二硫苏糖醇对叶绿体H~＋－ATP酶复合体CF_0的修饰

ＤＴＴ（二流苏糖醇）可解除ＴＰＴ（氯化三苯锡）对叶绿体光合磷酸化的抑制、减弱ＴＰＴ对类囊体跨膜△ｐＨ的抑制和对类囊体腔内质子外流的促进。由于ＴＰＴ较专一作用于ＣＦ０,推测ＣＦ０受ＤＴＴ修饰。这从ＤＴＴ可消除ＴＰＴ对去除ＣＦ１的类囊体残缺膜△ｐＨ的重建和对残缺膜光下收缩的促进得到进一步的证明。ＤＴＴ的作用是还原二硫键成为游离的巯基,因而ＣＦ０可能含有二硫键。从光下ＤＴＴ或暗中ＤＴＴ处理残缺膜对ＴＰＴ作用的影响,可以看到ＤＴＴ对ＣＦ０的修饰是需光的,类囊体膜在光下发生的构象变化,使ＣＦ０的二硫键暴露而被ＤＴＴ修饰。ＣＦ０的二硫键较ＣＦ１γ的二硫键更快、更敏感地被ＤＴＴ所修饰。     

三硝基甲苯对大鼠晶状体中可溶性蛋白质、巯基及二硫键含量的影响

我们采用三硝基甲苯（ＴＮＴ）与大鼠晶状体体外培养的方法,动态观察了晶状体中可溶性蛋白质、非蛋白质巯基、蛋白质巯基、蛋白质结合巯基及二硫键含量的变化,发现随着三硝基甲苯作用时间的延长,可溶性蛋白质、非蛋白质巯基及蛋白质巯基均减少,蛋白质结合巯基及二硫键交联的蛋白质含量增加,其中可溶性蛋白质、非蛋白质巯基及二硫键含量的变化皆达到了统计学上显著意义水平（Ｐ＜０．０５）。     

蛋白质中二硫键附近肽段识别规律研究

本文对蛋白质中二硫键附近的残基进行了计算机统计分析,结果发现平行和反平行残基间存在着特异的配对规律。这种残基间的相互作用或识别,可能与蛋白质折叠过程中正确地形成二硫键有关。该结果有助于蛋白质工程设计。     

Determination of the disulfide bond pairings in human tissue factor pathway inhibitor purified fromEscherichia coli

The disulfide bond assignments of human alanyl tissue factor pathway inhibitor purified fromEscherichia coli have been determined. This inhibitor of the extrinsic blood coagulation pathway possesses three Kunitz-type inhibitor domains, each containing three disulfide bonds. The disulfide bond pairings in domains 1 and 3 were determined by amino acid sequencing and mass spectrometry of peptides derived from a thermolysin digest. However, thermolysin digestion did not cleave any peptide bonds within domain 2. The disulfide bond pairings in domain 2 were determined by isolating it from the thermolysin treatment and subsequently cleaving it with pepsin and trypsin into peptides which yielded the three disulfide bond pairings in this domain. These results demonstrate that the disulfide pairings in each of the three domains of human tissue factor pathway inhibitor purified fromEscherichia coli are homologous to each other and also to those in bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor.     

Selective dimerization of cysteines in glycopeptides and phosphopeptides

Summary To study the influence of phosphorylation and oxidation on the repeat domains of human Tau protein, we faced the challenge to selectively dimerize two cysteine-containing peptides in the presence of a nearby phosphate group. To this end, we were able to demonstrate the utility of a selective dimerization approach by forming disulfide bonds in unprotected phosphopeptides and extended the methodology to unprotected glycopeptides. Activation of one cysteine of a peptide chain with 2,2-dithiodipyridine and coupling this thiopyridyl-peptide to another peptide chain, containing an unprotected cysteine residue, yielded the mixed dimers in high purities and reasonable yields. Phosphate or sugar side chains on either peptide component remained unaffected during the activation and dimerization processes. While for mixed dimers the activated peptides were isolated by chromatography, homodimers were obtained by a simple one-pot reaction after 1 h. We demonstrate that cysteines can be dimerized in unprotected phosphopeptides and glycopeptides, without any side reactions affecting these posttranslational modifications.Abbreviations DCM dichloromethane - DMF N,N-dimethylformamide - DTP 2,2-dithiodipyridine - Fmoc 9-fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl - HPLC high-performance liquid chromatography - MALDI matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization - MS mass spectrometry - NFT neurofibrillary tangles - PHF paired helical filaments - PKC protein kinase C - RP reversed phase - human Tau protein - TFA trifluoroacetic acid Parts of this paper were presented at the 24th European Peptide Symposium in Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K., September 8–13, 1996.     

Intrachain disulfide bond in the core hinge region of human IgG4.

