使用人工神经元网络方法预测蛋白质分子主链的二面角

本文使用人工神经元网络预测蛋白质分子主链的二面角,通过分别学习所有残基,成规则二级结构的残基,无规线团的二面角,结果表明由蛋白质分子的一级序列出发预测主链二面角,对于α螺旋成功率最高,β折叠次之,而无规线团的二面角和其一级序列相关很小,故难以预测.     

使用人工神经元网络方法预测蛋白质分子主链的二面角

本文使用人工神经元网络预测蛋白质分子主链的二面角,通过分别学习所有残基,成规则二级结构的残基,无规线团的二面角,结果表明由蛋白质分子的一级序列出发预测主链二面角,对于α螺旋成功率最高,β折叠次之,而无规线团的二面角和其一级序列相关很小,故难以预测.     

蛋白质的肽质谱指纹图分析方法的优化

肽质谱指纹图分析是一种常用的蛋白质的鉴定方法.为了提高这种方法鉴定蛋白质时序列覆盖率和准确度,以6个标准蛋白质为分析样品,对几种不同的酶解肽段的浓缩、脱盐和点样方法进行了检验和优化.结果发现,将酶解肽段的浓缩体积控制在5μl以下和采用10mmolL柠檬酸铵缓冲液板上脱盐能提高蛋白质鉴定的准确度;在点样的时候,采用先点样品再点基质的方法能明显提高匹配肽段的个数和信噪比.这些优化的样品制备方法明显地提高了MALDITOF质谱肽质谱指纹图分析方法鉴定蛋白质的可靠性.     

基于二辛基化标记的蛋白质组N末端肽富集方法

蛋白质末端的研究不仅对于蛋白质的结构和功能注释十分必要,还能够为蛋白酶作用机理的揭示提供重要信息.针对传统蛋白质组N末端肽富集需要采用大量去除材料导致N末端肽回收率低,以及步骤繁琐、样品损失等问题,本文发展了一种基于二辛基化标记的蛋白质组N末端肽反向富集方法,可以在单次反相色谱分离中实现非N末端肽的去除.以酵母蛋白质酶解产物为样品对方法进行考察,结果表明,该方法具备较高的二辛基化标记效率(93%),且非N末端肽经二辛基化标记后能够显著偏移至强保留区.将其应用于酵母蛋白质N末端组的分析,共鉴定到237条蛋白原始N末端肽和133 neo-N末端肽,较富集前分别提高了2.1和3.3倍.此外,将该方法结合多种酶切方式,使N末端肽和neo-N末端肽的鉴定数目进一步提高37%和60%,促进了蛋白质N末端组鉴定覆盖度的提高.     

新型断裂内含肽介导的可控性C端断裂

内含肽介导的蛋白质断裂被广泛地应用于蛋白质纯化、连接和环化. 但目前的方法都是用传统的连续的内含肽来介导蛋白质断裂反应,因而往往存在自发性断裂、产率低等问题. 本实验选择3个S1型新型断裂内含肽Ter ThyX、Ssp GryB和Rma DnaB来实现蛋白质断裂反应的可控性. 在可控性C端断裂反应中,S1型断裂内含肽的C端片段（IC ）与硫氧还蛋白（T）融合作为前体蛋白,加入化学合成的Ssp DnaB S1型断裂内含肽 的N端小肽与二硫苏糖醇（DTT）共同诱导C端断裂反应.结果表明,该小肽可以诱导这 3个不同的S1型断裂内含肽的前体蛋白发生C端断裂反应. 该方法为利用内含肽C端断 裂介导的蛋白质纯化提供了更多的选择,并为内含肽的结构与功能的关系研究提供-有用的线索.     

基于液相色谱质谱联用的蛋白质组非标记定量研究策略的建立及应用

定量蛋白质组研究是蛋白质组研究的热点和难点,而液相色谱质谱技术已经被广泛地应用于蛋白质的定性和定量研究.该研究建立和优化了一种基于液相色谱质谱联用技术的蛋白质组非标记定量方法,并对两种肽段质谱检测计数的归一化算法进行了比较,结果发现ASC法要优于Rsc法.最后,将建立的方法应用于肝癌细胞模型HepG2和HepG2-HBx细胞系的差异蛋白质组表达研究.质谱鉴定结果用聚类分析软件cluster3.0进行分析,最后鉴定出107个重叠蛋白,其中9个蛋白质表达上调(Ratio>1.75),6个蛋白质表达下调(Ratio<0.5),这些蛋白质均与肝癌发生和恶化密切相关.结果表明,该技术操作简单、方便,具有较高的灵敏度和动态范围,利用该方法进行差异蛋白质组研究和发现生物标志物在理论和临床上具有十分重要的意义.     

