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1 Biomolecular Structure Center, Department of Biochemistry, 2 Division of Infectious Disease, and 3 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
4 Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA
5 Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, Buffalo, New York 14203, USA
6 Berkeley Center for Structural Biology, Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
7 SSRL, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
Reprint requests to: Ethan A. Merritt, Biomolecular Structure Center M/S 357742, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; e-mail: merritt{at}u.washington.edu; fax: (206) 685-7002.
(RECEIVED August 15, 2005; FINAL REVISION August 15, 2005; ACCEPTED August 17, 2005)
| Abstract |
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Keywords: structural genomics; Leishmania; Trypanosoma; functional annotation; protein families; evolutionary relationships; cysteine hydrolase
Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are at http://www.proteinscience.org/cgi/doi/10.1110/ps.051783005.
| Introduction |
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SGPP target proteins are routinely cloned and expressed in parallel from multiple leishmania species in order to maximize the chance of eventual success in purification and crystallization. Parallel expression of this target was attempted from three species: Leishmania major, Leishmania donovani, and Leishmania mexicana. Crystals were obtained first for target construct Lmaj001686AAA, but these diffracted only to low resolution. Subsequently, better-diffracting native crystals were obtained from target Tcru003547AAA, and SeMet crystals were obtained from target Ldon001686AAA. The structure was solved by Se MAD from the L. donovani crystals and used for molecular replacement to solve the L. major and T. cruzi structures (Table 1
).
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| Results and Discussion |
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-sandwich domain in which a central
sheet is flanked by
helices (Fig. 1A
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An optimized structural alignment (Kleywegt and Jones 1997; Guda et al. 2004) of CSHase and Ldon001686AAA revealed remarkable structural homology to the active site of CSHase. The L. donovani protein contains an active site residue Cys 112, a cis-peptide linkage between Ile107 and Glu108, and a very similar arrangement of polar groups (Table 2
). Further additional conserved, or semiconserved, residues can be seen in the L. donovani pocket such as Thr57 and Gln21 (Table 2
). The role that these conserved residues play in the function of the protein is not clear. This led us to hypothesize that Ldon001686AAA might plausibly function by using the same fundamental chemistry as the amidohydrolase.
To test this theory, we have attempted to bind the CSHase inhibitor ligands glyoxylate and SSA to Ldon001686AAA. Both of these bind irreversibly to the active site cysteine of CSHase. When Ldon-001686AAA/glyoxylate cocrystals were analyzed, the unit cell was found to have shrunk by 10 Å, and clear density for the glyoxylate ion was observed bound to the putative active site cysteine residue, Cys112, in the same orientation as was observed in the CSHase structure (data not shown). Difference maps resulting from soaking of SSA into Ldon001686AAA crystals revealed that SSA bound in a similar fashion to glyoxylate (data not shown). While these structures do not by themselves indicate the true natural substrate[s] of the L. donovani, L. major, and T. cruzi proteins, they provide evidence that the active site geometry is consistent with the cysteine-mediated catalytic mechanism of CSHase (Romao et al. 1992; Zajc et al. 1996).
The similarity in character between the active site in the present structures and the active sites of CSHase and PHZD does not extend beyond the immediate vicinity of the catalytic residues. To gain further insight into the possible evolutionary and functional relationships to other members of the isochorismatase superfamily, we constructed structure-based sequence alignments using the program CEMC (Guda et al. 2004). These are shown in Figures 2
and 3
.
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8 (residues 180190) from a neighboring monomer.
The one previously assigned isochorismatase subfamily that lacks this same 25-residue loop is structurally represented by the E. coli ycac gene product (Protein Data Bank [PDB] entry 1YAC
[PDB]
), of unknown function (Colovos et al. 1998). This protein was observed to form an octamer consisting of two back-to-back tetramers, each exhibiting regular C4 symmetry as in the present protozoan structures. While the conserved residues of the active site of 1YAC are homologous to their counterparts of the protozoan structures, the primary sequence as a whole shows <20% identity to the protozoan sequences. Furthermore, homology between the ycac gene sequence and the protozoan sequences ends at approximately residue 174 of the T. cruzi sequence (Fig. 3
) and thus does not encompass that part of the active site binding surface formed by helix
8 in the present structures. The longer (208-residue) ycac sequence instead continues with an additional C-terminal 15-residue
helix that has no counterpart in the protozoan structures.
Another close homolog of the structures presented here is the structure of the isochorismatase PhzD gene product from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PDB entry 1NF8
[PDB]
). Although this structure lacks the catalytic cysteine residue present in our structures and CSHase, it contains the other catalytic triad residues thought to be required for reaction in the CSHase structure. In addition, similar to CSHase and unlike either our structures or the 1YAC structure, the 1NF8 structure has the 25-residue loop present in other family members. As seen in the CSHase structure, this loop has the effect of cloistering the active site and presumably sequestering the substrate during reaction. The structure of 1NF8 was co-crystallized with a substrate isochorismate molecule, after alanine mutation of the triad Asp38 residue. It was determined that the active site Gln78 residue was in contact with the carboxylate of the substrate isochorismate. Of the three structures presented here, only Tcru003547AAA possesses a glutamic acid residue in the corresponding position (Gln60) (Table 2
). The homologs from Leishmania instead have a histidine residue at this site. It is interesting to ponder what role this particular position may play in substrate specificity.
