S-S bridges of cathepsin B and H from bovine spleen: a basis for cathepsin B model building and possible functional implications for discrimination between exo- and endopeptidase activities among cathepsins B, H and L.

Bovine spleen cathepsin B contains 7 disulfide bridges. Using different chemical and enzymatic cleavage methods we isolated fragments representing the individual disulfides: Cys14-Cys43, Cys26-Cys71, Cys62-Cys128, Cys63-Cys67, Cys100-Cys132, Cys108-Cys119, and Cys148-Cys252. A similar line of approach was applied to determine the S-S bridges of bovine spleen cathepsin H: Cys23-Cys66, Cys57-Cys99, Cys157-Cys207, and Cys212-Cys5A, where Cys5A is located in the propart portion of the procathepsin H chain. On the basis of the knowledge of the S-S bridges of cathepsin B a novel sequence alignment of papain and cathepsin B has been proposed. This enabled us to construct a reasonable 3D-model of cathepsin B and propose the region (a 18 residue insertion between Glu89 and Gly90 of papain) responsible for the carboxypeptidase activity of cathepsin B functioning as a "closure". A similar approach was applied to explain the aminopeptidase activity of cathepsin H. A general model of steric regulation of accessibility of the preformed "endopeptidase-like" binding cleft by distant parts of the polypeptide chain of the proteinases discussed is proposed as a factor determining the mode of binding and thus cleavage of polypeptide substrates.

Disulfide bridges of bovine spleen cathepsin B.

Bovine spleen cathepsin B contains 7 disulfide bridges. Cleavage of the enzyme with cyanogen bromide gives rise to a large and a small fragment. The former contains all disulfide bridges. Their arrangement was determined by analysis of amino-acid sequences and compositions of subfragments prepared by cleavage of the large cyanogen-bromide fragment with trypsin, chymotrypsin and the staphylococcal proteinase using specific methods for the detection of S-S-bonds. Disulfide bridges link together Cys14-Cys43, Cys26-Cys71, Cys62-Cys128, Cys63-Cys67, Cys100-Cys132, Cys108-Cys119 and Cys148-Cys252.

Primary structure of cathepsin D inhibitor from potatoes and its structure relationship to soybean trypsin inhibitor family.

A novel effective procedure for the purification of cathepsin D inhibitor from potatoes (PDI) was developed. The amino acid sequence of PDI was determined by analysis of the cyanogen bromide digest and of the limited tryptic and chymotryptic digest of the protein. The inhibitor is a single polypeptide chain protein consisting of 188 residues with a simple sugar moiety attached to Asn-19. The tentative disulfide pairings are also suggested. The sequence data clearly indicate that PDI is homologous with the soybean trypsin inhibitor (STI) (Kunitz) family. The active center of PDI for trypsin inhibition was identified as Pro-Val-Arg-Phe in analogy to STI.

Amino acid sequence of bovine spleen cathepsin B.

The complete amino acid sequence of bovine spleen cathepsin B was determined by manual and automatic Edman degradation of fragments prepared by proteolytic or chemical digestion of the enzyme. The single-chain form of the enzyme consists of 253 amino acid residues and its Mr is 27,468 (carbohydrate moiety not included). The light chain (residues 1-47) and the heavy chain (residues 50-253) of the enzyme are linked by the sequence -Gly-Arg (residues 48 and 49) in the single-chain form. Bovine spleen cathepsin B shows 80% sequence homology with cathepsins B from other species. An outstanding feature of bovine spleen cathepsin B not observed with the other cathepsins B is the presence of two additional half-cystine residues.

Identification of the second (buried) cysteine residue and of the C-terminal disulfide bridge of bovine spleen cathepsin B.

Quantitative differences were found when bovine spleen cathepsin B was subjected to SH-group titration in the presence and in the absence of denaturing agents, as well as when the pH of the titration buffer was increased. The intra- and interchain thiol-disulfide exchange reactions accompanying the denaturation of cathepsin B were investigated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in SDS and by gel filtration experiments. An identical behavior in these experiments showed also cathepsin B whose active site Cys29 only had been carboxymethylated; these findings suggested the presence of one additional SH-group. After conditions preventing thiol-disulfide exchange reactions, had been developed, the second SH-group (Cys240) was demonstrated independently in carboxymethylated cathepsin B by labeling with 4-(dimethylamino)azobenzene-4'-iodoacetamide and by selective isolation of the SH-peptide containing Cys240 on thiopropyl-Sepharose. As the second important result, a disulfide bridge formed by Cys148 and Cys252 in the C-terminal part of the chain was identified.