内含肽介导的新型蛋白质纯化技术

内含肽(intein)的自切剖功能在蛋白质工程领域有着广泛的应用,尤其是在蛋白质纯化方面,将内含肽与亲和纯化技术联合应用,使得传统的亲和纯化方式有了重大的突破.近年来,随着内含肽的研究不断深入,一批内含肽介导的新型蛋白质纯化技术不断出现.新技术依靠内含肽的自切割功能去除亲和标签,避免了传统工艺中因外加蛋白酶而带来的诸多麻烦;新的聚合材料的引入又成功地避开了亲和树脂柱的使用,不仅优化了工艺,也大大降低了纯化的成本,为在工业化大生产中的应用奠定了基础.     

规模化蛋白质鉴定中母离子的准确检测技术研究

蛋白质组学的基础研究之一是蛋白质鉴定.规模化的蛋白质鉴定通常采用"鸟枪法",即选择一些酶切肽段(母离子)碎裂生成二级谱图,通过二级谱图及其母离子质量鉴定肽段,再推断对应的蛋白质.在鉴定过程中,母离子质量是一个关键参数.母离子是否是肽段的单同位素峰决定了正确肽段是否能进入候选,母离子的质量精度决定了候选肽段的数目.本文从判断单同位素峰和系统误差校准这两个角度研究了母离子的准确检测技术.判断单同位素峰的技术在蛋白质上已有研究,包括电荷判断、单同位素峰判断和重叠同位素峰判断.可以借鉴蛋白质水平的技术研究母离子的单同位素峰判断方法.同时母离子的系统误差校准也有较为成熟的方法.这两个角度的研究有助于提高规模化蛋白质的鉴定率.     

内含肽介导的蛋白连接技术及其应用

内含肽介导的蛋白质剪接是一种自发的翻译后事件,内含肽可介导其自身从前体蛋白上切除,同时将其两侧的外显肽连接起来.在过去10多年中,基于蛋白质剪接原理发展出的蛋白连接技术被广泛的用于蛋白质工程的研究中.这些技术打破了化学合成方法中对目标物大小的限制,有助于化学和生物学的研究.针对近年由蛋白质连接演化出来的新技术及其应用做简要的阐述.     

多种S1断裂内含肽的体内交叉反应

断裂内含肽含有两个独立分离的多肽片段(N端内含肽和C端内含肽),它催化蛋白质反式剪接反应,在蛋白质研究与蛋白质工程中已得到诸多实际应用.在蛋白质反式剪接过程中,内含肽的N端内含肽和C端内含肽通过结构互补特异性地非共价组合.然而,Ssp DnaX S1型断裂内含肽的较大C端内含肽片段近来被发现能够与源自其它内含肽的N端内含肽片段交叉反应,表明蛋白质内含子Ssp DnaX具有结构杂交特征.本研究对另外2种S1型内含肽Rma DnaB和Ssp GyrB的较大C端内含肽与不同S1型断裂内含肽的N 端内含肽交叉反应活性进行分析检测.目的是探讨S1型断裂内含肽的结构杂交特征是否具有普遍性.结果发现,Rma DnaB的S1 C端内含肽能够与Ssp GyrB的S1 N端内含肽交叉反应,却不能与Ssp DnaX的S1 N端内含肽交叉反应;与此相似,Ssp GyrB的S1 C端内含肽能够与Rma DnaB的 S1 N端内含肽交叉反应,却不能与Ssp DnaX的S1 N端内含肽交叉反应.此外,某些交叉反应表现出温度依赖性.这些结果对于内含肽的结构 功能关系以及S1型断裂内含肽的应用研究具有重要的意义.     

