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Many protein regions and some entire proteins have no definite tertiary structure, presenting instead as dynamic, disorder ensembles under different physiochemical circumstances. These proteins and regions are known as Intrinsically Unstructured Proteins (IUP). IUP have been associated with a wide range of protein functions, along with roles in diseases characterized by protein misfolding and aggregation.
LingZhi (Ganoderma lucidum) has been used as a therapeutic agent for decades, but the antitumor potency of LingZhi oligopeptides (LZOs) was not well explored. In current study, ten novel LZO amino acid sequences were identified, and anticancer potency was evaluated. We found that LZO-3 [EGHGF] significantly triggered A549 cell apoptosis via mitochondrial dysregulation, as evidenced by caspases activation, mitochondrial membrane potential collapse, Bcl-2/Bax ratio alteration, and cytochrome c release. Further, the down-regulation of Trx/TrxR reductase and the improvement of the MDM2/p53 state also contributed to the LZO-3-induced cell apoptosis. Notably, our findings provide evidence for the novel potency of LZOs, which could be developed as promising chemotherapeutic agents against lung cancer.
Sequence specific resonance assignment constitutes an important step towards high-resolution structure determination of proteins by NMR and is aided by selective identification and assignment of amino acid types. The traditional approach to selective labeling yields only the chemical shifts of the particular amino acid being selected and does not help in establishing a link between adjacent residues along the polypeptide chain, which is important for sequential assignments. An alternative approach is the method of amino acid selective 'unlabeling' or reverse labeling, which involves selective unlabeling of specific amino acid types against a uniformly (13)C/(15)N labeled background. Based on this method, we present a novel approach for sequential assignments in proteins. The method involves a new NMR experiment named, {(12)CO( i )-(15)N( i+1)}-filtered HSQC, which aids in linking the (1)H(N)/(15)N resonances of the selectively unlabeled residue, i, and its C-terminal neighbor, i + 1, in HN-detected double and triple resonance spectra. This leads to the assignment of a tri-peptide segment from the knowledge of the amino acid types of residues: i - 1, i and i + 1, thereby speeding up the sequential assignment process. The method has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive, applicable to (2)H labeled protein and can be coupled with cell-free synthesis and/or automated assignment approaches. A detailed survey involving unlabeling of different amino acid types individually or in pairs reveals that the proposed approach is also robust to misincorporation of (14)N at undesired sites. Taken together, this study represents the first application of selective unlabeling for sequence specific resonance assignments and opens up new avenues to using this methodology in protein structural studies.
Cytoplasmic streaming with extremely high velocity (∼70 μm s-1) occurs in cells of the characean algae (Chara). Because cytoplasmic streaming is caused by myosin XI, it has been suggested that a myosin XI with a velocity of 70 μm s-1, the fastest myosin measured so far, exists in Chara cells. However, the velocity of the previously cloned Chara corallina myosin XI (CcXI) was about 20 μm s-1, one-third of the cytoplasmic streaming velocity in Chara Recently, the genome sequence of Chara braunii has been published, revealing that this alga has four myosin XI genes. We cloned these four myosin XI (CbXI-1, 2, 3, and 4) and measured their velocities. While the velocities of CbXI-3 and CbXI-4 motor domains (MDs) were similar to that of CcXI MD, the velocities of CbXI-1 and CbXI-2 MDs were 3.2 times and 2.8 times faster than that of CcXI MD, respectively. The velocity of chimeric CbXI-1, a functional, full-length CbXI-1 construct, was 60 μm s-1 These results suggest that CbXI-1 and CbXI-2 would be the main contributors to cytoplasmic streaming in Chara cells and show that these myosins are ultrafast myosins with a velocity 10 times faster than fast skeletal muscle myosins in animals. We also report an atomic structure (2.8-Å resolution) of myosin XI using X-ray crystallography. Based on this crystal structure and the recently published cryo-electron microscopy structure of acto-myosin XI at low resolution (4.3-Å), it appears that the actin-binding region contributes to the fast movement of Chara myosin XI. Mutation experiments of actin-binding surface loops support this hypothesis.
