Polarization-modulated infrared spectroscopy and x-ray reflectivity of photosystem II core complex at the gas-water interface.

The state of photosystem II core complex (PS II CC) in monolayer at the gas-water interface was investigated using in situ polarization-modulated infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy and x-ray reflectivity techniques. Two approaches for preparing and manipulating the monolayers were examined and compared. In the first, PS II CC was compressed immediately after spreading at an initial surface pressure of 5.7 mN/m, whereas in the second, the monolayer was incubated for 30 min at an initial surface pressure of 0.6 mN/m before compression. In the first approach, the protein complex maintained its native alpha-helical conformation upon compression, and the secondary structure of PS II CC was found to be stable for 2 h. The second approach resulted in films showing stable surface pressure below 30 mN/m and the presence of large amounts of beta-sheets, which indicated denaturation of PS II CC. Above 30 mN/m, those films suffered surface pressure instability, which had to be compensated by continuous compression. This instability was correlated with the formation of new alpha-helices in the film. Measurements at 4 degreesC strongly reduced denaturation of PS II CC. The x-ray reflectivity studies indicated that the spread film consists of a single protein layer at the gas-water interface. Altogether, this study provides direct structural and molecular information on membrane proteins when spread in monolayers at the gas-water interface.     

Surface properties of Helicobacter pylori urease complex are essential for persistence

The enzymatic activity of Helicobacter pylori's urease neutralises stomach acidity, thereby promoting infection by this pathogen. Urease protein has also been found to interact with host cells in vitro, although this property's possible functional importance has not been studied in vivo. To test for a role of the urease surface in the host/pathogen interaction, surface exposed loops that display high thermal mobility were targeted for inframe insertion mutagenesis. H. pylori expressing urease with insertions at four of eight sites tested retained urease activity, which in three cases was at least as stable as was wild-type urease at pH 3. Bacteria expressing one of these four mutant ureases, however, failed to colonise mice for even two weeks, and a second had reduced bacterial titres after longer term (3 to 6 months) colonisation. These results indicate that a discrete surface of the urease complex is important for H. pylori persistence during gastric colonisation. We propose that this surface interacts directly with host components important for the host-pathogen interaction, immune modulation or other actions that underlie H. pylori persistence in its special gastric mucosal niche.     

Effect of Acetylation of Ovalbumin on Its Adsorption Behavior at Solid/Liquid Interface

This paper reports the effect of modification of lysine residues on the adsorption of ovalbumin at alumina/water interface. It has been shown that the pH dependence of the adsorption changes on acetylation of lysine. Thus at pH 7.6 acetylated ovalbumin does not show any affinity for alumina surface although unmodified protein does. It seems that although electrostatic interactions are operative, surface unfolding of proteins and surface hydrophobicity of protein also control the adsorption of ovalbumin onto alumina.     

Packing of ganglioside-phospholipid monolayers: an x-ray diffraction and reflectivity study

Using synchrotron grazing-incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXD) and reflectivity, the in-plane and out-of-plane structure of mixed ganglioside-phospholipid monolayers was investigated at the air-water interface. Mixed monolayers of 0, 5, 10, 20, and 100 mol% ganglioside GM(1) and the phospholipid dipalmitoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DPPE) were studied in the solid phase at 23 degrees C and a surface pressure of 45 mN/m. At these concentrations and conditions the two components do not phase-separate and no evidence for domain formation was observed. X-ray scattering measurements reveal that GM(1) is accommodated within the host DPPE monolayer and does not distort the hexagonal in-plane unit cell or out-of-plane two-dimensional (2-D) packing compared with a pure DPPE monolayer. The oligosaccharide headgroups were found to extend normally from the monolayer surface, and the incorporation of these glycolipids into DPPE monolayers did not affect hydrocarbon tail packing (fluidization or condensation of the hydrocarbon region). This is in contrast to previous investigations of lipopolymer-lipid mixtures, where the packing structure of phospholipid monolayers was greatly altered by the inclusion of lipids bearing hydrophilic polymer groups. Indeed, the lack of packing disruptions by the oligosaccharide groups indicates that protein-GM(1) interactions, including binding, insertion, chain fluidization, and domain formation (lipid rafts), can be studied in 2-D monolayers using scattering techniques.     

