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1 Department of Biophysics and Radiation Biology and 2 Research Group for Biophysics, Hungarian Academy of SciencesSemmelweis University, H-1088 Budapest, Hungary
3 Institute for Theoretical Chemistry and Structural Biology, University of Vienna, A-1090 Wien, Austria
4 Institute of Enzymology, Biological Research Center of Szeged, H-1113 Budapest, Hungary
Reprint requests to: Szabolcs Osváth, H-1444, Budapest Pf: 263, Hungary; e-mail: osvath{at}puskin.sote.hu; fax: +36-1-266-6656.
(RECEIVED January 14, 2005; FINAL REVISION March 13, 2005; ACCEPTED March 13, 2005)
| Abstract |
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Keywords: protein folding; domain interactions; phosphoglycerate kinase; two-state folding; tryptophan fluorescence
Abbreviations: GuHCl, Guanidine hydrochloride DTT, 1,4-Dithio-L-threitol EDTA, Ethylenediamine-tetraacetic acid disodium salt PGK, phosphoglycerate kinase hisPGK, histidine-tagged variant of yeast PGK hisN, histidine-tagged variant of the N-terminal domain (1186) of yeast PGK hisC, histidine-tagged variant of the C-terminal domain (187412) of yeast PGK hisPGK W333, W308F mutant of hisPGK hisPGK W122, W308F, W333F, Y122W triple mutant of hisPGK hisN W122, Y122W mutant of hisN hisC W333, W308F mutant of hisC
Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are at http://www.proteinscience.org/cgi/doi/10.1110/ps.051359905.
| Introduction |
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The definition of a domain is not rigorous. Several definitions can be found in the protein folding literature. One can define it as a folding unit, i.e., as part of the protein that can fold to a stable native-like structure even when isolated from the other parts of the protein. Another classification often used in the literature defines the domain as a compact dominion of the native protein structure within which elements interact more extensively, than with elements outside of it. Relatively few studies address the folding properties of multidomain proteins (Adams et al. 1996; Hosszu et al. 1997; Dinner et al. 2000; Wenk et al. 2000; Jäger et al. 2001). These studies revealed that individual structural domains are often able to fold independently; thus, the structure-based and the folding-based domain definitions often coincide. It was also shown that domain interactions could result in both productive and unproductive folding intermediates (Dinner et al. 2000; Jäger and Plückthun 2000). Folding of the domains within a multidomain protein can differ significantly from the folding of the individual domains, since folding paths depend sensitively on the relative stability of the domains and the strength of the domain interactions (Brandts et al. 1989; Semisotnov et al. 1991; Freire et al. 1992; Szilágyi and Vas 1998).
Because of its two-domain structure, phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) from various organisms has proven a good model to analyze domain interactions (Missiakas et al. 1990; Vas et al. 1990; Ritco-Vonsovici et al. 1995a; Reed et al. 2003). It has been used in many unfolding and refolding studies, and different denatured states of PGK have been well characterized (Chardot et al. 1988; Griko et al. 1989; Damaschun et al. 1993, 1998; Gast et al. 1993).
Yeast PGK is a 415 residue monomeric protein that is built up of two structurally similar domains, linked by a helical hinge. The two domains also interact through the C-terminal helix, which folds back to the N domain, and proved to be crucial for enzyme activity (Ritco-Vonsovici et al. 1995b). In the folded structure the contacts between the two domains are formed through hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds. There are two tryptophan residues in the wild-type yeast PGK that undergo fluorescence changes upon the folding/unfolding transition (Damaschun et al. 1998).
Folding of fragments containing less than one structural domain is incomplete and not cooperative, but both individual full-length domains fold into native-like structures (Pecorari et al. 1996; Hosszu et al. 1997). The isolated C domain retains the ability to bind ATP. The isolated N domain loses the substrate binding ability. For the PGK from Bacillus stearothermophilus it has been shown that the domain retains its native structure. The lack of the contacts with the C-terminal helix, however, leads to an increased flexibility of the 3-phosphoglycerate binding region resulting in the loss of the substrate binding ability (Hosszu et al. 1997).
