Characterization of cofactor-dependent and cofactor-independent phosphoglycerate mutases from Archaea

Phosphoglycerate mutases (PGM) catalyze the reversible conversion of 3-phosphoglycerate and 2-phosphoglycerate as part of glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. Two structural and mechanistically unrelated types of PGMs are known, a cofactor (2,3-bisphosphoglycerate)-dependent (dPGM) and a cofactor-independent enzyme (iPGM). Here, we report the characterization of the first archaeal cofactor-dependent PGM from Thermoplasma acidophilum, which is encoded by ORF TA1347. This ORF was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli and the recombinant protein was characterized as functional dPGM. The enzyme constitutes a 46 kDa homodimeric protein. Enzyme activity required 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate as cofactor and was inhibited by vanadate, a specific inhibitor of dPGMs in bacteria and eukarya; inhibition could be partially relieved by EDTA. Histidine 23 of the archaeal dPGM of T. acidophilum, which corresponds to active site histidine in dPGMs from bacteria and eukarya, was exchanged for alanine by site directed mutagenesis. The H23A mutant was catalytically inactive supporting the essential role of H23 in catalysis of the archaeal dPGM. Further, an archaeal cofactor-independent PGM encoded by ORF AF1751 from the hyperthermophilic sulfate reducer Archaeoglobus fulgidus was characterized after expression in E. coli. The monomeric 46 kDa protein showed cofactor-independent PGM activity and was stimulated by Mn²⁺ and exhibited high thermostability up to 70°C. A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of both types of archaeal phosphoglycerate mutases is also presented.     

Large-scale preparation of phosphoglycerate kinase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae using Cibacron Blue-Sepharose 4B pseudoaffinity chromatography.

A reproducible procedure for the large-scale preparation of phosphoglycerate kinase frombaker's yeast is described. This method includes autolysis of dried yeast in 0.75 m ammonia, heat treatment, ammonium sulfate fractionation, ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, Cibacron blue 3 G-A-Sepharose 4B pseudoaffinity chromatography, and Sephadex G-100 gel filtration. Approximately 1.7 g of homogeneous phosphoglycerate kinase can be obtained from 1 kg of air-dried bakers' yeast (yield 52%, specific activity 890 units/mg at 25°C). In a few cases further purification was achieved by reversible salting out on Sepharose CL-4B, hydroxylapatite chromatography, or ATP-Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography. Differences in the preparation of phosphoglycerate kinase from yeast with those from pig liver and pig muscle are discussed, especially concerning the interaction of the three enzymes with the chromophores of Cibacron blue- and dextran blue-Sepharose.     

Purification of cofactor-dependent enzymes by affinity chromatography

Several 8-(6-aminohexyl)-amino adenine nucleotide derivatives, including ATP, 2′,5′-ADP, 3′,5′-ADP and desulfo-CoA (CoA, reduced coenzyme A), were prepared and immobilized on Sepharose by cyanogen bromide activation. 8-(6-Aminohexyl)-amino-ATP-Sepharose was found to exhibit good affinity for both NAD⁺-dependent dehydrogenases and kinases. Sequential biospecific elutions with NADH and ATP resulted in a good separation of dehydrogenases from kinases. As many as eight different dehydrogenases and kinases could be substantially purified from both porcine muscle and mouse kidney extracts by this new procedure. 8-(6-Aminohexyl)-amino-2′,5′-ADP- and −3′,5′-ADP-Sepharose were shown to exhibit good affinity for many NADP⁺-dependent dehydrogenases from yeast extracts and CoA-dependent enzymes, respectively. Purification of citrate synthases from pig heart and Eschericia coli extracts by means of these 8-substituted adenine nucleotide affinity columns was also presented.     

Phylogeny and ontogeny of the phosphoglycerate mutases.--V. Inactivation of phosphoglycerate mutase isozymes by histidine-specific reagents

1. The three isozymes of glycerate-2,3-P2 dependent phosphoglycerate mutase present in tissues of mammals and reptiles were inactivated by both treatment with diethylpyrocarbonate and photooxidation with rose bengal. 2. Inactivation of type M isozyme purified from rabbit muscle was complete when two histidine residues per enzyme subunit were carboethoxylated. Hydroxylamine removed the carboethoxy groups, with partial recovery of the enzymatic activity. The cofactor protected the enzyme against inactivation. 3. The inactivation of rabbit muscle phosphoglycerate mutase by photooxidation with methylene blue and rose bengal was sharply pH dependent. The pH profile of enzyme inactivation followed the titration curve of histidine, suggesting that this amino acid was critical for enzyme activity. Glycerate-2,3-P2 did not protect phosphoglycerate mutase against photoinactivation.     

