Illuminating structure and acyl donor sites of a physiological transglutaminase substrate from Streptomyces mobaraensis

Transglutaminase from Streptomyces mobaraensis (MTG) has become a powerful tool to covalently and highly specifically link functional amines to glutamine donor sites of therapeutic proteins. However, details regarding the mechanism of substrate recognition and interaction of the enzyme with proteinaceous substrates still remain mostly elusive. We have determined the crystal structure of the Streptomyces papain inhibitory protein (SPI_p), a substrate of MTG, to study the influence of various substrate amino acids on positioning glutamine to the active site of MTG. SPI_p exhibits a rigid, thermo‐resistant double‐psi‐beta‐barrel fold that is stabilized by two cysteine bridges. Incorporation of biotin cadaverine identified Gln‐6 as the only amine acceptor site on SPI_p accessible for MTG. Substitution of Lys‐7 demonstrated that small and hydrophobic residues in close proximity to Gln‐6 favor MTG‐mediated modification and are likely to facilitate introduction of the substrate into the front vestibule of MTG. Moreover, exchange of various surface residues of SPI_p for arginine and glutamate/aspartate outside the glutamine donor region influences the efficiency of modification by MTG. These results suggest the occurrence of charged contact areas between MTG and the acyl donor substrates beyond the front vestibule, and pave the way for protein engineering approaches to improve the properties of artificial MTG‐substrates used in biomedical applications.     

DeltaPhage--a novel helper phage for high-valence pIX phagemid display

Phage display has been instrumental in discovery of novel binding peptides and folded domains for the past two decades. We recently reported a novel pIX phagemid display system that is characterized by a strong preference for phagemid packaging combined with low display levels, two key features that support highly efficient affinity selection. However, high diversity in selected repertoires are intimately coupled to high display levels during initial selection rounds. To incorporate this additional feature into the pIX display system, we have developed a novel helper phage termed DeltaPhage that allows for high-valence display on pIX. This was obtained by inserting two amber mutations close to the pIX start codon, but after the pVII translational stop, conditionally inactivating the helper phage encoded pIX. Until now, the general notion has been that display on pIX is dependent on wild-type complementation, making high-valence display unachievable. However, we found that DeltaPhage does facilitate high-valence pIX display when used with a non-suppressor host. Here, we report a side-by-side comparison with pIII display, and we find that this novel helper phage complements existing pIX phagemid display systems to allow both low and high-valence display, making pIX display a complete and efficient alternative to existing pIII phagemid display systems.     

Depeptidization efforts on P3-P2' alpha-ketoamide inhibitors of HCV NS3-4A serine protease: effect on HCV replicon activity

Depeptidization efforts of the P(3)-P(2) region of P(3) capped alpha-ketoamide inhibitor of HCV NS3 serine protease 1 are reported. We clearly established that N-methylation of the P(2) nitrogen and modification of the P(2)' carboxylic acid terminus were essential for activity in the replicon assay.     

Biologically Based Prediction of Empirical Nonlinearity in Lung Cancer Risk vs. Residential/ Occupational Radon Exposure

Ecologic U.S. county data suggest negative associations between residential radon exposure and lung cancer mortality (LCM) that are inconsistent with clearly positive ones revealed by individual data on underground miners. If this inconsistency is due to competing effects of induced cell killing vs. mutations in alpha-radiation exposed bronchial epithelium, then linear extrapolation from miner data may overestimate typical residential radon risks. To investigate the plausibility of this hypothesis, a biologically based “cytodynamic 2-stage” (CD2) cancer-risk model was fit to combined 1950 to 1954 age-specific person-year data on white females of age 40+ y in 2821 U.S. counties (～90% never-smokers), and on five cohorts of underground miners who never smoked, conditional on a realistic rate of alpha-radiation-induced killing of human lung cells, and on linear-no-threshold dose-response relations for both processes assumed to affect cancer risk (alpha-induced mutations and cell killing). As summarized previously (Bogen, K.T., Hum. Exper. Toxicol. 17:691-6, 1998), a good CD2 fit was obtained that involved biologically plausible parameter values and (without further optimization) also predicted inverse dose-rate effects observed in the nonsmoking miners. The present paper reports mathematical details of the CD2 model used, as well as additional modeling results involving the same combined data set. The results obtained are consistent with the hypotheses that low-level radon exposure is nonlinearly related to LCM risk, and that current linear no-threshold extrapolation models overestimate LCM risk associated with relatively low residential radon concentrations (<～200?Bq m^?3). Testing this hypothesis would require more extensive individual-level epidemiological data relating residential radon exposures to LCM than are currently available.     

Remodeling of Oxidative Energy Metabolism by Galactose Improves Glucose Handling and Metabolic Switching in Human Skeletal Muscle Cells

Cultured human myotubes have a low mitochondrial oxidative potential. This study aims to remodel energy metabolism in myotubes by replacing glucose with galactose during growth and differentiation to ultimately examine the consequences for fatty acid and glucose metabolism. Exposure to galactose showed an increased [¹⁴C]oleic acid oxidation, whereas cellular uptake of oleic acid uptake was unchanged. On the other hand, both cellular uptake and oxidation of [¹⁴C]glucose increased in myotubes exposed to galactose. In the presence of the mitochondrial uncoupler carbonylcyanide p-trifluormethoxy-phenylhydrazone (FCCP) the reserve capacity for glucose oxidation was increased in cells grown with galactose. Staining and live imaging of the cells showed that myotubes exposed to galactose had a significant increase in mitochondrial and neutral lipid content. Suppressibility of fatty acid oxidation by acute addition of glucose was increased compared to cells grown in presence of glucose. In summary, we show that cells grown in galactose were more oxidative, had increased oxidative capacity and higher mitochondrial content, and showed an increased glucose handling. Interestingly, cells exposed to galactose showed an increased suppressibility of fatty acid metabolism. Thus, galactose improved glucose metabolism and metabolic switching of myotubes, representing a cell model that may be valuable for metabolic studies related to insulin resistance and disorders involving mitochondrial impairments.     

Induktion atmungsdefekter Mutanten bei Saccharomyces cerevisiae mit asynchroner und synchronisierter Sprossung

Zusammenfassung Es werden Mutationsversuche mit Acridinorange an asynchron sprossenden und zuvor auf zweierlei Weise teilungssychronisierten Hefepopulationen beschrieben. Sie haben zu dem Ergebnis geführt, daß durch die Synchronisierung der Zellteilung gewisse physiologische Prozesse, die bei der Mutation eine Rolle spielen, nicht nur nicht gleichgeschaltet, sondern zum Teil sogar desynchronisiert werden können.

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Summary Experiments are described in which the frequency of respirationdeficient mutants in yeast populations with asynchronous and synchronized budding were tested. Acridinorange was used as mutagen. The results presented show that synchronizations used here not only fail in synchronizing some physiological processes involved in RD-mutation but tend to desynchronize the induction of RD-mutants.

     

Untersuchungen über hitzetod und Hitzeresistenz Pflanzlicher Protoplaste

Ohne ZusammenfassungMit 9 Textabbildungen.     

Zur Physiologie der Acridinorange-Wirkung Untersuchungen an Hefezellen

Ohne ZusammenfassungMit 23 Textabbildungen