Role of lysines in human angiogenin: chemical modification and site-directed mutagenesis

The role of lysines in the ribonucleolytic and angiogenic activities of human angiogenin has been examined by chemical modification and site-directed mutagenesis. It was demonstrated previously [Shapiro, R., Weremowicz, S., Riordan, J.F., & Vallee, B.L. (1987) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84, 8783-8787] that extensive treatment with lysine reagents markedly decreases the ribonucleolytic activity of angiogenin. In the present study, limited chemical modification with 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene followed by C18 high-performance liquid chromatography yielded several (dinitrophenyl)angiogenin derivaties. The major derivative formed had slightly increased enzymatic activity compared with the unmodified protein. Tryptic peptide mapping demonstrated the site of modification to be Lys-50. A second derivative, modified at Lys-60, was 34% active. Analysis of a third derivative indicated that modification of Lys-82 did not decrease activity. Thus, Lys-50 and Lys-82 are unessential for enzymatic activity while Lys-60 may play a minor role. No pure derivative modified at Lys-40, corresponding to the active-site residue Lys-41 of the homologous protein ribonuclease A, could be obtained by chemical procedures. Therefore, we employed oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis to replace this lysine with glutamine or arginine. The Gln-40 derivative had less than 0.05% enzymatic activity compared with the unmodified protein and substantially reduced angiogenic activity when examined with the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane assay. These results suggest that the angiogenic activity of the protein is dependent on an intact enzymatic active site. The Arg-40 derivative had 2.2% ribonucleolytic activity compared with unmodified angiogenin. The effects of reductive methylation of this derivative indicate that no lysines other than Lys-40 are critical.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

The antigen identified by a mouse monoclonal antibody raised against human renal cancer cells is the adenosine deaminase binding protein

The antigen recognized by a mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb S27) raised against a human renal cancer cell line has been identified as the adenosine deaminase binding protein. mAb S27 immunoprecipitates binding protein purified from a soluble fraction of human kidney. It also recognizes the mature 120,000-dalton membrane form of binding protein from [35S]methionine-labeled human fibroblasts, HepG2 cells, and the renal cancer cell line against which the antibody was raised. A rabbit polyclonal antibody raised against purified kidney binding protein completely precipitates mAb S27-reactive material from labeled membrane extracts. mAb S27 does not precipitate the initially synthesized 110,000 molecular weight precursor of binding protein in fibroblasts and recognizes only a small portion of binding protein precursor in labeled HepG2 cells suggesting that the antigenic determinant recognized by mAb S27 may be a post-translational modification present on the mature form of binding protein or that mAb S27 recognizes molecules in a certain conformation. Glycopeptides derived from purified soluble kidney binding protein or exogenously added adenosine deaminase do not inhibit the immunoprecipitation of binding protein by mAb S27, indicating that the mature oligosaccharide chains of binding protein are not the determinant recognized by mAb S27 and that bound adenosine deaminase does not mask the antigenic sites on binding protein. The fact that monoclonal antibody S27, previously shown (Ueda, R., Ogata, S., Morissey, D. M., Finstad, C. L., Szkudlavek, J., Whitmore, W. F., Oettgen, H. F., Lloyd, K. O., and Old, L. J. (1981) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 78, 5122-5126) to detect a cell surface antigen on cultured renal cancer cells, is directed against the adenosine deaminase binding protein confirms and extends the earlier observation (Andy, R.J., and Kornfeld, R. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 7922-7925) that binding protein is located on the cell surface.     

Identification of functional arginines in human angiogenin by site-directed mutagenesis.

