Surface Loop (surface + loop)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Molecular modeling of the dimeric structure of human lipoprotein lipase and functional studies of the carboxyl-terminal domain

FEBS JOURNAL, Issue 18 2002
Yoko Kobayashi
Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) plays a key role in lipid metabolism. Molecular modeling of dimeric LPL was carried out using insight ii based upon the crystal structures of human, porcine, and horse pancreatic lipase. The dimeric model reveals a saddle-shaped structure and the key heparin-binding residues in the amino-terminal domain located on the top of this saddle. The models of two dimeric conformations , a closed, inactive form and an open, active form , differ with respect to how surface-loop positions affect substrate access to the catalytic site. In the closed form, the surface loop covers the catalytic site, which becomes inaccessible to solvent. Large conformational changes in the open form, especially in the loop and carboxyl-terminal domain, allow substrate access to the active site. To dissect the structure,function relationships of the LPL carboxyl-terminal domain, several residues predicted by the model structure to be essential for the functions of heparin binding and substrate recognition were mutagenized. Arg405 plays an important role in heparin binding in the active dimer. Lys413/Lys414 or Lys414 regulates heparin affinity in both monomeric and dimeric forms. To evaluate the prediction that LPL forms a homodimer in a ,head-to-tail' orientation, two inactive LPL mutants , a catalytic site mutant (S132T) and a substrate-recognition mutant (W390A/W393A/W394A) , were cotransfected into COS7 cells. Lipase activity could be recovered only when heterodimerization occurred in a head-to-tail orientation. After cotransfection, 50% of the wild-type lipase activity was recovered, indicating that lipase activity is determined by the interaction between the catalytic site on one subunit and the substrate-recognition site on the other. [source]


Factor IX mutants with enhanced catalytic activity

JOURNAL OF THROMBOSIS AND HAEMOSTASIS, Issue 10 2009
R. HARTMANN
Summary.,Background:,Activated coagulation factor IX (FIXa) has low catalytic activity towards its physiologic substrate FX when activated FVIII (FVIIIa) is absent. One reason for this is that the FIX surface loop 99 stabilizes FIXa in a conformation that limits access of FX to the active site. Objectives:,To investigate the effect of mutations in loop 99 and in the active site on FIXa activity with and without FVIIIa. Methods:,Five full-length FIX mutants with amino acid exchanges in the catalytic domain of FIX were constructed and characterized by measuring their activity in FX activation in model systems and in plasma. Results and Conclusions:,The mutants showed no or marginally improved catalytic properties in FX activation by the intrinsic tenase complex (FIXa,FVIIIa,Ca2+,phospholipid). The combination of mutations Y94F and K98T hardly affected FX activation in the presence of FVIIIa, but yielded a FIX molecule that, in FIX-depleted plasma, had , 2.5-fold higher clotting activity and , 3.5-fold higher activity in a thrombin generation assay than plasma-derived FIX (pdFIX). Two FIXa mutants had considerably increased activities towards FX in the absence of FVIIIa. FIXa-Y94F/K98T/Y177F/I213V/E219G (FIXa-L) and FIXa-Y94F/A95aK/K98T/Y177F/I213V/E219G (FIXa-M) activated FX with catalytic efficiencies (kcat/Km) that, as compared with activated pdFIX, were increased 17-fold and six-fold, respectively. However, in plasma, their zymogen forms performed similarly to pdFIX. This indicates that the introduced mutations not only affected the activity of FIXa but may have also influenced the lifetime of the activated mutant molecules in plasma by modifying their activation and/or inhibition rates. [source]


Structure of a yellow lupin pathogenesis-related PR-­10 protein belonging to a novel subclass

ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 1 2005
Oliwia Pasternak
Pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins of class 10 are abundant in higher plants. Some of these proteins are induced under stress conditions as part of the plant defence mechanism. Other homologues are developmentally regulated and their expression varies in different plant organs. The PR-10 proteins are encoded by multigene families, have a weight of about 17,kDa and are found in the cytosol. In yellow lupin, nine different homologues have been identified and divided into two subclasses, LlPR-10.1 and LlPR-10.2. Within each subclass the sequence identity is about 75,91%, while across the subclasses it is only 59,60%. Here, the crystal structure of a yellow lupin PR-10 protein from the second subclass, LlPR-­10.2A, is presented. The structure was solved by molecular replacement and refined to R = 0.205 using 1.9,Å resolution data. The general fold of LlPR-10.2A resembles that of the other PR-10 proteins and consists of a long C-­terminal ,-helix surrounded by a seven-stranded antiparallel ,-sheet, with two shorter ,-helices located between strands ,1 and ,2. The most variable part of the structure, the C-terminal helix, is strongly kinked towards the ,-sheet core in both LlPR-10.2A molecules present in the asymmetric unit. This unexpected feature reduces the size of the hydrophobic cavity observed in other PR-10 proteins that is reported to be the ligand-binding site. As in other PR-10 structures, a surface loop located near the entrance to the cavity shows very high structural conservation and stability despite the high glycine content in its sequence. [source]


Structure of the T109S mutant of Escherichia coli dihydroorotase complexed with the inhibitor 5-­fluoroorotate: catalytic activity is reflected by the crystal form

ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION F (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2007
Mihwa Lee
Crystals of a single-point mutant (T109S) of Escherichia coli dihydroorotase (DHOase) with diminished activity grown in the presence of l -dihydroorotate (l -DHO) are tetragonal, with a monomer in the asymmetric unit. These crystals are extremely unstable and disintegrate shortly after formation, which is followed by the growth of orthorhombic crystals from the remnants of the tetragonal crystals or at new nucleation sites. Orthorhombic crystals, for which a structure has previously been reported [Thoden et al. (2001), Biochemistry, 40, 6989,6997; Lee et al. (2005), J. Mol. Biol.348, 523,533], contain a dimer of DHOase in the asymmetric unit; the active site of one monomer contains the substrate N -carbamyl- l -aspartate (l -CA-asp) and the active site of the other monomer contains the product of the reaction, l -DHO. In the subunit with l -­DHO in the active site, a surface loop (residues 105,115) is `open'. In the other subunit, with l -CA-asp in the active site, the loop folds inwards, forming specific hydrogen bonds from the loop to the l -CA-asp. The tetragonal crystal form can be stabilized by crystallization in the presence of the inhibitor 5-fluoroorotate (FOA), a product (l -DHO) mimic. Crystals of the complex of T109S DHOase with FOA are tetragonal, space group P41212, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 72.6, c = 176.1,Å. The structure has been refined to R and Rfree values of 0.218 and 0.257, despite severe anisotropy of the diffraction. In this structure, the flexible loops are both in the `open' conformation, which is consistent with FOA, like l -­DHO, binding at both sites. The behaviour of the T109S mutant crystals of DHOase in the presence of l -DHO is explained by initial binding of l -DHO to both subunits, followed by slow conversion to l -CA-asp, with consequent movement of the flexible loop and dissolution of the crystals. Orthorhombic crystals are then able to grow in the presence of l -DHO and l -CA-asp. [source]


Active TEM-1 ,-lactamase mutants with random peptides inserted in three contiguous surface loops

PROTEIN SCIENCE, Issue 10 2006
Pascale Mathonet
Abstract Engineering of alternative binding sites on the surface of an enzyme while preserving the enzymatic activity would offer new opportunities for controlling the activity by binding of non-natural ligands. Loops and turns are the natural substructures in which binding sites might be engineered with this purpose. We have genetically inserted random peptide sequences into three relatively rigid and contiguous loops of the TEM-1 ,-lactamase and assessed the tolerance to insertion by the percentage of active mutants. Our results indicate that tolerance to insertion could not be correlated to tolerance to mutagenesis. A turn between two ,-strands bordering the active site was observed to be tolerant to random mutagenesis but not to insertions. Two rigid loops comprising rather well-conserved amino acid residues tolerated insertions, although with some constraints. Insertions between the N-terminal helix and the first ,-strand generated active libraries if cysteine residues were included at both ends of the insert, suggesting the requirement for a stabilizing disulfide bridge. Random sequences were relatively well accommodated within the loop connecting the final ,-strand to the C-terminal helix, particularly if the wild-type residue was retained at one of the loops' end. This suggests two strategies for increasing the percentage of active mutants in insertion libraries. The amino acid distribution in the engineered loops was analyzed and found to be less biased against hydrophobic residues than in natural medium-sized loops. The combination of these activity-selected libraries generated a huge library containing active hybrid enzymes with all three loops modified. [source]


