Mapping the interactions between flavodoxin and its physiological partners flavodoxin reductase and cobalamin-dependent methionine synthase.

Flavodoxins are electron-transfer proteins that contain the prosthetic group flavin mononucleotide. In Escherichia coli, flavodoxin is reduced by the FAD-containing protein NADPH:ferredoxin (flavodoxin) oxidoreductase; flavodoxins serve as electron donors in the reductive activation of anaerobic ribonucleotide reductase, biotin synthase, pyruvate formate lyase, and cobalamin-dependent methionine synthase. In addition, domains homologous to flavodoxin are components of the multidomain flavoproteins cytochrome P450 reductase, nitric oxide synthase, and methionine synthase reductase. Although three-dimensional structures are known for many of these proteins and domains, very little is known about the structural aspects of their interactions. We address this issue by using NMR chemical shift mapping to identify the surfaces on flavodoxin that bind flavodoxin reductase and methionine synthase. We find that these physiological partners bind to unique overlapping sites on flavodoxin, precluding the formation of ternary complexes. We infer that the flavodoxin-like domains of the cytochrome P450 reductase family form mutually exclusive complexes with their electron-donating and -accepting partners, complexes that require conformational changes for interconversion.

Magnetization transfer via residual dipolar couplings: application to proton-proton correlations in partially aligned proteins.

A novel three-dimensional NMR experiment is reported that allows the observation of correlations between amide and other protons via residual dipolar couplings in partially oriented proteins. The experiment is designed to permit quantitative measurement of the magnitude of proton-proton residual dipolar couplings in larger molecules and at higher degree of alignments. The observed couplings contain data valuable for protein resonance assignment, local protein structure refinement, and determination of low-resolution protein folds.

Structural insights into substrate binding by the molecular chaperone DnaK.

How substrate affinity is modulated by nucleotide binding remains a fundamental, unanswered question in the study of 70 kDa heat shock protein (Hsp70) molecular chaperones. We find here that the Escherichia coli Hsp70, DnaK, lacking the entire alpha-helical domain, DnaK(1-507), retains the ability to support lambda phage replication in vivo and to pass information from the nucleotide binding domain to the substrate binding domain, and vice versa, in vitro. We determined the NMR solution structure of the corresponding substrate binding domain, DnaK(393-507), without substrate, and assessed the impact of substrate binding. Without bound substrate, loop L3,4 and strand beta3 are in significantly different conformations than observed in previous structures of the bound DnaK substrate binding domain, leading to occlusion of the substrate binding site. Upon substrate binding, the beta-domain shifts towards the structure seen in earlier X-ray and NMR structures. Taken together, our results suggest that conformational changes in the beta-domain itself contribute to the mechanism by which nucleotide binding modulates substrate binding affinity.

Line narrowing in spectra of proteins dissolved in a dilute liquid crystalline phase by band-selective adiabatic decoupling: application to 1HN-15N residual dipolar coupling measurements.

Residual heteronuclear dipolar couplings obtained from partially oriented protein samples can provide unique NMR constraints for protein structure determination. However, partial orientation of protein samples also causes severe 1H line broadening resulting from residual 1H-1H dipolar couplings. In this communication we show that band-selective 1H homonuclear decoupling during data acquisition is an efficient way to suppress residual 1H-1H dipolar couplings, resulting in spectra that are still amenable to solution NMR analysis, even with high degrees of alignment. As an example, we present a novel experiment with improved sensitivity for the measurement of one-bond 1HN-15N residual dipolar couplings in a protein sample dissolved in magnetically aligned liquid crystalline bicelles.