Our objective was to determine the primary structure of white-tailed deer myoglobin (Mb). White-tailed deer Mb was isolated from cardiac muscles employing ammonium sulfate precipitation and gel-filtration chromatography. The amino acid sequence was determined by Edman degradation. Sequence analyses of intact Mb as well as tryptic- and cyanogen bromide-peptides yielded the complete primary structure of white-tailed deer Mb, which shared 100% similarity with red deer Mb. White-tailed deer Mb consists of 153 amino acid residues and shares more than 96% sequence similarity with myoglobins from meat-producing ruminants, such as cattle, buffalo, sheep, and goat. Similar to sheep and goat myoglobins, white-tailed deer Mb contains 12 histidine residues. Proximal (position 93) and distal (position 64) histidine residues responsible for maintaining the stability of heme are conserved in white-tailed deer Mb.
The objective of the present study was to characterize the primary structure of emu myoglobin (Mb). Emu Mb was isolated from Iliofibularis muscle employing gel-filtration chromatography. Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry was employed to determine the exact molecular mass of emu Mb in comparison with horse Mb, and Edman degradation was utilized to characterize the amino acid sequence. The molecular mass of emu Mb was 17,380 Da and was close to those reported for ratite and poultry myoglobins. Similar to myoglobins from meat-producing livestock and birds, emu Mb has 153 amino acids. Emu Mb contains 9 histidines. Proximal and distal histidines, responsible for coordinating oxygen-binding property of Mb, are conserved in emu. Emu Mb shared more than 90% homology with ratite and chicken myoglobins, whereas it demonstrated only less than 70% sequence similarity with ruminant myoglobins.
Synthetic prions, generated de novo from minimal, non-infectious components, cause bona fide prion disease in animals. Transmission of synthetic prions to hosts expressing syngeneic PrPC results in extended, variable incubation periods and incomplete attack rates. In contrast, murine synthetic prions (MSP) generated via PMCA with minimal cofactors readily infected mice and hamsters and rapidly adapted to both species. To investigate if hamster synthetic prions (HSP) generated under the same conditions as the MSP are also highly infectious, we inoculated hamsters with HSP generated with either hamster wild type or mutant (ΔG54, ΔG54/M139I, M139I/I205M) recombinant PrP. None of the inoculated hamsters developed clinical signs of prion disease, however, brain homogenate from HSPWT- and HSPΔG54-infected hamsters contained PrPSc, indicating subclinical infection. Serial passage in hamsters resulted in clinical disease at second passage accompanied by changes in incubation period and PrPSc conformational stability between second and third passage. These data suggest the HSP, in contrast to the MSP, are not comprised of PrPSc, and instead generate authentic PrPSc via deformed templating. Differences in infectivity between the MSP and HSP suggest that, under similar generation conditions, the amino acid sequence of PrP influences generation of authentic PrPSc.
Numerous studies have shown that the ability to form amyloid fibrils is an inherent property of the polypeptide chain. This has lead to the development of several computational approaches to predict amyloidogenicity by amino acid sequences. Here, we discuss the principles governing these methods, and evaluate them using several datasets. They deliver excellent performance in the tests made using short peptides (~6 residues). However, there is a general tendency towards a high number of false positives when tested against longer sequences. This shortcoming needs to be addressed as these longer sequences are linked to diseases. Recent structural studies have shown that the core element of the majority of disease-related amyloid fibrils is a β-strand-loop-β-strand motif called β-arch. This insight provides an opportunity to substantially improve the prediction of amyloids produced by natural proteins, ushering in an era of personalized medicine based on genome analysis.
Adequate representations of protein evolution should consider how the acceptance of mutations depends on the sequence context in which they arise. However, epistatic interactions among sites in a protein result in hererogeneities in the substitution rate, both temporal and spatial, that are beyond the capabilities of current models. Here we use parallels between amino acid substitutions and chemical reaction kinetics to develop an improved theory of protein evolution. We constructed a mechanistic framework for modelling amino acid substitution rates that uses the formalisms of statistical mechanics, with principles of population genetics underlying the analysis. Theoretical analyses and computer simulations of proteins under purifying selection for thermodynamic stability show that substitution rates and the stabilization of resident amino acids (the 'evolutionary Stokes shift') can be predicted from biophysics and the effect of sequence entropy alone. Furthermore, we demonstrate that substitutions predominantly occur when epistatic interactions result in near neutrality; substitution rates are determined by how often epistasis results in such nearly neutral conditions. This theory provides a general framework for modelling protein sequence change under purifying selection, potentially explains patterns of convergence and mutation rates in real proteins that are incompatible with previous models, and provides a better null model for the detection of adaptive changes.