Isolation of phosphoglycerate kinases by affinity chromatography

A variety of Sepharose derivatives containing DL-O-phosphorylserine or adenosine nucleotides with different points of attachment, has been synthesized and tested for affinity to phosphoglycerate kinase. The most effective gels contained periodate-oxidized ATP or ADP bound via the ribose by hydrazone formation to adipoyl-dihydrazo-Sepharose. The effect of pH, magnesium and buffer ions on the binding capacity of the ATP derivative of Sepharose has been examined. Optimal elution of phosphoglycerate kinase was investigated using different combinations of adenosine nucleotides, 3-phosphogylcerate and magnesium ions. A method is presented giving conditions for the purification of phosphoglycerate kinase from different sources (spinach, human erythrocytes, human, rabbit and trout muscle). It includes extract preparation, affinity chromatography and gel filtration. The method is greatly superior to known isolation procedures by virtue of its technical simplicity, excellent yield (85-100%) and reproducability. The capacity of the ATP-ribosyl-adipoyl-dihydrazo-Sepharose was 5 mg phosphoglycerate kinase per 1 g of matrix. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecylsulfate indicated that the final products are homogeneous. The phosphoglycerate kinases from different sources appear to have the same affinity for this ATP derivative of Sepharose, the same molecular weight and the same specific activity.     

Effect of Cibacron Blue F3GA on phosphoglycerate kinase of Lactobacillus plantarum and phosphoglycerate mutase of Leuconostoc dextranicum

Blue dextran or Cibacron Blue F3GA has been shown to inhibit yeast phosphoglycerate kinase [EC 2.7.2.3] competitively with respect to ATP (Thompson et al. (1975) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S. 72, 663--667; Beissner and Rudolph (1979) J. Biol. Chem. 254, 6273--6277). However, we have found that phosphoglycerate kinase of Lactobacillus plantarum was inhibited by Cibacron Blue F3GA, the blue chromophore of blue dextran, noncompetitively with respect to ATP, but competitively with respect to 3-phosphoglycerate. Further inhibition studies with Cibacron Blue F3GA suggest that one molecule of the dye was bound per molecule of phosphoglycerate kinase at a saturated level of either substrate, but two molecules of the dye were bound per molecule of the kinase with an unsaturated level of either substrate used as a fixed substrate. Furthermore, phosphoglycerate mutase [EC 2.7.5.3] of Leuconostoc dextranicum was also inhibited by Cibacron Blue F3GA competitively with respect to 3-phosphoglycerate and noncompetitively with respect to 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate. These results suggest that the 3-phosphoglycerate-binding site on both phosphoglycerate kinase and phosphoglycerate mutase can interact with Cibacron Blue F3GA.     

Phylogeny and ontogeny of the phosphoglycerate mutases - III. Inactivation of rabbit muscle phosphoglycerate mutase (type M isozyme) by the sulfhydryl group reagents

1. The three phosphoglycerate mutase isozymes from mammals (types M, B and MB isozymes) differ in their sensitivity to the - SH group reagents. 2. Rabbit muscle phosphoglycerate mutase (type M isozyme) is reversibly inactivated by tetrathionate, rho-chloromercuribenzoate and Hg2+. 3. Titration with rho-chloromercuribenzoate shows the existence of two sulfhydryl groups per enzyme subunit, the modification of which produces a progressive decline in enzyme activity. 4. The apparent Km values for substrate and cofactor are not affected by tetrathionate treatment. 5. Phosphoglycerate mutase inactivated by tetrathionate and by rho-chloromercuribenzoate is unable to form the functionally active phosphorylenzyme when mixed with glycerate-2,3-P2, and is not protected by the cofactor against heating. 6. Glycerate-2,3-P2 protects against tetrathionate treatment, but fails to protect against Hg2+ and rho-chloromercuribenzoate inactivation.     

Purification of human alpha-2-macroglobulin by chromatography on Cibacron Blue Sepharose.