Vibrational approach to the dynamics of an α-helix

The dynamics of a finite α-helix have been studied in the harmonic approximation by a vibrational analysis of the atomic motions about their equilibrium positions. The system were represented by an empirical potential energy function, and all degrees of freedom (bond lengths, bond angles, and torsional angles) were allowed to vary. The complete results were compared with a more restrictive model in which the peptide dihedral angle was kept rigid; also, a model potential excluding hydrogen bonds was examined. Thermal fluctuations in the backbone dihedral angles ? and ψ are 12° to 15°. The fluctuations of adjacent dihedral angles are highly correlated, and the correlation pattern is affected by the flexibility of the peptide dihedral angle. Time-dependent autocorrelations in the motion of ? and ψ appear to decay due to dephasing in less than 1 psec, while the motions of the carbonyl oxygen and amide hydrogens out of the peptide plane are more harmonic. Length fluctuations have been evaluated and exhibit a strong end effect; the calculated elastic modulus is in agreement with other values. Rigid and adiabatic total energy surfaces corresponding to dihedral angle rotations in the middle of the helix have been obtained and compared with the quadratic approximation to those surfaces. The magnitudes and correlations between the fluctuations obtained by averaging over the adiabatic energy surface most closely resemble the vibrational results. Of particular interest is the fact that hydrogen bonds play a relatively small role in the local dihedral angle fluctuations, though the hydrogen bonds are important in the energy of overall length changes.     

Structure and dynamics of an amphiphilic peptide in a lipid bilayer: a molecular dynamics study

A molecular dynamics simulation of a simple model membrane system composed of a single amphiphilic helical peptide (ace-K2GL16K2A-amide) in a fully hydrated 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine bilayer was performed for a total of 1060 ps. The secondary structure of the peptide and its stability were described in terms of average dihedral angles, phi and psi, and the C alpha torsion angles formed by backbone atoms; by the average translation per residue along the helix axis; and by the intramolecular peptide hydrogen bonds. The results indicated that residues 6 through 15 remain in a stable right-handed alpha-helical conformation, whereas both termini exhibit substantial fluctuations. A change in the backbone dihedral angles for residues 16 and 17 is accompanied by the loss of two intramolecular hydrogen bonds, leading to a local but long-lived disruption of the helix. The dynamics of the peptide was characterized in terms of local and global helix motions. The local motions of the N-H bond angles were described in terms of the autocorrelation functions of P2[cos thetaNH(t, t + tau)] and reflected the different degrees of local peptide order as well as a variation in time scale for local motions. The chi1 and chi2 dihedral angles of the leucine side chains underwent frequent transitions between potential minima. No connection between the side-chain positions and their mobility was observed, however. In contrast, the lysine side chains displayed little mobility during the simulation. The global peptide motions were characterized by the tilting and bending motions of the helix. Although the peptide was initially aligned parallel to the bilayer normal, during the simulation it was observed to tilt away from the normal, reaching an angle of approximately 25 degrees by the end of the simulation. In addition, a slight bend of the helix was detected. Finally, the solvation of the peptide backbone and side-chain atoms was also investigated.     

Local propensities and statistical potentials of backbone dihedral angles in proteins

The following three issues concerning the backbone dihedral angles of protein structures are presented. (1) How do the dihedral angles of the 20 amino acids depend on the identity and conformation of their nearest residues? (2) To what extent are the native dihedral angles determined by local (dihedral) potentials? (3) How to build a knowledge-based potential for a residue's dihedral angles, considering the identity and conformation of its nearest residues? We find that the dihedral angle distribution for a residue can significantly depend on the identity and conformation of its adjacent residues. These correlations are in sharp contrast to the Flory isolated-pair hypothesis. Statistical potentials are built for all combinations of residue triplets and depend on the dihedral angles between consecutive residues. First, a low-resolution potential is obtained, which only differentiates between the main populated basins in the dihedral angle density plots. Minimization of the dihedral potential for 125 test proteins reveals that most native alpha-helical residues (89%) and a large fraction of native beta-sheet residues (47%) adopt conformations close to their native one. For native loop residues, the percentage is 48%. It is also found that this fraction is higher for residues away from the ends of alpha or beta secondary structure elements. In addition, a higher resolution potential is built as a function of dihedral angles by a smoothing procedure and continuous functions interpolations. Monte Carlo energy minimization with this potential results in a lower fraction for native beta-sheet residues. Nevertheless, because of the higher flexibility and entropy of beta structures, they could be preferred under the influence of non-local interactions. In general, most alpha-helices and many beta-sheets are strongly determined by the local potential, while the conformations in loops and near the end of beta-sheets are more influenced by non-local interactions.     

