模型进行了调整和精化。最终R因子为22.4％,键长和键角与标准键长和键角的偏差分别为0.0022nm和4.7°。     

江浙蝮蛇毒碱性磷脂酶A2正交晶体分子置换法结构测定

江浙蝮蛇(Agkistrodon halys pallas)毒碱性磷脂酶A2具有很强的溶血作用.P2₁2₁2₁晶型的晶体学不对称单位中含有2个分子.用自身旋转函数研究了此2分子的相对空间关系,用交叉旋转函数和平移函数测定了2分子在晶胞中的取向与位置.在此基础上进行了初步的三维结构模型构建与结构修正.碱性磷脂酶A2正交晶体不对称单位中2个分子的排布呈现非晶体学二重对称关系.     

江浙蝮蛇毒碱性磷脂酶A2正交晶型Ⅰ--0.25nm分辨率晶体结构

江浙蝮蛇毒碱性磷脂酶A2具有强烈的溶血及抗凝血活性.运用刚体修正技术获得了正交晶型Ⅰ中分子的精确旋转与平移参数.采用非晶体学二重对称性制约的最小二乘修正方法在0.6～0.25 nm分辨率范围内进行了结构精化.最终的晶体学R因子为20.1%, 键长、键角与标准值的均方根偏差分别为0.0013 nm和1.55°.与正交晶型Ⅱ结构比较表明,二者除了β-折叠部位与Ca2+结合部位构象存在小的差别外,磷脂酶A2分子主体构象极其相似.2种晶型由不对称单位中2个分子形成的二体也是类似的.但是,二体中1个单体分子的相对取向有5.5°的差别,提示二体结合面有一定柔性.晶型Ⅰ二体较晶型Ⅱ二体在晶胞中的堆积更紧密.     

尖吻蝮蛇毒酸性磷脂酶A2的新晶型结构

从尖吻蝮蛇毒中分离出一种酸性磷脂酶A2 ,得到了一种新的晶型。用分子置换法测定其晶体结构 ,结构的分辨率达到 0 .2 8nm。该结构给出 2 1.9%的晶体学R因子 (R free =2 5 .7% )和合理的立体化学参数。与已报道的晶型相似 ,不对称单元的两个独立分子形成二体 ,揭示了这种二体的稳定性。二体的形成过程也伴随着 14～ 2 3肽段显著的构象变化 ,这一肽段属于磷脂酶A2 的界面识别部位。氨基酸序列分析表明 ,带正电荷的 34位残基是所有第二类具有溶血活性磷脂酶A2 的共同特点。NaCl对晶体的堆积具有显著的影响 ,从而导致晶胞参数的明显改变。与已报道的晶型不同 ,在酶分子的疏水通道内观测到了 2 甲基 2 ,4戊二醇 (2 methyl 2 ,4 pentanediol,MPD)分子     

高峰淀粉酶的分子可及性的研究

依据高峰淀粉酶的晶体结构数据对它的分子可及性进行了计算和分析,得到了极性与非极性氨基酸的分布、极性原子与非级性原子对可及性的贡献、催化活性中心裂隙的构象、Ｃ末端结构域空间拓扑等信息。活性部位氨基酸残基的可及性研究结果与酶－底物复合物模型相符。     

马氏钳蝎中性神经毒素BmK M4 0.20nm晶体结构测定

BmKM4是一种中性蝎神经毒素,在BmK系列中具有中等毒性,属GroupⅢα-型毒素.纯化样品结晶为六方晶体,空间群为P61.运用X射线衍射分析技术,通过分子置换法在0.20nm分辨率水平测定了BmKM4晶体结构,并对模型结构进行了修正.最后的晶体学R因子为0.142,自由R因子为0.173,模型的标准键长偏差为0.0015nm,标准键角偏差为1.753°.在一个不对称单位里加入了64个水分子.精化的结构显示第10位残基含有1个反常的非脯氨酸顺式肽键.将精化后的结构与GroupⅡα-型蝎毒素BmKM8(酸性弱毒素)的结构进行比较,并以此为基础讨论该cis肽键可能的结构意义.     

江浙蝮蛇毒碱性磷脂酶A2正交晶型Ⅰ——0.25nm分辨率晶体结构

江浙蝮蛇毒碱性磷脂酶A₂ 具有强烈的溶血及抗凝血活性 .运用刚体修正技术获得了正交晶型Ⅰ中分子的精确旋转与平移参数 .采用非晶体学二重对称性制约的最小二乘修正方法在 0 .6～ 0 .2 5nm分辨率范围内进行了结构精化 .最终的晶体学R因子为 2 0 .1 % ,键长、键角与标准值的均方根偏差分别为 0 .0 0 1 3nm和 1 .5 5° .与正交晶型Ⅱ结构比较表明 ,二者除了β -折叠部位与Ca ²⁺结合部位构象存在小的差别外 ,磷脂酶A₂分子主体构象极其相似 .2种晶型由不对称单位中 2个分子形成的二体也是类似的 .但是 ,二体中 1个单体分子的相对取向有 5 .5°的差别 ,提示二体结合面有一定柔性 .晶型Ⅰ二体较晶型Ⅱ二体在晶胞中的堆积更紧密 .     

