Folding in vitro of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor in the presence of proteins of the endoplasmic reticulum.

The rates of folding and disulfide bond formation in reduced BPTI were measured in vitro in the presence and absence of total protein from the endoplasmic reticulum. The rates were increased substantially by the endoplasmic reticulum proteins, but only to the extent expected from the known content and activity of protein-disulfide-isomerase. No effects of added ATP or Ca2+ were observed, even though protein-disulfide-isomerase binds Ca2+ tightly.     

Disulfide bonds and the stability of globular proteins.

An understanding of the forces that contribute to stability is pivotal in solving the protein-folding problem. Classical theory suggests that disulfide bonds stabilize proteins by reducing the entropy of the denatured state. More recent theories have attempted to expand this idea, suggesting that in addition to configurational entropic effects, enthalpic and native-state effects occur and cannot be neglected. Experimental thermodynamic evidence is examined from two sources: (1) the disruption of naturally occurring disulfides, and (2) the insertion of novel disulfides. The data confirm that enthalpic and native-state effects are often significant. The experimental changes in free energy are compared to those predicted by different theories. The differences between theory and experiment are large near 300 K and do not lend support to any of the current theories regarding the stabilization of proteins by disulfide bonds. This observation is a result of not only deficiencies in the theoretical models but also from difficulties in determining the effects of disulfide bonds on protein stability against the backdrop of numerous subtle stabilizing factors (in both the native and denatured states), which they may also affect.     

Probing protein folding and stability using disulfide bonds

Disulfide bonds are required to stabilize the folded conformations of many proteins. The rates and equilibria of processes involved in disulfide bond formation and breakage can be manipulated experimentally and can be used to obtain important information about protein folding and stability. A number of experimental procedures for studying these processes, and approaches to interpreting the resulting data, are described here.     

Further experimental studies of the disulfide folding transition of ribonuclease A

Two very different mechanisms of folding have been proposed from experimental studies of disulfide formation in reduced ribonuclease A. (1) A pathway in which the rate-limiting step separates fully folded protein from all other disulfide intermediates and occurs solely in three-disulfide intermediates. (2) A multiple pathway mechanism with different rate-limiting steps for each pathway. The various rate-limiting steps involve disulfide breakage, formation, and rearrangement in intermediates with one, two, three, and four protein disulfides. To distinguish between these two mechanisms, we have carried out further studies of both unfolding and refolding. Refolding of reduced ribonuclease A requires three-disulfide intermediates to accumulate; negligible refolding occurs when only the nearly random one- and two-disulfide intermediate species are populated. Therefore, no rate-limiting steps of the type postulated in mechanism (2) occur in intermediates with one and two protein disulfides. Unfolding and disulfide reduction is an all-or-none process; no disulfide intermediates accumulate to detectable levels or precede the rate-limiting step. Mechanism (2) requires that such intermediates precede the rate-limiting step and accumulate to substantial levels. The different proposals were shown not to result from the use of different solution conditions or disulfide reagents; the two sets of data are not inconsistent. Instead, the inappropriate mechanism (2) resulted from an incorrect kinetic analysis and misinterpretation of the kinetics of disulfide formation and breakage.     

Effect of protein conformation on rate of deamidation: ribonuclease A

The effect of the folded conformation of a protein on the rate of deamidation of a specific asparaginyl residue has been determined. Native and unfolded ribonuclease A (RNase A) could be compared under identical conditions, because stable unfolded protein was generated by breaking irreversibly the protein disulfide bonds. Deamidation of the labile Asn-67 residue of RNase A was followed electrophoretically and chromatographically. At 80 degrees C, similar rates of deamidation were observed for the disulfide-bonded form, which is thermally unfolded, and the reduced form. At 37 degrees C and pH 8, however, the rate of deamidation of native RNase A was negligible, and was more than 30-fold slower than that of reduced, unfolded RNase A. This demonstrates that the Asn-67 residue is located in a local conformation in the native protein that greatly inhibits deamidation. This conformation is the beta-turn of residues 66-68.     