A simple and efficient procedure has been devised for the isolation of α-2-macroglobulin from human plasma (type 1-1 haptoglobulin). The primary step is gel filtration and affinity chromatography on Cibacron Blue Sepharose, which selectively removes albumin and retards lipoproteins and γ-globulin, while effecting the molecular sieving of the remainder of the plasma proteins. This results in the separation of about 40% of the α-2-macroglobulin as a homogeneous component. A second step, gel filtration on Ultrogel AcA 22, may be utilized to separate α-2-macroglobulin in contaminated fractions obtained after Cibacron Blue Sepharose chromatography.     

Mechanistic implications for Escherichia coli cofactor-dependent phosphoglycerate mutase based on the high-resolution crystal structure of a vanadate complex

The structure of Escherichia coli cofactor-dependent phosphoglycerate mutase (dPGM), complexed with the potent inhibitor vanadate, has been determined to a resolution of 1.30 A (R-factor 0.159; R-free 0.213). The inhibitor is present in the active site, principally as divanadate, but with evidence of additional vanadate moieties at either end, and representing a different binding mode to that observed in the structural homologue prostatic acid phosphatase. The analysis reveals the enzyme-ligand interactions involved in inhibition of the mutase activity by vanadate and identifies a water molecule, observed in the native E.coli dPGM structure which, once activated by vanadate, may dephosphorylate the active protein. Rather than reflecting the active conformation previously observed for E.coli dPGM, the inhibited protein's conformation resembles that of the inactive dephosphorylated Saccharomyces cerevisiae dPGM. The provision of a high-resolution structure of both active and inactive forms of dPGM from a single organism, in conjunction with computational modelling of substrate molecules in the active site provides insight into the binding of substrates and the specific interactions necessary for three different activities, mutase, synthase and phosphatase, within a single active site. The sequence similarity of E.coli and human dPGMs allows us to correlate structure with clinical pathology.     

Rapid large-scale purification of pig heart nucleoside diphosphate kinase by affinity chromatography on Cibacron Blue 3G-A Sepharose

A rapid procedure for the large-scale purification of pig heart nucleoside diphosphate kinase is described. The purification procedure involves extraction of the enzyme, absorption on cibacron Blue 3G-A Sepharose, elution with ATP, ammonium sulfate precipitation, heat treatment, and rechromatography on Cibacron Blue 3G-A Sepharose. Typically, 10–12 mg of pure nucleoside diphosphate kinase is obtained from 1 kg of heart muscle (50% yield), with a purification factor of 1200 over the extract. The specific activity is 1500 units/mg at 25°C with 8-bromoinosine 5′-diphosphate as acceptor nucleotide. This method may be easily scaled up.     

Human serum albumin chromatography by Cibacron Blue F3GA-derived microporous polyamide hollow-fiber affinity membranes

An affinity dye ligand, Cibacron Blue F3GA was covalently attached onto commercially available microporous polyamide hollow-fibre membranes for human serum albumin (HSA) adsorption from both aqueous solutions and human plasma. Different amounts of Cibacron Blue F3GA were incorporated on the polyamide hollow-fibres by changing the dye attachment conditions, i.e. initial dye concentration, addition of sodium carbonate and sodium chloride. The maximum amount of Cibacron Blue F3GA attachment was obtained at 42.5 μmol g⁻¹ when the hollow-fibres were treated with 3 M HCl for 30 min before performing the dye attachment. HSA adsorption onto unmodified and Cibacron Blue F3GA-derived polyamide hollow-fibre membranes was investigated batchwise. The non-specific adsorption of HSA was very low (6.0 mg g⁻¹ hollow-fibre). Cibacron Blue F3GA attachment onto the hollow-fibres significantly increased the HSA adsorption (147 mg g⁻¹ hollow-fibre). The maximum HSA adsorption was observed at pH 5.0. Higher HSA adsorption was observed from human plasma (230 mg HSA g⁻¹ hollow-fibre). Desorption of HSA from Cibacron Blue F3GA derived hollow-fibres was obtained using 0.1 M Tris–HCl buffer containing 0.5 M NaSCN or 1.0 M NaCl. High desorption ratios (up to 98% of the adsorbed HSA) were observed. It was possible to reuse Cibacron Blue F3GA derived polyamide hollow-fibre without significant decreases in the adsorption capacities.     

Effect of albumin on binding and recovery of enzymes in affinity chromatography on Cibacron Blue

Bovine serum albumin appears to improve the specificity of Cibacron Blue F3GA in affinity chromatography of enzymes which interact with nucleotides. The action of bovine serum albumin may rest in its ability to selectively mask affinity sites in the dye, which are not specific for the nucleotide-binding region of the enzyme, while not seriously impairing binding nor its elution by nucleotides. Thus, the elution of Chlorella nitrate reductase from a Blue Sepharose chromatographic column by its coenzyme, NADH, fails, unless the column is first treated with bovine serum albumin. Such treatment also improves the recovery of some other nucleotide-binding enzymes tested.     