Relating a protein's sequence to its conformation is a central challenge for both structure prediction and sequence design. Statistical contact potentials, as well as their more descriptive versions that account for side-chain orientation and other geometric descriptors, have served as simplistic but useful means of representing second-order contributions in sequence-structure relationships. Here we ask what happens when a pairwise potential is conditioned on the fully defined geometry of interacting backbones fragments. We show that the resulting structure-conditioned coupling energies more accurately reflect pair preferences as a function of structural contexts. These structure-conditioned energies more reliably encode native sequence information and more highly correlate with experimentally determined coupling energies. Clustering a database of interaction motifs by structure results in ensembles of similar energies and clustering them by energy results in ensembles of similar structures. By comparing many pairs of interaction motifs and showing that structural similarity and energetic similarity go hand-in-hand, we provide a tangible link between modular sequence and structure elements. This link is applicable to structural modeling, and we show that scoring CASP models with structured-conditioned energies results in substantially higher correlation with structural quality than scoring the same models with a contact potential. We conclude that structure-conditioned coupling energies are a good way to model the impact of interaction geometry on second-order sequence preferences.
The metabolic cycle of Saccharomyces cerevisiae consists of alternating oxidative (respiration) and reductive (glycolysis) energy-yielding reactions. The intracellular concentrations of amino acid precursors generated by these reactions oscillate accordingly, attaining maximal concentration during the middle of their respective yeast metabolic cycle phases. Typically, the amino acids themselves are most abundant at the end of their precursor's phase. We show that this metabolic cycling has likely biased the amino acid composition of proteins across the S. cerevisiae genome. In particular, we observed that the metabolic source of amino acids is the single most important source of variation in the amino acid compositions of functionally related proteins and that this signal appears only in (facultative) organisms using both oxidative and reductive metabolism. Periodically expressed proteins are enriched for amino acids generated in the preceding phase of the metabolic cycle. Proteins expressed during the oxidative phase contain more glycolysis-derived amino acids, whereas proteins expressed during the reductive phase contain more respiration-derived amino acids. Rare amino acids (e.g., tryptophan) are greatly overrepresented or underrepresented, relative to the proteomic average, in periodically expressed proteins, whereas common amino acids vary by a few percent. Genome-wide, we infer that 20,000 to 60,000 residues have been modified by this previously unappreciated pressure. This trend is strongest in ancient proteins, suggesting that oscillating endogenous amino acid availability exerted genome-wide selective pressure on protein sequences across evolutionary time.
Selective pressures at the DNA level shape genes into profiles consisting of patterns of rapidly evolving sites and sites withstanding change. These profiles remain detectable even when protein sequences become extensively diverged. A common task in molecular biology is to infer functional, structural or evolutionary relationships by querying a database using an algorithm. However, problems arise when sequence similarity is low. This study presents an algorithm that uses the evolutionary rate at codon sites, the dN/dS (ω) parameter, coupled to a substitution matrix as an alignment metric for detecting distantly related proteins. The algorithm, called BLOSUM-FIRE couples a newer and improved version of the original FIRE (Functional Inference using Rates of Evolution) algorithm with an amino acid substitution matrix in a dynamic scoring function. The enigmatic hepatitis B virus X protein was used as a test case for BLOSUM-FIRE and its associated database EvoDB.
Eubacterium acidaminophilum is a strictly anaerobic, Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium which belongs to cluster XI of the Clostridia. It ferments amino acids by a Stickland reaction. The genome harbors a chromosome (2.25 Mb) and a megaplasmid (0.8 Mb). It contains several gene clusters coding for selenocysteine-containing, glycine-derived, and amino acid-degrading reductases.