Towards understanding structure-stability and surface properties of laminin peptide YIGSR and mutants

Properties of laminin peptide YIGSR and its mutated sequences YIGSD, YIGSS, YIGSN and YIGSQ have been investigated using molecular dynamics simulations (MDS) and Langmuir films at air/water interface. Simulation studies on laminin peptide YIGSR were performed in the isothermal-isobaric (N, P, T) ensemble, with run up to 5 ns in water as well as lipid environment at 298 K. From different initial configurations, shape transformations of the peptides on the timescale of nanoseconds were observed. The results showed YIGSR to be the most stable peptide with the order of minimized energy being YIGSR相似文献   

Study of immobilization and properties of urease for creation of a biosensor based on semiconductor structures]

Many-sided investigations of urease immobilization methods were carried out to create the biosensor devices on the base of semiconductor structures. Special attention was concentrated on the biomembrane formation by means of urease and bovine serum albumin (BSA) cross-linking by gaseous glutaraldehyde. Optimal conditions for the formation process were selected which preserve about 20% of total urease activity after the cross-linking. The properties of enzyme immobilized by the above-mentioned method have been comprehensively studied. They included the urease activity dependence on pH, ionic strength, incubation buffer capacity as well as the enzyme stability during its functioning, storing and thermoinactivation. As was shown, for immobilized ureas Km value for urea at pH 7.0 and 20 degrees C is 1.65 time less than for free enzyme. In the presence of EDTA (1 mM) the enzyme activity in the biomembrane is practically unchanged under a month storing. Biomembrane possesses good adhesion to silicon surface and its swelling level under different conditions does not exceed 35%. The conclusion is made about the prospects of the used method of biomembrane formation for biosensor technology based on semiconductor structures.     

Surface activity and interaction of StarD7 with phospholipid monolayers

StarD7 protein forms stable Gibbs and Langmuir monolayers at the air-buffer interface showing marked surface activity. The latter is enhanced by penetration into phospholipid films at an initial surface pressure above the protein’s own equilibrium adsorption surface pressure to a lipid-free interface. The protein-phospholipid stabilizing interactions at the interface depend on the lipid, with preference for phosphatidylserine, cholesterol, and phosphatidylglycerol, and the increases of lateral surface pressure generated are comparable to those of other membrane-active proteins. The surface activity of StarD7 is strong enough to thermodynamically drive and retain StarD7 at the lipid membrane interface where it may undergo lipid-dependent reorganization as indicated by changes of surface pressure and electrostatics.     

Properties of urease immobilized on the functional organic silica surface

The paper deals with kinetics of the urea hydrolysis by microbial-origin urease dissolved and immobilized on the organic silica surface. It is shown that hydrolysis kinetics for soluble urease is described by the Michaelis-Menten equation until the concentration of urea reaches 1 M. Two fractions differing in the Michaelis constant are revealed for silochrome immobilized urease. The rate of urea hydrolysis by native and immobilized urease was studied depending on the pH value in presence of the substrate in the 1 M and 5 mM concentration. The hydrolysis rate of 1 M urea in the buffer-free solution by silochrome-immobilized urease is practically independent of pH within 4.5-6.5. Application of a 2.5 mM phosphate-citrate buffer as a solvent causes an increase in the hydrolysis rate within this pH range. For a soluble urease the 1 M urea hydrolysis rate dependence on pH is ordinary at pH 5.8-6.0. If the substrate concentration is 5 mM, the pH-dependences for the rate of the urea hydrolysis by silochrome- and aerosil-immobilized urease are close and at pH above 6.0 coincide with those for a soluble enzyme. The found differences in the properties of soluble and immobilized ureases are explained by the substrate and reaction products diffusion.     

Structure of UreG/UreF/UreH Complex Reveals How Urease Accessory Proteins Facilitate Maturation of Helicobacter pylori Urease

Urease is a metalloenzyme essential for the survival of Helicobacter pylori in acidic gastric environment. Maturation of urease involves carbamylation of Lys219 and insertion of two nickel ions at its active site. This process requires GTP hydrolysis and the formation of a preactivation complex consisting of apo-urease and urease accessory proteins UreF, UreH, and UreG. UreF and UreH form a complex to recruit UreG, which is a SIMIBI class GTPase, to the preactivation complex. We report here the crystal structure of the UreG/UreF/UreH complex, which illustrates how UreF and UreH facilitate dimerization of UreG, and assembles its metal binding site by juxtaposing two invariant Cys66-Pro67-His68 metal binding motif at the interface to form the (UreG/UreF/UreH)₂ complex. Interaction studies revealed that addition of nickel and GTP to the UreG/UreF/UreH complex releases a UreG dimer that binds a nickel ion at the dimeric interface. Substitution of Cys66 and His68 with alanine abolishes the formation of the nickel-charged UreG dimer. This nickel-charged UreG dimer can activate urease in vitro in the presence of the UreF/UreH complex. Static light scattering and atomic absorption spectroscopy measurements demonstrated that the nickel-charged UreG dimer, upon GTP hydrolysis, reverts to its monomeric form and releases nickel to urease. Based on our results, we propose a mechanism on how urease accessory proteins facilitate maturation of urease.     

