Influence of proline on the thermostability of the active site and membrane arrangement of transmembrane proteins

Proline residues play a fundamental and subtle role in the dynamics, structure, and function in many membrane proteins. Temperature derivative spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry have been used to determine the effect of proline substitution in the structural stability of the active site and transmembrane arrangement of bacteriorhodopsin. We have analyzed the Pro-to-Ala mutation for the helix-embedded prolines Pro⁵⁰, Pro⁹¹, and Pro¹⁸⁶ in the native membrane environment. This information has been complemented with the analysis of the respective crystallographic structures by the FoldX force field. Differential scanning calorimetry allowed us to determine distorted membrane arrangement for P50A and P186A. The protein stability was severely affected for P186A and P91A. In the case of Pro⁹¹, a single point mutation is capable of strongly slowing down the conformational diffusion along the denaturation coordinate, becoming a barrier-free downhill process above 371 K. Temperature derivative spectroscopy, applied for first time to study thermal stability of proteins, has been used to monitor the stability of the active site of bacteriorhodopsin. The mutation of Pro⁹¹ and Pro¹⁸⁶ showed the most striking effects on the retinal binding pocket. These residues are the Pro in closer contact to the active site (activation energies for retinal release of 60.1 and 76.8 kcal/mol, respectively, compared to 115.8 kcal/mol for WT). FoldX analysis of the protein crystal structures indicates that the Pro-to-Ala mutations have both local and long-range effects on the structural stability of residues involved in the architecture of the protein and the active site and in the proton pumping function. Thus, this study provides a complete overview of the substitution effect of helix-embedded prolines in the thermodynamic and dynamic stability of a membrane protein, also related to its structure and function.