The power stroke of the DnaK/DnaJ/GrpE molecular chaperone system.

The molecular chaperone DnaK, the Hsp70 homolog of Escherichia coli, acts in concert with the co-chaperones DnaJ and GrpE. The aim of this study was to identify the particular phase of the peptide binding-release cycle of the DnaK/DnaJ/GrpE system that is directly responsible for the chaperone effects. By real-time kinetic measurements of changes in the intrinsic fluorescence of DnaK and in the fluorescence of dansyl-labeled peptide ligands, the rates of the following steps in the chaperone cycle were determined: (1) binding of target peptide to fast-binding-and-releasing, low-affinity DnaK ATP; (2) DnaJ-triggered conversion of peptide x DnaK x ATP (T state) to slowly-acting, high-affinity peptide x DnaK x ADP x P(i) (R state); (3) switch from R to T state induced by GrpE-facilitated ADP/ATP exchange; (4) release of peptide. Under conditions approximating those in the cell, the apparent rate constants for the T --> R and R --> T conversion were 0.04 s(-1) and 1.0 s, respectively. The clearly rate-limiting T --> R conversion renders the R state a minor form of DnaK that cannot account for the chaperone effects. Because DnaK in the absence of the co-chaperones is chaperone-ineffective, the T state has also to be excluded. Apparently, the slow, ATP-driven conformational change T --> R is the key step in the DnaK/DnaJ/GrpE chaperone cycle underlying the chaperone effects such as the prevention of protein aggregation, disentangling of polypeptide chains and, in the case of eukaryotic Hsp70 homologs, protein translocation through membranes or uncoating of clathrin-coated vesicles.

Neurotoxicity of prion peptide 106-126 not confirmed.

Prion-related diseases are accompanied by neurodegeneration, astroglial proliferation and formation of proteinase K-resistant aggregates of the scrapie isoform of the prion protein (PrPSc). The synthetic PrP fragment 106-126 was reported to be neurotoxic towards cultured rat hippocampal neurons (Forloni, G., Angeretti, N., Chiesa, R., Monzani, E., Salmona, M., Bugiani, O. and Tagliavini, F. (1993) Nature 362, 543-546) and mouse cortical cells (Brown, D.R., Herms, J. and Kretzschmar, H.A. (1994) Neuroreport 5, 2057-2060). However, we found the viability of these and other neuronal cell types not to be impaired in the presence of PrP106-126 under widely varied sets of conditions. Aged preparations of the peptide as well as synthetic deamidated and isomerized derivatives that correspond to the aging products of the peptide proved also to lack neurotoxicity. Apparently, PrP106-126 cannot serve as a model for the interaction of PrP with neuronal cells.

Mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase 27/32-410. Partially active enzyme derivative produced by limited proteolytic cleavage of native enzyme.

Native mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase (AATase) is cleaved selectively by trypsin at the peptide bonds after Arg 26 or after Lys 31 yielding two shortened enzyme derivatives, AATase 27-410, and AATase 32-410. Recent x-ray crystallographic determination of the spatial structure of AATase has shown that the NH2-terminal segments of the two polypeptide chains of this dimeric enzyme pass in front of the active site clefts and form two separate junctions with the neighboring subunit which are not contiguous with the main subunit interface (Eichele, G., Ford, G. C., Glor, M., Jansonius, J. N., Mavrides, C., and Christen, P. (1979) J. Mol. Biol. 133, 161-180). The peptide bonds cleaved by trypsin are situated in the following stretch of the polypeptide chain which runs in exposed position on the surface of the subunit. The split-off peptide is lost during gel filtration. The molecular activity of AATase 27/32-410 (a mixture of about equal amounts of the two not readily separable derivatives) is about 3% of that of the native enzyme. In contrast, the K'm values for aspartate and 2-oxoglutarate are unchanged, indicating an unaltered geometry of the substrate binding site. A substantially diminished syncatalytic response of the reactivity of Cys 166 toward 5,5'-dithiobis-(2-nitrobenzoate) suggests that the decrease in catalytic activity is due to an interference with the syncatalytic conformational dynamics observed previously in AATase (Gehring, H., and Christen, P. (1978) J. Biol. Chem. 253, 3158-3163). Consonant with a role of the NH2-terminal segment in propagating the syncatalytic conformational rearrangements the rate of the tryptic cleavage is retarded 4-fold in the presence of the transaminating substrate pair aspartate and oxalacetate.