麦芽四糖淀粉酶晶体的分子堆积学研究

用悬滴汽相扩散法生长了从产碱菌中分离纯化得到的麦芽四糖淀粉酶的晶体,并在Ｍａｒ Ｒｅｓｅａｒｃｈ面探讨器收集了一套２．７埃分辨率的衍射强度数据。用分子置换法解得了该种晶体的结构。在此基础上,分析和比较了两种不同麦芽四糖淀粉酶晶体中的分子堆积和作用,对影响蛋白质体分子堆积的一些因素进行了讨论。     

Crystal packing in six crystal forms of pancreatic ribonuclease.

We compare the molecular packing of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A (RNase A) in six crystal forms, two grown with alcohol, three with high salt and one with polyethylene glycol as a precipitant. The six packings differ in the number of molecules in contact and in the extent of the contacts, which bury 1570 A2 to 2790 A2 of the RNase surface. Regions of the protein surface involved in the six packings cover almost the whole RNase molecule. The abundance of polar interactions, about one per 200 A2, is the same in all types of precipitants. All molecule-to-molecule contacts are different in the six crystal forms, except for the one that forms a RNase dimer. The dimer has a large interface covering 1800 A2 and eight to ten polar interactions. Its presence in the three salt-grown crystal forms suggests that it is an intermediate in salt induced crystallization. In contrast, the two alcohol-grown forms contain only small interfaces, implying a different mechanism of nucleation.     

A dissection of the protein-protein interfaces in icosahedral virus capsids

We selected 49 icosahedral virus capsids whose crystal structures are reported in the Protein Data Bank. They belong to the T=1, T=3, pseudo T=3 and other lattice types. We identified in them 779 unique interfaces between pairs of subunits, all repeated by icosahedral symmetry. We analyzed the geometric and physical chemical properties of these interfaces and compared with interfaces in protein-protein complexes and homodimeric proteins, and with crystal packing contacts. The capsids contain one to 16 subunits implicated in three to 66 unique interfaces. Each subunit loses 40-60% of its accessible surface in contacts with an average of 8.5 neighbors. Many of the interfaces are very large with a buried surface area (BSA) that can exceed 10,000 A(2), yet 39% are small with a BSA<800 A(2) comparable to crystal packing contacts. Pairwise capsid interfaces overlap, so that one-third of the residues are part of more than one interface. Those with a BSA>800 A(2) resemble homodimer interfaces in their chemical composition. Relative to the protein surface, they are non-polar, enriched in aliphatic residues and depleted of charged residues, but not of neutral polar residues. They contain one H-bond per about 200 A(2) BSA. Small capsid interfaces (BSA<800 A(2)) are only slightly more polar. They have a similar amino acid composition, but they bury fewer atoms and contain fewer H-bonds for their size. Geometric parameters that estimate the quality of the atomic packing suggest that the small capsid interfaces are loosely packed like crystal packing contacts, whereas the larger interfaces are close-packed as in protein-protein complexes and homodimers. We discuss implications of these findings on the mechanism of capsid assembly, assuming that the larger interfaces form first to yield stable oligomeric species (capsomeres), and that medium-size interfaces allow the stepwise addition of capsomeres to build larger intermediates.     

Control of crystal forms of apoferritin by site-directed mutagenesis

Surface charges of protein molecules are not only important to biological functions but also crucial to the molecular assembly responsible for crystallization. Appropriate alteration in the surface charge distribution of a protein molecule induces new molecular alignment in the proper direction in the crystal and, hence, controls the crystal form. Apoferritin molecules are known to crystallize in two- and three-dimensional forms in the presence of cadmium ions, which bridge neighboring protein molecules. Here we report a controlled transformation of the apoferritin 2-D crystal by site-directed mutagenesis. In mutant apoferritin, two amino acid residues binding a cadmium-ion through their negative charge, were replaced by one type of nonionic amino acid residues. The amino acid residues, Asp-84 and Gln-86 in the sequence of recombinant (i.e., wild-type) horse L -apoferritin, were replaced by Ser. The wild-type apoferritin yielded a hexagonal lattice 2-D crystal in the presence of cadmium ions. In contrast, the mutant apoferritin yielded two types of oblique crystals independent of the presence of cadmium ions. Image reconstruction of electron micrographs of the mutant crystals made clear that the mutant apoferritin molecules oriented themselves with the 2-fold symmetry axis perpendicular to the crystal plane in both crystals, while the wild-type apoferritin molecules oriented themselves with the 3-fold symmetry axis perpendicular to the crystal plane. The changes of crystal forms and molecular orientation in the 2-D crystals were well explained by a change of the electrostatic interactions induced by the mutagenesis. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Protein–protein interaction at crystal contacts

