| 1. |
- Alikhani, Nyosha, et al.
(författare)
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Targeting Capacity and Conservation of PreP Homologues Localization in Mitochondria of Different Species
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 410:3, s. 400-410
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mitochondrial presequences and other unstructured peptides are degraded inside mitochondria by presequence proteases (PrePs) identified in Arabidopsis thaliana (AtPreP), humans (hPreP), and yeast (Cym1/Mop112). The presequences of A. thaliana and human PreP are predicted to consist of 85 and 29 amino acids, respectively, whereas the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cym1/Mop112 presequence contains only 7 residues. These differences may explain the reported targeting of homologous proteins to different mitochondrial subcompartments. Here we have investigated the targeting capacity of the PreP homologues' presequences. We have produced fusion constructs containing N-terminal portions of AtPreP(1-125), hPreP(1-69), and Cym1(1-40) coupled to green fluorescent protein (GFP) and studied their import into isolated plant, mammalian, and yeast mitochondria, followed by mitochondrial subfractionation. Whereas the AtPreP presequence has the capacity to target GFP into the mitochondrial matrix of all three species, the hPreP presequence only targets GFP to the matrix of mammalian and yeast mitochondria. The Cym1/Mop112 presequence has an overall much weaker targeting capacity and only ensures mitochondrial sorting in its host species yeast. Revisiting the submitochondrial localization of Cym1 revealed that endogenous Cym1/Mop112 is localized to the matrix space, as has been previously reported for the plant and human homologues. Moreover, complementation studies in yeast show that native AtPreP restores the growth phenotype of yeast cells lacking Cym1, demonstrating functional conservation.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Evalena, et al.
(författare)
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Structure of bacteriophage T4 endonuclease II mutant E118A, a tetrameric GIY-YIG enzyme
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 397:4, s. 1003-1016
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coliphage T4 endonuclease II (EndoII), encoded by gene denA, is a small (16Da, 136aa) enzyme belonging to the GIY-YIG family of endonucleases, which lacks a C-terminal domain corresponding to that providing most of the binding energy in the structurally characterized GIY-YIG endonucleases, I-TevI and UvrC. In vivo, it is involved in degradation of host DNA, permitting scavenging of host-derived nucleotides for phage DNA synthesis. EndoII primarily catalyzes single-stranded nicking of DNA; 5- to 10-fold less frequently double-stranded breaks are produced. The Glu118Ala mutant of EndoII was crystallized in space group P21 with four monomers in the asymmetric unit. The fold of the EndoII monomer is similar to that of the catalytic domains of UvrC and I-TevI. In contrast to these enzymes, EndoII forms a striking X-shaped tetrameric structure composed as a dimer of dimers, with a protruding hairpin domain not present in UvrC or I-TevI providing most of the dimerization and tetramerization interfaces. A bound phosphate ion in one of the four active sites of EndoII likely mimics the scissile phosphate in a true substrate complex. In silico docking experiments showed that a protruding loop containing a nuclease-associated modular domain 3 element is likely to be involved in substrate binding, as well as residues forming a separate nucleic acid binding surface adjacent to the active site. The positioning of these sites within the EndoII primary dimer suggests that the substrate would bind to a primary EndoII dimer diagonally over the active sites, requiring significant distortion of the enzyme or the substrate DNA, or both, for simultaneous nicking of both DNA strands. The scarcity of potential nucleic acid binding residues between the active sites indicates that EndoII may bind its substrate inefficiently across the two sites in the dimer, offering a plausible explanation for the catalytic preponderance of single-strand nicks. Mutations analyzed in earlier functional studies are discussed in their structural context.