Chemical modifications of human angiogenin had suggested that arginines are essential for its ribonucleolytic activity [Shapiro, R., Weremowicz, S., Riordan, J. F., & Vallee, B. L. (1987) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 84, 8783-8787]. Each of the six arginines within or near angiogenin's catalytic or cell-binding sites--i.e., those at positions 5, 31, 32, 33, 66, and 70--was therefore mutated to alanine. Two of these residues, Arg-5 and Arg-33, indeed play a role, albeit noncrucial, in enzymatic activity, although neither one is implicated in the abolition of activity by arginine reagents. R5A-angiogenin, while nearly fully active toward dinucleotides, is one-fourth as active as angiogenin toward tRNA, suggesting that Arg-5 may participate in the binding of peripheral components of the substrate. In contrast, the activity of R33A-angiogenin toward both polynucleotide and dinucleotide substrates is reduced similarly, reflecting a decrease in kcat. These results, together with its position in the calculated three-dimensional structure of angiogenin, imply an indirect role for Arg-33 in catalysis. Three arginines are important for angiogenesis: mutation of Arg-5, Arg-33, or Arg-66 dramatically reduces the angiogenic potency of angiogenin on the chicken embryo chorioallantoic membrane. Arg-66 lies within a segment previously proposed to be part of a cell-surface receptor binding site. Arg-5 and Arg-33 are outside of this site as defined at present, and the decreased angiogenicity of R5A- and R33A-angiogenin may be a consequence of their reduced ribonucleolytic activities.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Isolation of bovine angiogenin using a placental ribonuclease inhibitor binding assay

Angiogenin, which induces the formation of new blood vessels, was isolated previously from two human sources--HT-29 tumor conditioned media and normal plasma. By use of a newly developed binding assay, a similar protein has now been purified from bovine plasma at levels of 30-80 micrograms/L. This protein has the structural, enzymatic, and biological characteristics expected for an angiogenin molecule. Its amino acid composition is similar to that of the human protein, and 22 of 31 residues in the amino-terminal sequences are identical, including a block of 11 consecutive residues. Like human angiogenin, the bovine protein binds placental ribonuclease inhibitor, is inactive toward conventional RNase A substrates, and displays selective ribonucleolytic activity toward some rRNAs. In addition, the bovine protein induces angiogenesis in vivo in the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane assay at levels as low as 44 fmol per egg. Thus, angiogenin is present in bovine sera at levels similar to those observed in man, and its enzymatic and biological activities are identical with those of the human protein.     

An annexin 2 phosphorylation switch mediates p11-dependent translocation of annexin 2 to the cell surface

Annexin 2 is a profibrinolytic co-receptor for plasminogen and tissue plasminogen activator that stimulates activation of the major fibrinolysin, plasmin, at cell surfaces. In human subjects, overexpression of annexin 2 in acute promyelocytic leukemia leads to a bleeding diathesis reflective of excessive cell surface annexin 2-dependent generation of plasmin (Menell, J. S., Cesarman, G. M., Jacovina, A. T., McLaughlin, M. A., Lev, E. A., and Hajjar, K. A. (1999) N. Engl. J. Med. 340, 994-1004). In addition, mice completely deficient in annexin 2 display fibrin accumulation within blood vessels and impaired clearance of injury-induced thrombi (Ling Q., Jacovina, A.T., Deora, A.B., Febbraio, M., Simantov, R., Silverstein, R. L., Hempstead, B. L., Mark, W., and Hajjar, K. A. (2004) J. Clin. Investig. 113, 38-48). Here, we show that endothelial cell annexin 2, a protein that lacks a typical signal peptide, translocates from the cytoplasm to the extracytoplasmic plasma membrane in response to brief temperature stress both in vitro and in vivo in the absence of cell death or cell lysis. This regulated response is independent of new protein or mRNA synthesis and does not require the classical endoplasmic reticulum-Golgi pathway. Temperature stress-induced annexin 2 translocation is dependent on both expression of protein p11 (S100A10) and tyrosine phosphorylation of annexin 2 because annexin 2 release is completely eliminated on depletion of p11, inactivation of tyrosine kinase, or mutation of tyrosine 23. Translocation of annexin 2 to the cell surface dramatically increases tissue plasminogen activator-dependent plasminogen activation potential and may represent a novel stress-induced protein secretion pathway.     

Phosphorylation of ribosomal protein L5 by protein kinase CKII decreases its 5S rRNA binding activity.

We have recently reported that ribosomal protein L5 associates with the beta subunit of protein kinase CKII (CKII) (Kim, J.-M., Cha, J. -Y., Marshak, D. R., and Bae, Y.-S. (1996) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 226, 180-186). In this study, we demonstrate that CKII is able to catalyze the phosphorylation of the human L5 protein in vitro, which results in a decrease in 5S rRNA binding activity. Phosphoamino acid analysis indicated that the phosphorylation occurs on serine residues. Sequence analysis of cyanogen bromide-digested phosphopeptides and analysis of L5 deletion mutants indicates that the main phosphorylated residues are located within two fragments corresponding of residues 142-200 and residues 272-297 of the human L5. Based on our present results, we suggest that the phosphorylation of L5 by CKII is one of the mechanisms that regulates nucleolar targeting of 5S rRNA and/or ribosome assembly in the cell.     