Förster energy transfer between covalently bound fluorophores was used to determine intramolecular distances measuring the unfolding kinetics and equilibrium titrations of yeast PGK (Lillo et al. 1997a, b). Fluorescence techniques based on specific tryptophan mutants of multidomain proteins are capable of characterizing the behavior of the single domains along the folding process. Several enzymatically active single tryptophan mutants of yeast PGK have been constructed in order to monitor the folding and functional properties of its domains (Szpikowska et al. 1994; Beechem et al. 1995; Cheung and Mas 1996; Szpikowska and Mas 1996).
Most folding studies performed on multidomain proteins address the effect of the domain interactions on the enzyme activity and on the stability of the folded structure. In this work we intend to clarify the effect of the domain interactions on the kinetics and pathway of the folding reaction.
| Results and Discussion |
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Figure 1
illustrates the structure of the four components of the studied model system, based on X-ray crystallography data (Watson et al. 1982). The positions where the single tryptophan fluorophores were placed are shown in red. Sequence differences between the wild type and the mutants are summarized in the table included in the figure
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The above procedure resulted in smooth curves, which confirmed the validity of the method. No other corrections were needed, with the only exception of the refolding from the partially unfolded state of the hisN W122 shown in Figure 5A
(below). For this trace the slopes of the two curves did not match after the above procedure. The stopped-flow and the manual mixing experiments were done with different detection spectral width. In the partial refolding of hisN W122 the very small fluorescence quantum yield change of the last folding step is combined with a spectral shift. This situation made necessary an additional stretching of the manual mixing trace to match the slopes of the two measurements between 30 sec and 50 sec. The trace shown in Figure 5A
(below) is the result of this procedure.
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Taking advantage of the above findings, all fluorescence intensities were normalized to the fluorescence of the tryptophan in the unfolded protein in 1.7 M GuHCl. The final fluorescence measured at 1000 sec was scaled to this normalized value based on equilibrium GuHCl titration curves from which the fluorescence at the GuHCl concentration after the stopped flow mixing could be determined. We supported that this was the value that the kinetic experiments were approaching.
Kinetics of refolding from the fully unfolded state
Figure 4
compares refolding from the fully unfolded state of four single-tryptophan mutants (hisN W122, hisPGK W122, hisC W333, and hisPGK W333), as detected by fluorescence excited at 295 nm. Refolding was initiated by an 11-fold dilution of the protein sample solubilized in 1.7 M GuHCl. Table 1
summarizes the fluorescence levels for the studied mutants in the folded state, and 1 msec after the stopped-flow mixing. All mutants showed tryptophan fluorescence quenching upon folding. The extent of the quenching was different for the individual domains and mutants of the complete protein, the fluorescence of the individual domains being stronger. This is probably caused by a change in the flexibility of the native structure due to the lack of the interdomain contacts (Hosszu et al. 1997; Ervin et al. 2002).
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The fluorescence changes accompanying refolding were different for the individual domains and the corresponding complete proteins. The folding of the individual N domain differs from the trace obtained for the corresponding complete protein already at 1 msec. The two kinetics are compared on the same scale in Figure 4B
. Contrary to this, the folding kinetics of the individual C domain is different from the folding of the same domain within the complete protein only 60100 msec after mixing (Fig. 4D
). This is in agreement with earlier results that found no influence of the domain interactions on the folding of the C-terminal up to 10 msec (Osváth et al. 2003).
