Critical residues influence the affinity and selectivity of alpha-conotoxin MI for nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.

The mammalian skeletal muscle acetylcholine receptor contains two nonequivalent acetylcholine binding sites, one each at the alpha/delta and alpha/gamma subunit interfaces. Alpha-Conotoxin MI, a 14-amino acid competitive antagonist, binds at both interfaces but has approximately 10(4) higher affinity for the alpha/delta site. We performed an "alanine walk" to identify the residues in alpha-MI that contribute to this selective interaction with the alpha/delta site. Electrophysiological measurements with Xenopus oocytes expressing normal receptors or receptors lacking either the gamma or delta subunit were made to assay toxin-receptor interaction. Alanine substitutions in most amino acid positions had only modest effects on toxin potency at either binding site. However, substitutions in two positions, proline-6 and tyrosine-12, dramatically reduced toxin potency at the high-affinity alpha/delta site while having comparatively little effect on low-affinity alpha/gamma binding. When tyrosine-12 was replaced by alanine, the toxin's selectivity for the high-affinity site (relative to that for the low-affinity site) was reduced from 45,000- to 30-fold. A series of additional amino acid substitutions in this position showed that increasing side chain size/hydrophobicity increases toxin potency at the alpha/delta site without affecting alpha/gamma binding. In contrast, when tyrosine-12 is diiodinated, toxin binding is nearly irreversible at the alpha/delta site but also increases by approximately 500-fold at the alpha/gamma site. The effects of position 12 substitutions are accounted for almost entirely by changes in the rate of toxin dissociation from the high-affinity alpha/delta binding site.

An O-glycosylated neuroexcitatory conus peptide.

We purified and characterized a novel peptide from the venom of the fish-hunting cone snail Conus striatus that inhibits voltage-gated K+ channels. The peptide, kappaA-conotoxin SIVA, causes characteristic spastic paralytic symptoms when injected into fish, and in frog nerve-muscle preparations exposed to the toxin, repetitive action potentials are seen in response to a single stimulus applied to the motor nerve. Other electrophysiological tests on diverse preparations provide evidence that is consistent with the peptide blocking K+ channels. The peptide has three disulfide bonds; the locations of Cys residues indicate that the spastic peptide may be the first and defining member of a new family of Conus peptides, the kappaA-conotoxins, which are structurally related to, but pharmacologically distinct from, the alphaA-conotoxins. This 30 AA tricyclic toxin has several characteristics not previously observed in Conus peptides. In addition to the distinctive biological and physiological activity, a novel biochemical feature is the unusually long linear N-terminal tail (11 residues) which contains one O-glycosylated serine at position 7. This is the first evidence for O-glycosylation as a posttranslational modification in a biologically active Conus peptide.