The geometry of alpha-sheet: Implications for its possible function as amyloid precursor in proteins

alpha-sheet has been proposed as the main constituent of the prefibrillar intermediate during amyloid formation. Here the helical parameters of the alpha-sheet strand are calculated from average main-chain dihedral angles reported from molecular dynamics simulations. It is an almost linear polypeptide that forms a right-handed helix of about 100 A diameter, with 100 residues and a rise of 30 A per turn. The strands are curved but untwisted, which implies that neighboring strands need not coil to make interstrand hydrogen bonds. This suggests that compared to beta-sheets in native folded proteins, alpha-sheets can be larger and stack more easily to create extensive 3D blocks. It is shown that alpha-sheet is related to a category of structures termed "mirror" structures. Mirror structures have repetitive pairs of main-chain dihedral angles at residues i and i+1 that satisfy the condition phi(i) (+1) = -psi(i), psi(i) (+1) = -phi(i). They are uniquely identified by the two orientations of their peptide planes, specified by phi(i) and psi(i). Their side chains point alternately in opposite directions. Interestingly, their conformations are insensitive to phi(i) and psi(i) in that the pseudo dihedral angle formed by four consecutive C(alpha) atoms is always close to 180 degrees . There are two types: "beta-mirror" and "alpha-mirror" structure; beta-mirror structures relate to beta-sheet by small peptide plane rotations, of less than 90 degrees , while alpha-mirror structures are close to alpha-sheet and relate to beta-sheet by approximately 180 degrees peptide plane flips. Most mirror structures, and in particular the alpha-mirror, form wide helices with diameters 50-70 A. Their gentle curvature, and therefore that of the alpha-sheet, arises from the orientation of successive peptide units causing the difference in the bond angles at the C and N atoms of the peptide unit to gradually change the direction of the chain.     

Determination of the phi angle in a peptide backbone by NMR spectroscopy with a combination of homonuclear and heteronuclear coupling constants.

The phi angle in a cyclic peptide is determined by the combined use of homonuclear and heteronuclear coupling constants. Two of the four coupling constants that define the phi angle in a peptide are determined exactly, two qualitatively. Via Karplus-type equations, they are transformed into dihedral angles and a good agreement is found, allowing for a determination of the phi angle with a certain range of degrees.     

Polypeptide motions are dominated by peptide group oscillations resulting from dihedral angle correlations between nearest neighbors

To identify basic local backbone motions in unfolded chains, simulations are performed for a variety of peptide systems using three popular force fields and for implicit and explicit solvent models. A dominant "crankshaft-like" motion is found that involves only a localized oscillation of the plane of the peptide group. This motion results in a strong anticorrelated motion of the phi angle of the ith residue (phi(i)) and the psi angle of the residue i - 1 (psi(i-1)) on the 0.1 ps time scale. Only a slight correlation is found between the motions of the two backbone dihedral angles of the same residue. Aside from the special cases of glycine and proline, no correlations are found between backbone dihedral angles that are separated by more than one torsion angle. These short time, correlated motions are found both in equilibrium fluctuations and during the transit process between Ramachandran basins, e.g., from the beta to the alpha region. A residue's complete transit from one Ramachandran basin to another, however, occurs in a manner independent of its neighbors' conformational transitions. These properties appear to be intrinsic because they are robust across different force fields, solvent models, nonbonded interaction routines, and most amino acids.     

Structure and conformation of linear peptides. I. Structure of L-tyrosyl-L-tyrosine

L-tyrosyl-L-tyrosine crystallizes as a dihydrate in the orthorhombic system, space group C222(1), with a = 12.105(2), b = 12.789(2), c = 24.492(3) A, Z = 8. The structure was solved by direct methods and refined to a final R-value of 0.059 for 1740 observed reflections. The molecule exists as a zwitterion, the peptide unit is trans planar, and the backbone torsion angles correspond to an extended conformation, with psi 1 = 149.4 degrees, phi 2 = -161.2 degrees, psi 2 = 158.3 degrees. The values of the side-chain torsion angles (chi 1, chi 2) are (-58.8 degrees, -63.1 degrees) for the first tyrosine and (-171.7 degrees, -116.5 degrees) for the second. The planes of the aromatic rings are nearly parallel (dihedral angle of 6.1 degrees), and their centers are separated by 10.9 A. The carboxyl plane forms a dihedral angle of 23.8 degrees with the plane of the peptide bond.     