Chemical modification of a functional arginyl residue (Arg 292) of mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase. Identification as the binding site for the distal carboxylate group of the substrate.

Mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase is inactivated by dicarbonyl reagents selectively modifying arginyl residues. Treatment with phenylglyoxal inactivates the enzyme with concomitant modification of 2.7 mol of arginyl residues/mol of subunit. If the reaction is performed in the presence of the transaminating substrate pair aspartate/oxalacetate, only 1.3 mol of arginyl residues/mol of subunit are labeled and the enzymic activity remains at 75% of the original value. One particular residue, identified by peptide analysis as Arg 292, is completely protected against modification in the presence of the substrate pair, indicating a role of its guanidinium group in substrate binding. On the basis of x-ray crystallographic studies of the complex of apoenzyme with N-(5'-phosphopyridoxyl)-aspartate (minus pyridoxal form of the enzyme), Arg 292 has been proposed as the binding site of the distal carboxylate group (Ford, G. C., Eichele, G., and Jansonius, J. N. (1980) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 77, 2559-2563). The enzyme with blocked Arg 292 is not completely inactive, and its molecular activity toward dicarboxylic substrates is of the same order of magnitude as that of the native enzyme toward alanine, which is 10(5) times lower than that toward dicarboxylic substrates. The activity toward alanine is unchanged but the rate-enhancing effect of formate on the transamination of alanine is impaired. Formate is assumed to occupy the binding site of the distal carboxylate group (Morino, Y., Osman, A. M., and Okamoto, M. (1974) J. Biol. Chem. 249, 6684-6692). Apparently, the interaction of the distal carboxylate group of the substrate with Arg 292 underlies not only the binding specificity but also the kinetic specificity of aspartate aminotransferase for dicarboxylic substrates.

Rates of evolution of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes.

The pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes (B(6) enzymes), that operate in the metabolism of amino acids, are of multiple evolutionary origin. To estimate their rates of evolution, a total of 180 sequences of 21 B(6) enzymes from distantly related eukaryotic species were compared. The enzymes belong to all four evolutionarily independent families of B(6) enzymes with different folds, i.e., the large alpha family, the beta family, the d-alanine aminotransferase family, and the alanine racemase family. Their unit evolutionary periods, i.e., the time for a 1% sequence difference to accumulate between branches, ranged from 4.6 to 45.1 million years. Both, fastest changing serine pyruvate aminotransferase and most slowly changing glutamate decarboxylase are members of the alpha family. The evolutionary rates of the few enzymes belonging to the other three families were interspersed among those of the alpha family members. Enzymes that catalyze the same reaction, e.g., transamination or amino acid decarboxylation, with different substrates show widely varying rates. The absence of correlations of the rate of evolution with either protein fold or type of catalyzed reaction suggests that individual functional constraints have determined the differential rates of evolution of B(6) enzymes.

Multiple evolutionary origin of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent amino acid decarboxylases.

Comparison of the amino acid sequences of nine different pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent amino acid decarboxylases indicated that they can be subdivided into four different groups that seem to be evolutionarily unrelated to each other. Group I is represented by glycine decarboxylase, a component of a multienzyme system; group II comprises glutamate, histidine, tyrosine, and aromatic-L-amino-acid decarboxylases; group III, procaryotic ornithine and lysine decarboxylase as well as the procaryotic biodegradative type of arginine decarboxylase; group IV, eucaryotic ornithine and arginine decarboxylase as well as the procaryotic biosynthetic type of arginine decarboxylase and diaminopimelate decarboxylase. (N-1) profile analysis, a more stringent application of profile analysis, established the homology among the enzymes of each group. A search with the profile of group II indicated a distant relationship with aminotransferases and thus with the alpha family of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes. No evidence was obtained that groups I, III and IV were related with other pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes or any other protein in the database. Unlike the aminotransferases, which, with few possible exceptions, constitute a single group of homologous proteins, the amino acid decarboxylases, by the criterion of profile analysis, have evolved along multiple lineages, in some cases even if they have the same substrate specificity.