When the structure of the T. cruzi homolog was solved, additional electron density was found in the active site of this protein, presumably from an exogenous ligand molecule introduced during protein expression in E. coli (Fig. 4
). The density in the immediate region of Cys115 is consistent with a ligand conformation similar to the glyoxylate molecule seen in the Ldon-001686AAA structure; however, the T. cruzi ligand is clearly much larger in size. Although the overall electron density is similar in volume and spatial location to the isochorismate ligand observed in the P. aeruginosa PHZD structure, its specific shape is not compatible. It is clearly not a nucleotide. Attempts to model other potential ligands into this density have so far been unsuccessful.
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| Materials and methods |
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Cloning, expression, and purification
DNA from L. major Friedlin and L. donovani Ld1S was extracted from parasites grown in culture with a simple phenol extraction. RNA was not removed prior to using this as a template. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed to amplify the target using the following primers: forward primer, CTCACCACCACCACCACCATATGTCTCGCTTGATGC CGCATTA; reverse primer, ATCCTATCTTACTCACTTAGAGCGGGATCGGAGGCTCCT. (Underlined regions are specific for the gene.) The PCR protocol was as follows: 120 sec at 95°C; 30 repetitions of 30 sec at 94°C, 60 sec at 60°C, and 270 sec at 72°C; and 600 sec at 72°C.
For the L. major target, PCR was done by using the PfuTurbo kit (Stratagene) according to the manufacturers instructions on a PTC 200 (MJ Research) thermal cycler. The L. donovani target was amplified in a similar manner using the same (unoptimized) primers and standard Taq polymerase. The amplified PCR product was purified by agarose gel electrophoresis, extracted by using a QiaQuick 96 kit (Qiagen), and spliced into BG1861, a modified pET14b vector that appends MAHHHHHH onto the N terminus of the protein, by ligase-independent cloning (LIC) using T4 polymerase (Novagen). HT-96 E. coli (Novagen) were transformed, and plasmid was extracted with a QiaPrep 96 Turbo kit (Qiagen) following overnight growth of a single colony inoculated into 600 µ
of Terrific Broth. This plasmid was used to transform BL-21 Star cells (Invitrogen), and a single colony was expanded into a liter of ZYP-5052 autoinduction media and grown overnight at 37°C and then overnight at 18°C in order to generate unlabeled protein. For selenomethionine-labeled protein, a single colony inoculated a liter of PA-0.5G, a phosphate-buffered, defined media, and grown overnight at 37°C with constant shaking. The resulting E. coli were collected by centrifugation and resuspended in 2 L of PASM-5052 selenomethionine media; these were allowed to grow for 6 h at 37°C and then overnight at 18°C. E. coli from either standard or selenomethionine media were harvested by centrifugation and frozen at 80°C. The pellet was then resuspended in standard buffer25 mM HEPES (pH 7.25), 120 mM NaCl, 5% glycerol, and 0.025% sodium azideto which was added 0.2% cholate, 1 mg/mL lysozyme (Sigma), 1 mM 2ME, and protease inhibitors (Roche Complete, EDTA-free) and then was sonicated on ice to disrupt E. coli. The selenomethionine derivatives of the L. donovani protein were isolated by using the same standard buffer with a NaCl concentration raised to 500 mM. Cellular debris was removed by 20 min of centrifugation at 18,000g, and the supernatant was tumbled with 10 mL of nickel-NTA resin (Superflow NTA, Qiagen) for 30 min at 4°C. The resin was allowed to settle, the supernatant was discarded, and the resin then was rinsed once with 10 mM imidazole and once with 20 mM imidizole in standard buffer. The resin was then recovered and added to a disposable column; the resin was then rinsed with 20 mM imidazole in standard buffer, the protein was eluted with 15 mL of 500 mM imidazole in standard buffer, and the eluent was dialyzed against 4 L of standard buffer overnight. The dialyzed material was concentrated to 10 mL by centrifugal ultrafiltration (Amicon Ultra, Millipore), DTT was added to 1 mM, and the dialyzed product was then applied to a prepacked Superdex 75 26/60 gel chromatography column (Amersham Biosciences) at 4°C in standard buffer. After running at 1 mL/min, peak fractions were collected and pooled, protease inhibitors (Roche Complete, EDTA free) were added, and the solution was concentrated in standard buffer with 2 mM DTT. Protein was aliquotted into a PCR plate, flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at 80°C (Deng et al. 2004; Mehlin et al. 2004).
