RESUMEN
The Anopheles gambiae mosquito, which is the vector for Plasmodium falciparum malaria, uses a series of olfactory cues emanating from human sweat to select humans as their source for a blood meal. Perception of these odors within the mosquito olfactory system involves the interplay of odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) and odorant receptors and disrupting the normal responses to those odorants that guide mosquito-human interactions represents an attractive approach to prevent the transmission of malaria. Previously, it has been shown that DEET targets multiple components of the olfactory system, including OBPs and odorant receptors. Here, we present the crystal structure of A. gambiae OBP1 (OBP1) in the complex it forms with a natural repellent 6-methyl-5-heptene-2-one (6-MH). We find that 6-MH binds to OBP1 at exactly the same site as DEET. However, key interactions with a highly conserved water molecule that are proposed to be important for DEET binding are not involved in binding of 6-MH. We show that 6-MH and DEET can compete for the binding of attractive odorants and in doing so disrupt the interaction that OBP1 makes with OBP4. We further show that 6-MH and DEET can bind simultaneously to OBPs with other ligands. These results suggest that the successful discovery of novel reagents targeting OBP function requires knowledge about the specific mechanism of binding to the OBP rather than their binding affinity.
Asunto(s)
Anopheles/química , DEET/química , Proteínas de Insectos/química , Repelentes de Insectos/química , Receptores Odorantes/química , Animales , Anopheles/genética , Anopheles/metabolismo , Cristalografía por Rayos X , DEET/metabolismo , Humanos , Proteínas de Insectos/genética , Proteínas de Insectos/metabolismo , Repelentes de Insectos/metabolismo , Insectos Vectores/química , Insectos Vectores/genética , Insectos Vectores/metabolismo , Cetonas/química , Cetonas/metabolismo , Plasmodium falciparum , Unión Proteica , Estructura Terciaria de Proteína , Receptores Odorantes/genética , Receptores Odorantes/metabolismoRESUMEN
Anti-silencing function 1 (Asf1) and Chromatin Assembly Factor 1 (CAF-1) chaperone histones H3/H4 during the assembly of nucleosomes on newly replicated DNA. To understand the mechanism of histone H3/H4 transfer among Asf1, CAF-1 and DNA from a thermodynamic perspective, we developed and employed biophysical approaches using full-length proteins in the budding yeast system. We find that the C-terminal tail of Asf1 enhances the interaction of Asf1 with CAF-1. Surprisingly, although H3/H4 also enhances the interaction of Asf1 with the CAF-1 subunit Cac2, H3/H4 forms a tight complex with CAF-1 exclusive of Asf1, with an affinity weaker than Asf1-H3/H4 or H3/H4-DNA interactions. Unlike Asf1, monomeric CAF-1 binds to multiple H3/H4 dimers, which ultimately promotes the formation of (H3/H4)(2) tetramers on DNA. Thus, transition of H3/H4 from the Asf1-associated dimer to the DNA-associated tetramer is promoted by CAF-1-induced H3/H4 oligomerization.