The roles of Tyr70 and Tyr225 in aspartate aminotransferase assessed by analysing the effects of mutations on the multiple reactions of the substrate analogue serine o-sulphate.

Aspartate aminotransferase catalyses multiple reactions of the glutamate analogue, serine O-sulphate. The predominant reaction is beta-elimination of sulphate to give aminoacrylate (kcat = 13 s-1 for the Escherichia coli enzyme) which may either hydrolyse to pyruvate and ammonia, or react covalently with the enzyme and inactivate it (kinact = 1.1 x 10(-3) s-1). Serine O-sulphate also undergoes a transamination reaction that converts the enzyme to its pyridoxamine form (kcat = 0.11 s-1). Tyr70 and Tyr225, each of which forms a hydrogen bond with the coenzyme, were substituted with methionine and phenylalanine, respectively. The Y225F mutation does not affect beta-elimination but reduces the rates of transamination and inactivation about 70-fold and 3-fold, respectively. Apparently, Tyr225 is not essential for the steps leading to and including abstraction of the proton from C alpha of the substrate. It is argued that the Y225F mutation interferes with ketimine hydrolysis. The Y70M mutation affects all three reactions, beta-elimination being about fourfold slower, transamination 340-fold slower, and inactivation being 1.4 times faster than in the wild-type enzyme. It is proposed that a hydrogen bond from Tyr70 positions Lys258 for protonation of the quinonoid intermediate at C4' and that, although the full kinetic contribution of this interaction is only revealed in the multiple reactions of serine O-sulphate, the same interaction is equally important in increasing the reaction specificity for transamination of the natural substrates.

Potassium ions and the molecular-chaperone activity of DnaK.

Potassium ions stabilize the DnaK.ADP complex that forms on incubation of nucleotide-free DnaK with ADP or ATP. Generation of the crystallographically defined Mg2+ cluster [Wilbanks, S.M. & McKay, D.B. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 2251-2257], in which two K+ and the nucleotide are bound together with Mg2+ in the ATPase site, appears to be essential for the ATP-induced acceleration of binding of peptide ligands, the ATP-induced release of peptide ligands and for the peptide-induced increase in ATPase activity. Thus, K+ is instrumental in signal transmission between the ATPase site and the peptide-binding site.

Conformational changes in aspartate aminotransferase. Effect of active site ligands on peptide hydrogen-deuterium exchange.

The conformational responses of aspartate aminotransferase (cytosolic isoenzyme from pig) to the binding of the coenzyme and competitive inhibitors and to the bond rearrangement steps during the transamination reaction were probed by the method of peptide hydrogen deuterium exchange. Binding of the coenzyme to the apoenzyme results in a marked retardation of hydrogen exchange; binding of the competitive inhibitor maleate to the pyridoxal enzyme induces a retardation of exchange somewhat exceeding that observed in the presence of the transaminating substrate pair glutamate and 2-oxoglutarate (Pfister, K., Kägi, J.H.R., and Christen, P. (1978) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 75, 145-148). On formation of the complex of apoenzyme with N-(5'-phosphopyridoxyl)-L-glutamate or-L-aspartate, analogs of the covalent coenzyme substrate intermediates, a similar exchange retardation occurs. The extent of the exchange retardation in these different functional states of the enzyme correlates with previous results of differential chemical and proteolytic modifications. Apparently, the diverse methods register shifts in one and the same conformational equilibrium. Moreover, the conditions under which peptide hydrogen exchange indicates a pronounced tightening of the protein matrix correspond with those inducing crystallization of the enzyme in the "closed" form. Thus, the transition between the "open" and "closed" form of the enzyme, i.e. the bulk movement of the small domain, as observed and defined by x-ray crystallography (Kirsch, J. F., Eichele, G., Ford, G. C., Vincent, M. G., Jansonius, J. N., Gehring, H., and Christen, P. (1984) J. Mol. Biol. 174, 497-525) is the major structural correlate of the conformational changes undergone by the enzyme in solution.

