| 1. |
- Wadsten, Pia, 1969, et al.
(författare)
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Lipidic sponge phase crystallization of membrane proteins.
- 2006
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Ingår i: Journal of molecular biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 364:1, s. 44-53
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bicontinuous lipidic cubic phases can be used as a host for growing crystals of membrane proteins. Since the cubic phase is stiff, handling is difficult and time-consuming. Moreover, the conventional cubic phase may interfere with the hydrophilic domains of membrane proteins due to the limited size of the aqueous pores. Here, we introduce a new crystallization method that makes use of a liquid analogue of the cubic phase, the sponge phase. This phase facilitates a considerable increase in the allowed size of aqueous domains of membrane proteins, and is easily generalised to a conventional vapour diffusion crystallisation experiment, including the use of nanoliter drop crystallization robots. The appearance of the sponge phase was confirmed by visual inspection, small-angle X-ray scattering and NMR spectroscopy. Crystals of the reaction centre from Rhodobacter sphaeroides were obtained by a conventional hanging-drop experiment, were harvested directly without the addition of lipase or cryoprotectant, and the structure was refined to 2.2 Angstroms resolution. In contrast to our earlier lipidic cubic phase reaction centre structure, the mobile ubiquinone could be built and refined. The practical advantages of the sponge phase make it a potent tool for crystallization of membrane proteins.
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| 2. |
- Wöhri, Annemarie, 1976, et al.
(författare)
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A Lipidic-Sponge Phase Screen for Membrane Protein Crystallization
- 2008
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Ingår i: Structure. - : Elsevier BV. - 0969-2126 .- 1878-4186. ; 16:7, s. 1003-1009
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A major current deficit in structural biology is the lack of high-resolution structures of eukaryotic membrane proteins, many of which are key drug targets for the treatment of disease. Numerous eukaryotic membrane proteins require specific lipids for their stability and activity, and efforts to crystallize and solve the structures of membrane proteins that do not address the issue of lipids frequently end in failure rather than success. To help address this problem, we have developed a sparse matrix crystallization screen consisting of 48 lipidic-sponge phase conditions. Sponge phases form liquid lipid bilayer environments which are suitable for conventional hanging- and sitting-drop crystallization experiments. Using the sponge phase screen, we obtained crystals of several different membrane proteins from bacterial and eukaryotic sources. We also demonstrate how the screen may be manipulated by incorporating specific lipids such as cholesterol; this modification led to crystals being recovered from a bacterial photosynthetic core complex.
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| 3. |
- Backmark, Anna, 1979, et al.
(författare)
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Affinity tags can reduce merohedral twinning of membrane protein crystals
- 2008
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Ingår i: Acta Crystallographica. Section D: Biological Crystallography. - 1399-0047 .- 0907-4449. ; D64, s. 1183-1186
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This work presents a comparison of the crystal packing of three eukaryotic membrane proteins: human aquaporin 1, human aquaporin 5 and a spinach plasma membrane aquaporin. All were purified from expression constructs both with and without affinity tags. With the exception of tagged aquaporin 1, all constructs yielded crystals. Two significant effects of the affinity tags were observed: crystals containing a tag typically diffracted to lower resolution than those from constructs encoding the protein sequence alone and constructs without a tag frequently produced crystals that suffered from merohedral twinning. Twinning is a challenging crystallographic problem that can seriously hinder solution of the structure. Thus, for integral membrane proteins, the addition of an affinity tag may help to disrupt the approximate symmetry of the protein and thereby reduce or avoid merohedral twinning.
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| 4. |
- Fischer, Gerhard, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Crystal structure of a yeast aquaporin at 1.15 angstrom reveals a novel gating mechanism.
- 2009
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Ingår i: PLoS biology. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1545-7885 .- 1544-9173. ; 7:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aquaporins are transmembrane proteins that facilitate the flow of water through cellular membranes. An unusual characteristic of yeast aquaporins is that they frequently contain an extended N terminus of unknown function. Here we present the X-ray structure of the yeast aquaporin Aqy1 from Pichia pastoris at 1.15 A resolution. Our crystal structure reveals that the water channel is closed by the N terminus, which arranges as a tightly wound helical bundle, with Tyr31 forming H-bond interactions to a water molecule within the pore and thereby occluding the channel entrance. Nevertheless, functional assays show that Aqy1 has appreciable water transport activity that aids survival during rapid freezing of P. pastoris. These findings establish that Aqy1 is a gated water channel. Mutational studies in combination with molecular dynamics simulations imply that gating may be regulated by a combination of phosphorylation and mechanosensitivity.
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| 5. |
- Nyblom, Anna Maria, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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Exceptional overproduction of a functional human membrane protein
- 2007
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Ingår i: Protein Expression and Purification. - : Elsevier BV. - 1046-5928 .- 1096-0279. ; 56:1, s. 110-120
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Eukaryotic-especially human-membrane protein overproduction remains a major challenge in biochemistry. Heterologously overproduced and purified proteins provide a starting point for further biochemical, biophysical and structural studies, and the lack of sufficient quantities of functional membrane proteins is frequently a bottleneck hindering this. Here, we report exceptionally high production levels of a correctly folded and crystallisable recombinant human integral membrane protein in its active form; human aquaporin 1 (hAQP1) has been heterologously produced in the membranes of the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris. After solubilisation and a two step purification procedure, at least 90 mg hAQP1 per liter of culture is obtained. Water channel activity of this purified hAQP was verified by reconstitution into proteoliposomes and performing stopped-flow vesicle shrinkage measurements. Mass spectrometry confirmed the identity of hAQPI in crude membrane preparations, and also from purified protein reconstituted into proteoliposomes. Furthermore, crystallisation screens yielded diffraction quality crystals of untagged recombinant hAQP1. This study illustrates the power of the yeast P. pastoris as a host to produce exceptionally high yields of a functionally active, human integral membrane protein for subsequent functional and structural characterization. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 6. |
- Nyblom, Anna Maria, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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Structural and functional analysis of SoPIP2;1 mutants adds insight into plant aquaporin gating.
