A circular dichroism study of the cyanogen bromide fragments of soybean trypsin inhibitor (Kunitz).

Glutathione reductase (NAD(P)h:oxidized glutathione oxidoreductase, EC 1.6.4.2) has been purified 1000-fold from the cytoplasmic fraction of human platelets. Salts, including the heretofore unreported effect of sodium citrate, activate the NADPH-dependent reduction of oxidized glutathione. Sodium citrate and monovalent salt activation appears to involve multiple sites having different binding affinities. At sub-saturating sodium phosphate, non-linear double reciprocal plots indicative of substrate activation by oxidized glutathione were observed. Initial velocity double reciprocal plots at sub-saturating and saturating concentrations of phosphate generate a family of converging lines. NADP+ is a partial inhibitor, indicating that the reduction of oxidized glutathione can proceed by more than one pathway. FMN, FAD, and riboflavin inhibit platelet glutathione reductase by influencing only the V while nitrofurantoin inhibition is associated with an increase Koxidized glutathione and a decreased V.     

Proteinases involved in the degradation of trypsin inhibitor in germinating mung beans

The mung bean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) trypsin inhibitor (MBTI) is rapidly modified by limited proteolysis during the early stages of seedling growth. Using an electrophoretic assay that separates the unmodified inhibitor (MBTI-F) and the first two modified species (MBTI-E and -C), a pH optimum of approximately 4 was found for the modification reaction. The inhibitor modifying activity is initially low in ungerminated seeds, with the reaction F leads to E being the primary reaction catalyzed. Activity catalyzing the production of MBTI-C appears on the first day of germination. This activity (F leads to E leads to C) increases up to 6 days after inhibition, at which time the cotyledons begin to abscise. The activity converting MBTI-F and -E to MBTI-C was strongly inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (3.3 mM) but only weakly by iodoacetate (9 mM) and not at all by pepstatin A (9 microM), leupeptin (18 microM), or EDTA (5 mM). These results suggest the involvement of proteinases other than the major endopeptidase of the germinating seed, vicilin peptidohydrolase. This conclusion is further supported by gel filtration of the extracts of cotyledons on Sephacryl S-200. At least three proteinases are present in germinated cotyledons capable of modifying MBTI-F to MBTI-C and/or -E. All are distinguishable from vicilin peptidohydrolase on the basis of their molecular weight and inhibition by low molecular weight organic reagents.     

Denaturant-dependent folding of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor mutants with two intact disulfide bonds.

The equilibrium and kinetic behavior of the guanidine hydrochloride (Gdn-HCl) induced unfolding/refolding of four bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) mutants was examined by using ultraviolet difference spectroscopy. In three of the mutants, we replaced the buried 30-51 disulfide bond with alanine at position 51 and valine (Val30/Ala51), alanine (Ala30/Ala51), or threonine (Thr30/Ala51) at position 30. For the fourth mutant, the solvent-exposed 14-38 disulfide was substituted by a pair of alanines (Ala14/Ala38). All mutants retained the 5-55 disulfide. Experiments were performed under oxidizing conditions; thus, both the unfolded and folded forms retained two native disulfide bonds. Equilibrium experiments demonstrated that all four mutants were destabilized relative to wild-type BPTI. However, the stability of the 30-51 mutants increased with the hydrophobicity of the residue substituted at position 30. Kinetic experiments showed that all four mutants contained two minor slow refolding phases with characteristics of proline isomerization. The specific behavior of the phases depended on the location of the disulfide bonds. The major unfolding/refolding phase for each of the 30-51 mutants was more than an order of magnitude slower than for Ala14/Ala38 or for BPTI in which the 14-38 disulfide bond was specifically reduced and blocked with iodoacetamide [Jullien, M., & Baldwin, R. L. (1981) J. Mol. Biol. 145, 265-280]. Since this effect is independent of the stability of the protein, it is consistent with a model in which the proper docking of the interior residues of the protein is the rate-limiting step in the folding of these mutants.     

The complete amino acid sequence of a subtilisin inhibitor from adzuki beans (Vigna angularis)

The complete amino acid sequence of a major molecular form of subtilisin inhibitor from adzuki beans (Vigna angularis) was established by manual analysis using 4-N,N-dimethylaminoazobenzene-4'-isothiocyanate (DABITC). Sequencing was performed on the peptides which were derived by digesting the inhibitor with lysyl-endopeptidase and Staphylococcus aureus V8-protease. The inhibitor consisted of 92 amino acid residues and the molecular weight was calculated to be 10,800. A minor form of subtilisin inhibitor was found, which lacked the amino-terminal 19 residues of the major one. Comparison of amino acid sequences revealed that the adzuki bean subtilisin inhibitors were 29-68% homologous in sequence to the inhibitors of so-called "potato inhibitor I family."     

Method of oriented circular dichroism.

We present a new method for determining the orientation of alpha-helical sections of proteins or peptides in membrane. To apply this method, membranes containing proteins must be prepared in a multilayer array. Circular dichroism (CD) spectra of the multilayer sample are then measured at the normal as well as oblique incident angles with respect to the bilayer planes; we call such spectra oriented circular dichroism (OCD). The procedure of OCD measurement, particularly the ways to avoid the spectral artifacts due to the effects of dielectric interfaces, linear dichroism and birefringence, and the method of data analysis are described in detail. To illustrate the method, we analyze the OCD of alamethicin in diphytanoylphosphatidylcholine multilayers. We conclude unambiguously that the helical section of alamethicin is parallel to the membrane normal when the sample is in the full-hydration state, but the helical section rotates to the plane of membrane when the sample is in a low-hydration state. We also obtained the parallel and perpendicular CD spectra of alpha-helix, and found them to be in agreement with previous theoretical calculations based on the exciton theory. These spectra are useful for analyzing protein orientations in future experiments.     

The circular dichroism of lysozyme.

The circular dichroism spectra of hen egg white lysozyme, and of lysozyme derivatives in which tryptophan residues 62 or 108, or both, are selectively oxidized, have been measured as a function of pH over the range of 200 to 310 nm. Neither Trp-62 nor Trp-108 is principally responsible for the positive rotational strength in the 280 to 300 nm region. The spectrum in the 200 to 230 nm region is nearly the same in the native protein and in the derivatives, and is little affected by binding of saccharide. These results are used to reinterpret the circular dichroism spectra of the lysozymes and alpha-lactalbumins.     

Folding pathway of a circular form of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor

The pathway of unfolding and refolding of a circular form of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor, in which the termini were linked together in a peptide bond, has been examined by trapping and identifying the disulphide-containing intermediates, as was done previously for the unmodified protein. The folding pathway of the circular protein was essentially the same as that of the unmodified inhibitor, although there were differences in the distribution of intermediates that accumulated and in the rates of some steps. The effects of the cross-link between the termini on the stabilities of the folding intermediates and the native state were determined by measuring the rates of the interconversions making up the folding transition, and comparing them with those measured for the unmodified protein. The major effect of the cross-link was to stabilize an intermediate containing two native disulphides, (30-51, 14-38), but lacking the disulphide nearest the termini, 5-55. The native conformation was not measurably stabilized by the cross-link, in spite of the expected reduction of entropy of the unfolded state, indicating that the native state of the circular protein had a slightly strained conformation. The stabilities of the major one-disulphide intermediates were not significantly affected by the cross-link, suggesting that the termini of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor do not tend to interact during the early stage of folding.