The open/closed conformational equilibrium of aspartate aminotransferase. Studies in the crystalline state and with a fluorescent probe in solution.

Aspartate aminotransferase undergoes major shifts in the conformational equilibrium of the protein matrix during transamination. The present study defines the two conformational states of the enzyme by crystallographic analysis, examines the conditions under which the enzyme crystallizes in each of these conformations, and correlates these conditions with the conformational behaviour of the enzyme in solution, as monitored by a fluorescent reporter group. Cocrystallization of chicken mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase with inhibitors and covalent coenzymesubstrate adducts yields three different crystal forms. Unliganded enzyme forms triclinic crystals of the open conformation, the structure of which has been solved (space group P1) [Ford, G. C., Eichele, G. & Jansonius, J. N. (1980) Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 77, 2559-2563; Kirsch, J. F., Eichele, G., Ford, G. C., Vincent, M. G., Jansonius, J. N., Gehring, H. & Christen, P. (1984) J. Mol. Biol. 174, 487-525]. Complexes of the enzyme with dicarboxylate ligands form monoclinic or orthorhombic crystals of the closed conformation. The results of structure determinations of the latter two crystal forms at 0.44 nm resolution are described here. In the closed conformation, the small domain has undergone a rigid-body rotation of 12-14 which closes the active-site pocket. Shifts in the conformational equilibrium of aspartate aminotransferase in solution, as induced by substrates, substrate analogues and specific dicarboxylic inhibitors, can be monitored by changes in the relative fluoresence yield of the enzyme labelled at Cys166 with monobromotrimethylammoniobimane. The pyridoxal and pyridoxamine forms of the labelled enzyme show the same fluorescence properties, whereas in the apoenzyme the fluorescence intensity is reduced by 30%. All active-site ligands, if added to the labelled pyridoxal enzyme at saturating concentrations, cause a decrease in the fluorescence intensity by 40-70% and a blue shift of maximally 5 nm. Comparison of the fluorescence properties of the enzyme in various functional states with the crystallographic data shows that both techniques probe the same conformational equilibrium. The conformational change that closes the active site seems to be ligand-induced in the reaction of the pyridoxal form of the enzyme and syncatalytic in the reverse reaction with the pyridoxamine enzyme.

Substitution of apolar residues in the active site of aspartate aminotransferase by histidine. Effects on reaction and substrate specificity.

In an attempt to change the reaction and substrate specificity of aspartate aminotransferase, several apolar active-site residues were substituted in turn with a histidine residue. Aspartate aminotransferase W140H (of Escherichia coli) racemizes alanine seven times faster (Kcat' = 2.2 x 10(-4) s-1) than the wild-type enzyme, while the aminotransferase activity toward L-alanine was sixfold decreased. X-ray crystallographic analysis showed that the structural changes brought about by the mutation are limited to the immediate environment of H140. In contrast to the tryptophan side chain in the wild-type structure, the imidazole ring of H140 does not form a stacking interaction with the coenzyme pyridine ring. The angle between the two ring planes is about 50 degrees. Pyridoxamine 5'-phosphate dissociates 50 times more rapidly from the W140H mutant than from the wild-type enzyme. A model of the structure of the quinonoid enzyme substrate intermediate indicates that H140 might assist in the reprotonation of C alpha of the amino acid substrate from the re side of the deprotonated coenzyme-substrate adduct in competition with si-side reprotonation by K258. In aspartate aminotransferase I17H (of chicken mitochondria), the substituted residue also lies on the re side of the coenzyme. This mutant enzyme slowly decarboxylates L-aspartate to L-alanine (Kcat' = 8 x 10(-5) s-1). No beta-decarboxylase activity is detectable in the wild-type enzyme. In aspartate aminotransferase V37H (of chicken mitochondria), the mutated residue lies besides the coenzyme in the plane of the pyridine ring; no change in reaction specificity was observed. All three mutations, i.e. W140-->H, I17-->H and V37--H, decreased the aminotransferase activity toward aromatic amino acids by 10-100-fold, while decreasing the activity toward dicarboxylic substrates only moderately to 20%, 20% and 60% of the activity of the wild-type enzymes, respectively. In all three mutant enzymes, the decrease in aspartate aminotransferase activity at pH values lower than 6.5 was more pronounced than in the wild-type enzyme, apparently due to the protonation of the newly introduced histidine residues. The study shows that substitutions of single active-site residues may result in altered reaction and substrate specificities of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes.