Specific anchoring modes of two distinct dystrophin rod sub-domains interacting in phospholipid Langmuir films studied by atomic force microscopy and PM-IRRAS

Dystrophin rod repeats 1-3 sub-domain binds to acidic phosphatidylserine in a small vesicle binding assay, while the repeats 20-24 sub-domain does not. In the present work, we studied the adsorption behaviour of both sub-domains at the air/liquid interface and at the air/lipid interface in a Langmuir trough in order to highlight differences in interfacial properties. The adsorption behaviour of the two proteins at the air/liquid interface shows that they display surface activity while maintaining their alpha-helical secondary structure as shown by PM-IRRAS. Strikingly, R20-24 needs to be highly hydrated even at the interface, while this is not the case for R1-3, indicating that the surface activity is dramatically higher for R1-3 than R20-24. Surface-pressure measurements, atomic force microscopy and PM-IRRAS are used in a Langmuir experiment with DOPC-DOPS monolayers at two different surface pressures, 20 mN/m and 30 mN/m. At the lower surface pressure, the proteins are adsorbed at the lipid film interface while maintaining its alpha-helical structure. After an increase of the surface pressure, R1-3 subsequently produces a stable film, while R20-24 induces a reorganization of the lipid film with a subsequent decrease of the surface pressure close to the initial value. AFM and PM-IRRAS show that R1-3 is present in high amounts at the interface, being arranged in clusters representing 3.3% of the surface at low pressure. By contrast, R20-24 is present at the interface in small amounts bound only by a few electrostatic residues to the lipid film while the major part of the molecule remains floating in the sub-phase. Then for R1-3, the electrostatic interaction between the proteins and the film is enhanced by hydrophobic interactions. At higher surface pressure, the number of protein clusters increases and becomes closer in both cases implying the electrostatic character of the binding. These results indicate that even if the repeats exhibit large structural similarities, their interfacial properties are highly contrasted by their differential anchor mode in the membrane. Our work provides strong support for distinct physiological roles for the spectrin-like repeats and may partly explain the effects of therapeutic replacement of dystrophin deficiency by minidystrophins.     

The enzyme coupling process in urease immobilization on O-alkylated nylon tubes

Coupling of Jack bean urease (EC 3.5.1.5) to the inside surface of type 6 nylon tubes, activated by high-temperature O-alkylation with dimethyl sulphate and modified subsequently with lysine and glutaraldehyde, was investigated to establish optimal experimental conditions for the coupling process. For the system described, the most active immobilized urease derivatives were prepared with 2 mg/ml of the solubilized urease solution and use of higher enzyme concentrations proved wasteful. Although urease coupling without thermal denaturation of the solubilized enzyme was achieved at 20 degrees C, derivatives prepared at 37 degrees C yielded maximal activity over the 3 h coupling period. Also, longer incubations of the enzyme solution in the tube were unnecessary under these conditions. Optimal pH for the coupling process was 6.5, one at which the solubilized enzyme was most stable.     

Ubiquinones have surface-active properties suited to transport electrons and protons across membranes

Surface-active properties of ubiquinones and ubiquinols have been investigated by monomolecular-film techniques. Stable monolayers are formed at an air/water interface by the fully oxidized and reduced forms of the coenzyme; collapse pressures and hence stability of the films tend to increase with decreasing length of the isoprenoid side chain and films of the reduced coenzymes are more stable than those of their oxidized counterparts. Ubiquinone with a side chain of two isoprenoid units does not form stable monolayers at the air/water interface. Mixed monolayers of ubiquinol-10 or ubiquinone-10 with 1,2-dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine, soya phosphatidylcholine and diphosphatidylglycerol do not exhibit ideal mixing characteristics. At surface pressures less than the collapse pressure of pure ubiquinone-10 monolayers (approx. 12mN.m(-1)) the isoprenoid chain is located substantially within the region occupied by the fatty acyl residues of the phospholipids. With increasing surface pressure the ubiquinones and their fully reduced equivalents are progressively squeezed out from between the phospholipid molecules until, at a pressure of about 35mN.m(-1), the film has surface properties consistent with that of the pure phospholipid monolayer. This suggests that the ubiquinone(ol) forms a separate phase overlying the phospholipid monolayer. The implications of this energetically poised situation, where the quinone(ol) is just able to penetrate the phospholipid film, are considered in terms of the function of ubiquinone(ol) as electron and proton carriers of energy-transducing membranes.     

