Fusion of sequence elements from non-anchored proteins to generate a fully functional signal for glycophosphatidylinositol membrane anchor attachment

Glycophosphatidylinositol (GPI) membrane anchor attachment is directed by a cleavable signal at the COOH terminus of the protein. The complete lack of homology among different GPI-anchored proteins suggests that this signal is of a general nature. Previous analysis of the GPI signal of decay accelerating factor (DAF) suggests that the minimal requirements for GPI attachment are (a) a hydrophobic domain and (b) a cleavage/attachment site consisting of a pair of small residues positioned 10-12 residues NH2-terminal to a hydrophobic domain. As an ultimate test of these rules we constructed four synthetic GPI signals, meeting these requirements but assembled entirely from sequence elements not normally involved in GPI attachment. We show that these synthetic signals are able to direct human growth hormone (hGH), a secreted protein, to the plasma membrane via a GPI anchor. Our results indicate that different hydrophobic sequences, derived from either the prolactin or hGH NH2-terminal signal peptide, can be linked to different cleavage sites via different hydrophilic spacers to produce a functional GPI signal. These data confirm that the only requirements for GPI-anchoring are a pair of small residues positioned 10-12 residues NH2 terminal to a hydrophobic domain, no other structural motifs being necessary.     

Preparation of micelle-forming polymer-drug conjugates.

Adriamycin, a hydrophobic anticancer drug, was conjugated with poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(aspartic acid) block copolymers composed of various lengths of each block copolymer segment ranging from 1000 to 12,000 in molecular weight and from 10 to 80 units, respectively. Conjugation was achieved without precipitation by adjusting the ratio of adriamycin to aspartic acid residues of the block copolymer and the quantity of DMF used for the reaction. Thus obtained conjugates showed high water solubility irrespective of a large amount of the conjugated adriamycin. Furthermore, these conjugates were found to form micellar structures with a hydrophobic inner core and a hydrophilic outer shell. This micellar architecture may be utilized for effective drug targeting.     

Efficient digestion and mass spectral analysis of vesicular glutamate transporter 1: a recombinant membrane protein expressed in yeast

Attempts to characterize recombinant integral membrane proteins (IMPs) by mass spectrometry are frequently hindered by several factors including the detergents required for extraction and purification that interferes with analysis, poor solubility, incomplete digestion, and limited identification of the transmembrane domain-spanning peptides. The goal of this study was to examine and develop methods for purification of an IMP that are amenable to downstream digestion of the protein and peptide analysis by mass spectrometry. In this study, we have overexpressed a candidate IMP, the vesicular glutamate transporter 1 (VGLUT1) in Pichia pastoris and examined conditions for the efficient affinity purification, in-solution digestion, and analysis of the protein. Analysis of the intact purified protein without detergent was performed by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The purified IMP was digested with trypsin, and the resulting peptides were identified. A method that utilizes differential solubility and ionization properties of hydrophobic and hydrophilic peptides was developed. Large hydrophobic peptides were only detected in solutions containing 50% formic acid. Ionization of hydrophilic peptides was suppressed in formic acid, but they produced a strong signal in 50% acetonitrile. Eighty-seven percent sequence coverage of the protein was obtained with only one large hydrophobic peptide that remained unidentified. The results demonstrate a simple method to purify and digest a recombinant IMP for analysis by mass spectrometry.     

Silk self-assembly mechanisms and control from thermodynamics to kinetics

Silkworms and spiders generate fibers that exhibit high strength and extensibility. The underlying mechanisms involved in processing silk proteins into fiber form remain incompletely understood, resulting in the failure to fully recapitulate the remarkable properties of native fibers in vitro from regenerated silk solutions. In the present study, the extensibility and high strength of regenerated silks were achieved by mimicking the natural spinning process. Conformational transitions inside micelles, followed by aggregation of micelles and their stabilization as they relate to the metastable structure of silk are described. Subsequently, the mechanisms to control the formation of nanofibrous structures were elucidated. The results clarify that the self-assembly of silk in aqueous solution is a thermodynamically driven process where kinetics also play a key role. Four key factors, molecular mobility, charge, hydrophilic interactions, and concentration underlie the process. Adjusting these factors can balance nanostructure and conformational composition, and be used to achieve silk-based materials with properties comparable to native fibers. These mechanisms suggest new directions to design silk-based multifunctional materials.     

