Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound   Target Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound

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Query: EC:3.1.31.1 (micrococcal nuclease)
2,818 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We studied the urea-induced unfolding transition of staphylococcal nuclease (SNase) and its five proline mutants (P47A, P47T, P117G, P47T/P117G, and P47A/P117G) [corrected] by peptide and aromatic circular dichroism and aromatic absorption spectroscopy at equilibrium and the refolding-unfolding kinetics of the proteins by stopped-flow circular dichroism and stopped-flow absorption techniques. Recent studies have revealed that the cis/trans isomerizations about the Pro47 and Pro117 peptide bonds of SNase occur not only in the unfolded state but also in the native state. The mutational effects on the stability and the refolding-unfolding kinetics of SNase were, however, remarkably different between the two sites. The substitution of Ala or Thr for Pro47 neither changed the stability nor affected the refolding-unfolding kinetics of SNase, whereas the substitution of Gly for Pro117 increased the protein stability by 1.2 kcal/mol (pH 7.0 and 20 degrees C) and affected the kinetics. These results have been attributed to the high flexibility of the loop around Pro47, which has been revealed by molecular dynamics simulations of native SNase. Under every condition studied, cooperative refolding-unfolding kinetics of SNase were observed. Refolding of wild-type SNase was represented by two urea concentration-dependent fast phases and a urea concentration-independent slow phase. The double mutant (P47T/P117G) [corrected] of SNase still showed multiphasic refolding kinetics that involved two urea concentration-independent slow phases, suggesting that isomerization of proline residues other than Pro47 and Pro117 may occur in the unfolded state of the mutant. Two phases were observed in the unfolding of the wild-type and mutant proteins that contained Pro117, a fast phase corresponding to the unfolding of the trans isomer and a slow phase corresponding to that of the cis isomer. On the basis of these results, the folding scheme of SNase is discussed.
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PMID:Kinetic folding and cis/trans prolyl isomerization of staphylococcal nuclease. A study by stopped-flow absorption, stopped-flow circular dichroism, and molecular dynamics simulations. 917 70

A total of fifty single site surface phenylalanine substitution mutants have been made in the model protein staphylococcal nuclease. The fifty residues that were replaced with phenylalanine were chosen to give a broad sampling of solvent accessibility, secondary structure, and backbone conformations. The change in the stability of each mutant protein relative to wild type was measured by guanidine hydrochloride denaturation. These results were compared to previous results obtained when these same sites were substituted with an alanine and a glycine. By this means, changes in the stability due to the loss of interactions of the wild-type side chain can be separated from the effects of introducing the bulky, hydrophobic phenylalanine in these solvent-exposed positions. In general, our results agree with the conventional wisdom that placing a hydrophobic residue in a solvent-exposed position is destabilizing in most cases, but less destabilizing than most changes in the hydrophobic core of the protein. However, the degree to which a hydrophobic surface substitution destabilizes or stabilizes a globular protein is highly context-dependent, with some mutations being as destabilizing as those in the core. This indicates that steric and packing considerations are also important on the surface of a globular protein but generally are not as important as in the interior. No evidence for the widespread occurrence of the so-called reverse hydrophobic effect at solvent-exposed sites was found. In addition, this survey of numerous sites suggests that previous measurements of alpha-helix "propensities" often seriously underestimate the importance of the environment of the side chain.
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PMID:Stability effects of increasing the hydrophobicity of solvent-exposed side chains in staphylococcal nuclease. 957 80

We have previously shown the existence of two DNA-binding sites on the globular domain of H5 (termed GH5), both of which are required for nucleosome organisation, as judged by the protection of a 166 bp chromatosome intermediate during micrococcal nuclease digestion of chromatin. This supports a model in which GH5 contacts two duplexes on the nucleosome. However, studies of a nucleosome assembled on the 5 S rRNA gene have argued against the requirement for two DNA-binding sites for chromatosome protection, which has implications for the role of linker histones. We have used this proposed difference in the requirement for a second site on the globular domain in the two models as a means of investigating whether bulk and reconstituted 5 S nucleosomes are indeed fundamentally different. GH5 protects a 166 bp chromatosome in both "bulk" and 5 S systems, and in both cases protection is abolished when all four basic residues in site II are replaced by alanine. Binding to four-way DNA junctions, which present a pair of juxtaposed duplexes, is also abolished. Single mutations of the basic residues did not abolish chromatosome protection in either system, or binding to four-way junctions, suggesting that the residues function as a cluster. Both bulk and 5 S nucleosomes thus require a functional second DNA-binding site on GH5 in order to bind properly to the nucleosome. This is likely to reflect a similar mode of binding in each case, in which two DNA duplexes are contacted in the nucleosome. There is no indication from these experiments that linker histones bind fundamentally differently to 5 S and bulk nucleosomes.
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PMID:Two DNA-binding sites on the globular domain of histone H5 are required for binding to both bulk and 5 S reconstituted nucleosomes. 1107 7

