SARS-CoV 3CL protease cleaves its C-terminal autoprocessing site by novel subsite cooperativity.

The 3C-like protease (3CLpro) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) cleaves 11 sites in the polyproteins, including its own N- and C-terminal autoprocessing sites, by recognizing P4-P1 and P1'. In this study, we determined the crystal structure of 3CLpro with the C-terminal prosequence and the catalytic-site C145A mutation, in which the enzyme binds the C-terminal prosequence of another molecule. Surprisingly, Phe at the P3' position [Phe(P3')] is snugly accommodated in the S3' pocket. Mutations of Phe(P3') impaired the C-terminal autoprocessing, but did not affect N-terminal autoprocessing. This difference was ascribed to the P2 residue, Phe(P2) and Leu(P2), in the C- and N-terminal sites, as follows. The S3' subsite is formed by Phe(P2)-induced conformational changes of 3CLpro and the direct involvement of Phe(P2) itself. In contrast, the N-terminal prosequence with Leu(P2) does not cause such conformational changes for the S3' subsite formation. In fact, the mutation of Phe(P2) to Leu in the C-terminal autoprocessing site abolishes the dependence on Phe(P3'). These mechanisms explain why Phe is required at the P3' position when the P2 position is occupied by Phe rather than Leu, which reveals a type of subsite cooperativity. Moreover, the peptide consisting of P4-P1 with Leu(P2) inhibits protease activity, whereas that with Phe(P2) exhibits a much smaller inhibitory effect, because Phe(P3') is missing. Thus, this subsite cooperativity likely exists to avoid the autoinhibition of the enzyme by its mature C-terminal sequence, and to retain the efficient C-terminal autoprocessing by the use of Phe(P2).

A redox switch shapes the Lon protease exit pore to facultatively regulate proteolysis.

The Lon AAA+ protease degrades damaged or misfolded proteins in its intramolecular chamber. Its activity must be precisely controlled, but the mechanism by which Lon is regulated in response to different environments is not known. Facultative anaerobes in the Enterobacteriaceae family, mostly symbionts and pathogens, encounter both anaerobic and aerobic environments inside and outside the host's body, respectively. The bacteria characteristically have two cysteine residues on the Lon protease (P) domain surface that unusually form a disulfide bond. Here we show that the cysteine residues act as a redox switch of Lon. Upon disulfide bond reduction, the exit pore of the P-domain ring narrows by ∼30%, thus interrupting product passage and decreasing activity by 80%; disulfide bonding by oxidation restores the pore size and activity. The redox switch (E°' = -227 mV) is appropriately tuned to respond to variation between anaerobic and aerobic conditions, thus optimizing the cellular proteolysis level for each environment.

A cysteine endopeptidase ("dionain") is involved in the digestive fluid of Dionaea muscipula (Venus's fly-trap).

The carnivorous plant Dionaea muscipula (Venus's flytrap) secretes proteinases into the digestive fluid to digest prey proteins. In this study, we obtained evidence that the digestive fluid contains a cysteine endopeptidase, presumably belonging to the papain family, through inhibitor studies and partial amino acid sequencing of the major SDS-PAGE band protein. The name "dionain" is proposed for the enzyme.

The P1 and P1' residue specificities of physarolisin I, a serine-carboxyl peptidase from the true slime mold Physarum polycephalum.

The P1 and P1' residue specificities of physarolisin I were investigated using combinatorial peptide substrates. The results indicated that certain hydrophobic residues and acidic residues are preferred at the P1 position and some hydrophobic residues at the P1' position. This P1 specificity, different from other serine-carboxyl peptidases, appears to be explained partially by the nature of the S1 subsite residues.

Purification and characterization of a major collagenase from Streptomyces parvulus.

A major collagenase was purified about 96-fold from a crude enzyme sample of Streptomyces parvulus by chromatography on Q-Sepharose, Sephacryl S-200, and butyl-Toyopearl. The purified enzyme showed a relative molecular mass of approximately 52,000 on SDS-PAGE and a pH optimum at about 9.0, and was strongly inhibited by metal-chelating agents. It also cleaved 4-phenylazobenzyloxycarbonyl-Pro-Leu-Gly-Pro-D-Arg specifically at the Leu-Gly bond, with a K(m) value of 0.60 mM at pH 9.0 at 37 degrees C. Based on the amino acid sequences of the N-terminal region and internal tryptic peptides, the corresponding gene was cloned. The DNA sequence of the cloned gene indicated that the enzyme is produced as an 864-residue precursor protein with a 408-residue prepro sequence followed by a 456-residue mature enzyme moiety. The enzyme is most homologous with the collagenase from S. coelicolor, the identity being 73%, and it is thought to be a member of the Vibrio collagenase subfamily.