An acrosin inhibitor from boar seminal vesicle fluid immunologically related to the trypsin-kallikrein inhibitor (Kunitz).

A new acrosin inhibitor was isolated to apparent homogeneity from the fluid of boar seminal vesicles. The inhibitor is immunologically related to the polyvalent trypsin-kallikrein inhibitor from bovine lung known as aprotinin. A crude preparation of the acrosin inhibitor was prepared by immunoaffinity chromatography on anti-aprotinin antibodies bound to Sepharose 4B column. The inhibitor was further purified by affinity chromatography on trypsin immobilized on a Sepharose 4B column, by ion-exchange chromatography on CM-Sephadex C-25, and by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography on a C18 column. The relative molecular mass (Mr) of the inhibitor is about 7,000 as estimated from dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Its amino-acid composition was determined, the sequence of the first 8 amino-acid residues from the N-terminus is Thr-Arg-Asp-Phe-Pro-Pro-Asp-Gly-...

Structural homology between elongation factors EF-Tu from Bacillus stearothermophilus and Escherichia coli in the binding site for aminoacyl-tRNA.

Elongation factor EF-Tu (Mr approximately equal to 50 000) and elongation factor EF-G (Mr approximately equal to 78 000) were isolated from Bacillus stearothermophilus in a homogeneous form. The ability of EF-Tu to participate in protein synthesis is rapidly inactivated by N-tosyl-L-phenyl-alanylchloromethane (Tos-PheCH2Cl). EF-Tu X GTP is more susceptible to the inhibition by Tos-PheCH2Cl than is EF-Tu X GDP. Tos-PheCH2Cl forms a covalent equimolar complex with the factor by reacting with a cysteine residue in its molecule. The labelling of EF-Tu by the reagent irreversibly destroys its ability to bind aminoacyl-tRNA, which in turn protects the protein from this inactivation. This indicates that the modification of EF-Tu by Tos-PheCH2Cl occurs at the aminoacyl-tRNA binding site of the protein. To identify and characterize the site of aminoacyl-tRNA binding in EF-Tu, the factor was labelled with [14C]Tos-PheCH2Cl, digested with trypsin, the resulting peptides were separated by high-performance liquid chromatography and the sequence of the radioactive peptide was determined. The peptide has identical structure with an Escherichia coli EF-Tu tryptic peptide comprising the residues 75-89 and the Tos-PheCH2Cl-reactive cysteine at position 81 [Jonák, J., Petersen, T. E., Clark, B. F. C. and Rychlík, I. (1982) FEBS Lett. 150, 485-488]. Experiments on photo-oxidation of EF-Tu by visible light in the presence of rose bengal dye showed that there are apparently two histidine residues in elongation factor Tu from B. stearothermophilus which are essential for the interaction with aminoacyl-tRNA. This is clearly reminiscent of a similar situation in E. coli EF-Tu [Jonák, J., Petersen, T. E., Meloun, B. and Rychlík, I. (1984) Eur. J. Biochem. 144, 295-303]. Our results provide further evidence for the conserved nature of the site of aminoacyl-tRNA binding in elongation factor EF-Tu and show that Tos-PheCH2Cl reagent might be a favourable tool for the identification of the site in the structure of prokaryotic EF-Tus.

Acidic acrosin inhibitors from bull seminal plasma. Structural differences.

The three acidic acrosin inhibitors of bull seminal plasma, BUSI I A, BUSI I B1 and BUSI I B2 were compared by thin-layer chromatographic and high-performance liquid chromatographic fingerprint analyses of the tryptic digests prepared from their S-carboxymethylated derivatives. It was found that the inhibitors differ only in their N-terminal regions. The inhibitor BUSI I B1 has a blocked N-terminus due to a pyroglutamic-acid residue. This residue is substituted by glutamic acid in BUSI I B2. The third inhibitor, BUSI I A, is four residues shorter at the N-terminus than the two other inhibitors. A high-performance liquid chromatography-based method for the separation of the three inhibitor variants was developed.