Single site mutations that reverse or neutralize a surface charge were made at 22 ionizable residues in staphylococcal nuclease. Unfolding free energies were obtained by guanidine hydrochloride denaturation. These data, in conjunction with previously obtained stabilities of the corresponding alanine mutants, unequivocally show that the dominant contribution to stability for virtually all of the wild-type side chains examined is the electrostatic effect associated with each residue's charged group. With only a few exceptions, these charges stabilize the native state, with an average loss of 0.5 kcal/mol of stability upon neutralization of a charge. When the charge is reversed, the average destabilization is doubled. Structure-based calculations of electrostatic free energy with the continuum method based on the finite difference solution to the linearized Poisson-Boltzmann equation reproduce the observed energetics when the polarizability in the protein interior is represented with a dielectric constant of 20. However, in some cases, large differences are found, giving insight into possible areas for improvement of the calculations. In particular, it appears that the assumptions made in the calculations about the absence of electrostatic interactions in the denatured state and the energetic consequences of dynamic fluctuations in the native state will have to be further explored.
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PMID:Changes in stability upon charge reversal and neutralization substitution in staphylococcal nuclease are dominated by favorable electrostatic effects. 1254 34

Understanding the regulation of physiological processes requires detailed knowledge of the recognition of substrates by enzymes. One of the most productive model systems for the study of enzyme-substrate interactions is the serine protease family; however, most studies of protease action have used small substrates that contain an activated, non-natural scissile bond. Because few kinetic or structural studies have used protein substrates, the physiologically relevant target of most proteases, it seems likely that important mechanisms of substrate recognition and processing by proteases have not yet been fully elucidated. Consistent with this hypothesis, we have observed that K(m) values for protein substrates are reduced as much as 200-15000-fold relative to those of analogous peptide substrates. Here we examine the thermodynamic consequences of interactions between proteases and their substrates using staphylococcal nuclease (SNase) and SNase variants as model protein substrates. We have obtained values for enthalpy, entropy, and K(d) for binding of proteins and peptides by the nonspecific protease trypsin and the highly specific protease urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA). To avoid cleavage of substrates during these measurements, we used inactive variants of trypsin and u-PA whose catalytic serine S195 had been replaced by alanine. Differences in the K(d) values for binding of protein and peptide substrates closely approximate the large differences observed in the corresponding K(m) values. Improved binding of protein substrates is due to decreased enthalpy, and this effect is pronounced for the selective protease u-PA. Fundamental differences in recognition of analogous protein and peptide substrates may have influenced the evolution of protease specificity.
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PMID:Binding of nonphysiological protein and peptide substrates to proteases: differences between urokinase-type plasminogen activator and trypsin and contributions to the evolution of regulated proteolysis. 1273 81

Lactococcus lactis, a food-grade nonpathogenic lactic acid bacterium, is a good candidate for the production of heterologous proteins of therapeutic interest. We examined host factors that affect secretion of heterologous proteins in L. lactis. Random insertional mutagenesis was performed with L. lactis strain MG1363 carrying a staphylococcal nuclease (Nuc) reporter cassette in its chromosome. This cassette encodes a fusion protein between the signal peptide of the Usp45 lactococcal protein and the mature moiety of a truncated form of Nuc (NucT). The Nuc secretion efficiency (secreted NucT versus total NucT) from this construct is low in L. lactis (approximately 40%). Twenty mutants affected in NucT production and/or in secretion capacity were selected and identified. In these mutants, several independent insertions mapped in the dltA gene (involved in D-alanine transfer in lipoteichoic acids) and resulted in a NucT secretion defect. Characterization of the dltA mutant phenotype with respect to NucT secretion revealed that it is involved in a late secretion stage by causing mature NucT entrapment at the cell surface.
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PMID:Influence of lipoteichoic acid D-alanylation on protein secretion in Lactococcus lactis as revealed by random mutagenesis. 1500 84

The relation of rotational correlation times to adiabatic rotational barriers for alanine methyl groups in staphylococcal nuclease (SNase) is investigated. The hypothesis that methyl rotational barriers may be useful probes of local packing in proteins is supported by an analysis of ten X-ray crystal structures of SNase mutants. The barrier heights are consistent across a set of ten structures of a native SNase and mutants containing single-point mutations or single or double insertions, most in a ternary SNase complex. The barriers for different methyls have a range of 7.5 kcal/mol, which at 300 K would correspond to a five-order-of-magnitude range in correlation time. It is demonstrated that adiabatic rotational barriers can fluctuate significantly during an MD simulation of hydrated SNase, but that a Boltzmann weighted average is predictive of rotational correlation times determined from correlation functions. Even if a given methyl is on average quite sterically hindered, infrequently sampled low-barrier conformations may dominate the Boltzmann distribution. This result is consistent with the observed uniformity of NMR correlation times for (13)C-labeled methyls. The methyl barriers in simulation fluctuate on multiple time scales, which can make the precise relationship between methyl rotational correlation time and methyl rotation barriers complicated. The implications of these issues for the interpretation of correlation times determined from NMR and simulation are discussed.
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PMID:Correlation times and adiabatic barriers for methyl rotation in SNase. 1521 36