The nonplanar peptide unit. III. Quantum chemical calculations for related compounds and experimental X-ray diffraction data.

The possible nonplanar distortions of the amide group in formamide, acetamide, N-methylacetamide, and N-ethylacetamide have been examined using CNDO/2 and INDO methods. The predictions from these methods are compared with the results obtained from X-ray and neutron diffraction studies on crystals of small open peptides, cyclic peptides, and amides. It is shown that the INDO results are in good agreement with observations, and that the dihedral angles θ_N and Δω defining the nonplanarity of the amide unit are correlated approximately by the relation θ_N = ?2Δω, while θ_C is small and uncorrelated with Δω. The present study indicates that the nonplanar distortions at the nitrogen atom of the peptide unit may have to be taken into consideration, in addition to the variation in the dihedral angles (?,ψ), in working out polypeptide and protein structures.     

Dihedral angles of tripeptides in solution directly determined by polarized Raman and FTIR spectroscopy

The amide I mode of the peptide linkage is highly delocalized in peptides and protein segments due to through-bond and through-space vibrationally coupling between adjacent peptide groups. J. Phys. Chem. B. 104:11316-11320) used coherent femtosecond infrared (IR) spectroscopy to determine the excitonic coupling energy and the orientational angle between the transition dipole moments of the interacting amide I modes of cationic tri-alanine in D(2)O. Recently, the same parameters were determined for all protonation states of tri-alanine by analyzing the amide I bands in the respective IR and isotropic Raman spectra (. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 119:1720-1726.). In both studies, the dihedral angles phi and psi were then obtained by utilizing the orientational dependence of the coupling energy obtained from ab initio calculations on tri-glycine in vacuo (. J. Raman Spectrosc. 29:81-86) to obtain an extended 3(1) helix-like structure for the tripeptide. In the present paper, a novel algorithm for the analysis of excitonic coupling between amide I modes is presented, which is based on the approach by Schweitzer-Stenner et al. but avoids the problematic use of results from ab initio calculations. Instead, the dihedral angles are directly determined from infrared and visible polarized Raman spectra. First, the interaction energy and the corresponding degree of wave-function mixing were obtained from the amide I profile in the isotropic Raman spectrum. Second, the depolarization ratios and the amide I profiles in the anisotropic Raman and IR-absorption spectra were used to determine the orientational angle between the peptide planes and the transition dipole moments, respectively. Finally, these two geometric parameters were utilized to determine the dihedral angles phi and psi between the interacting peptide groups. Stable extended conformations with dihedral angles in the beta-sheet region were obtained for all protonation states of tri-alanine, namely phi(+) = -126 degrees, psi(+) = 178 degrees; phi(+/-) = -110 degrees, psi(+/-) = 155 degrees; and phi(-) = -127 degrees, psi(-) = 165 degrees for the cationic, zwitterionic, and anionic state, respectively. These values reflect an extended beta-helix structure. Tri-glycine was found to be much more heterogeneous in that different extended conformers coexist in the cationic and zwitterionic state, which yield a noncoincidence between isotropic and anisotropic Raman scattering. Our study introduces vibrational spectroscopy as a suitable tool for the structure analysis of peptides in solution and tripeptides as suitable model systems for investigating the role of local interactions in determining the propensity of peptide segments for distinct secondary structure motifs.     

New Insights into the Interdependence between Amino Acid Stereochemistry and Protein Structure

To successfully design new proteins and understand the effects of mutations in natural proteins, we must understand the geometric and physicochemical principles underlying protein structure. The side chains of amino acids in peptides and proteins adopt specific dihedral angle combinations; however, we still do not have a fundamental quantitative understanding of why some side-chain dihedral angle combinations are highly populated and others are not. Here we employ a hard-sphere plus stereochemical constraint model of dipeptide mimetics to enumerate the side-chain dihedral angles of leucine (Leu) and isoleucine (Ile), and identify those conformations that are sterically allowed versus those that are not as a function of the backbone dihedral angles ? and ψ. We compare our results with the observed distributions of side-chain dihedral angles in proteins of known structure. With the hard-sphere plus stereochemical constraint model, we obtain agreement between the model predictions and the observed side-chain dihedral angle distributions for Leu and Ile. These results quantify the extent to which local, geometrical constraints determine protein side-chain conformations.