Expanded Monomeric Intermediate upon Cold and Heat Unfolding of Phosphofructokinase-2 from Escherichia coli

Folding studies have been focused mainly on small, single-domain proteins or isolated single domains of larger proteins. However, most of the proteins present in biological systems are composed of multiple domains, and to date, the principles that underlie its folding remain elusive. The unfolding of Pfk-2 induced by GdnHCl has been described by highly cooperative three-state equilibrium (N₂↔2I↔2U). This is characterized by a strong coupling between the subunits’ tertiary structure and the integrity of the dimer interface because “I” represents an unstructured and expanded monomeric intermediate. Here we report that cold and heat unfolding of Pfk-2 resembles the N₂↔2I step of chemically induced unfolding. Moreover, cold unfolding appears to be as cooperative as that induced chemically and even more so than its heat-unfolding counterpart. Because Pfk-2 is a large homodimer of 66 kDa with a complex topology consisting of well-defined domains, these results are somewhat unexpected considering that cold unfolding has been described as a special kind of perturbation that decouples the cooperative unfolding of several proteins.     

Stone walls and sacred forest conservation in Ethiopia

Many tropical forests worldwide are protected due to their sacredness to religious communities. In the south Gondar region of Ethiopia, most of the remaining native forests are tiny fragments (5.42 ha ± 0.34) surrounded by pasture and agriculture that are protected because they encompass churches of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC). A small number of communities have erected stone walls around the perimeter of the forests to demarcate the boundary, and/or protect the interior of the forest. We evaluated the effectiveness of these walls at protecting ecological conditions by examining tree and seedling communities among sacred forests with and without walls in Montane and Upper Montane sites. We found the wall to be an effective conservation tool as regeneration potential was higher in forests with a wall. The density and species richness of seedlings were significantly higher in forests with a wall and these effects were more pronounced in Upper Montane forests. Forests with a wall also had seedlings of many native tree species that were not found in forests without walls. As expected, there were few differences in tree communities in forests with and without a wall. Although rare on the landscape, the presence of a stone wall around these forests was effective at protecting the seedling community because it likely reduced access to the forests by grazers and directed human visitors to trails. The use of a stone wall may protect seedling communities in other sacred forest fragments, particularly for those that are small, isolated, surrounded by agriculture, and have a depleted seed bank.     

Production of a recombinant industrial protein using barley cell cultures

The use of recombinant DNA-based protein production using genetically modified plants could provide a reproducible, consistent quality, safe, animal-component free, origin-traceable, and cost-effective source for industrial proteins required in large amounts (1000s of metric tons) and at low cost (below US$100/Kg). The aim of this work was to demonstrate the feasibility of using barley suspension cell culture to support timely testing of the genetic constructs and early product characterization to detect for example post-translational modifications within the industrial protein caused by the selected recombinant system. For this study the human Collagen I alpha 1 (CIa1) chain gene encoding the complete helical region of CIa1 optimized for monocot expression was fused to its N- and C-terminal telopeptide and to a bacteriophage T4 fibritin foldon peptide encoding sequences. The CIa1 accumulation was targeted to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) by fusing the CIa1 gene to an ER-directing signal peptide sequence and an ER retention signal HDEL. The construct containing the CIa1 gene was then introduced into immature barley half embryos or barley cells by particle bombardment. Transgenic barley cells resulting from these transformations were grown as suspension cultures in flasks and in a Wave bioreactor producing CIa1 similar to CIa1 purified from the yeast Pichia pastoris based on Western blotting, pepsin resistance, and mass spectroscopy analysis. The barley cell culture derived-CIa1 intracellular accumulation levels ranged from 2 to 9 μg/l illustrating the need for further process improvement in order to use this technology to supply material for product development activities.     