PP1 (protein phosphatase-1) is a serine/threonine phosphatase involved in mitosis exit and chromosome decondensation. In the present study, we characterize the subcellular and subnuclear localization of PNUTS (PP1 nuclear targeting subunit), a nuclear regulatory subunit of PP1, and report a stimulatory role of PNUTS in the decondensation of prometaphase chromosomes in two in vitro systems. In interphase, PNUTS co-fractionates, together with a fraction of nuclear PP1, primarily with micrococcal nuclease-soluble chromatin. Immunofluorescence analysis shows that PNUTS is targeted to the reforming nuclei in telophase following the assembly of nuclear membranes and concomitantly with chromatin decondensation. In interphase cytosolic extract, ATP-dependent decondensation of prometaphase chromosomes is blocked by PP1-specific inhibitors. In contrast, a recombinant PNUTS(309-691) fragment accelerates chromosome decondensation. This decondensation-promoting activity requires the consensus RVXF PP1-binding motif of PNUTS, whereas a secondary, inhibitory PP1-binding site is dispensable. In a defined buffer system, PNUTS(309-691) also elicits decondensation in an exogenous PP1-dependent manner and, as in the cytosolic extract, a W401A (Thr401-->Ala) mutation that destroys PP1 binding abolishes this activity. The results illustrate an involvement of the PNUTS:PP1 holoenzyme in chromosome decondensation in vitro and argue that PNUTS functions as a PP1-targeting subunit in this process. We hypothesize that targeting of PNUTS to reforming nuclei in telophase may be a part of a signalling event promoting chromatin decondensation as cells re-enter interphase.
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PMID:PNUTS enhances in vitro chromosome decondensation in a PP1-dependent manner. 1590 95

Recently we performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on the folding of the hairpin peptide DTVKLMYKGQPMTFR from staphylococcal nuclease in explicit water. We found that the peptide folds into a hairpin conformation with native and nonnative hydrogen-bonding patterns. In all the folding events observed in the folding of the hairpin peptide, loop formation involving the region YKGQP was an important event. In order to trace the origins of the loop propensity of the sequence YKGQP, we performed MD simulations on the sequence starting from extended, polyproline II and native type I' turn conformations for a total simulation length of 300 ns, using the GROMOS96 force field under constant volume and temperature (NVT) conditions. The free-energy landscape of the peptide YKGQP shows minima corresponding to loop conformation with Tyr and Pro side-chain association, turn and extended conformational forms, with modest free-energy barriers separating the minima. To elucidate the role of Gly in facilitating loop formation, we also performed MD simulations of the mutated peptide YKAQP (Gly --> Ala mutation) under similar conditions starting from polyproline II conformation for 100 ns. Two minima corresponding to bend/turn and extended conformations were observed in the free-energy landscape for the peptide YKAQP. The free-energy barrier between the minima in the free-energy landscape of the peptide YKAQP was also modest. Loop conformation is largely sampled by the YKGQP peptide, while extended conformation is largely sampled by the YKAQP peptide. We also explain why the YKGQP sequence samples type II turn conformation in these simulations, whereas the sequence as part of the hairpin peptide DTVKLMYKGQPMTFR samples type I' turn conformation both in the X-ray crystal structure and in our earlier simulations on the folding of the hairpin peptide. We discuss the implications of our results to the folding of the staphylococcal nuclease.
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PMID:Loop propensity of the sequence YKGQP from staphylococcal nuclease: implications for the folding of nuclease. 1778 22

Previously we reported that Lys, Asp, and Glu residues at positions 66 and 92 in staphylococcal nuclease (SNase) titrate with pK(a) values shifted by up to 5 pK(a) units in the direction that promotes the neutral state. In contrast, the internal Lys-38 in SNase titrates with a normal pK(a). The crystal structure of the L38K variant shows that the side chain of Lys-38 is buried. The ionizable moiety is approximately 7 A from solvent and ion paired with Glu-122. This suggests that the pK(a) value of Lys-38 is normal because the energetic penalty for dehydration is offset by a favorable Coulomb interaction. However, the pK(a) of Lys-38 was also normal when Glu-122 was replaced with Gln or with Ala. Continuum electrostatics calculations were unable to reproduce the pK(a) of Lys-38 unless the protein was treated with an artificially high dielectric constant, consistent with structural reorganization being responsible for the normal pK(a) value of Lys-38. This reorganization must be local because circular dichroism and NMR spectroscopy indicate that the L38K protein is native-like under all conditions studied. In molecular dynamics simulations, the ion pair between Lys-38 and Glu-122 is unstable. The simulations show that a minor rearrangement of a loop is sufficient to allow penetration of water to the amino moiety of Lys-38. This illustrates both the important roles of local flexibility and water penetration as determinants of pK(a) values of ionizable groups buried near the protein-water interface, and the challenges faced by structure-based pK(a) calculations in reproducing these effects.
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PMID:A buried lysine that titrates with a normal pKa: role of conformational flexibility at the protein-water interface as a determinant of pKa values. 1836 93


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