Enzymatically active angiogenin/ribonuclease A hybrids formed by peptide interchange

The primary structures of the blood vessel inducing protein human angiogenin and human pancreatic ribonuclease (RNase) are 35% identical. Angiogenin catalyzes the limited cleavage of ribosomal RNA (18 and 28 S), yielding a characteristic pattern of polynucleotide products, but shows no significant activity toward conventional pancreatic RNase substrates [Shapiro, R., Riordan, J. F., & Vallee, B. L. (1986) Biochemistry 25, 3527-3532]. Angiogenin/RNase hybrid enzymes--wherein particular regions of primary structure in RNase are replaced by the corresponding segments of angiogenin--serve to explore the structural features underlying angiogenin's characteristic activities. Herein we show that synthetic angiogenin peptides, Ang(1-21) and Ang(108-123), form noncovalent complexes with inactive fragments of bovine RNase A--RNase(21-124) (i.e., S-protein) and RNase(1-118), respectively--with regeneration of activity toward conventional RNase substrates. Maximal activities for the Ang(1-21)/S-protein complex (Kd = 1.0 microM) are 52%, 45%, and 15% toward cytidine cyclic 2',3'-phosphate, cytidylyl(3'----5')adenosine, and yeast RNA, respectively. In contrast, activities of the RNase(1-118)/Ang(108-123) hybrid (Kd = 25 microM) are 1-2 orders of magnitude lower toward cyclic nucleotides and dinucleoside phosphates. However, substitution of phenylalanine for Leu-115 in Ang(108-123) increases activity up to 100-fold. Both His-13 and His-114 in the angiogenin peptides are required for activity since their substitution by alanine yields inactive complexes. Importantly, the pattern of polynucleotide products formed during cleavage of ribosomal RNA by the Ang(1-21)/S-protein hybrid shows a striking resemblance to that formed by angiogenin, demonstrating that the hybrid retains features of both angiogenin and RNase A.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Binding proteins for insulin-like growth factors in adult rat serum. Comparison with other human and rat binding proteins

Insulin-like growth factor (IGF) binding protein has been purified from adult rat serum by affinity chromatography on agarose-IGF-II and high performance reverse-phase chromatography. The final preparation contains two components, of apparent molecular mass 50 and 56 kDa nonreduced, or 44 and 48 kDa reduced, both of which specifically bind IGF-I and IGF-II. Competitive binding data indicate association constants of 5-10 X 10(10) l/mol for both IGFs, with a slightly higher affinity for IGF-II than IGF-I. Amino-terminal sequence analysis yields a unique sequence, identical in 11 of the first 15 amino acids with that of a human plasma IGF binding protein (Martin, J. L., and Baxter, R. C. (1986) J. Biol Chem. 261, 8754-8760), and with slight homology to other human and rat IGF binding proteins characterized to date. By analogy with the binding protein from human plasma, it is likely that the rat protein is part of the growth-hormone dependent complex which appears to carry most or all of the circulating IGFs.     

Regulatable expression of p21-activated kinase-1 promotes anchorage-independent growth and abnormal organization of mitotic spindles in human epithelial breast cancer cells

Stimulation of growth factor signaling has been implicated in the development of invasive phenotypes and the activation of p21-activated kinase (Pak1) in human breast cancer cells (Adam, L., Vadlamudi, R., Kondapaka, S. B., Chernoff, J., Mendelsohn, J., and Kumar, R. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 28238-28246; Adam, L., Vadlamudi, R., Mandal, M., Chernoff, J., and Kumar, R. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 12041-12050). To study the role of Pak1 in the regulation of motility and growth of breast epithelial cells, we developed human epithelial MCF-7 clones that overexpressed the kinase-active T423E Pak1 mutant under an inducible tetracycline promoter or that stably expressed the kinase-active H83L,H86L Pak1 mutant, which is deficient in small GTPase binding sites. The expression of both T423E and H83L,H86L Pak1 mutants in breast epithelial cells was accompanied by increased cell motility without any apparent effect on the growth rate of cells. The T423E Pak1 mutant was primarily localized to filopodia, and the H83L,H86L Pak1 mutant was primarily localized to ruffles. Cells expressing T423E Pak1 exhibited a regulatable stimulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase and Jun N-terminal kinase activities. The expression of kinase-active Pak1 mutants significantly stimulated anchorage-independent growth of cells in soft agar in a preferential mitogen-activated protein kinase-sensitive manner. In addition, regulatable expression of kinase-active Pak1 resulted in an abnormal organization of mitotic spindles characterized by appearance of multiple spindle orientations. We also provide evidence to suggest a close correlation between the status of Pak1 kinase activity and base-line invasiveness of human breast cancer cells and breast tumor grades. This study is the first demonstration of Pak1 regulation of anchorage-independent growth, potential Pak1 regulation of invasiveness, and abnormal organization of mitotic spindles of human epithelial breast cancer cells.     