Surface hydrophobic and hydrophilic protein alterations in Candida albicans

Abstract Cell surface hydrophobicity influences pathogenesis of Candida albicans . Previous studies suggested that stationary-phase hydrophilic and hydrophobic cells, obtained by growth at 37 and 23°C, respectively, may have similar hydrophobic proteins. However, whether hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface proteins differ during the growth cycle at 37°C is unknown. Freeze-fracture analysis revealed surface fibrillar layer differences between hydrophobic late-lag and hydrophilic stationary-phase yeast cells grown at 37°C. Hydrophilic protein differences were also observed between these populations. However, similar hydrophobic proteins were detected among the late-lag and stationary phase cells grown at 37°C and hydrophobic stationary-phase cells grown at 23°C. These results suggest that hydrophobic proteins remain constant but hydrophilic proteins vary during growth. Thus, conversion from surface hydrophilicity to hydrophobicity by C. albicans may only require alterations in the hydrophilic fibrillar protein components.     

Amino acid contribution to protein solubility: Asp, Glu, and Ser contribute more favorably than the other hydrophilic amino acids in RNase Sa

Poor protein solubility is a common problem in high-resolution structural studies, formulation of protein pharmaceuticals, and biochemical characterization of proteins. One popular strategy to improve protein solubility is to use site-directed mutagenesis to make hydrophobic to hydrophilic mutations on the protein surface. However, a systematic investigation of the relative contributions of all 20 amino acids to protein solubility has not been done. Here, 20 variants at the completely solvent-exposed position 76 of ribonuclease (RNase) Sa are made to compare the contributions of each amino acid. Stability measurements were also made for these variants, which occur at the i+1 position of a type II beta-turn. Solubility measurements in ammonium sulfate solutions were made at high positive net charge, low net charge, and high negative net charge. Surprisingly, there was a wide range of contributions to protein solubility even among the hydrophilic amino acids. The results suggest that aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and serine contribute significantly more favorably than the other hydrophilic amino acids especially at high net charge. Therefore, to increase protein solubility, asparagine, glutamine, or threonine should be replaced with aspartic acid, glutamic acid or serine.     

Identification of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus replicase products and characterization of papain-like protease activity

Gene 1 of the coronavirus associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) encodes replicase polyproteins that are predicted to be processed into 16 nonstructural proteins (nsps 1 to 16) by two viral proteases, a papain-like protease (PLpro) and a 3C-like protease (3CLpro). Here, we identify SARS coronavirus amino-terminal replicase products nsp1, nsp2, and nsp3 and describe trans-cleavage assays that characterize the protease activity required to generate these products. We generated polyclonal antisera to glutathione S-transferase-replicase fusion proteins and used the antisera to detect replicase intermediates and products in pulse-chase experiments. We found that nsp1 (p20) is rapidly processed from the replicase polyprotein. In contrast, processing at the nsp2/3 site is less efficient, since a approximately 300-kDa intermediate (NSP2-3) is detected, but ultimately nsp2 (p71) and nsp3 (p213) are generated. We found that SARS coronavirus replicase products can be detected by 4 h postinfection in the cytoplasm of infected cells and that nsps 1 to 3 colocalize with newly synthesized viral RNA in punctate, perinuclear sites consistent with their predicted role in viral RNA synthesis. To determine if PLpro is responsible for processing these products, we cloned and expressed the PLpro domain and the predicted substrates and established PLpro trans-cleavage assays. We found that the PLpro domain is sufficient for processing the predicted nsp1/2 and nsp2/3 sites. Interestingly, expression of an extended region of PLpro that includes the downstream hydrophobic domain was required for processing at the predicted nsp3/4 site. We found that the hydrophobic domain is inserted into membranes and that the lumenal domain is glycosylated at asparagine residues 2249 and 2252. Thus, the hydrophobic domain may anchor the replication complex to intracellular membranes. These studies revealed that PLpro can cleave in trans at the three predicted cleavage sites and that it requires membrane association to process the nsp3/4 cleavage site.     