The effects of mutations in the carboxyl-terminal region on the catalytic activity of Escherichia coli signal peptidase I.

Escherichia coli signal peptidase I (SPase I) is a membrane-bound serine endopeptidase that catalyses the cleavage of signal peptides from the pre-forms of membrane or secretory proteins. Our previous studies using chemical modification and site-directed mutagenesis suggested that Trp(300) and Arg(77), Arg(222), Arg(315) and Arg(318) are important for the proper and stable conformation of the active site of SPase I. Interestingly, many of these residues reside in the C-terminal region of the enzyme. As a continuation of these studies, we investigated in the present study the effects of mutations in the C-terminal region including amino acid residues at positions from 319 to 323 by deletions and site-directed mutagenesis. As a result, the deletion of the C-terminal His(323) was shown to scarcely affect the enzyme activity of SPase I, whereas the deletion of Gly(321)-His(323) or Ile(319)-His(323) as well as the point mutation of Ile(322) to alanine was shown to decrease significantly both the activity in vitro and in vivo without a big gross conformational change in the enzyme. These results suggest a significant contribution of Ile(322) to the construction and maintenance of the proper and critical local conformation backing up the active site of SPase I.

Substrate specificities of porcine and bovine enteropeptidases toward the peptide Val-(Asp)4-Lys-Ile-Val-Gly and its analogs.

The substrate specificities of porcine and bovine enteropeptidases were investigated using the peptide Val-(Asp)(4)-Lys-Ile-Val-Gly and its various analogs with mutations in the (Asp)(4)-Lys sequence as substrates. The results indicated that in addition to P1 Lys, P2 Asp in the substrates is most important, that P3 Asp is additionally important, and that P5 Asp contributes somewhat to the susceptibility, and that P4 Asp is the least important. These results were essentially identical as between porcine and bovine enteropeptidases.

Cleavage mechanism of ATP-dependent Lon protease toward ribosomal S2 protein.

The Escherichia coli ATP-dependent protease Lon degrades ribosomal S2 protein in the presence of inorganic polyphosphate (polyP). In this study, the process of the degradation was investigated in detail. During the degradation, 68 peptides with various sizes (4-29 residues) were produced in a processive fashion. Cleavage occurred at 45 sites, whose P1 and P3 positions were dominantly occupied by hydrophobic residues. These cleavage sites were located preferentially at the regions with rigid secondary structures and the P1 residues of the major cleavage sites appeared to be concealed from the surface of the substrate molecule. Furthermore, polyP changed not only the substrate preference but also the oligomeric structure of the enzyme.

Determination of the cleavage sites in SulA, a cell division inhibitor, by the ATP-dependent HslVU protease from Escherichia coli.

HslVU is an ATP-dependent protease from Escherichia coli and known to degrade SulA, a cell division inhibitor, both in vivo and in vitro, like the ATP-dependent protease Lon. In this study, the cleavage specificity of HslVU toward SulA was investigated. The enzyme was shown to produce 58 peptides with various sizes (3-31 residues), not following the 'molecular ruler' model. Cleavage occurred at 39 peptide bonds preferentially after Leu in an ATP-dependent manner and in a processive fashion. Interestingly, the central and C-terminal regions of SulA, which are known to be important for the function of SulA, such as inhibition of cell division and molecular interaction with certain other proteins, were shown to be preferentially cleaved by HslVU, as well as by Lon, despite the fact that the peptide bond specificities of the two enzymes were distinct from each other.

The Physarum polycephalum php gene encodes a unique cold-adapted serine-carboxyl peptidase, physarolisin II.