Purification and partial sequence analysis of a 37-kDa protein that inhibits phospholipase A2 activity from rat peritoneal exudates

We have purified from rat peritoneal exudates a 37-kDa protein that inhibits phospholipase A2 activity. It is the predominant phospholipase inhibitor protein in these preparations and also is detected in a wide variety of cell lines. Levels of expression range from 0 to 0.5% of total protein. In the peritoneal preparations, the inhibitor is partially proteolyzed into a series of lower mass forms, including species at 30, 24, and 15 kDa. These fragments all are immunoreactive with an antibody raised against the 37-kDa protein. The rat protein also is immunoreactive with an antibody developed against a 6-kDa phospholipase inhibitor protein from snake venom. The primary structure of more than half of the rat inhibitor has been deduced by protein microsequence analysis. These sequences are closely related to sequences from its human analogue, which we recently cloned and expressed (Wallner, B. P., Mattaliano, R. J., Hession, C., Cate, R. L., Tizard, R., Sinclair, L. K., Foeller, C., Chow, E. P., Browning, J. L., Ramachandran, K. L., and Pepinsky, R. B. (1986) Nature, in press), and thus we infer that the inhibitor is highly conserved evolutionarily. Properties of the molecule suggest that it is a member of a family of steroid-induced anti-inflammatory proteins collectively referred to as lipocortin.     

Proteolytic processing of human preproapolipoprotein A-I. A proposed defect in the conversion of pro A-I to A-I in Tangier's disease

The primary translation product of human intestinal apolipoprotein A-I mRNA was isolated from wheat germ and ascites cell-free translation systems. Comparison of its NH2-terminal sequence with that of plasma high density lipoprotein-associated A-I showed that it is initially synthesized as a preproprotein. Like rat preproapolipoprotein A-I, it contains an 18-amino acid prepeptide and a 6-amino acid propeptide. The highly unusual COOH-terminal Gln-Gln dipeptide present in the rat pro-segment is also represented at the same position in the human sequence. The functional division of the 24-amino acid NH2-terminal extention into pro- and presegments was verified by finding that the stable intracellular form of A-I in a human hepatoma cell line was the proprotein. Edman degradation of radiolabeled intracellular and extracellular A-I indicated that this apolipoprotein was secreted without proteolytic cleavage of its hexapeptide prosegment. Therefore, it appears that apolipoprotein A-I undergoes an additional proteolytic processing step before it is fully integrated into plasma high density lipoprotein. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of purified proapolipoprotein A-I isolated from the hepatocyte cell culture media indicated that it corresponds to isoforms 2 and 3, the basic A-I isoproteins which are the precursors of plasma A-I and the predominant plasma A-I isoforms found in patients with Tangier's disease (Zannis, V. I., Lees, A. M., Lees, R. S., and Breslow, J. L. (1982) J. Biol. Chem., 257, 4978-4986). Therefore this pathologic state probably arises from a defect in the conversion of proapolipoprotein A-I to apolipoprotein A-I.     