The contribution of cross-links to protein stability: A normal mode analysis of the configurational entropy of the native state

The vibrational entropy of native BPTI, with three disulfide bonds, was determined by use of normal mode calculations and compared with that of folded variants having either one less disulfide bond or lacking a peptide bond at the trypsin-reactive site. Favorable contributions to the free energy of 2.5–5.1 kcal/mol at 300 K were calculated for the reduction of disulfide bonds in the folded state, whereas no favorable contribution was found for the hydrolysis of the peptide bond cleaved by trypsin. This is on the order of the effect of disulfides in the unfolded state. The implications of these results for the stabilization of a folded protein by the introduction of crosslinks are discussed. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Structural change and receptor binding in a chemokine mutant with a rearranged disulfide: X-ray structure of e38C/C50A IL-8 at 2 Å resolution

The characteristic CXC chemokine disulfide core of interleukin-8 (IL-8) has been rearranged in a variant replacing the 9—50 disulfide with a 9—38 disulfide. The new variant has been characterized by its binding affinity to IL-8 receptors A and B and the erythrocyte receptor DARC. This variant binds the three receptors with affinities between 500- and 2,500-fold lower than wild-type IL-8. Binding affinity results are also reported for the variant with alanine substituted for both cysteines 9 and 50. The Glu38 → Cys/Cys50 → Ala IL-8 crystallizes in space group P2₁2₁2₁ with cell parameters a = 46.4, b = 49.2, and c = 69.5 Å, and has been refined to an R-value of 19.4% for data from 10 to 2 Å resolution. Analysis of the structure confirms the new disulfide arrangement and suggests that changes at Ile10 may be the principal cause of the lowered affinities. © 1997 Wiley-Liss Inc.     

Human Eosinophil Major Basic Protein 2: Location of Disulfide Bonds and Free Sulfhydryl Groups

Eosinophil granule major basic protein 2 (MBP2 or major basic protein homolog) is a paralog of major basic protein (MBP1) and, similar to MBP1, is cytotoxic and cytostimulatory in vitro. MBP2, a small protein of 13,433 Da molecular weight, contains 10 cysteine residues. Mass spectrometry shows two cystine disulfide linkages (Cys²⁰–Cys¹¹⁵ and Cys⁹²–Cys¹⁰⁷) and 6 cysteine residues with free sulfhydryl groups (Cys², Cys²³, Cys⁴², Cys⁴³, Cys⁶⁸, and Cys⁹⁶). MBP2, similar to MBP1, has conserved motifs in common with C-type lectins. The disulfide bond locations are conserved among human MBP1, MBP2 and C-type lectins.     

NMR structure of a variant human prion protein with two disulfide bridges

The nuclear magnetic resonance structure of the globular domain with residues 121-230 of a variant human prion protein with two disulfide bonds, hPrP(M166C/E221C), shows the same global fold as wild-type hPrP(121-230). It contains three alpha-helices of residues 144-154, 173-194 and 200-228, an anti-parallel beta-sheet of residues 128-131 and 161-164, and the disulfides Cys166-Cys221 and Cys179-Cys214. The engineered extra disulfide bond in the presumed "protein X"-binding site is accommodated with slight, strictly localized conformational changes. High compatibility of hPrP with insertion of a second disulfide bridge in the protein X epitope was further substantiated by model calculations with additional variant structures. The ease with which the hPrP structure can accommodate a variety of locations for a second disulfide bond within the presumed protein X-binding epitope suggests a functional role for the extensive perturbation by a natural second disulfide bond of the corresponding region in the human doppel protein.     

Effect of oxidative sulfitolysis of disulfide bonds of bovine serum albumin on its structural properties: A physicochemical study

The effect of S-S bond cleavage of bovine serum albumin (BSA) on some of its structural properties, including solubility, viscosity, and conformation, were investigated. Cleavage of S-S bonds decreased the solubility of serum albumin and also shifted its isoelectric point to lowerpH values. S-S bond cleavage resulted in changes in shape and hydrodynamic volume of the protein, increasing the specific viscosity, with cleavage of up to 14 S-S bonds, followed by a decrease with further cleavage. Both UV difference and fluorescence spectral measurements indicated that conformational flexibility increases with S-S bond cleavage. Secondary structure estimations by far UV-CD suggested a gradual decrease in -helical content of the protein with progressive cleavage of its S-S bonds. However, fully S-S bond cleaved protein maintained some -helical structure. Sulfitolysis of the protein also decreased its I, 8-anilino-naphthalene sulfonate-binding ability.     

大肠杆菌二氢叶酸还原酶基因folA的克隆、表达纯化及分子间交联

利用PCR技术从大肠杆菌DH5α中获取二氢叶酸还原酶(DHFR)基因folA。用限制性内切酶BamHI与PstI将该片段插入到克隆载体pUC18上,DNA测序鉴定目的基因。而后再将该基因亚克隆到表达载体pTrcHisC上,IPTG诱导表达重组蛋白。在非变性条件下,用TALON金属亲和层析树脂纯化含组氨酸标记的重组DHFR。纯化产物在热诱导条件下行SDSPAGE分析,除23000大小的单体外,还出现了交联的二聚体和多聚体;而当反应体系中含有还原剂β-巯基乙醇时,二聚体和多聚体都被减弱。推断蛋白质在热诱导条件下二级结构发生改变而产生交联,并且有二硫键的参与。