Role of the buried glutamate in the alpha-helical coiled coil domain of the macrophage scavenger receptor

The macrophage scavenger receptor exhibits a pH-dependent conformational change around the carboxy-terminal half of the alpha-helical coiled coil domain, which has a representative amino acid sequence of a (defgabc)n heptad. We previously demonstrated that a peptide corresponding to this region formed a random coil structure at pH 7 and an alpha-helical coiled coil structure at pH 5 Suzuki, K., Doi, T., Imanishi, T., Kodama, T., and Tanaka, T. (1997) Biochemistry 36, 15140-15146]. To determine the amino acid responsible for the conformational change, we prepared several peptides in which the acidic amino acids were replaced with neutral amino acids. Analyses of their structures by circular dichroism and sedimentation equilibrium gave the result that the presence of Glu242 at the d position was sufficient to induce the pH-dependent conformational change of the alpha-helical coiled coil domain. Furthermore, we substituted a Glu residue for the Ile residue at the d or a position of a de novo designed peptide (IEKKIEA)4, which forms a highly stable triple-stranded coiled coil. These peptides exhibited a pH-dependent conformational change similar to that of the scavenger receptor. Therefore, we conclude that a buried Glu residue in the hydrophobic core of a triple-stranded coiled coil has the potential to induce the pH-dependent conformational change. This finding makes it possible to elucidate the functions of natural proteins and to create a de novo protein designed to undergo a pH-dependent conformational change.