Packing contacts are crystal artifacts, yet they make use of the same forces that govern specific recognition in protein-protein complexes and oligomeric proteins. They provide examples of a nonspecific protein-protein interaction which can be compared to biologically relevant ones. We evaluate the number and size of pairwise interfaces in 152 crystal forms where the asymmetric unit contains a monomeric protein. In those crystal forms that have no element of 2-fold symmetry, we find that molecules form 8 to 10 pairwise interfaces. The total area of the surface buried on each molecule is large, up to 4400 Ų. Pairwise interfaces bury 200–1200 Ų, like interfaces generated at random in a computer simulation, and less than interfaces in protease-inhibitor or antigen-antibody complexes, which bury 1500 Ų or more. Thus, specific contacts occurring in such complexes extend over a larger surface than nonspecific ones. In crystal forms with 2-fold symmetry, pairwise interfaces are fewer and larger on average than in the absence of 2-fold symmetry. Some bury 1500–2500 Ų, like interfaces in oligomeric proteins, and create “crystal oligomers” which may have formed in the solution before crystallizing. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

A dissection of specific and non-specific protein-protein interfaces

We compare the geometric and physical-chemical properties of interfaces involved in specific and non-specific protein-protein interactions in crystal structures reported in the Protein Data Bank. Specific interactions are illustrated by 70 protein-protein complexes and by subunit contacts in 122 homodimeric proteins; non-specific interactions are illustrated by 188 pairs of monomeric proteins making crystal-packing contacts selected to bury more than 800 A2 of protein surface. A majority of these pairs have 2-fold symmetry and form "crystal dimers" that cannot be distinguished from real dimers on the basis of the interface size or symmetry. The chemical and amino acid compositions of the large crystal-packing interfaces resemble the protein solvent-accessible surface. These interfaces are less hydrophobic than in homodimers and contain much fewer fully buried atoms. We develop a residue propensity score and a hydrophobic interaction score to assess preferences seen in the chemical and amino acid compositions of the different types of interfaces, and we derive indexes to evaluate the atomic packing, which we find to be less compact at non-specific than at specific interfaces. We test the capacity of these parameters to identify homodimeric proteins in crystal structures, and show that a simple combination of the non-polar interface area and the fraction of buried interface atoms assigns the quaternary structure of 88% of the homodimers and 77% of the monomers in our data set correctly. These success rates increase to 93-95% when the residue propensity score of the interfaces is taken into consideration.     

First crystallization of a phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase from Escherichia coli

Two different forms of crystal for a phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase from Escherichia coli were obtained by the hanging-drop vapor diffusion technique, using polyethylene glycol 4000 as precipitant. The hexagonal crystal in space group P6(2)22 (or P6(4)22) has cell dimensions of a = 131 A and c = 325 A, whereas the orthorhombic crystal in space group I222 has a = 119 A, b = 252 A and c = 83 A. A tetrameric molecule (396,244 Mr), a subunit of which contains 883 amino residues, has a crystallographic 2 symmetry in the hexagonal crystal or 222 symmetry in the orthorhombic crystal, respectively.     

Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of recombinant human P38 MAP kinase.

The recombinant human p38 MAP kinase has been expressed and purified from both Escherichia coli and SF9 cells, and has been crystallized in two forms by the hanging drop vapor diffusion method using PEG as precipitant. Both crystal forms belong to space group P2(1)2(1)2(1). The cell parameters for crystal form 1 are a = 65.2 A, b = 74.6 A and c = 78.1 A. Those for crystal form 2 are a = 58.3 A, b = 68.3 A and c = 87.9 A. Diffraction data to 2.0 A resolution have been collected on both forms.     

Crystallization of substrate and product analog complexes of tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase

We have prepared crystals of tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase from Bacillus stearothermophilus complexed to tryptophan (type II*), and to tryptophanyl-3'(2')-ATP (type IV). The latter compound is a product analog, enzymatically synthesized by acyl transfer of tryptophan from the tryptophanyl-5'-AMP intermediate to a second molecule of ATP. It resembles the 3'-terminal fragment, tryptophanyl-3'(2')-adenosine, of Trp-tRNATrp. Both crystal forms diffract to high resolution. Although both forms are grown from 2 M K2HPO4, they are dramatically different in the shape of the unit cell and in space group symmetry. Type II* crystals are monoclinic (space group P21). However, low-resolution reflections obey the symmetry of space group P321, which indicates both the existence and the location of noncrystallographic symmetry in the monoclinic unit cell. Type IV crystals belong to space group P41212 (or its enantiomorph) and the unit cell is elongated along the fourfold screw axis. Analysis of molecular packing suggests that intermolecular contacts in the two crystal types are very different. Thus, the two structures may exhibit conformational differences related to catalysis by this enzyme. Solution of type II* and type IV crystal structures may provide representations resembling a Michaelis complex and an acyl transfer product complex.