- 2009
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Ingår i: Journal of molecular biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1089-8638 .- 0022-2836. ; 387:3, s. 653-68
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Plant plasma membrane aquaporins facilitate water flux into and out of plant cells, thus coupling their cellular function to basic aspects of plant physiology. Posttranslational modifications of conserved phosphorylation sites, changes in cytoplasmic pH and the binding of Ca(2+) can regulate water transport activity by gating the plasma membrane aquaporins. A structural mechanism unifying these diverse biochemical signals has emerged for the spinach aquaporin SoPIP2;1, although several questions concerning the opening mechanism remain. Here, we describe the X-ray structures of the S115E and S274E single SoPIP2;1 mutants and the corresponding double mutant. Phosphorylation of these serines is believed to increase water transport activity of SoPIP2;1 by opening the channel. However, all mutants crystallised in a closed conformation, as confirmed by water transport assays, implying that neither substitution fully mimics the phosphorylated state. Nevertheless, a half-turn extension of transmembrane helix 1 occurs upon the substitution of Ser115, which draws the C(alpha) atom of Glu31 10 A away from its wild-type conformation, thereby disrupting the divalent cation binding site involved in the gating mechanism. Mutation of Ser274 disorders the C-terminus but no other significant conformational changes are observed. Inspection of the hydrogen-bond interactions within loop D suggested that the phosphorylation of Ser188 may also produce an open channel, and this was supported by an increased water transport activity for the S188E mutant and molecular dynamics simulations. These findings add additional insight into the general mechanism of plant aquaporin gating.
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| 7. |
- Tornroth-Horsefield, S, et al.
(författare)
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Structural mechanism of plant aquaporin gating
- 2006
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 439:7077, s. 688-694
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Plants counteract fluctuations in water supply by regulating all aquaporins in the cell plasma membrane. Channel closure results either from the dephosphorylation of two conserved serine residues under conditions of drought stress, or from the protonation of a conserved histidine residue following a drop in cytoplasmic pH due to anoxia during flooding. Here we report the X-ray structure of the spinach plasma membrane aquaporin SoPIP2; 1 in its closed conformation at 2.1 angstrom resolution and in its open conformation at 3.9 angstrom resolution, and molecular dynamics simulations of the initial events governing gating. In the closed conformation loop D caps the channel from the cytoplasm and thereby occludes the pore. In the open conformation loop D is displaced up to 16 angstrom and this movement opens a hydrophobic gate blocking the channel entrance from the cytoplasm. These results reveal a molecular gating mechanism which appears conserved throughout all plant plasma membrane aquaporins.
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| 8. |
- Törnroth-Horsefield, Susanna, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Aquaporin gating
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics. ; 24:6, s. 719-721
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 9. |
- Öberg, Fredrik, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Insight into factors directing high production of eukaryotic membrane proteins; production of 13 human AQPs in Pichia pastoris.
- 2009
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Ingår i: Molecular membrane biology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1464-5203 .- 0968-7688. ; 26:4, s. 215-27
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Membrane proteins are key players in all living cells. To achieve a better understanding of membrane protein function, significant amounts of purified protein are required for functional and structural analyses. Overproduction of eukaryotic membrane proteins, in particular, is thus an essential yet non-trivial task. Hence, improved understanding of factors which direct a high production of eukaryotic membrane proteins is desirable. In this study we have compared the overproduction of all human aquaporins in the eukaryotic host Pichia pastoris. We report quantitated production levels of each homologue and the extent of their membrane localization. Our results show that the protein production levels vary substantially, even between highly homologous aquaporins. A correlation between the extents of membrane insertion with protein function also emerged, with a higher extent of membrane insertion for pure water transporters compared to aquaporin family members with other substrate specificity. Nevertheless, the nucleic acid sequence of the second codon appears to play an important role in overproduction. Constructs containing guanine at the first position of this codon (being part of the mammalian Kozak sequence) are generally produced at a higher level, which is confirmed for hAQP8. In addition, mimicking the yeast consensus sequence (ATGTCT) apparently has a negative influence on the production level, as shown for hAQP1. Moreover, by mutational analysis we show that the yield of hAQP4 can be heavily improved by directing the protein folding pathway as well as stabilizing the aquaporin tetramer.
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| 10. |
- Andersson, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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A proposed time-resolved X-ray scattering approach to track local and global conformational changes in membrane transport proteins
- 2008
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Ingår i: Structure. - : Elsevier BV. - 0969-2126 .- 1878-4186. ; 16:1, s. 21-28
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Time-resolved X-ray scattering has emerged as a powerful technique for studying the rapid structural dynamics of small molecules in solution. Membrane-protein-catalyzed transport processes frequently couple large-scale conformational changes of the transporter with local structural changes perturbing the uptake and release of the transported substrate. Using light-driven halide ion transport catalyzed by halorhodopsin as a model system, we combine molecular dynamics simulations with X-ray scattering calculations to demonstrate how small-molecule time-resolved X-ray scattering can be extended to the study of membrane transport processes. In particular, by introducing strongly scattering atoms to label specific positions within the protein and substrate, the technique of time-resolved wide-angle X-ray scattering can reveal both local and global conformational changes. This approach simultaneously enables the direct visualization of global rearrangements and substrate movement, crucial concepts that underpin the alternating access paradigm for membrane transport proteins.
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