Isosteric and non-isosteric modification of carboxyl groups of papain

Guanidinated mercuri-papain (Gu-papain) was reacted with N-ethylbenzisoxazolium tetrafluoroborate at pH 4.2, 0 degree C, to yield highly reactive N-ethylsalicylamide esters. On varying the amount of reagent applied 2.5-10 carboxyl groups were modified. Appropriate plotting of the data indicated that all 12 groups exposed in the X-ray structure were modified to an extent of 80% in the final preparation, concomitant with a similar loss of activity towards N alpha-benzoyl-L-arginine ethyl ester. The preparations regained complete activity on saponification of the ester groups and removal of some oligomeric material by gel filtration. Considerable activity was recovered when the ester groups were completely replaced by amide groups by subjecting the esters to ammonolysis in 2 M ammonium acetate/ammonia (pH 9.2). The final preparation, after gel filtration, exhibited Km = 57 +/- 1 mM and kcat = 26 +/- 0.2 s-1 towards BAEE (native papain Km = 18 mM and kcat = 26 s-1). It may be concluded that replacement of a bulky modifying group by an isosteric one may cause considerable recovery of activity, emphasizing the importance of isostericity in suppressing the ionizing ability of ionizable groups; furthermore, that a large shift in overall charge, caused by amidation of all accessible carboxyl groups, does not affect the catalytic steps. The absence of effect of side-chain charges on the ion pair in the active site is briefly discussed.     

Acid-catalyzed esterification of lysozyme in methanol. Reactivities of individual carboxyl groups

Rats maintained on a diet low in phosphorus produce 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ from 25-hydroxyvitamin D₃ whether they have been thyroparathyroidectomized or not. On the other hand, rats maintained on low-calcium diets produce 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃, but lose this ability within 48 hr after thyroparathyroidectomy. This loss of ability to synthesize 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ can be prevented or be restored by replacing their drinking water with calcium gluconate-glucose solution which returns their high serum inorganic phosphorus to normal levels. In thyroparathyroidectomized rats under a variety of conditions, the ability to synthesize 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ correlates with serum inorganic phosphorus values below 7–8 mg/100 ml while the ability to synthesize 24,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ correlates with serum phosphorus values above 7–8 mg/100 ml. There is in addition a close correlation between reduced kidney cortex inorganic phosphorus levels and the synthesis of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃. It is suggested that the renal tubular cell inorganic phosphorus level underlies the regulation of synthesis of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ in the kidney and that the parathyroid hormone and calcitonin regulate 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D₃ synthesis via their effects on renal cell inorganic phosphorus levels.     

Sulfanilation of lysozyme by carbodiimide reaction. Reactivities of individual carboxyl groups

The carboxyl groups of lysozyme were coupled with sulfanilic acid, a chromophoric nucleophile, using 1-ethyl-3-dimethylaminopropylcarbodiimide at pH 5. Other carbodiimides were less effective. Ninety percent of the carboxyl groups were sulfanilated through exhaustive reaction with 1.2 m nucleophile. Isolation and identification of the tryptic peptides from this material showed that all 10 of the carboxyls of lysozyme had reacted. In 0.05 m sulfanilic, Glu-35 and Asp-101 were most reactive while Glu-7, Asp-18, and Asp-66 were least. Change to high concentration of nucleophile (from 0.05 to 1.2 m sulfanilic) altered carboxyl reactivity. Addition of inhibitor reduced reactivity of Asp-101 and Glu-35. Side reactions were not important.     

Chemical mutations of the catalytic carboxyl groups in lysozyme to the corresponding amides

In a two-step process, esterification and ammonolysis, Glu-35 and Asp-52 in lysozyme were amidated to glutamine and asparagine residues. Since the side chains of glutamine and asparagine are almost equal in size to those of glutamic acid and aspartic acid, these conversions would provide appropriate derivatives to elucidate the catalytic participations of these residues. The enzymatic activities of the resulting [Gln35]lysozyme and [Asn52]lysozyme were found to be less than 4% of that of native lysozyme in a pH range of 3.4-8.0. As these derivatives were inactive, we could determine the dissociation constants (Ks values) for the binding of beta-1,4-linked n-mer, a hexasaccharide of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, to [Gln35]lysozyme and [Asn52] lysozyme. The values of Ks at pH 5.5 and 40 degrees C were 1.6 X 10(-5) M for [Gln35]lysozyme and 2.7 X 10(-5) M for [Asn52]lysozyme. These values are similar to that for native lysozyme. The results are direct proof for the involvements of Glu35 and Asp52 in the catalytic action of lysozyme. A method for ammonolysis of ester groups in proteins in liquid ammonia is described and will be useful for amidation of carboxyl groups of proteins.     