The large difference in the fluorescence level of the hyperfluorescent intermediates observed indicates that the transient structure formed in the vicinity of the residue 122 is different in the individual N domain and the corresponding complete protein. Apparently the domain interactions influence the submillisecond collapse of the N terminus of the yeast PGK. This differs from earlier findings of Parker and coworkers (Parker et al. 1996b), who concluded that the two domains of B. stearothermophilus phosphoglycerate kinase do not influence each others early collapse. The same group working on the same protein found a hierarchical folding, with the long-range contacts influencing only the slow steps of the folding (Parker et al. 1996a). In contrast, our results indicate that long-range contacts are important in both the fast and slow steps of protein folding; thus, folding is not hierarchical in our case. It has been shown that the folding pathway in a two-domain protein depends sensitively on the stability of the domains relative to the energy of the domaindomain interaction (Brandts et al. 1989; Freire et al. 1992). The above differences between yeast and B. stearothermophilus PGK folding probably come from the difference in the stability of the domains. Since the B. stearothermophilus is a thermostable bacterium, its proteins have evolutionary been designed to be more stable than the proteins of organisms living at lower temperatures, e.g., yeast (Závodszky et al. 1998; Szilágyi and Závodszky 2000). Also, our measurements were done at pH 6.2, where the protein is less stable than at pH 7.2, used in the experiments done on the B. stearothermophilus PGK. The stronger effect of the domain interactions and the lack of hierarchical folding in the yeast enzyme can probably be accounted for the smaller stability of the individual domains of the yeast protein compared to the B. stearothermophilus.
Our results show that the tryptophan fluorescence detected folding of the individual N domain is qualitatively different from the folding of the N domain within the complete protein indicating that the N domain follows different folding pathways in the two cases. Contrary to the behavior of the N domain, the overall fluorescence course for the individual C domain and the corresponding complete protein were analogous. The individual N-terminal folds faster than the individual C domain, but due to the domain interactions the folding rates change, and the C domain acquires its native structure faster than the N domain in the complete protein.
Kinetics of refolding from intermediate denaturant concentrations
Figure 5
shows the fluorescence-detected stopped-flow refolding from partially unfolded states of the four single tryptophan mutants of our model system. Similar to the refolding from the fully unfolded state, folding of the N domain is altered radically due to the domain interactions, while the changes in the folding of the C domain are less fundamental.
The fluorescence changes accompanying the refolding from a completely unfolded state (Fig. 4A,C
) and the refolding from the partially unfolded state (Fig. 5A,C
) are strikingly different for both individual domains. In a two-state folder only the unfolded and the folded states are populated significantly during the equilibrium titrations; thus, the kinetics of the refolding should be independent of the initial state. This is not the case for either of the individual domains, indicating that intermediate structures accumulate during the GuHCl titrations of both individual domains. We believe that the best way to confirm the two-state character of a folding reaction is based on a kinetic check. For a two-state folder the folding kinetics should depend solely on the final state and not on the initial extent of denaturation.
Conclusions
Domaindomain interactions alter the folding of yeast PGK considerably. The effect of the domain interactions is asymmetric.
Domain interactions were found to exert a measurable effect on the refolding of the N domain within <1 msec, while the effect of these interactions on the C domain became detectable only after 60100 msec.
The individual N domain folds faster than the individual C domain, but folding of the N domain is slowed down, and folding of the C domain is accelerated due to the domain interactions. As a result, within the complete protein the C domain acquires its native structure faster than the N domain.
Our data suggest that domaindomain interactions direct the folding of the N-terminal domain on a completely different pathway within the full-length protein compared to the individual N domain. Folding of the C domain is influenced by the interdomain contacts, but the folding pathway remains the same.
| Materials and methods |
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Refolding was initiated by a rapid dilution of the protein unfolded by different amounts of GuHCl using a stopped-flow apparatus (Applied Photophysics
*-180) and followed by time-resolved changes of tryptophan fluorescence excited at 295 nm, 5 nm bandwidth, and detected through a 320-nm cutoff filter. Fifty to 100 shots were averaged to obtain the traces shown in the figures. Fluorescence spectra were measured on an Edinburgh Analytical Instruments C-900 luminometer. Manual mixing experiments were recorded on the same instrument with 5-nm bandwidth excitation at 295 nm, and 10 nm-wide detection at 340 nm. The curves shown are the average of three to five individual measurements.
A comparison of the manual mixing and stopped-flow refolding kinetics showed that after 23 min artifacts occur in the stopped-flow measurements, probably due to the diffusion of the two mixed solutions into the observed sample compartment. To avoid this problem, the stopped-flow measurements were limited to 50 sec. Another artifact that needed special attention during the stopped-flow measurements was light scattering. Using the filters described above the contribution of the scattered light to the signal was reduced to <3%.
| Acknowledgments |
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