Accumulation of the insoluble PiZ variant of human alpha 1-antitrypsin within the hepatic endoplasmic reticulum does not elevate the steady-state level of grp78/BiP

Greater than 85% of the transport-impaired PiZ variant of human alpha 1-antitrypsin is retained within cells and subsequently degraded within a pre-Golgi nonlysosomal compartment that is apparently separate from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) (Le, A., Graham, K. S., and Sifers, R. N. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 14001-14007). Despite this phenomenon, human patients and PiZ-bearing transgenic mice exhibit an accumulation of the undegraded protein as insoluble aggregates within distended cisternae of the hepatic ER (Carlson, J. A., Rogers, B. B., Sifers, R. N., Finegold, M. J., Clift, S. M., DeMayo, F. J., Bullock, D. W., and Woo, S. L. C. (1989) J. Clin. Invest. 83, 1183-1190). Immunoprecipitation of the PiZ variant from pulse-radiolabeled hepatocytes from the transgenic animals has demonstrated that a minute quantity of the newly synthesized mutant protein is apparently resistant to degradation and accumulates gradually within the particulate fraction of the cell. Although the steady-state level of the resident ER protein grp78/BiP is elevated in response to the accumulation of malfolded proteins within that subcellular compartment, this phenomenon is not elicited by the accumulation of the insoluble PiZ variant. These results indicate that neither the accumulation of this malfolded protein within the ER nor even the distention of that subcellular compartment is sufficient to cause the up-regulation of grp78/BiP levels. The interpretation of these results with regard to the factors that regulate the levels of grp78/BiP in the ER is discussed.     

Production of the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase D by the islets of Langerhans.

A large number of diverse cell surface proteins are anchored to the cell membrane by a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor. One proposed function for the GPI anchor is that it facilitates the release of the protein from the cell by acting as a target for anchor-specific phospholipases. We and others have discovered that mammalian plasma contains a GPI-specific phospholipase D (GPI-PLD) (Cardoso de Almeida, M. L., Turner, M. J., Stambuk, B. V., and Schenkman, S. (1988) Biochem, Biophys. Res. Commun. 150, 476-482; Davitz, M. A., Hereld, D., Shak, S., Krakow, J., Englund, P. T., and Nussenzweig, V. (1987) Science 238, 81-84; Low, M. G., and Prasad, A. R. S. (1988) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 85, 980-984). Because the GPI-PLD recognizes a conserved portion of the anchor, all GPI-anchored proteins are potential substrates for the enzyme. We demonstrate in this communication the production of the plasma GPI-PLD by the islets of Langerhans. GPI-PLD enzymatic activity was found in dog pancreatic microsomes, but not pancreatic juice. Both the pancreatic and plasma enzymes were divalent cation-dependent and had identical substrate specificities. Purified murine islets of Langerhans, as well as alpha and beta cells, contained and released GPI-PLD activity. A GPI-PLD DNA fragment was amplified by polymerase chain reaction from a normal human islet cDNA library; the amplified fragment hybridized with the GPI-PLD cDNA clone. These findings represent the first demonstration of the production of the plasma GPI-PLD by a specific tissue site as well as cell type.     

The complete amino acid sequence of bovine milk angiogenin

The amino acid sequence of angiogenin isolated from bovine milk was deduced by gas-phase sequencing of the protein and its fragments. The protein contains 125 residues and has a calculated molecular mass of 14,577 Da. The sequence is highly homologous (65% identity) to the sequence of human angiogenin, most of the differences being the result of conservative replacements. Like human angiogenin, the bovine protein is also homologous to bovine pancreatic RNase A (34% identity) and the three major active site residues known to be involved in the catalytic process, His-14, Lys-41 and His-115, are conserved. When tested against conventional substrates for RNase A activity, bovine angiogenin displays the same selective ribonucleolytic activity as human angiogenin. The sequence of bovine angiogenin contains the cell recognition tripeptide Arg-Gly-Asp which is not present in the human protein.     

A unique zinc-binding site revealed by a high-resolution X-ray structure of homotrimeric Apo2L/TRAIL

Apoptosis-inducing ligand 2 (Apo2L, also called TRAIL), a member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family, induces apoptosis in a variety of human tumor cell lines but not in normal cells [Wiley, S. R., Schooley, K., Smolak, P. J., Din, W. S., Huang, C.-P., Nicholl, J. K., Sutherland, G. R., Smith, T. D., Rauch, C., Smith, C. A., and Goodwin, R. G. (1995) Immunity 3, 673-682; Pitti, R. M., Marsters, S. A., Ruppert, S., Donahue, C. J., Moore, A., and Ashkenazi, A. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 12687-12690]. Here we describe the structure of Apo2L at 1.3 A resolution and use alanine-scanning mutagenesis to map the receptor contact regions. The structure reveals a homotrimeric protein that resembles TNF with receptor-binding epitopes at the interface between monomers. A zinc ion is buried at the trimer interface, coordinated by the single cysteine residue of each monomer. The zinc ion is required for maintaining the native structure and stability and, hence, the biological activity of Apo2L. This is the first example of metal-dependent oligomerization and function of a cytokine.     