The conversion of tubulin carboxyl groups to amides has a stabilizing effect on microtubules.

In a recent study, we demonstrated that the conversion of carboxyl residues in the C-termini of tubulin to neutral amides with glycine ethyl ester enhanced the ability of the protein to assemble into microtubules and decreased its interaction with microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs). In this work, we investigated the effects of carboxyl modification on the dynamic behavior of microtubules at polymer mass steady state. After steady state, microtubules assembled from unmodified tubulin were sheared, and the mean polymer lengths decreased to 5 microns and then increased to 29 microns within 130 min. In contrast, lengths of sheared microtubules polymerized from tubulin containing 23 modified carboxyl groups increased by only 2-fold. Stabilization of polymer lengths was also observed directly by video-enhanced light microscopy of microtubules grown off of axonemes. Rapid shortening was seen in microtubules composed of unmodified but not modified tubulin. Further evidence for the less dynamic behavior of microtubules as a result of carboxyl modification was obtained from kinetic studies of the elongation phase during assembly which showed a 3-fold lower off-rate constant, k-, for modified microtubules. Another effect of the modification was a 12-fold reduction in the steady-state rate constant for GTP hydrolysis (165 s-1 for unmodified and 14 s-1 for modified). These results suggest that reduction of the negative charges in the C-termini by modification of the acidic residues stabilizes microtubules against depolymerization. MAPs may stabilize microtubules in an analogous manner.     

Enzymic and immunochemical properties of lysozyme. X. Conformation, enzymic activity and immunochemistry of lysozyme reduced at two carboxyl groups.

Reduction of lysozyme by diborane, followed by air oxidation of the reduced disulfides and chromatography on CM-cellulose, yielded a homogeneous derivative. In the derivative, the carboxyl groups of aspartic acid 119 and the end-chain leucine residue were reduced to their corresponding alcohols. Correct re-forming of the disulfide bonds was demonstrated by peptide mapping of the tryptic hydrolysates of the derivative and lysozyme without breaking the disulfide bonds, followed by identification of the disulfide-containing peptides. Correct disulfide pairing in the two-disulfide peptide in the tryptic hydrolysate was established from its immunochemical behavior. Preparations of the two-disulfide fragment from lysozyme and derivative had equal inhibitory activities (26 or 32%) of the reaction of lysozyme with two homologous antisera. In ORD measurements, lysozyme and the derivative had equal rotatory powers at neutral pH. However, the bo value for the derivative decreased by about 10%. Below pH 6.4 and above pH 8.0, the derivative was less rotatory than native lysozyme. In CD measurements at neutral pH, the negative ellipticity bands at 220 and 208 nm showed little or no decrease in the derivative relative to the native protein. Although conformational differences between the derivative and its parent protein were almost undetectable by ORD and CD measurements, they were readily detected by chemical monitoring of the conformation. In the derivative, both accessibility to tryptic hydrolysis and reducibility of the disulfide bonds increased markedly. The enzymic activity of the derivative was decreased but retained the same pH optimum. With antisera to lysozyme or antisera to the derivative, lysozyme and its derivative possessed equal antigenic reactivities. The immunochemical findings further confirm the correct refolding of the disulfides. Also, they indicate that aspartic acid 119 and the C-terminal leucine residue are not part of an antigenic reactive region in lysozyme.     

Characterization and determination of titratable groups of proteins by linearization of titration curves. II. Application to lysozyme

The potentiometric acid-base titration curve of fully protonated lysozyme at ionic strengths of 0.10 and 1.0 m has been performed. The stoichiometry and the pK_a values of each titratable group have been determined through the linearization of titration curves. Two types of carboxylic groups with pK_a values of 3.76 and 5.02, the imidazole group with pK_a 7.37 and the amine group with pK_a 9.63, have been identified at an ionic strength of 0.10 m at 25.0°C. The number of titratable groups found per mole of protein has been 5.12 and 5.60 for the two types of carboxylic groups, 1.13 for the imidazole group, and 3.19 for the amino groups. The endpoint of the titration of the protein obtained by this method accords quite well with the endpoint obtained by the use of Gran function applied to the excess of strong base.     

Normal mode refinement: crystallographic refinement of protein dynamic structure. II. Application to human lysozyme.

