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- Bosco, Daryl A, et al.
(author)
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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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In: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 403:5, s. 723-38
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)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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2. |
- Eisenmesser, Elan Z, et al.
(author)
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Intrinsic dynamics of an enzyme underlies catalysis
- 2005
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 438, s. 117-21
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A unique feature of chemical catalysis mediated by enzymes is that the catalytically reactive atoms are embedded within a folded protein. Although current understanding of enzyme function has been focused on the chemical reactions and static three-dimensional structures, the dynamic nature of proteins has been proposed to have a function in catalysis1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The concept of conformational substates has been described6; however, the challenge is to unravel the intimate linkage between protein flexibility and enzymatic function. Here we show that the intrinsic plasticity of the protein is a key characteristic of catalysis. The dynamics of the prolyl cis–trans isomerase cyclophilin A (CypA) in its substrate-free state and during catalysis were characterized with NMR relaxation experiments. The characteristic enzyme motions detected during catalysis are already present in the free enzyme with frequencies corresponding to the catalytic turnover rates. This correlation suggests that the protein motions necessary for catalysis are an intrinsic property of the enzyme and may even limit the overall turnover rate. Motion is localized not only to the active site but also to a wider dynamic network. Whereas coupled networks in proteins have been proposed previously3, 7, 8, 9, 10, we experimentally measured the collective nature of motions with the use of mutant forms of CypA. We propose that the pre-existence of collective dynamics in enzymes before catalysis is a common feature of biocatalysts and that proteins have evolved under synergistic pressure between structure and dynamics.
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3. |
- Gardino, Alexandra K, et al.
(author)
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Transient Non-native Hydrogen Bonds Promote Activation of a Signaling Protein
- 2009
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In: Cell. - : Elsevier BV. - 0092-8674 .- 1097-4172. ; 139:6, s. 1109-18
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- SummaryPhosphorylation is a common mechanism for activating proteins within signaling pathways. Yet, the molecular transitions between the inactive and active conformational states are poorly understood. Here we quantitatively characterize the free-energy landscape of activation of a signaling protein, nitrogen regulatory protein C (NtrC), by connecting functional protein dynamics of phosphorylation-dependent activation to protein folding and show that only a rarely populated, pre-existing active conformation is energetically stabilized by phosphorylation. Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) dynamics, we test an atomic scale pathway for the complex conformational transition, inferred from molecular dynamics simulations (Lei et al., 2009). The data show that the loss of native stabilizing contacts during activation is compensated by non-native transient atomic interactions during the transition. The results unravel atomistic details of native-state protein energy landscapes by expanding the knowledge about ground states to transition landscapes.
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