IgG is a tetrameric protein composed of two copies each of the light and heavy chains. The four-chain structure is maintained by strong noncovalent interactions between the amino-terminal half of pairs of heavy-light chains and between the carboxyl-terminal regions of the two heavy chains. In addition, interchain disulfide bonds link each heavy-light chain and also link the paired heavy chains. An engineered human IgG4 specific for human tumor necrosis factor-alpha (CDP571) is similar to human myeloma IgG4 in that it is secreted as both disulfide bonded tetramers (approximately 75% of the total amount of IgG) and as tetramers composed of nondisulfide bonded half-IgG4 (heavy chain disulfide bonded to light chain) molecules. However, when CDP571 was genetically engineered with a proline at residue 229 of the core hinge region rather than serine, CDP571 (S229P), or with an IgG1 rather than IgG4 hinge region, CDP571(gamma 1), only trace amounts of nondisulfide bonded half-IgG tetramers were observed. Trypsin digest reversephase HPLC peptide mapping studies of CDP571 and CDP571(gamma 1) with on-line electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy supplemented with Edman sequencing identified the chemical factor preventing inter-heavy chain disulfide bond formation between half-IgG molecules: the two cysteines in the IgG4 and IgG1 core hinge region (CPSCP and CPPCP, respectively) are capable of forming an intrachain disulfide bond. Conformational modeling studies on cyclic disulfide bonded CPSCP and CPPCP peptides yielded energy ranges for the low-energy conformations of 31-33 kcal/mol and 40-42 kcal/mol, respectively. In addition, higher torsion and angle bending energies were observed for the CPPCP peptide due to backbone constraints caused by the extra proline. These modeling results suggest a reason why a larger fraction of intrachain bonds are observed in IgG4 rather than IgG1 molecules: the serine in the core hinge region of IgG4 allows more hinge region flexibility than the proline of IgG1 and thus may permit formation of a stable intrachain disulfide bond more readily.     

Characterization of a quaternary-structured folding intermediate of an antibody Fab-fragment.

Antibody folding is a complex process comprising folding and association reactions. Although it is usually difficult to characterize kinetic folding intermediates, in the case of the antibody Fab fragment, domain-domain interactions lead to a rate-limiting step of folding, thus accumulating folding intermediates at a late step of folding. Here, we analyzed a late folding intermediate of the Fab fragment of the monoclonal antibody MAK 33 from mouse (kappa/IgG1). As a strategy for accumulation of this intermediate we used partial denaturation of the native Fab by guanidinium chloride. This denaturation intermediate, which can be populated to about 90%, is indistinguishable from a late-folding intermediate with respect to denaturation and renaturation kinetics. The spectroscopic analysis reveals a native-like secondary structure of this intermediate with aromatic side chains only slightly more solvent exposed than in the native state. The respective partner domains are weekly associated. From these data we conclude that the intramolecular association of the two chains during folding, with all domains in a native-like structure, follows a two-step mechanism. In this mechanism, presumably hydrophobic interactions are followed by rearrangements leading to the exact complementarity of the contact sites of the respective domains.     

Energetic approach to the folding of alpha/beta barrels

The folding of a polypeptide into a parallel (alpha/beta)8 barrel (which is also called a circularly permuted beta 8 alpha 8 barrel) has been investigated in terms of energy minimization. According to the arrangement of hydrogen bonds between two neighboring beta-strands of the central barrel therein, such an alpha/beta barrel structure can be folded into six different types: (1) left-tilted, left-handed crossover; (2) left-tilted, right-handed crossover; (3) nontilted, left-handed crossover; (4) nontilted, right-handed crossover; (5) right-tilted, left-handed crossover; and (6) right-tilted, right-handed crossover. Here "tilt" refers to the orientational relation of the beta-strands to the axis of the central beta-barrel, and "crossover" to the beta alpha beta folding connection feature of the parallel beta-barrel. It has been found that the right-tilted, right-handed crossover alpha/beta barrel possesses much lower energy than the other five types of alpha/beta barrels, elucidating why the observed alpha/beta barrels in proteins always assume the form of right tilt and right-handed crossover connection. As observed, the beta-strands in the energy-minimized right-tilted, right-handed crossover (alpha/beta)8-barrel are of strong right-handed twist. The value of root-mean-square fits also indicates that the central barrel contained in the lowest energy (alpha/beta)8 structure thus found coincides very well with the observed 8-stranded parallel beta-barrel in triose phosphate isomerase (TIM). Furthermore, an energetic analysis has been made demonstrating why the right-tilt, right-handed crossover barrel is the most stable structure. Our calculations and analysis support the principle that it is possible to account for the main features of frequently occurring folding patterns in proteins by means of conformational energy calculations even for very complicated structures such as (alpha/beta)8 barrels.