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ABSTRACT: Purpose
delta-Crystallin is a soluble structural protein in found in avian eye lenses; it shares high amino acid sequence identity with argininosuccinate lyase. E294 is the only residue located at the double dimer interface and it performs hydrogen bonding with the active site residues of H160 and K323 in the neighboring and diagonal subunits, respectively. H160 is reported to play an important role in catalysis due to its H-bond interaction with the fumarate moiety of the substrate. In order to clarify the function of E294 in either stabilization of the quaternary structure or in catalysis, we carried out site-directed mutagenesis and functional analysis.Methods
The structure of both wild-type and mutant proteins were analyzed by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, fluorescence spectra, and analytical ultracentrifugation. Structural stability was measured by CD and tryptophan fluorescence. A modeled structure of the E294L mutant was built and optimized with energy minimization.Results
No gross structural changes were observed when E294 was substituted with leucine, as judged by circular dichroism, tryptophan fluorescence, ANS fluorescence, and sedimentation velocity analyses. However, this mutant enzyme had only about 10% of the activity of a wild-type enzyme and its secondary structure was more easily denatured by increased temperature than that of a wild-type enzyme. The mutant protein also underwent its first unfolding transition at a lower concentration of guanidinium-hydrochloride than the wild-type protein.Conclusions
These results indicate that the interactions offered by E294 in the dimer-dimer interface of delta-crystallin are required to maintain the hydrogen bonding network in the active site for catalysis. Disruption of the interaction had no significant effect on the conformation and quaternary structure of delta-crystallin but it did lead to instability in the double dimer structure.
SUBMITTER: Huang CW
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2779060 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Huang Chih-Wei CW Chen Yu-Hou YH Chen Ya-Huei YH Tsai Yun-Chi YC Lee Hwei-Jen HJ
Molecular vision 20091114
<h4>Purpose</h4>delta-Crystallin is a soluble structural protein in found in avian eye lenses; it shares high amino acid sequence identity with argininosuccinate lyase. E294 is the only residue located at the double dimer interface and it performs hydrogen bonding with the active site residues of H160 and K323 in the neighboring and diagonal subunits, respectively. H160 is reported to play an important role in catalysis due to its H-bond interaction with the fumarate moiety of the substrate. In ...[more]