The php gene from a true slime mold, Physarum polycephalum, is a late-replicating and transcriptionally active gene. The deduced amino acid sequence of the gene product is homologous to those of the serine-carboxyl peptidase family, including physarolisin I from the same organism, but lacks the propeptide region. In this study, the protein was expressed in Escherichia coli and shown to possess endopeptidase activity with unique substrate specificity. Thus, we named it physarolisin II. The enzyme was revealed to be a kind of cold-adapted enzyme since it was maximally active at 16-22 degrees C. The active enzyme was markedly unstable due to rapid autolysis (t(1/2)= approximately 5 min, at 18 degrees C). At higher temperature, the enzyme was less active but more stable, despite the fact that no gross conformational change was observed by circular dichroism spectroscopy.

In situ visualization of caspase-1-like activity associated with promotion of hippocampal cell death.

To clarify the function of caspase-1-like proteases in neuronal cell death, it is important to be able to detect the activity in living organs by microscopic visualization. In the present study, we synthesized a novel fluorescent substrate sensitive to the caspase-1-like activity, which is easily introduced into cells constituting living organs by extracellular application. As a result, the substrate was shown to be useful in imaging the caspase-1-like activity in rat hippocampal slice cultures. After induction of cell death with glutamate, a significant increase in the activity was observed, especially in the pyramidal cells, suggesting the association of the activity with promotion of cell death.

Autoprocessing mechanism of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 3C-like protease (SARS-CoV 3CLpro) from its polyproteins.

Like many other RNA viruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) produces polyproteins containing several non-structural proteins, which are then processed by the viral proteases. These proteases often exist within the polyproteins, and are excised by their own proteolytic activity ('autoprocessing'). It is important to investigate the autoprocessing mechanism of these proteases from the point of view of anti-SARS-CoV drug design. In this paper, we describe a new method for investigating the autoprocessing mechanism of the main protease (M(pro)), which is also called the 3C-like protease (3CL(pro)). Using our method, we measured the activities, under the same conditions, of the mature form and pro-forms with the N-terminal pro-sequence, the C-terminal pro-sequence or both pro-sequences, toward the pro-form with both N- and C-terminal pro-sequences. The data indicate that the pro-forms of the enzyme have proteolytic activity, and are stimulated by the same proteolytic activity. The stimulation occurs in two steps, with approximately eightfold stimulation by N-terminal cleavage, approximately fourfold stimulation by C-terminal cleavage, and 23-fold stimulation by the cleavage of both termini, compared to the pro-form with both the N- and C-terminal pro-sequences. Such cleavage mainly occurs in a trans manner; i.e. the pro-form dimer cleaves the monomeric form. The stimulation by N-terminal pro-sequence removal is due to the cis (intra-dimer and inter-protomer) effect of formation of the new N-terminus, whereas that by C-terminal cleavage is due to removal of its trans (inter-dimer) inhibitory effect. A numerical simulation of the maturation pathway is presented.

Specific inhibition and stabilization of aspergilloglutamic peptidase by the propeptide. Identification of critical sequences and residues in the propeptide.

Aspergilloglutamic peptidase (formerly called aspergillopepsin II) is an acid endopeptidase produced by Aspergillus niger var. macrosporus, with a novel catalytic dyad of a glutamic acid and a glutamine residue, thus belonging to a novel peptidase family G1. The mature enzyme is generated from its precursor by removal of the putative 41-residue propeptide and an 11-residue intervening peptide through autocatalytic activation. In the present study, the propeptide (Ala1-Asn41) and a series of its truncated peptides were chemically synthesized, and their effects on the enzyme activity and thermal stability were examined to identify the sequences and residues in the propeptide most critical to the inhibition and thermal stabilization. The synthetic propeptide was shown to be a potent competitive inhibitor of the enzyme (Ki = 27 nM at pH 4.0). Various shorter propeptide fragments derived from the central region of the propeptide had significant inhibitory effect, whereas their Ala scan-substituted peptides, especially R19A and H20A, showed only weak inhibition. Substitution of the Pro23-Pro24 sequence near His20 with an Ala-Ala sequence changed the peptide Lys18-Tyr25 to a substrate with His20 as the P1 residue. Furthermore, the propeptide was shown to be able to significantly protect the enzyme from thermal denaturation (DeltaTm = approximately 19 degrees C at pH 5.6). The protective potencies of the propeptide as well as truncated propeptides and their Ala scan-substituted peptides are parallel with their inhibitory potencies. These results indicate that the central part, and especially Arg19 and His20 therein, of the propeptide is most critical to the inhibition and thermal stabilization and that His20 interacts with the enzyme at or near the S1 site in a nonproductive fashion.