Modulation of the activity of mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase H352C by the redox state of the engineered interdomain disulfide bond.

Molecular modeling suggested that the large and small domain of mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase might be linked by an engineered disulfide bond that could be expected to interfere with ligand-induced and syncatalytic changes in conformation and thus to assist in the elucidation of their significance for the catalytic mechanism. His-352, which is situated in the small domain close to Cys-166 of the large domain, was replaced with a cysteine residue by oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis. Aspartate aminotransferase H352C, that had not been exposed to reducing conditions, in part contained a disulfide bond between Cys-166 and Cys-352. Exposure to a reducing agent cleaved the crosslink completely and produced an enzyme derivative with 8% of the activity of the wild type enzyme. Cu2+-mediated autoxidation resulted in complete formation of the disulfide bond and a decrease in enzymic activity to 2%. Independently of the redox state of the disulfide bond, the H352C substitution seems to shift the equilibrium from the open toward the closed conformation of the enzyme. This change in conformation was accompanied by an increase in the binding affinity for both the amino and oxo acid substrate by one order of magnitude. Apparently, 1-2 kcal/mol of the binding energy of the substrates are no longer diverted to shift the conformational equilibrium toward the closed conformation. The kcat/Km values were unchanged or even increased in the reduced form of the mutant enzyme and only slightly decreased in its oxidized form. Both the disulfide-independent decrease in enzymic activity, as observed in reduced aspartate aminotransferase H352C and also in two other mutant enzymes (C166H/H352C and H352Q), and the redox-dependent modulation of activity indicate that unhindered domain movements are essential for full catalytic competence of aspartate aminotransferase.

Evolutionary relationships among pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes. Regio-specific alpha, beta and gamma families.

Pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes catalyze manifold reactions in the metabolism of amino acids. A comprehensive comparison of amino acid sequences has shown that most of these enzymes can be assigned to one of three different families of homologous proteins. The sequences of the enzymes of each family were aligned and their homology confirmed by profile analysis. Scrutiny of the reactions catalyzed by the enzymes showed that their affiliation with one of the three structurally defined families correlates in most cases with their regio-specificity. In the largest family, the covalency changes of the substrate occur at the same carbon atom that carries the amino group forming the imine linkage with the coenzyme. This family was thus named alpha family. It comprises glycine hydroxymethyltransferase, glycine C-acetyltransferase, 5-aminolevulinate synthase, 8-amino-7-oxononanoate synthase, all aminotransferases (with the possible exception of subgroup III), a number of other enzymes relatively closely related with the aminotransferases and very likely a certain group of amino acid decarboxylases as well as tryptophanase and tyrosine phenol-lyase which, however, catalyze beta-elimination reactions. The beta family includes L- and D-serine dehydratase, threonine dehydratase, the beta subunit of tryptophan synthase, threonine synthase and cysteine synthase. These enzymes catalyze beta-replacement or beta-elimination reactions. The gamma family incorporates O-succinylhomoserine (thiol-lyase, O-acetylhomoserine (thiol)-lyase, and cystathionine gamma-lyase, which catalyze gamma-replacement or gamma-elimination reactions, as well as cystathionine beta-lyase. The alpha and gamma family might be distantly related with one another, but are clearly not homologous with the beta family. Apparently, the primordial pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes were regio-specific catalysts, which first specialized for reaction specificity and then for substrate specificity. The following pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes seem to be unrelated with the alpha, beta or gamma family by the criterion of profile analysis:alanine racemase, selenocysteine synthase, and many amino acid decarboxylases. These enzymes may represent yet other families of B6 enzymes.