Urea-hydrolyzing activity of a T-strain mycoplasma: Ureaplasma urealyticum.

The urea-hydrolyzing activity of a T-strain mycoplasma was studied in experiments using whole cells and cell-free enzyme preparations by measuring the release of 14CO2 from [14C]urea. Under the conditions used, the urea concentration optimum is approximately 5.6 X 10(-3) M urea. The activity is soluble and not membrane bound. It is stable at -70 C for several weeks but is more labile at higher temperatures. The pH optimum is between 5.0 and 6.0. The effect of several inhibitors on the activity was tested and revealed similarities, as well as differences, between T-strain mycoplasma urease activity and the urease activity of other organisms and plants.     

Locomotion and phenotypic transformation of the amoeboflagellate Naegleria gruberi at the water-air interface

The protozoon Naegleria gruberi is able to carry out amoeboid locomotion at the water-air interface in a manner indistinguishable from that exhibited on solid substrata with the production of focal contacts and associated filopodia. The speed of locomotion at this interface can be modulated by changes in electrolyte concentrations; these speed changes are identical to those observed at a water-glass interface. The nature of the water-air interface is discussed leading to the hypothesis that surface tension alone could provide suitable properties for the adhesion and translocation of amoebae at this interface without necessitating specific, absorbed molecules. The temporary swimming flagellate stage of Naegleria is able to dock at the interface, make stable adhesions to it, and revert to the amoeboid phenotype. Conversely, amoebae resident at the water-air interface can transform to swimming flagellates and escape into the bulk liquid phase. We report the presence of Naegleria amoebae in the surface microlayers of natural ponds; thus, in freshwater bodies there may be active shuttling of Naegleria amoebae from the benthos to the surface microlayers by means of the non-feeding, swimming flagellate phenotype. The public health implication of this behaviour in the case of the pathogenic relative, Naegleria fowleri, is discussed.     

Cholesterol oxidation and the behavior of 5-α-hydroperoxycholesterol at the air/water interface

The oxidation of cholesterol and the behavior of an oxidized sterol, 5-α-hydroperoxy-cholesterol (5-AHC), have been investigated. It is demonstrated that previous work is correct in observing that cholesterol oxidation does take place at the air/water interface, but predicts initial effects and rates that are much too large. The oxidation of cholesterol is found to be autocatalytic as long as the oxidized sterol compounds (OSC) remain miscible with the cholesterol. The OSC are postulated to adopt tilted conformations with respect to the air/water interface when oxidized at or about the sterol-5,6-positions, and to segregate out when saturation OSC levels in cholesterol are reached. Pure films of 5-AHC are found to be more expanded, more compressible and less stable than those of cholesterol. In mixed films with other selected lipids, 5-AHC behaves as a greater impurity than does cholesterol when the second component is more condensed, and as a poorer condensing agent when the second component is more expanded.     

Behavior of human apolipoprotein E in aqueous solutions and at interfaces

Human plasma apolipoprotein E (apo-E) strongly self-associates to form a stable tetramer in an aqueous solution at pH 7.4 containing 0.15 M NaCl. Tetramerized apo-E is abundant in alpha-helical conformation with an asymmetric molecular shape. Apo-E forms a stable monolayer at the air-water interface with a collapse pressure of 14 dynes/cm and with a limiting molecular area of 21 A2/amino acid. Under low surface pressure (less than 0.5 dyne/cm), it behaves as a monomer at the interface. It binds reversibly to the surface of phosphatidylcholine-coated triolein particles with a diameter of 26 nm from the aqueous phase in which most of the molecules are tetramerized. An apparent dissociation constant (Kd), 1.2 X 10(-6) M (monomeric molarity) or 40 mg/l, is substantially larger than those of the other apolipoproteins, while a binding saturation level (N), 0.8 amino acid/surface phospholipid, is equivalent to the N values of those proteins (Tajima, S., Yokoyama, S., and Yamamoto, A. (1983) J. Biol. Chem. 258, 10073-10082). Content of alpha-helix increases slightly when it is transferred from the aqueous phase to the lipid surface. The results are consistent with a model that amphiphilic alpha-helical conformation is responsible both for self-association and surface binding and suggest that apo-E may easily dissociate from the lipoprotein surface to form a self-associated soluble tetramer.     