Use of common primers to clone protein from multiple species
The L. major primers were used to amplify DNA for the homologous targets from L. donovani and L. mexicana strains as described above. These were cloned and expressed as SGPP targets Lmaj001686AAA, Ldon001686AAA, and Lmex001686AAA. It was not possible to purify soluble protein from the L. mexicana expression, but purified protein from the other two species was sent for crystallization trials.
Crystal screening/optimization
Initial crystal conditions were found by large-scale screening at the Hauptman-Wood Medical Research Institute (Luft et al. 2003). Crystallization experiments were set up by using the micro-batch-under-oil technique (Chayen et al. 1992) with a Robbins Scientific Tango liquid handling system. Each of the 1536 experiments contained 200 nL of crystallization cocktail solution combined with 200 nL of protein solution under paraffin oil (Fluka catalog no. 76235) contained in a 1536-well plate (Greiner BioOne catalog no. 79101). The experiment plate was stored for 1 wk at 4°C and imaged at 23°C. Images were manually reviewed. Of the 1536 crystallization conditions, nine produced outcomes for Ldon001686AAA considered suitable for further optimization trials, as did 15 for Tcru003547AAA.
Optimization of crystal growth conditions was performed in Seattle. All liquid handling and data tracking tasks were accomplished by using a modified CrystalMation platform (RoboDesign). Solution matrices were generated by the Alchemist I screen making system as programmed automatically from the CrystalTrak database; 400 nL and 400 nL sitting drop vapor-diffusion experiments were performed in 96-well Intelliplates (Hampton Research catalog no. HR3-299) prepared by the automated high-throughput dispenser Hydra-Plus-One as described elsewhere (Krupka et al. 2002). Crystallization plates were imaged at regular intervals by using the RoboMicroScope II and scored manually with CMView software provided by the manufacturer. Final optimized conditions for each target are as follows: (1) Lmaj001686AAA at 100 mM MOPS (pH 6.5), 15% PEG 8K, and 100 mM potassium phosphate; (2) Ldon001686AAA at 100 mM MES (pH 5.6), 18% PEG 1K, and 50 mM potassium phosphate; and (3) Tcru003547AAA at 100 mM MES (pH 6) and 1.4 M ammonium sulfate
Data collection/phasing/refinement
Data were collected at the ALS and SSRL synchrotron radiation laboratories, using Quantum Q4 and Q315 CCD detectors. All crystals were flash frozen in liquid nitrogen to 100K. Native data for Lmaj001686AAA and Ldon001686AAA were processed by using the program HKL2000 (Otwinowski and Minor 1997). Selenium derivative data for Ldon001686AAA were initially autoindexed by the program MOSFLM (Leslie 1992), collected by using the collection software Blu-Ice, and processed by using MOSFLM via the automated scripting procedure Elves (Leslie et al. 1986; Leslie 1992; CCP4 1994; Steller et al. 1998; Holton and Alber 2004). Data for Tcru003547AAA and for the Ldon001686AAA+glyoxylate cocrystal were autoindexed and processed by Elves, and collected by using the program DCS at ALS beamline 8.2.1 (Table 1
).
Experimental phases were obtained by three-wavelength MAD phasing of the SeMet Ldon001686AAA. Five initial Se sites were found by using the program SOLVE (Terwilliger and Berendzen 1999). These sites were then phased in the CCP4 program MLPHARE (CCP4 1994). A synthesis map was generated by using the CCP4 program FFT, and this map was then used to fit the Ldon1686AAA model. Initial refinement of Ldon001686AAA was carried out initially by using the program CNS (Brunger et al. 1998). Final refinement of Ldon001686AAA, using TLS refinement, was carried out by using the program Refmac5 (Table 1
). The structures of Lmaj-001686AAA and Tcru003547AAA were solved by placement of the L. donovani structure into the corresponding unit cells by using the program EPMR (Kissinger et al. 1999). This model was initially refined by using CNS, but final refinement was completed by using the program Refmac5 (Murshudov et al. 1997; Table 1
).
Model building and analysis of electron density
Model building was accomplished through manual fitting of electron density by using the program O. Idealized helices and strands were placed into density, and loops were added to link the poly-alanine chain together. Anomalous difference maps of the Selenium positions were used as guideposts during the fitting process.
Fitting of the glyoxylate ligand was carried out through automated real-space refinement routines in the program Xfit (McRee 1999). The identity of the ligand corresponding to the unexpected electron density found in the structure of the T. cruzi homolog remains unknown. Attempts have been made to model various molecules such as isochorismate and adenosine monophosphate into the density cage but have not yielded plausible structural models. We are currently attempting the characterization of this unidentified ligand through biochemical and biophysical means.
Structural superpositions were carried out by using the CE-MC server (Guda et al. 2004). Figure 3
was prepared by using TeXShade (Beitz 2000).
Accession numbers
Atomic coordinates and structure factors for the three structures reported here have been deposited with the PDB (accession codes 1X9G
[PDB]
, 1XN4, 1YZV).
| Acknowledgments |
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