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| 3. |
- Andersson, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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A structural basis for sustained bacterial adhesion : Biomechanical properties of CFA/I Pili
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 415:5, s. 918-928
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) are a major cause of diarrheal disease worldwide. Adhesion pili (or fimbriae), such as the CFA/I (colonization factor antigen I) organelles that enable ETEC to attach efficiently to the host intestinal tract epithelium, are critical virulence factors for initiation of infection. We characterized at single organelle level the intrinsic biomechanical properties and kinetics of individual CFA/I pili, demonstrating that weak external forces (7.5 pN) are sufficient to unwind the intact helical filament of this prototypical ETEC pilus and that it quickly regains its original structure when the force is removed. While the general relationship between exertion of force and an increase in the filament length for CFA/I pili associated with diarrheal disease is analogous to that of P-pili and type 1 pili, associated with urinary tract and other infections, the biomechanical properties of these different pili differ in key quantitative details. Unique features of CFA/I pili, including the significantly lower force required for unwinding, the higher extension speed at which the pili enter a dynamic range of unwinding, and the appearance of sudden force drops during unwinding can be attributed to morphological features of CFA/I pili including weak layer-to-layer interactions between subunits on adjacent turns of the helix, and the approximately horizontal orientation of pilin subunits with respect to the filament axis. Our results indicate that ETEC CFA/I pili are flexible organelles optimized to withstand harsh motion without breaking, resulting in continued attachment to the intestinal epithelium by the pathogenic bacteria that express these pili.
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| 4. |
- Bano-Polo, Manuel, et al.
(författare)
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Charge Pair Interactions in Transmembrane Helices and Turn Propensity of the Connecting Sequence Promote Helical Hairpin Insertion
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 425:4, s. 830-840
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- alpha-Helical hairpins, consisting of a pair of closely spaced transmembrane (TM) helices that are connected by a short interfacial turn, are the simplest structural motifs found in multi-spanning membrane proteins. In naturally occurring hairpins, the presence of polar residues is common and predicted to complicate membrane insertion. We postulate that the pre-packing process offsets any energetic cost of allocating polar and charged residues within the hydrophobic environment of biological membranes. Consistent with this idea, we provide here experimental evidence demonstrating that helical hairpin insertion into biological membranes can be driven by electrostatic interactions between closely separated, poorly hydrophobic sequences. Additionally, we observe that the integral hairpin can be stabilized by a short loop heavily populated by turn-promoting residues. We conclude that the combined effect of TM-TM electrostatic interactions and tight turns plays an important role in generating the functional architecture of membrane proteins and propose that helical hairpin motifs can be acquired within the context of the Sec61 translocon at the early stages of membrane protein biosynthesis. Taken together, these data further underline the potential complexities involved in accurately predicting TM domains from primary structures.
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| 5. |
- Baumann, Anne, et al.
(författare)
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HAMLET Forms Annular Oligomers When Deposited with Phospholipid Monolayers
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1089-8638 .- 0022-2836. ; 418:1-2, s. 90-102
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recently, the anticancer activity of human a-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells (HAMLET) has been linked to its increased membrane affinity in vitro, at neutral pH, and ability to cause leakage relative to the inactive native bovine alpha-lactalbumin (BLA) protein. In this study, atomic force microscopy resolved membrane distortions and annular oligomers (AOs) produced by HAMLET when deposited at neutral pH on mica together with a negatively charged lipid monolayer. BLA, BAMLET (HAMLET's bovine counterpart) and membrane-binding Peptide C, corresponding to BLA residues 75-100, also form AO-like structures under these conditions but at higher subphase concentrations than HAMLET. The N-terminal Peptide A, which binds to membranes at acidic but not at neutral pH, did not form AOs. This suggests a correlation between the capacity of the proteins/peptides to integrate into the membrane at neutral pH as observed by liposome content leakage and circular dichroism experiments and the formation of AOs, albeit at higher concentrations. Formation of AOs, which might be important to HAMLET's tumor toxic action, appears related to the increased tendency of the protein to populate intermediately folded states compared to the native protein, the formation of which is promoted by, but not uniquely dependent on, the oleic acid molecules associated with HAMLET. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Bjelic, Sinisa, et al.