Histidine residues in elongation factor EF-tu from Escherichia coli protected by aminoacyl-tRNA against photo-oxidation.

Complexes of Escherichia coli elongation factor EF-Tu with GTP or GTP and aminoacyl-tRNA were photo-oxidized by irradiation with visible light in the presence of rose bengal dye. EF-Tu was isolated, digested with trypsin, the resulting tryptic peptides were separated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and the position of most of the peptides on the chromatogram was determined. Irradiation of complexes resulted in the inactivation of the factor (as tested by its capacity to interact with aminoacyl-tRNA) and was accompanied by the loss of its histidine residues (as revealed by amino acid analysis) and by the decrease in the amount of some tryptic peptides (as detected by HPLC). Aminoacyl-tRNA, bound to EF-Tu during the irradiation, protected the protein from inactivation, from the loss of histidine residues and some of its peptides from photo-oxidative degradation. Comparison of quantities of individual tryptic peptides recovered from the irradiated EF-Tu X GTP X aminoacyl-tRNA complex with those from the irradiated EF-Tu X GTP complex revealed that histidine-containing peptides T12 and T15 as well as methionine-containing peptide T14 were in the ternary complex markedly protected against the photo-oxidative degradation. This finding suggests that their histidines, i.e. His-66 and His-118 respectively and at least one of the methionines (Met-91, 98 or 112) present in peptide T14 are located near to or at the binding site of EF-Tu for aminoacyl-tRNA and could be involved in the interaction between aminoacyl-tRNA and the factor.

Homologies in the structures of bull seminal plasma acrosin inhibitors and comparison with other homologous proteinase inhibitors of the Kazal type.

After determination of the amino-acid sequence of a further acrosin inhibitor isolated from bull seminal plasma, the primary structures of the three seminal inhibitors known so far were compared with other homologous structures of protein-protein inhibitors. From the matrix of minimal base changes, a high divergence in the evolution of the seminal inhibitors can be seen. Inhibitors from bull seminal plasma show even a higher degree of relationship to dog submandibular gland inhibitor domain II and the 3rd domain of quail ovomucoid than to acrosin inhibitor from boar seminal plasma.

The primary structure of Vipera ammodytes venom trypsin inhibitor I.

The primary structure of Vipera ammodytes venom trypsin inhibitor I consists of 61 amino acid residues [sequence in text]. The N-terminal group of the inhibitor is pyrrolidonecarboxylic acid. The sequential data were obtained by analysis of peptides isolated from tryptic and chymotryptic digests and by analysis of peptides derived from the hydrolysis of the aspartyl-prolyl bond of the carboxymethylated inhibitor. The primary structure of trypsin inhibitor I presented shows approximately 80% sequence homology with chymotrypsin inhibitor isolated from the venom of the same snake, and nearly 50% homology with bovine basic pancreatic trypsin inhibitor. It belongs to the Kunitz-pancreatic trypsin inhibitor family of inhibitors.

Chemical characterization of human urine albumin in proteinuria.

From the urine of a patient with proteinuria, the albumin protein component was isolated and compared with human serum albumin. By comparing the amino acid composition of the original proteins and their large cyanogen bromide fragments, peptide maps and N-terminal sequences of 33 amino acid residues, the identity of both proteins was shown.

Structure of N-terminal cyanogen bromide fragment of human plasma albumin.

The complete amino acid sequence of 87 residues of cyanogen bromide fragment CB1 (Asp), the N-terminal fragment of human plasma albumine molecule, has been established. The sequence was determined from the characterization of all tryptic peptides and of chymotryptic arginine-containing peptides in the fragment digested. Overlaps were obtained by tryptic and chymotryptic cleavage of the maleylated S-sulfo derivative of fragment CB1(Asp). Residue 34 is the only cysteine residue in the albumin molecule and it was determined in the form of S-carboxymethyl-cysteine. Edman and dansyl-Edman degradation were used for the sequential analysis.