The dynamic structure of a protein, human lysozyme, is determined by the normal mode refinement of X-ray crystal structure. This method uses the normal modes of both internal and external motions to distinguish the real internal dynamics from the external terms such as lattice disorder, and gives an anisotropic and concerted picture of atomic fluctuations. The refinement is carried out with diffraction data of 5.0 to 1.8 A resolution, which are collected on an imaging plate. The results of the refinement show: (1) Debye-Waller factor consists of two parts, highly anisotropic internal fluctuations and almost isotropic external terms. The former is smaller than the latter by a factor of 0.72 in the scale of B-factor. Therefore, the internal dynamics cannot be recognized directly from the apparent electron density distribution. (2) The internal fluctuations show basically similar features as those predicted by the normal mode analysis, with almost the same amplitude and a similar level of anisotropy. (3) Correlations of fluctuations are detected between two lobes forming the active site cleft, which move simultaneously in opposite directions. This corresponds to the hinge-bending motion of lysozyme.     

Introduction of sulfhydryl groups into proteins at carboxyl sites

A two-step procedure for introduction of sulfhydryl groups at protein carboxyl groups is described. The resultant proteins contain 2-aminoethanethiol residues bound by amide linkages to the protein carboxyl groups. First an amide bond is formed between a carboxyl group of the protein and one of the amino groups of cystamine. Then the disulfide bond is reduced with dithiothreitol, yielding the amide of 2-aminoethanethiol. This procedure was used to incorporate sulfhydryl groups into carbonic anhydrase and adrenocorticotropic hormone. The effect of carbodiimide concentration and pH of the coupling reaction on stoichiometry of sulfhydryl group incorporation was examined. The method was used to prepare bovine carbonic anhydrase containing up to nine sulfhydryl groups per molecule with no loss of enzymatic activity and biologically active adrenocorticotropic hormone containing one sulfhydryl group per molecule.     

Static and dynamic quenching of protein fluorescence. II. lysozyme.

The fluorescence parameters—lifetime, relative quantum yield, wavelength of maximum fluorescence intensity, half-width, and polarization—of 0.01% lysozyme were measured at 15°C in aqueous solution, in glycerol–water mixtures (0–90% v/v glycerol), in aqueous urea (0–8M) solutions, and in aqueous guanidine hydrochloride (0–6.4M) solutions. The changes in the static and dynamic quenching of lysozyme fluorescence, monitored by the quantum yield and lifetime measurements, were correlated with the other fluorescence parameters and compared with our earlier results with bovine serum albumin. The results were interpreted in terms of induced conformational changes. The various perturbants altered the fluorescence parameters of lysozyme and bovine serum albumin very differently. The differences were shown to be entirely consistent with our earlier conclusion that bovine serum albumin fluorophores are nonsurface residues and with the conclusion of others that lysozyme fluorophores are surface residues. Unlike their effects on bovine serum albumin, urea and guanidine hydrochloride affect lysozyme structure quite differently, both in nature and degree. We have suggested that the affect of urea on lysozyme fluorescence is an indirect result of reduction in the size of the cleft brought about by the structure-breaking action of urea on water in the cleft. 4M Urea is sufficient for this reaction. Large decreases in the polarization of the fluorescence of lysozyme in the 0.8–1.6M and 3.2–4.8M guanidine hydrochloride ranges demonstrated two guanidine hydrochloride-induced conformation changes. A red shift of the fluorescence maximum to 354 nm indicated that the second transition completely exposes all fluorescing tryptophan residues of lysozyme to mobile solvent water. However, even 6.4M guanidine hydrochloride did not completely unravel the lysozyme molecule at 15°C, as evidenced by its failure to cause any of the tyrosine residues to become fluorescent.     

Interaction of metal ions with carboxylic and carboxamide groups in protein structures

An analysis of the geometry of metal binding by carboxylic and carboxamide groups in proteins is presented. Most of the ligands are from aspartic and glutamic acid side chains. Water molecules bound to carboxylate anions are known to interact with oxygen lone-pairs. However, metal ions are also found to approach the carboxylate group along the C-O direction. More metal ions are found to be along the syn than the anti lone-pair direction. This seems to be the result of the stability of the five-membered ring that is formed by the carboxylate anion hydrogen bonded to a ligand water molecule and the metal ion in the syn position. Ligand residues are usually from the helix, turn or regions with no regular secondary structure. Because of the steric interactions associated with bringing all the ligands around a metal center, a calcium ion can bind only near the ends of a helix; a metal, like zinc, with a low coordination number, can bind anywhere in the helix. Based on the analysis of the positions of water molecules in the metal coordination sphere, the sequence of the EF hand (a calcium-binding structure) is discussed.