Studies on the structure of sphingomyelinase. Amino acid composition and heterogeneity on isoelectric focusing.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Jones CS
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1154093 | biostudies-other | 1983 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:Six amino acids with pIs that ranged from 3.2 to 9.7 were used as ampholytes to establish a pH gradient in capillary isoelectric focusing. This amino acid-based capillary isoelectric focusing (cIEF) was coupled with ESI-MS/MS using an electrokinetically pumped sheath-flow interface for peptide analysis. Amino acid-based isoelectric focusing generates a two-order of magnitude lower background signal than commercial ampholytes in the important m/z range of 300-1800. Good focusing was achieved for insulin receptor, which produced ~10 s peak width. For 0.1 mg mL(-1) bovine serum albumin (BSA) digests, 24±1 peptides (sequence coverage 47±4%) were identified in triplicate analysis. As expected, the BSA peptides were separated according to their pI. The concentration detection limit for the BSA digests is 7 nM and the mass detection limit is 7 fmole. A solution of six bovine protein tryptic digests spanning 5 orders of magnitude in concentration was analyzed by amino acid based cIEF-ESI-MS/MS. Five proteins with a concentration range spanning 4 orders of magnitude were identified in triplicate runs. Using amino acid based cIEF-ESI-MS/MS, 112 protein groups and 303 unique peptides were identified in triplicate runs of a RAW 264.7 cell homogenate protein digest. In comparison with ampholyte based cIEF-ESI-MS/MS, amino acid based cIEF-ESI-MS/MS produces higher resolution of five acidic peptides, much cleaner mass spectra, and higher protein spectral counts.
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Project description:Mitochondria are highly heterogeneous organelles that likely have unique isoelectric points (pI), which are related to their surface compositions and could be exploited in their purification and isolation. Previous methods to determine pI of mitochondria report an average pI. This article is the first report of the determination of the isoelectric points of individual mitochondria by capillary isoelectric focusing (cIEF). In this method, mitochondria labeled with the mitochondrial-specific probe 10-N-nonyl acridine orange (NAO) are injected into a fused-silica capillary in a solution of carrier ampholytes at physiological pH and osmolarity, where they are focused then chemically mobilized and detected by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). Fluorescein-derived pI markers are used as internal standards to assign a pI value to each individually detected mitochondrial event, and a mitochondrial pI distribution is determined. This method provides reproducible distributions of individual mitochondrial pI, accurate determination of the pI of individual mitochondria by the use of internal standards, and resolution of 0.03 pH units between individual mitochondria. This method could also be applied to investigate or design separations of organelle subtypes (e.g., subsarcolemmal and interfibrillar skeletal muscle mitochondria) and to determine the pIs of other biological or nonbiological particles.
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Project description:This work presents the first implementation of cascaded stages for a microfabricated free-flow isoelectric focusing (FF-IEF) device. Both analytical and computational models for IEF suggest device performance will be improved by utilizing multiple stages to reduce device residence time. These models are shown to be applicable by using focusing of small IEF markers as a demonstration. We also show focusing of fluorescently tagged proteins under different channel geometries, with the most efficient focusing occurring in the cascaded design, as predicted by theory. An additional aim of this work is to demonstrate the compatibility of cascaded FF-IEF with common bioanalytical tools. As an example, outlet fractions from cascaded FF-IEF were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Processing of whole cell lysate followed by immunoblotting for cell signaling markers demonstrates the reduction of albumin from samples, as well as the enrichment of apoptotic markers.
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Project description:Acid sphingomyelinase (ASMase, ASM, SMPD1) converts sphingomyelin into ceramide, modulating membrane properties and signal transduction. Inactivating mutations in ASMase cause Niemann-Pick disease, and its inhibition is also beneficial in models of depression and cancer. To gain a better understanding of this critical therapeutic target, we determined crystal structures of mammalian ASMase in various conformations. The catalytic domain adopts a calcineurin-like fold with two zinc ions and a hydrophobic track leading to the active site. Strikingly, the membrane interacting saposin domain assumes either a closed globular conformation independent from the catalytic domain, or an open conformation, which establishes an interface with the catalytic domain essential for activity. Structural mapping of Niemann-Pick mutations reveals that most of them likely destabilize the protein's fold. This study sheds light on the molecular mechanism of ASMase function, and provides a platform for the rational development of ASMase inhibitors and therapeutic use of recombinant ASMase.
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Project description:Isoelectric focusing (IEF) is a powerful separation method, useful for resolving subtle changes in the isoelectric point of unlabeled proteins. While microfluidic IEF has reduced the separation times from hours in traditional benchtop IEF to minutes, the enclosed devices hinder post-separation access to the sample for downstream analysis. The two-layer open IEF device presented here comprises a photopatterned hydrogel lid layer containing the chemistries required for IEF and a thin polyacrylamide bottom layer in which the analytes are separated. The open IEF device produces comparable minimum resolvable difference in isoelectric point and gradient stability to enclosed microfluidic devices while providing post-separation sample access by simple removal of the lid layer. Further, using simulations, we determine that the material properties and the length of the separation lanes are the primary factors that affect the electric field magnitude in the separation region. Finally, we demonstrate self-indexed photomasks for alignment-free fabrication of multi-domain hydrogels. We leverage this approach to generate arrayed pH gradients with a total of 80 concurrent separation lanes, which to our knowledge is the first demonstration of multiple IEF separations in series addressed by a single pair of electrodes.
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Project description:Immunoprobed isoelectric focusing (IEF) resolves proteins based on differences in isoelectric point (pI) and then identifies protein targets through immunoprobing of IEF-separated proteins that have been immobilized onto a gel scaffold. During the IEF stage, the gel functions as an anti-convective medium and not as a molecular sieving matrix. During the immunoprobing stage, the gel acts as an immobilization scaffold for IEF-focused proteins via photoactive moieties. Here, we characterized the effect of gel pore size on IEF separation and in-gel immunoassay performance. We modulated polyacrylamide (PA) gel pore size via lateral chain aggregation initiated by PEG monomers. During IEF, the 2% PEG highly porous PA gel formulation offered higher resolution (minimum pI difference ∼0.07 ± 0.02) than unmodified 6%T, 3.3%C (benchmark) and 6%T, 8%C (negative control) PA gels. The highly porous gels supported a pH gradient with slope and linearity comparable to benchmark gels. The partition coefficient for antibodies into the highly porous gels (K = 0.35 ± 0.02) was greater than the benchmark (3×) and negative control (1.75×) gels. The highly porous gels also had lower immunoassay background signal than the benchmark (2×) and negative control (3×) gels. Taken together, lateral aggregation creates PA gels that are suitable for both IEF and subsequent in-gel immunoprobing by mitigating immunoprobe exclusion from the gels while facilitating removal of unbound immunoprobe.
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