Characterization of fragments of human albumin purified by Cibacron blue F3GA affinity chromatography.

Controlled limited proteolysis of human plasma albumin (0.3 mM; 37 degrees C; 15 min; pH 3.7) with pepsin [pepsin/albumin, 1:1000 (w/w)] in the presence of octanoic acid (4.2 mM) yields at least 14 fragments in the range of 5000--56000 Da. By utilizing a combination of conventional and affinity-chromatographic procedures, two fragments with mol. wts. 25000 and 27000 were purified to more than 99% homogeneity. The larger fragment consists of a continuous polypeptide chain and has been shown to contain the primary bilirubin-binding site. The small fragment contains an internal cleavage site. On the basis of amino acid compositions, N-terminal sequences, C-terminal sequences, molecular weights and other internal markers the locations of these fragments within the known sequence of human albumin were determined to be residues 49--308 for the 27000 Da peptide and 309--585 for the 25000 Da peptide. Peptide 309--585 contains an internal cleavage site and appears to be missing residues 408--423. These non-overlapping fragments should be useful for investigations of individual ligand-binding sites and for the determination of antigenic sites.     

Distinction between cold-sensitive and -tolerant jute by DNA polymorphisms

Jute is the principal coarse fiber for commercial production and use in Bangladesh. Therefore, the development of a high-yielding and environmental-stress tolerant jute variety would be beneficial for the agro economy of Bangladesh. Two molecular fingerprinting techniques, random-amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and amplified-fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) were applied on six jute samples. Two of them were cold-sensitive varieties and the remaining four were cold-tolerant accessions. RAPD and AFLP fingerprints were employed to generate polymorphism between the cold-sensitive varieties and cold-tolerant accessions because of their simplicity, and also because there is no available sequence information on jute. RAPD data were obtained by using 30 arbitrary oligonucleotide primers. Five primers were found to give polymorphism between the varieties that were tested. AFLP fingerprints were generated using 25 combinations of selective-amplification primers. Eight primer combinations gave the best results with 93 polymorphic fragments, and they were able to discriminate the two cold-sensitive and four cold-tolerant jute populations. A cluster analysis, based on the RAPD and AFLP fingerprint data, showed the population-specific grouping of individuals. This information could be useful later in marker-aided selection between the cold-sensitive varieties and cold-tolerant jute accessions.     

Affinity chromatography of serine proteases on the triazine dye ligand Cibacron Blue F3G-A

The interaction between complement component factor B and the triazine dye ligand Cibacron Blue F3G-A coupled to a cross-linked agarose matrix (Blue Sepharose) was found to involve the Bb part of the molecule, and to be inhibited by benzamidine. Human, chicken and rainbow trout factor B which had bound to Blue Sepharose could subsequently be eluted with benzamidine. Other serine proteases (C2, factor II, factor IX, trypsin, chymotrypsin, proteinase 3) also bound to Blue Sepharose but only those belonging to the trypsin family could be eluted with benzamidine. Trypsin treated with the active-site inhibitor phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride did not bind to Blue Sepharose and pretreatment of Blue Sepharose with benzamidine did not influence binding of proteases. We conclude that trypsin-like serine proteases can be purified on Blue Sepharose and that the interaction of these serine proteases with Blue Sepharose involves the active site of the enzyme.     

Preparation of human alpha-2-macroglobulin by chromatography on Cibacron Blue Sepharose in the presence of pregnancy- associated alpha-2-glycoprotein

The simple and efficient procedure for the isolation of alpha-2-macroglobulin (alpha-2-M) from human sera (hp-type 1-1) by means of affinity chromatography on Cibacron Blue Sepharose is not convenient to separate it from pregnancy-associated alpha-2-glycoprotein (alpha-2-PAG) which is present in high amounts in sera of estrogen-treated women, at pregnancy, and under other conditions. With this method both proteins are eluted in the same fractions; gel filtration of these fractions does not lead to their separation. Therefore, the use of male sera (tesed by monospecific antisera to alpha-2-PAG) with low alpha-2-PAG, content (hp-type 1-1) is recommended for alpha-2-M preparation.