Self-assembly of amphipathic β-sheet peptides: insights and applications

Amphipathic peptides composed of alternating polar and nonpolar residues have a strong tendency to self-assemble into one-dimensional, amyloid-like fibril structures. Fibrils derived from peptides of general (XZXZ)(n) sequence in which X is hydrophobic and Z is hydrophilic adopt a putative β-sheet bilayer. The bilayer configuration allows burial of the hydrophobic X side chain groups in the core of the fibril and leaves the polar Z side chains exposed to solvent. This architectural arrangement provides fibrils that maintain high solubility in water and has facilitated the recent exploitation of self-assembled amphipathic peptide fibrils as functional biomaterials. This article is a critical review of the development and application of self-assembling amphipathic peptides with a focus on the fundamental insight these types of peptides provide into peptide self-assembly phenomena.     

Mechanical Properties of Thermo-moulded Biofilms in Relation to Proteins/Starch Interactions

The effects of hydrophilic and hydrophobic characteristics of proteins on the interactions with corn starch were investigated in this study. The model system included corn starch and proteins, i.e. zein, gliadin, gluten, soy protein and rapeseed protein. The blend films were prepared by thermo-moulding in gentle conditions at 70 °C in order to avoid starch gelatinization, with respect to water content, and avoid protein denaturation. The effects of different kinds of proteins on structure and mechanical behaviour of blend biomaterials were characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and tensile test, respectively. The effects of different kinds of proteins on intermolecular interactions between proteins and starch were investigated by dynamical mechanical thermal analysis. Based on the solubility measurement results, almost all protein films showed the similar solubility to the natural protein powders, resulting from the weak influence of mild thermo-moulding treatment on protein inner structure. Different morphologies were observed for different proteins and corresponding blends, which are relatively loose protein architecture that appeared for hydrophobic protein and blend films, and uniform and densely packed architecture for hydrophilic ones. Moreover, different mechanical behaviours were obtained for different proteins and corresponding blends. No significantly increased strength for hydrophilic protein blends with starch added can be explained that there is weak intermolecular interaction between both components based on SEM observation. However, the addition of corn starch granules in hydrophobic protein networks was assumed that starch destroyed or weakened the protein network, resulting in the decrease of mechanical strength.     

Mutagenesis of the yellow fever virus NS2B protein: effects on proteolytic processing, NS2B-NS3 complex formation, and viral replication.

To study the role of specific regions of the yellow fever virus NS2B protein in proteolytic processing and association with the NS3 proteinase domain, a series of mutations were created in the hydrophobic regions and in a central conserved hydrophilic region proposed as a domain important for NS2B function. The effects of these mutations on cis cleavage at the 2B/3 cleavage site and on processing at other consensus cleavage sites for the NS3 proteinase in the nonstructural region were then characterized by cell-free translation and transient expression in BHK cells. Association between NS2B and the NS3 proteinase domain and the effects of mutations on complex formation were investigated by nondenaturing immunoprecipitation of these proteins expressed in infected cells, by cell-free translation, or by recombinant vaccinia viruses. Mutations within the hydrophobic regions had subtle effects on proteolytic processing, whereas mutations within the conserved domain dramatically reduced cleavage efficiency or abolished all cleavages. The conserved domain of NS2B is also implicated in formation of an NS2B-NS3 complex on the basis of the ability of mutations in this region to eliminate both association of these two proteins and trans-cleavage activity. In addition, mutations which either eliminated proteolytic processing or had no apparent effect on processing were found to abolish recovery of infectious virus following RNA transfection. These results suggest that the conserved region of NS2B is a domain essential for the function of the NS3 proteinase. Hydrophobic regions of NS2B whose structural integrity may not be essential for proteolytic processing may have additional functions during viral replication.