Unfolding pathway of the dimeric and tetrameric forms of phosphofructokinase-2 from Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli phosphofructokinase-2 (Pfk-2) is an oligomeric enzyme characterized by two kinds of interfaces: a monomer-monomer interface, critical for enzymatic activity, and a dimer-dimer interface formed upon tetramerization due to allosteric binding of MgATP. In this work, Pfk-2 was denatured by guanidine hydrochloride (GdnHCl) and the impact of ligand binding on the unfolding pathway of the dimeric and the tertrameric forms of the enzyme was examined. The unligated dimeric form unfolds and dissociates from 0.15 to 0.8 M GdnHCl without the accumulation of native monomers, as indicated by circular dichroism and size exclusion chromatography measurements. However, a monomeric intermediate with an expanded volume and residual secondary structure accumulates above 0.8 M GdnHCl. The dimeric fructose-6-P-enzyme complex shows a shift in the simultaneous dissociation and unfolding process to elevated GdnHCl concentrations (from 0.8 to 1.4 M) together with the expulsion of the ligand detected by intrinsic fluorescence measurements. The unfolding pathway of the tetrameric MgATP-enzyme complex shows the accumulation of a tetrameric intermediate with altered fluorescence properties at about 0.4 M GdnHCl. Above this concentration a sharp transition from tetramers to monomers, without the accumulation of either compact dimers or monomers, was detected by light scattering measurements. Indeed, the most populated species was a partially unfolded monomer about 0.7 M GdnHCl. On the basis of these results, we suggest that the subunit contacts are critical for the maintenance of the overall structure of Pfk-2 and for the binding of ligands, explaining the reported importance of the dimeric state for enzymatic activity.     

Cavin1; a Regulator of Lung Function and Macrophage Phenotype

Caveolae are cell membrane invaginations that are highly abundant in adipose tissue, endothelial cells and the lung. The formation of caveolae is dependent on the expression of various structural proteins that serve as scaffolding for these membrane invaginations. Cavin1 is a newly identified structural protein whose deficiency in mice leads to loss of caveolae formation and to development of a lipodystrophic phenotype. In this study, we sought to investigate the functional role of Cavin1 in the lung. Cavin1 deficient mice possessed dramatically altered distal lung morphology and exhibited significant physiological alterations, notably, increased lung elastance. The changes in distal lung architecture were associated with hypercellularity and the accumulation of lung macrophages. The increases in lung macrophages occurred without changes to circulating numbers of mononuclear cells and without evidence for increased proliferation. However, the increases in lung macrophages were associated with higher levels of macrophage chemotactic factors CXCL2 and CCL2 in BAL fluid from Cavin1−/− mice suggesting a possible mechanism by which these cells accumulate. In addition, lung macrophages from Cavin1−/− mice were larger and displayed measurable differences in gene expression when compared to macrophages from wild-type mice. Interestingly, macrophages were also increased in adipose tissue but not in liver, kidney or skeletal muscle from Cavin1−/− mice, and similar tissue specificity for macrophage accumulation was observed in lungs and adipose tissue from Caveolin1−/− mice. In conclusion, this study demonstrates an important role for Cavin1 in lung homeostasis and suggests that caveolae structural proteins are necessary for regulating macrophage number and phenotype in the lung.     

A Ribokinase Family Conserved Monovalent Cation Binding Site Enhances the MgATP-induced Inhibition in E.?coli Phosphofructokinase-2

The enzymatic activity of secreted phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) enzymes is associated with bacterial virulence. Although the PI-PLC active site has no obvious lid, molecular-dynamics simulations suggest that correlated loop motions may limit access to the active site, and two Pro residues, Pro²⁴⁵ and Pro²⁵⁴, are associated with these correlated motions. Whereas the region containing both Pro residues is quite variable among PI-PLCs, it shows high conservation in virulence-associated, secreted PI-PLCs that bind to the surface of cells. These regions of the protein are also associated with phosphatidylcholine binding, which enhances PI-PLC activity. In silico mutagenesis of Pro²⁴⁵ disrupts correlated motions between the two halves of Bacillus thuringiensis PI-PLC, and Pro²⁴⁵ variants show significantly reduced enzymatic activity in all assay systems. PC still enhanced activity, but not to the level of wild-type enzyme. Mutagenesis of Pro²⁵⁴ appears to stiffen the PI-PLC structure, but experimental mutations had minor effects on activity and membrane binding. With the exception of P245Y, reduced activity was not associated with reduced membrane affinity. This combination of simulations and experiments suggests that correlated motions between the two halves of PI-PLC may be more important for enzymatic activity than for vesicle binding.