Spontaneous deamidation and isomerization of Asn108 in prion peptide 106-126 and in full-length prion protein.

In prion-related encephalopathies, the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) undergoes a change in conformation to become the scrapie prion protein (PrP(Sc)) which forms infectious deposits in the brain. Conceivably, the conformational transition of PrP(C) to PrP(Sc) might be linked with posttranslational alterations in the covalent structure of a fraction of the PrP molecules. We tested a synthetic peptide corresponding to residues 106-126 of human PrP for the occurrence of spontaneous chemical modifications. The only asparagine residue, Asn108, was deamidated to aspartic acid and isoaspartic acid with a half-life of about 12 days. The same posttranslational modifications were found in recombinant murine full-length protein. On aging, 0.8 mol of isoaspartyl residue per mole of protein was detected by the protein-l-isoaspartyl methyltransferase assay (t(1/2) approximately 30 days). Mass spectrometry and Edman degradation of Lys-C fragments identified Asn108 in the amino-terminal flexible part of the protein to be partially converted to aspartic acid and isoaspartic acid. A second modification was the partial isomerization of Asp226' which is only present in rodents.

Active-site Arg --> Lys substitutions alter reaction and substrate specificity of aspartate aminotransferase.

Arg386 and Arg292 of aspartate aminotransferase bind the alpha and the distal carboxylate group, respectively, of dicarboxylic substrates. Their substitution with lysine residues markedly decreased aminotransferase activity. The kcat values with L-aspartate and 2-oxoglutarate as substrates under steady-state conditions at 25 degrees C were 0.5, 2.0, and 0.03 s-1 for the R292K, R386K, and R292K/R386K mutations, respectively, kcat of the wild-type enzyme being 220 s-1. Longer dicarboxylic substrates did not compensate for the shorter side chain of the lysine residues. Consistent with the different roles of Arg292 and Arg386 in substrate binding, the effects of their substitution on the activity toward long chain monocarboxylic (norleucine/2-oxocaproic acid) and aromatic substrates diverged. Whereas the R292K mutation did not impair the aminotransferase activity toward these substrates, the effect of the R386K substitution was similar to that on the activity toward dicarboxylic substrates. All three mutant enzymes catalyzed as side reactions the beta-decarboxylation of L-aspartate and the racemization of amino acids at faster rates than the wild-type enzyme. The changes in reaction specificity were most pronounced in aspartate aminotransferase R292K, which decarboxylated L-aspartate to L-alanine 15 times faster (kcat = 0.002 s-1) than the wild-type enzyme. The rates of racemization of L-aspartate, L-glutamate, and L-alanine were 3, 5, and 2 times, respectively, faster than with the wild-type enzyme. Thus, Arg --> Lys substitutions in the active site of aspartate aminotransferase decrease aminotransferase activity but increase other pyridoxal 5'-phosphate-dependent catalytic activities. Apparently, the reaction specificity of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes is not only achieved by accelerating the specific reaction but also by preventing potential side reactions of the coenzyme substrate adduct.

Control of the DnaK chaperone cycle by substoichiometric concentrations of the co-chaperones DnaJ and GrpE.

The polypeptide binding and release cycle of the molecular chaperone DnaK (Hsp70) of Escherichia coli is regulated by the two co-chaperones DnaJ and GrpE. Here, we show that the DnaJ-triggered conversion of DnaK.ATP (T state) to DnaK.ADP.Pi (R state), as monitored by intrinsic protein fluorescence, is monophasic and occurs simultaneously with ATP hydrolysis. This is in contrast with the T-->R conversion in the absence of DnaJ which is biphasic, the first phase occurring simultaneously with the hydrolysis of ATP (Theyssen, H., Schuster, H.-P., Packschies, L., Bukau, B., and Reinstein, J. (1996) J. Mol. Biol. 263, 657-670). Apparently, DnaJ not only stimulates ATP hydrolysis but also couples it with conformational changes of DnaK. In the absence of GrpE, DnaJ forms a tight ternary complex with peptide.DnaK.ADP.Pi (Kd = 0.14 microM). However, by monitoring complex formation between DnaK (1 microM) and a fluorophore-labeled peptide in the presence of ATP (1 mM), DnaJ (1 microM), and varying concentrations of the ADP/ATP exchange factor GrpE (0.1-3 microM), substoichiometric concentrations of GrpE were found to shift the equilibrium from the slowly binding and releasing, high-affinity R state of DnaK completely to the fast binding and releasing, low-affinity T state and thus to prevent the formation of a long lived ternary DnaJ. substrate.DnaK.ADP.Pi complex. Under in vivo conditions with an estimated chaperone ratio of DnaK:DnaJ:GrpE = 10:1:3, both DnaJ and GrpE appear to control the chaperone cycle by transient interactions with DnaK.