Protein sequence matching presently fails to identify many structures that are highly similar, even when they are known to have the same function. The high packing densities in globular proteins lead to interdependent substitutions, which have not previously been considered for amino acid similarities. At present, sequence matching compares sequences based only upon the similarities of single amino acids, ignoring the fact that in densely packed protein, there are additional conservative substitutions representing exchanges between two interacting amino acids, such as a small-large pair changing to a large-small pair substitutions that are not individually so conservative. Here we show that including information for such pairs of substitutions yields improved sequence matches, and that these yield significant gains in the agreements between sequence alignments and structure matches of the same protein pair. The result shows sequence segments matched where structure segments are aligned. There are gains for all 2002 collected cases where the sequence alignments that were not previously congruent with the structure matches. Our results also demonstrate a significant gain in detecting homology for "twilight zone" protein sequences. The amino acid substitution metrics derived have many other potential applications, for annotations, protein design, mutagenesis design, and empirical potential derivation.
Palm peroxidases are extremely stable and have uncommon substrate specificity. This study was designed to fill in the knowledge gap about the structures of a peroxidase from the windmill palm tree Trachycarpus fortunei. The complete amino acid sequence and partial glycosylation were determined by MALDI-top-down sequencing of native windmill palm tree peroxidase (WPTP), MALDI-TOF/TOF MS/MS of WPTP tryptic peptides, and cDNA sequencing. The propeptide of WPTP contained N- and C-terminal signal sequences which contained 21 and 17 amino acid residues, respectively. Mature WPTP was 306 amino acids in length, and its carbohydrate content ranged from 21% to 29%. Comparison to closely related royal palm tree peroxidase revealed structural features that may explain differences in their substrate specificity. The results can be used to guide engineering of WPTP and its novel applications.
Snake venoms are complex mixtures of proteins including l-amino acid oxidase (lAAO). A lAAO (named BslAAO) with a mass of 56kDa and a theoretical Ip of 5.79, was purified from Bothriechis schlegelii venom through size-exclusion, ion exchange and affinity chromatography. The entire protein sequence of 498 amino acids, was determined from cDNA using reverse-transcribed mRNA isolated from venom gland. The enzyme showed dose-dependent inhibition of bacterial growth. BslAAO showed inhibitory effect against S. aureus with a MIC of 4μg/mL and a MBC of 8μg/mL. Against Acinetobacter baumannii, showed a MIC of 2μg/mL and MBC of 4μg/mL, No effect was observed in Escherichia coli. This antibacterial activity was inhibited by catalase, indicating that antimicrobial activity was due to H2O2 production. BslAAO did not show any cytotoxic activity toward mouse myoblast cell line C2C12 or peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The enzyme oxidated l-Leu, with a Km of 16.37μM and a Vmax of 0.39μM/min. Snake venoms lAAOs, are potential frames of different therapeutics molecules since these enzymes exhibit low MICs and MBCs and show to be harmless to human cells due to microorganisms being generally several fold more sensitive to reactive oxygen species than human tissues.
Essential amino acids (EAA) consist of a group of nine amino acids that animals are unable to synthesize via de novo pathways. Recently, it has been found that most metazoans lack the same set of enzymes responsible for the de novo EAA biosynthesis. Here we investigate the sequence conservation and evolution of all the metazoan remaining genes for EAA pathways. Initially, the set of all 49 enzymes responsible for the EAA de novo biosynthesis in yeast was retrieved. These enzymes were used as BLAST queries to search for similar sequences in a database containing 10 complete metazoan genomes. Eight enzymes typically attributed to EAA pathways were found to be ubiquitous in metazoan genomes, suggesting a conserved functional role. In this study, we address the question of how these genes evolved after losing their pathway partners. To do this, we compared metazoan genes with their fungal and plant orthologs. Using phylogenetic analysis with maximum likelihood, we found that acetolactate synthase (ALS) and betaine-homocysteine S-methyltransferase (BHMT) diverged from the expected Tree of Life (ToL) relationships. High sequence conservation in the paraphyletic group Plant-Fungi was identified for these two genes using a newly developed Python algorithm. Selective pressure analysis of ALS and BHMT protein sequences showed higher non-synonymous mutation ratios in comparisons between metazoans/fungi and metazoans/plants, supporting the hypothesis that these two genes have undergone non-ToL evolution in animals.
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