Development of a quantitative fluorescence-based ligand-binding assay.

A major goal of biology is to develop a quantitative ligand-binding assay that does not involve the use of radioactivity. Existing fluorescence-based assays have a serious drawback due to fluorescence quenching that accompanies the binding of fluorescently-labeled ligands to their receptors. This limitation of existing fluorescence-based assays prevents the number of cellular receptors under investigation from being accurately measured. We have developed a method where FITC-labeled proteins bound to a cell surface are proteolyzed extensively to eliminate fluorescence quenching and then the fluorescence of the resulting sample is compared to that of a known concentration of the proteolyzed FITC-protein employed. This step enables the number of cellular receptors to be measured quantitatively. We expect that this method will provide researchers with a viable alternative to the use of radioactivity in ligand binding assays.

Protein folding: understanding the role of water and the low Reynolds number environment as the peptide chain emerges from the ribosome and folds.

The mechanism of protein folding during early stages of the process has three determinants. First, moving water molecules obey the rules of low Reynolds number physics without an inertial component. Molecular movement is instantaneous and size insensitive. Proteins emerging from the ribosome move and rotate without an external force if they change shape, forming and propagating helical structures that increases translocational efficiency. Forward motion ceases when the shape change or propelling force ceases. Second, application of quantum field theory to water structure predicts the spontaneous formation of low density coherent units of fixed size that expel dissolved atmospheric gases. Structured water layers with both coherent and non-coherent domains, form a sheath around the new protein. The surface of exposed hydrophobic amino acids is protected from water contact by small nanobubbles of dissolved atmospheric gases, 5 or 6 molecules on average, that vibrate, attracting even widely separated resonating nanobubbles. This force results from quantum effects, appearing only when the system is within and interacts with an oscillating electromagnetic field. The newly recognized quantum force sharply bends the peptide and is part of a dynamic field determining the pathway of protein folding. Third, the force initiating the tertiary folding of proteins arises from twists at the position of each hydrophobic amino acid, that minimizes surface exposure of the hydrophobic amino acids and propagates along the protein. When the total bend reaches 360°, the leading segment of water sheath intersects the trailing segment. This steric self-intersection expels water from overlapping segments of the sheath and by Newton׳s second law moves the polypeptide chain in an opposite direction. Consequently, with very few exceptions that we enumerate and discuss, tertiary structures are absent from proteins without hydrophobic amino acids, which control the early stages of protein folding and the overall shape of protein. Consequently, proteins only adopt a limited number of forms. The formation of quaternary structures is not necessarily prevented by the absence of hydrophobic amino acids.

Electrostatic interactions play an essential role in the binding of oleic acid with α-lactalbumin in the HAMLET-like complex: a study using charge-specific chemical modifications.

Human α-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells (HAMLET) and its analogs are partially unfolded protein-oleic acid (OA) complexes that exhibit selective tumoricidal activity normally absent in the native protein itself. To understand the nature of the interaction between protein and OA moieties, charge-specific chemical modifications of lysine side chains involving citraconylation, acetylation, and guanidination were employed and the biophysical and biological properties were probed. Upon converting the original positively-charged lysine residues to negatively-charged citraconyl or neutral acetyl groups, the binding of OA to protein was eliminated, as were any cytotoxic activities towards osteosarcoma cells. Retention of the positive charges by converting lysine residues to homoarginine groups (guanidination); however, yielded unchanged binding of OA to protein and identical tumoricidal activity to that displayed by the wild-type α-lactalbumin-oleic acid complex. With the addition of OA, the wild-type and guanidinated α-lactalbumin proteins underwent substantial conformational changes, such as partial unfolding, loss of tertiary structure, but retention of secondary structure. In contrast, no significant conformational changes were observed in the citraconylated and acetylated α-lactalbumins, most likely because of the absence of OA binding. These results suggest that electrostatic interactions between the positively-charged basic groups on α-lactalbumin and the negatively-charged carboxylate groups on OA molecules play an essential role in the binding of OA to α-lactalbumin and that these interactions appear to be as important as hydrophobic interactions.

The glycosylphosphatidylinositol-PLC in Trypanosoma brucei forms a linear array on the exterior of the flagellar membrane before and after activation.

Bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma brucei contain a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (GPI-PLC) that cleaves the GPI-anchor of the variable surface glycoprotein (VSG). Its location in trypanosomes has been controversial. Here, using confocal microscopy and surface labelling techniques, we show that the GPI-PLC is located exclusively in a linear array on the outside of the flagellar membrane, close to the flagellar attachment zone, but does not co-localize with the flagellar attachment zone protein, FAZ1. Consequently, the GPI-PLC and the VSG occupy the same plasma membrane leaflet, which resolves the topological problem associated with the cleavage reaction if the VSG and the GPI-PLC were on opposite sides of the membrane. The exterior location requires the enzyme to be tightly regulated to prevent VSG release under basal conditions. During stimulated VSG release in intact cells, the GPI-PLC did not change location, suggesting that the release mechanism involves lateral diffusion of the VSG in the plane of the membrane to the fixed position of the GPI-PLC.

Characterisation of the plasma membrane subproteome of bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei.

Proteome analysis by conventional approaches is biased against hydrophobic membrane proteins, many of which are also of low abundance. We have isolated plasma membrane sheets from bloodstream forms of Trypanosoma brucei by subcellular fractionation, and then applied a battery of complementary protein separation and identification techniques to identify a large number of proteins in this fraction. The results of these analyses have been combined to generate a subproteome for the pellicular plasma membrane of bloodstream forms of T. brucei as well as a separate subproteome for the pellicular cytoskeleton. In parallel, we have used in silico approaches to predict the relative abundance of proteins potentially expressed by bloodstream form trypanosomes, and to identify likely polytopic membrane proteins, providing quality control for the experimentally defined plasma membrane subproteome. We show that the application of multiple high-resolution proteomic techniques to an enriched organelle fraction is a valuable approach for the characterisation of relatively intractable membrane proteomes. We present here the most complete analysis of a protozoan plasma membrane proteome to date and show the presence of a large number of integral membrane proteins, including 11 nucleoside/nucleobase transporters, 15 ion pumps and channels and a large number of adenylate cyclases hitherto listed as putative proteins.

Images of mitochondrial UCP 1 in mouse thymocytes using confocal microscopy.

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the constitutive expression of mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 (UCP 1) in pure thymocytes using laser scanning confocal microscopic imagery. To that end we probed thymocytes from UCP 1 knock-out and wild-type mice. Mitochondrial location in thymocytes was determined using Mitotracker Red and the nucleus was labelled using Hoescht stain. We demonstrate that all cells investigated were thymocytes as determined by a monoclonal antibody specific for the thymocyte surface marker Thy 1 (CD90) pre-coupled to a fluorescent labelled (Alexa 448, green). Using a primary peptide antibody specific to UCP 1, and secondary fluorescently labelled (Alexa 647, magenta) antibody, we were able to demonstrate that UCP 1 is associated with mitochondria in thymocytes from UCP 1 wild-type mice but not thymocytes from UCP1-knock-out mice. These are the first images demonstrating the presence of UCP 1 in thymocyte mitochondria, in situ, and the first to clearly demonstrate UCP 1 expression in cells other than brown adipocytes. We conclude that mouse thymocytes contain UCP 1 in their mitochondria.

Structure of the C-terminal domain from Trypanosoma brucei variant surface glycoprotein MITat1.2.

The variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) of African trypanosomes has a structural role in protecting other cell surface proteins from effector molecules of the mammalian immune system and also undergoes antigenic variation necessary for a persistent infection in a host. Here we have reported the solution structure of a VSG type 2 C-terminal domain from MITat1.2, completing the first structure of both domains of a VSG. The isolated C-terminal domain is a monomer in solution and forms a novel fold, which commences with a short alpha-helix followed by a single turn of 3(10)-helix and connected by a short loop to a small anti-parallel beta-sheet and then a longer alpha-helix at the C terminus. This compact domain is flanked by two unstructured regions. The structured part of the domain contains 42 residues, and the core comprises 2 disulfide bonds and 2 hydrophobic residues. These cysteines and hydrophobic residues are conserved in other VSGs, and we have modeled the structures of two further VSG C-terminal domains using the structure of MITat1.2. The models suggest that the overall structure of the core is conserved in the different VSGs but that the C-terminal alpha-helix is of variable length and depends on the presence of charged residues. The results provided evidence for a conserved tertiary structure for all the type 2 VSG C-terminal domains, indicated that VSG dimers form through interactions between N-terminal domains, and showed that the selection pressure for sequence variation within a conserved tertiary structure acts on the whole of the VSG molecule.