(författare)
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Exploration of Alternate Catalytic Mechanisms and Optimization Strategies for Retroaldolase Design
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 426:1, s. 256-271
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Designed retroaldolases have utilized a nucleophilic lysine to promote carbon-carbon bond cleavage of β-hydroxy-ketones via a covalent Schiff base intermediate. Previous computational designs have incorporated a water molecule to facilitate formation and breakdown of the carbinolamine intermediate to give the Schiff base and to function as a general acid/base. Here we investigate an alternative active-site design in which the catalytic water molecule was replaced by the side chain of a glutamic acid. Five out of seven designs expressed solubly and exhibited catalytic efficiencies similar to previously designed retroaldolases for the conversion of 4-hydroxy-4-(6-methoxy-2-naphthyl)-2-butanone to 6-methoxy-2-naphthaldehyde and acetone. After one round of site-directed saturation mutagenesis, improved variants of the two best designs, RA114 and RA117, exhibited among the highest kcat (>10(-3)s(-1)) and kcat/KM (11-25M(-1)s(-1)) values observed for retroaldolase designs prior to comprehensive directed evolution. In both cases, the >10(5)-fold rate accelerations that were achieved are within 1-3 orders of magnitude of the rate enhancements reported for the best catalysts for related reactions, including catalytic antibodies (kcat/kuncat=10(6) to 10(8)) and an extensively evolved computational design (kcat/kuncat>10(7)). The catalytic sites, revealed by X-ray structures of optimized versions of the two active designs, are in close agreement with the design models except for the catalytic lysine in RA114. We further improved the variants by computational remodeling of the loops and yeast display selection for reactivity of the catalytic lysine with a diketone probe, obtaining an additional order of magnitude enhancement in activity with both approaches.
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| 8. |
- Björklund, Åsa K., et al.
(författare)
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Nebulin : A Study of Protein Repeat Evolution
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 402:1, s. 38-51
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Protein domain repeats are common in proteins that are central to the organization of a cell, in particular in eukaryotes. They are known to evolve through internal tandem duplications. However, the understanding of the underlying mechanisms is incomplete. To shed light on repeat expansion mechanisms, we have studied the evolution of the muscle protein Nebulin, a protein that contains a large number of actin-binding nebulin domains. Nebulin proteins have evolved from an invertebrate precursor containing two nebulin domains. Repeat regions have expanded through duplications of single domains, as well as duplications of a super repeat (SR) consisting of seven nebulins. We show that the SR has evolved independently into large regions in at least three instances: twice in the invertebrate Branchiostoma floridae and once in vertebrates. In-depth analysis reveals several recent tandem duplications in the Nebulin gene. The events involve both single-domain and multidomain SR units or several SR units. There are single events, but frequently the same unit is duplicated multiple times. For instance, an ancestor of human and chimpanzee underwent two tandem duplications. The duplication junction coincides with an Alu transposon, thus suggesting duplication through Alu-mediated homologous recombination. Duplications in the SR region consistently involve multiples of seven domains. However, the exact unit that is duplicated varies both between species and within species. Thus, multiple tandem duplications of the same motif did not create the large Nebulin protein. Finally, analysis of segmental duplications in the human genome reveals that duplications are more common in genes containing domain repeats than in those coding for nonrepeated proteins. In fact, segmental duplications are found three to six times more often in long repeated genes than expected by chance.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Bosco, Daryl A, et al.
(författare)
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Dissecting the microscopic steps of the cyclophilin a enzymatic cycle on the biological substrate HIV-capsid by NMR
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 403:5, s. 723-38
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Peptidyl-prolyl isomerases (PPIases) are emerging as key regulators of many diverse biological processes. Elucidating the role of PPIase activity in vivo has been challenging because mutagenesis of active site residues not only reduces the catalytic activity of these enzymes, but also dramatically affects substrate binding. Employing the cyclophilin A (CypA) PPIase together with its biologically relevant and natively folded substrate, the N-terminal domain of the HIV-1 capsid (CA(N)) protein, we demonstrate here how to dissect residue specific contributions to PPIase catalysis versus substrate binding utilizing NMR spectroscopy. Surprisingly, a number of CypA active-site mutants previously assumed to be strongly diminished in activity toward biological substrates based on a peptide assay only, catalyze the HIV capsid with wild-type activity, but with a change in the rate-limiting step of the enzymatic cycle. The results illustrate that a quantitative analysis of catalysis using the biological substrates is critical when interpreting the effects of PPIase mutations in biological assays.
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