The unique sites in SulA protein preferentially cleaved by ATP-dependent Lon protease from Escherichia coli.

SulA protein is known to be one of the physiological substrates of Lon protease, an ATP-dependent protease from Escherichia coli. In this study, we investigated the cleavage specificity of Lon protease toward SulA protein. The enzyme was shown to cleave approximately 27 peptide bonds in the presence of ATP. Among them, six peptide bonds were cleaved preferentially in the early stage of digestion, which represented an apparently unique cleavage sites with mainly Leu and Ser residues at the P1, and P1' positions, respectively, and one or two Gln residues in positions P2-P5. They were located in the central region and partly in the C-terminal region, both of which are known to be important for the function of SulA, such as inhibition of cell growth and interaction with Lon protease, respectively. The other cleavage sites did not represent such consensus sequences, though hydrophobic or noncharged residues appeared to be relatively preferred at the P1 sites. On the other hand, the cleavage in the absence of ATP was very much slower, especially in the central region, than in the presence of ATP. The central region was predicted to be rich in alpha helix and beta sheet structures, suggesting that the enzyme required ATP for disrupting such structures prior to cleavage. Taken together, SulA is thought to contain such unique cleavage sites in its functionally and structurally important regions whose preferential cleavage accelerates the ATP-dependent degradation of the protein by Lon protease.

Identification of arginine residues important for the activity of Escherichia coli signal peptidase I.

Escherichia coil signal peptidase I (leader peptidase, SPase I) is an integral membrane serine protease that catalyzes the cleavage of signal (leader) peptides from pre-forms of membrane or secretory proteins. We previously demonstrated that E. coil SPase I was significantly inactivated by reaction with phenylglyoxal with concomitant modification of three to four of the total 17 arginine residues in the enzyme. This result indicated that several arginine residues are important for the optimal activity of the enzyme. In the present study, we have constructed 17 mutants of the enzyme by site-directed mutagenesis to investigate the role of individual arginine residues in the enzyme. Mutation of Arg127, Arg146, Arg198, Arg199, Arg226, Arg236, Arg275, Arg282, and Arg295 scarcely affected the enzyme activity in vivo and in vitro. However, the enzymatic activity toward a synthetic substrate was significantly decreased by replacements of Arg77, Arg222, Arg315, or Arg318 with alanine/lysine. The kcat values of the R77A, R77K, R222A, R222K, R315A, R318A, and R318K mutant enzymes were about 5.5-fold smaller than that of the wild-type enzyme, whereas the Km values of these mutant enzymes were almost identical with that of the wild-type. Moreover, the complementing abilities in E. Arg222, Arg315, coil IT41 were lost completely when Arg77, or Arg318 was replaced with alanine/lysine. The circular dichroism spectra and other enzymatic properties of these mutants were comparable to those of the wild-type enzyme, indicating no global conformational changes. However, the thermostability of R222A, R222K, R315A, and R318K was significantly lower compared to the wild type. Therefore, Arg77, Arg222, Arg315, and Arg318 are thought to be important for maintaining the proper and stable conformation of SPase I.

Structural and enzymatic characterization of physarolisin (formerly physaropepsin) proves that it is a unique serine-carboxyl proteinase.

Previously, we purified and partially characterized physarolisin, a lysosomal acid proteinase from Physarum polycephalum, which had been suggested to be concerned with the morphological changes of the mold. In this study, a cDNA for the enzyme was cloned and sequenced, and the structural and enzymatic features were investigated. The enzyme shows a sequence similarity to the serine-carboxyl proteinase family (MEROPS S53). Indeed, diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP) was shown to strongly inhibit the activity of the enzyme. However, the enzyme possesses several unique features distinct from the other members of the family, such as the two-chain structure and inhibition by diazoacetyl-D,L-norleucine methyl ester (DAN). The sites and mode of processing of the precursor to the mature enzyme were deduced, and the major DAN-reactive residue in the enzyme was identified to be Asp529. These features were suggested to be due to the unique local tertiary structure of the enzyme by molecular modeling. We now propose the name physarolisin for the enzyme.