Functional expression of NADPH oxidase components (alpha- and beta-subunits of cytochrome b558 and 45-kDa flavoprotein) by intrinsic human glomerular mesangial cells.

Recently, we have shown that human glomerular mesangial cells (HMCs) release oxygen radicals from the plasma membrane in response to cytokines. Now we have used diphenylene iodonium, a covalent binding inhibitor of activated 45-kDa flavoprotein, in neutrophils radiolabeled with 125I and could identify a 45-kDa protein band in a separated HMC plasma membrane fraction. Low temperature difference spectroscopy showed a peak absorbance at 428 and 558 nm. Direct potentiometry of HMC membranes (-340 to -160 mV) showed the presence of a low potential cytochrome (76 pmol/mg to HMC membrane protein) identified as cytochrome b558. In slot blots, mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb) 7D5, specific for the extracellular domain of the alpha-subunit, showed a positive reaction with HMCs. In Western blots, mAb 449, directed against the cytoplasmic epitope of the alpha-subunit, identified a 23-kDa protein; and mAb 48, raised against the large (beta) subunit of cytochrome b558 of human neutrophils (Verhoeven, A. J., Bolscher, B. G. J. M., Meerhof, L. J., van Zwieten, R., Keijer, J., Weening, R. S., and Roos, D. (1989) Blood 73, 1686-1694), detected a smear between 75 and 100 kDa in denatured HMC membrane protein. These data determined with HMCs, suggest for the first time the expression of three essential components of NADPH:O2- oxidoreductase in mesenchymal cells.     

血管生成素相互作用蛋白的发现及其在哺乳动物细胞中的验证

通过RT-PCR从人外周血白细胞中钓取血管生成素(angiogenin,Ang)cDNA,构建诱饵蛋白载体pAS-2-1-Ang,对其自身转录激活活性进行鉴定后,通过酵母双杂交系统筛选人肝细胞cDNA文库,获得两个双阳性克隆.序列分析和同源检索表明所获候选蛋白分别为人上皮细胞素和λ晶体蛋白.构建Ang及候选蛋白标签融合表达载体并共转染COS-7细胞,利用免疫共沉淀和蛋白质印迹方法在哺乳动物细胞中验证了Ang与候选蛋白间的相互作用.为阐明Ａng促血管新生的分子机制创造了条件.     

Fibrillogenic nuclei composed of P301L mutant tau induce elongation of P301L tau but not wild-type tau

Frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17), an autosomal, dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorder caused by tau gene mutations, is neuropathologically characterized by intraneuronal filamentous inclusions of hyperphosphorylated tau protein. Biochemical and immunocytochemical analyses have shown that only mutant tau is deposited in patients harboring P301L missense mutation, whereas both wild-type and mutant tau are deposited in patients harboring R406W mutation (Miyasaka, T., Morishima-Kawashima, M., Ravid, R., Kamphorst, W., Nagashima, K., and Ihara, Y. (2001) J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol. 60, 872- 884 and Miyasaka, T., Morishima-Kawashima, M., Ravid, R., Heutink, P., van Swieten, J. C., Nagashima, K., and Ihara, Y. (2001) Am. J. Pathol. 158, 373-379). Here we have tested the nucleation ability of monomeric tau and the seeding ability of fibrillogenic nuclei obtained from bacterially expressed human tau. P301L mutant tau showed a higher nucleation ability than wild-type tau, whereas R406W mutant tau shows similar ability to wild-type tau. Surprisingly, fibrillogenic nuclei composed of P301L mutant tau enhanced the assembly of P301L mutant tau into filaments but did not promote filament formation from wild-type tau. In contrast, nuclei composed of R406W mutant tau supported filament formation from both wild-type tau and R406W mutant tau, as did nuclei composed of wild-type tau. Proteolytic analyses indicated that the substructure of nuclei composed of P301L mutant tau was different from that of nuclei composed of wild-type or R406W mutant tau. Thus, the interaction between fibrillogenic nuclei and monomeric protein appears to play an important role in the mechanism of tau filament assembly.