Structure of a bovine secretory signalling glycoprotein (SPC-40) at 2.1,Å resolution

ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 9 2006
Janesh Kumar
A recently discovered new class of 40,kDa glycoproteins forms a major component of the secretory proteins in the dry secretions of non-lactating animals. These proteins are implicated as protective signalling factors that determine which cells are to survive during the processes of drastic tissue remodelling. In order to understand its role in the remodelling of mammary glands, the detailed three-dimensional structure of the bovine signalling glycoprotein (SPC-40) has been determined using X-ray crystallography. SPC-40 was purified from bovine dry secretions and crystallized using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method. The crystals belong to the orthorhombic space group P212121, with unit-cell parameters a = 62.6, b = 67.4, c = 106.9,Å. The protein was also cloned in order to determine its complete amino-acid sequence. Its three-dimensional structure has been determined using data to 2.1,Å resolution. The amino-acid sequence determination of SPC-40 reveals two potential N-glycosylation sites at Asn39 and Asn345, but electron density for a glycan chain was only present at Asn39. The protein adopts a conformation with the classical (,/,)8 -barrel fold of triosephosphate isomerase (TIM barrel; residues 1,237 and 310,360) with the insertion of a small ,+, domain (residues 240,307) similar to that observed in chitinases. However, the substitution of Leu for Glu in the consensus catalytic sequence in SPC-40 caused a loss of chitinase activity. Furthermore, the chitin-binding groove in SPC-40 is considerably distorted owing to unfavourable conformations of several residues, including Trp78, Tyr120, Asp186 and Arg242. Three surface loops, His188,His197, Phe202,Arg212 and Tyr244,Pro260, have exceptionally high B factors, suggesting large-scale flexibility. Fluorescence studies indicate that various sugars bind to SPC-40 with low affinities. [source]


The structure of PhaZ7 at atomic (1.2,Å) resolution reveals details of the active site and suggests a substrate-binding mode

ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION F (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2010
Sachin Wakadkar
Poly-(R)-hydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are bacterial polyesters that are degraded by a group of enzymes known as PHA depolymerases. Paucimonas lemoignei PhaZ7 depolymerase is the only extracellular depolymerase that has been described as being active towards amorphous PHAs. A previously determined crystal structure of PhaZ7 revealed an ,/,-hydrolase fold and a Ser-His-Asp catalytic triad. In order to address questions regarding the catalytic mechanism and substrate binding, the atomic resolution structure of PhaZ7 was determined after cocrystallization with the protease inhibitor PMSF. The reported structure has the highest resolution (1.2,Å) of currently known depolymerase structures and shows a sulfur dioxide molecule covalently attached to the active-site residue Ser136. Structural comparison with the free PhaZ7 structure (1.45,Å resolution) revealed no major changes in the active site, suggesting a preformed catalytic triad. The oxyanion hole was found to be formed by the amide groups of Met137 and Asn49. Nine well ordered water molecules were located in the active site. Manual docking of a substrate trimer showed that the positions of these water molecules coincide well with the substrate atoms. It is proposed that these water molecules are displaced upon binding of the substrate. Furthermore, conformational changes were identified after comparison with a previously determined PhaZ7 dimer structure in a different space group. The changes were located in surface loops involved in dimer formation, indicating some flexibility of these loops and their possible involvement in polyester binding. [source]