Inactivation of enzymes by organic solvents: New technique with well-defined interfacial area

A liquid-liquid bubble column apparatus allows exposure of enzyme solutions to water-immiscible organic solvents with a known total interfacial area and welldefined time scales and flow. It allows clear distinction of the different classes of inactivation mechanism. With urease as a model enzyme, octan-2-one and butylbenzene act only through the effects of solvent molecules dissolved in the aqueous phase, giving first-order inactivation at 0.34 and 0.21 h(-1), respectively. Hexane and tridecane act only through exposure to the interface. The amount of urease inactivated is proportional to the total area of interface exposed, rather than to elapsed time, and may be characterized by a rate of about 0.5 mukat m(-2). This is consistent with the formation and (partial) inactivation of a complete adsorbed monolayer of protein. With butan-1-ol, both mechanisms contribute significantly to the observed inactivation. The presence of O(2) increases the rate of interfacial inactivation, but not that by dissolved solvent. (c) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Valine 44 and valine 45 of human glutathione synthetase are key for subunit stability and negative cooperativity

It was hypothesized that residues Val44 and Val45 serve as important residues for human glutathione synthetase (hGS) function and stability given their location at the dimer interface of this enzyme. Computational studies suggest that mutation at Val45 has more impact on the structure and stability of hGS than does mutation at Val44. Experimentally, enzymes with mutations at the 44 and or 45 positions of hGS were prepared, purified and assayed for initial activity. Val45 position mutations (either to alanine or tryptophan) have a greater impact on enzyme activity than do mutations at Val44. Differential scanning calorimetry experiments reveal a loss of stability in all mutant enzymes, with V45 mutations being less stable than the corresponding Val44 mutations. The γ-GluABA substrate affinity remains unaltered in V44A and V45A mutant enzymes, but increases when tryptophan is introduced at either of these positions. Hill coefficients trend towards less negative cooperativity with the exception of V45W mutant hGS. These results imply that residues V44 and V45 are located along the allosteric pathway of this negatively cooperative dimeric enzyme, that their mutation impacts the allosteric pathway more than it does the active site of hGS, and that these residues (and by extension the dimer interface in which they are located) are integral to the stability of human glutathione synthetase.     

Slow adaptive changes in urease levels of tobacco cells cultured on urea and other nitrogen sources

Tobacco (cv. Xanthi) XD cells cultured for more than a year on urea as the sole source of nitrogen have urease activities about four times higher than cells which have been cultured on nitrate. When cells which had always been grown on nitrate were transferred to urea, the urease activity in these cells remained at a lower level for eight transfers (40 generations), then gradually increased 4-fold during the next seven to 10 transfers. Cells with high urease activity multiplied 19% more rapidly and accumulated less urea than cells with low urease activity. These findings suggest that elevated urease accelerates urea assimilation; therefore, urea limited growth. Clones of cells with low urease activity responded in the same way as uncloned populations when transferred from nitrate to urea, indicating that high urease cells originate from low urease cells, rather than from a preexisting subpopulation of high urease cells. The urease levels in clones of cells from a population with high urease activity were three to seven times the low urease level. The observed dependence of urease activity on generations of growth on urea was matched with a model in which high urease cells originated at mitosis of low urease cells at a frequency of 8 × 10⁻⁵, then multiplied 19% more rapidly than low urease cells. This frequency is about 10³ greater than that of other biochemical variants previously isolated from XD cells. The high urease activity gradually declined in cells transferred from urea to other nitrogen sources, but rose rapidly when such cells were returned to urea, indicating the existence within the cells of some form of record of their ancestors' growth on urea. The data indicate the existence of a mechanism for generation, at unusually high frequency, of metastable variants with high urease activity. This mechanism, coupled with enrichment for the variants' progeny by virtue of their higher multiplication rate on urea, can account for the observed slow increase in urease activity of the population. It is suggested that the molecular basis of the urease increase may be gene amplification, based on animal cell models. An alternative hypothesis, namely a specific response induced in all cells by urea and manifested as a very slow adaptive increase in urease, has not been ruled out.