In silico Investigation of the PglB Active Site Reveals Transient Catalytic States and Octahedral Metal Ion Coordination.

The last step of the bacterial N-glycosylation pathway involves PglB, an oligosaccharyltransferase, which is responsible for the en bloc transfer of a fully assembled oligosaccharide chain to a protein possessing the extended motif D/E-X-N-X-S/T. Recently, this molecule had its full structure elucidated, enabling the description of its domains and the proposition of a catalytic mechanism. By employing molecular dynamics simulations, we were able to evaluate structural aspects of PglB, suggesting prevalent motions that may bring insights into the mechanism of the glycosylated peptide detachment. Additionally, we identified transient states at the catalytic site, in which the previously described carboxamide twisting mechanism was observed. Aided by quantum mechanics calculations for each different conformational states of the catalytic site, we determined the presence of an octahedral metal coordination, along with the presence of one water molecule at the catalytic site.

Structural and thermodynamic analysis of thrombin:suramin interaction in solution and crystal phases.

Suramin is a hexasulfonated naphthylurea which has been recently characterized as a non-competitive inhibitor of human alpha-thrombin activity over fibrinogen, although its binding site and mode of interaction with the enzyme remain elusive. Here, we determined two X-ray structure of the thrombin:suramin complex, refined at 2.4 A resolution. While a single thrombin:suramin complex was found in the asymmetric unit cell of the crystal, some of the crystallographic contacts with symmetrically related molecules are mediated by both the enzyme and the ligand. Molecular dynamics simulations with the 1:1 complex demonstrate a large rearrangement of suramin in the complex, but with the protein scaffold and the more extensive protein-ligand regions keep unchanged. Small-angle X-ray scattering measurements at high micromolar concentration demonstrate a suramin-induced dimerization of the enzyme. These data indicating a dissimilar binding mode in the monomeric and oligomeric states, with a monomeric, 1:1 complex to be more likely to exist at the thrombin physiological, nanomolar concentration range. Collectively, close understanding on the structural basis for interaction is given which might establish a basis for design of suramin analogues targeting thrombin.

Thermal-induced conformational changes in the product release area drive the enzymatic activity of xylanases 10B: Crystal structure, conformational stability and functional characterization of the xylanase 10B from Thermotoga petrophila RKU-1.

Endo-xylanases play a key role in the depolymerization of xylan and recently, they have attracted much attention owing to their potential applications on biofuels and paper industries. In this work, we have investigated the molecular basis for the action mode of xylanases 10B at high temperatures using biochemical, biophysical and crystallographic methods. The crystal structure of xylanase 10B from hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga petrophila RKU-1 (TpXyl10B) has been solved in the native state and in complex with xylobiose. The complex crystal structure showed a classical binding mode shared among other xylanases, which encompasses the -1 and -2 subsites. Interestingly, TpXyl10B displayed a temperature-dependent action mode producing xylobiose and xylotriose at 20°C, and exclusively xylobiose at 90°C as assessed by capillary zone electrophoresis. Moreover, circular dichroism spectroscopy suggested a coupling effect of temperature-induced structural changes with this particular enzymatic behavior. Molecular dynamics simulations supported the CD analysis suggesting that an open conformational state adopted by the catalytic loop (Trp297-Lys326) provokes significant modifications in the product release area (+1,+2 and +3 subsites), which drives the enzymatic activity to the specific release of xylobiose at high temperatures.

Characterization of the papillomavirus alpha(1)E2 peptide unfolded to folded transition upon DNA binding.

Transcriptional regulation depends on sequence-specific binding of regulatory proteins to their responsive elements in viral DNA. The papillomavirus E2 protein binds to DNA through the consensus sequence ACCG-NNNN-CGGT, activating or inhibiting viral replication. Through molecular dynamics simulations we were able to characterize the role of the DNA molecule on E2 binding region (named alpha(1)E2) conformation, acquiring structural insights for previous works suggesting an unfolded to folded transition upon alpha(1)E2 complexation to DNA. Moreover, the results indicate sites to guide the design of alpha(1)E2 synthetic derivatives to inhibit the HPV infection.