Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Mercury Derivatives (mercury + derivative)
Selected AbstractsNew kinase regulation mechanism found in HipBA: a bacterial persistence switchACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 8 2009Artem Evdokimov Bacterial persistence is the ability of individual cells to randomly enter a period of dormancy during which the cells are protected against antibiotics. In Escherichia coli, persistence is regulated by the activity of a protein kinase HipA and its DNA-binding partner HipB, which is a strong inhibitor of both HipA activity and hip operon transcription. The crystal structure of the HipBA complex was solved by application of the SAD technique to a mercury derivative. In this article, the fortuitous and interesting effect of mercury soaks on the native HipBA crystals is discussed as well as the intriguing tryptophan-binding pocket found on the HipA surface. A HipA-regulation model is also proposed that is consistent with the available structural and biochemical data. [source] Structure of XynB, a highly thermostable ,-1,4-xylanase from Dictyoglomus thermophilum Rt46B.1, at 1.8,Å resolutionACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 11 2000Andrew A. McCarthy Microorganisms employ a large array of enzymes to break down the cellulose and hemicelluloses of plant biomass. These enzymes, especially those with high thermal stability, have many uses in biotechnology. We have solved the crystal structure of a ,-1,4-xylanase, XynB, from the extremely thermophilic bacterium Dictyoglomus thermophilum, isolate Rt46B.1. The protein crystallized from 1.6,M ammonium sulfate, 0.2,M HEPES pH 7.2 and 10% glycerol, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 91.3, c = 44.9,Å and space group P43. The structure was solved at high resolution (1.8,Å) by X-ray crystallography, using the method of isomorphous replacement with a single mercury derivative, and refined to a final R factor of 18.3% (Rfree = 22.1%). XynB has the single-domain fold typical of family 11 xylanases, comprising a jelly roll of two highly twisted ,-sheets that create a deep substrate-binding cleft. The two catalytic residues, Glu90 and Glu180, occupy this cleft. Compared with other family 11 xylanases, XynB has a greater proportion of polar surface and has a slightly extended C-terminus that, combined with the extension of ,-strand A5, gives additional hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic packing. These factors may account for the enhanced thermal stability of the enzyme. [source] Radiation-induced site-specific damage of mercury derivatives: phasing and implicationsACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 9 2005Udupi A. Ramagopal The behavior of mercury-derivatized triclinic crystals of a 60,kDa protein target from the New York Structural GenomiX Research Consortium provides novel insights into the mechanism of heavy-atom-specific radiation damage and its potential exploitation for de novo structure solution. Despite significant anomalous signal, structure solution by classic SAD and MAD phasing approaches was not successful. A detailed analysis revealed that significant isomorphic variation of the diffracted intensities was induced by X-ray irradiation. These intensity changes allowed the crystal structure to be solved by the radiation-damage-induced phasing (RIP) technique. Inspection of the crystal structure and electron-density maps demonstrated that the covalent S,Hg bonds at all four derivatized cysteine sites were much more susceptible to radiation-induced cleavage than other bonds typically present in native proteins. A simple diagnostic is described to identify the fingerprint of such decay at the time of data collection/processing. The rapid radiation-induced decomposition of mercury adducts is consistent with the difficulties frequently associated with the experimental phasing of mercury derivatives and suggests a straightforward solution to overcome this limitation by radiation-damage-induced phasing with anomalous scattering (RIPAS). These results indicate that historically recalcitrant and newly emerging difficulties associated with Hg phasing should be revisited. [source] Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of FliJ, a cytoplasmic component of the flagellar type III protein-export apparatus from Salmonella sp.ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION F (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2009Tatsuya Ibuki The axial component proteins of the bacterial flagellum are synthesized in the cytoplasm and then translocated into the central channel of the flagellum by the flagellar type III protein-export apparatus for self-assembly at the distal growing end of the flagellum. FliJ is an essential cytoplasmic component of the export apparatus. In this study, Salmonella FliJ with an extra three residues (glycine, serine and histidine) attached to the N-terminus as the remainder of a His tag (GSH-FliJ) was purified and crystallized. Crystals were obtained by the sitting-drop vapour-diffusion technique using PEG 300 as a precipitant. GSH-FliJ crystals grew in the hexagonal space group P6122 or P6522. While the native crystals diffracted to 3.3,Å resolution, the diffraction resolution limit of mercury derivatives was extended to 2.1,Å. Anomalous and isomorphous difference Patterson maps of the mercury-derivative crystal showed significant peaks in their Harker sections, indicating the usefulness of the derivative data for structure determination. [source] | ||||||||||