Developmental pattern and molecular identification of globin chains in Xenopus laevis.

High-resolution electrophoresis of larval and adult hemoglobins of Xenopus laevis reveals stage-specific differences in the number and mobility of the globin chains. To establish the relationship between the globin chains and the previously described globin genes, the corresponding mRNAs were hybrid-selected from total erythroblast RNA by representative cDNA clones, and translated in vitro. Electrophoretic separation of the translation products allowed identification of a major and a minor α-globin chain in the larval and adult stages. This also holds for the adult ß-chains, however in the larval stage a difference in abundance is only detectable in the ß-mRNAs, but not in the translation products, because they comigrate. The fact that major and minor globin chains can be assigned to genes, which are located in two clusters, suggests that the related genes are expressed coordinately, but at different levels. Analysis of the globin patterns during development reveals that transition from the larval to the adult globin chains coincides with metamorphosis. Moreover, there is evidence of two globin chains that are only expressed in early larval stages and hence might be related to additional larval ß-globin genes of as yet unknown genomic location.

Changing the reaction specificity of a pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzyme.

The electron distribution in the coenzyme-substrate adduct of aspartate aminotransferase was changed by replacing active-site Arg386 with alanine and introducing a new arginine residue nearby. [Y225R, R386A]Aspartate aminotransferase decarboxylates L-aspartate to L-alanine (kcat = 0.04 s-1), while its transaminase activity towards dicarboxylic amino acids is decreased by three orders of magnitude (kcat = 0.19 s-1). Molecular-dynamics simulations based on the crystal structure of the mutant enzyme suggest that a new hydrogen bond to the imine N atom of the pyridoxal-5'-phosphate- aspartate adduct and an altered electrostatic potential around its beta-carboxylate group underlie the 650,000-fold increase in the ratio of beta-decarboxylase/transaminase activity.

Crystal structures and solution studies of oxime adducts of mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase.

The interaction of mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase with hydroxylamine and five derivatives (in which the hydroxyl hydrogen is replaced by the side chain of naturally occurring amino acids) was investigated by X-ray diffraction as well as by kinetic and spectral measurements with the enzyme in solution. The inhibitors react with pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in the enzyme active site, both in solution and in the crystalline state, in a reversible single-step reaction forming spectrally distinct oxime adducts. Dissociation constants determined in solution range from 10(-8) M to 10(-6) M depending on the nature of the side-chain group. The crystal structures of the adducts of mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase with the monocarboxylic analogue of L-aspartate in the open and closed enzyme conformation were determined at 0.23-nm and 0.25-nm resolution, respectively. This inhibitor binds to both the open and closed crystal forms of the enzyme without disturbing the crystalline order. Small differences in the conformation of the cofactor pyridoxal phosphate were detected between the omega-carboxylate of the inhibitor and Arg292 of the neighbouring subunit is mainly responsible for the attainment of near-coplanarity of the aldimine bond with the pyridine ring in the oxime adducts. Studies with a fluorescent probe aimed to detect shifts in the open/closed conformational equilibrium of the enzyme in oxime complexes showed that the hydroxylamine-derived inhibitors, even those containing a carboxylate group, do not induce the 'domain closure' in solution. This is probably due to the absence of the alpha-carboxylate group in the monocarboxylic hydroxylamine-derived inhibitors, emphasizing that both carboxylates of the substrates L-Asp and L-Glu are essential for stabilizing the closed form of aspartate aminotransferase.