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Ontario Cancer Institute and Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada
(RECEIVED March 24, 2006; FINAL REVISION May 30, 2006; ACCEPTED July 24, 2006)
| Abstract |
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Keywords: red fluorescent protein; fluorescence quenching; copper ion; random mutagenesis; drFP583, DsRed
| Introduction |
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-barrel (
-can). AvGFP cloned from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria (Prasher et al. 1992) has been shown to be largely monomeric in aqueous solutions. In contrast, both sedimentation (Baird et al. 2000; Vrzheshch et al. 2000) and crystallographic studies (Wall et al. 2000; Yarbrough et al. 2001) have revealed that drFP583 forms an obligate tetramer (Baird et al. 2000). Engineering of metal-binding sites into avGFP variants through structure-based rational design has been reported (Richmond et al. 2000; Jensen et al. 2001). However, structure-based approaches may not necessarily produce the optimal metal sensors because of our limited understanding of the direct and/or indirect interactions of amino acid residues with the chromophore. We have utilized the alternate approach of screening a random mutagenesis library of drFP583 to identify potential metal sensors. We first isolated red- and blue-shifted mutants and then examined their metal ion binding ability via fluorescence quenching efficiency. | Results and Discussion |
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For the determination of quantum yield, the emission spectra of the mutants were measured by using their respective excitation maxima and dividing the intensity by the maximum emission of drFP583. Since the absorbance peak of gRF is very far from and does not overlap with that of drFP583, the quantum yield of gRF was obtained by using EGFP as reference. Upon excitation at 460 nm, drFP583, Rmu74, and Rmu80 all exhibited a minor peak at 500 nm, and their major emission peaks were at 583, 579, and 593 nm, respectively. In contrast, gRF exhibited only one emission peak at 496 nm. The emission spectra of the mutant proteins were also examined by using an excitation wavelength of 540 nm. At this excitation wavelength, drFP583, Rmu 74, and Rmu 80 yielded a three- to fivefold increased fluorescence intensity at their major peaks. gRF yielded a broader peak at 583 nm, but the fluorescence intensity of this peak was 150-fold weaker than the peak at 496 nm; thus, gRF exhibits both green and red emission but the green emission dominates (data not shown). The stability of each mutant protein at different pH values was also examined. Rmu74 was found to be an acid-resistant mutant. At pH 3.3, drFP583 has no absorbance at 558 nm and a novel broader peak at 390 nm, whereas for Rmu74 there is only a 10% decrease in absorbance at 552 nm (data not shown). Positions of amino acid substitution of the selected mutants and their optical properties are summarized in Table 1.
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The change in quenching was plotted against total copper concentration (Fig. 2B,D). Binding affinities and stoichiometries for copper binding to the various proteins and peptides were quantified by fitting of the conventional model expressed in Equations 1 and 2 to the fluorescence data in Figure 2,
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where F is the measured fluorescence after normalization, F 0 is the fluorescence in the absence of copper, and
F is the fluorescence change caused by copper binding. The concentration of the proteincopper complex, [bound], is described in Equation 2,
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where K d is the dissociation constant of the copper binding site(s), [Cu]tot is total copper concentration, and [P] is protein concentration. The model that best fits the data has the protein concentration set to the concentration of monomers (0.5 µM) (i.e., one copper binding site/monomer). The fitted values of K d were calculated to be 14.80 ± 1.68 and 10.90 ± 1.74 µM for drFP583 and Rmu13, respectively. Small deviations between model and data were apparent in the residual plots (Fig. 2B,D, lower panels). Similar experiments were performed with gRF and a copper binding constant of 18.30 ± 1.84 mM was obtained (data not shown). Sumner et al. (2006) recently reported the copper binding constant of DrFP583 to be 0.5 mM, compared with the 15 mM binding constant reported here. This apparent discrepancy is likely a result of the differences in analysis. Sumner et al. (2006) used the equation: F = F o
F/(K d/[Cu]) 1), where F, F 0, and
F are the observed fluorescence, initial fluorescence, and the fluorescence change, respectively. This analysis assumes that free copper can be approximated as being equal to total copper. Our analysis does not incorporate this approximation and allowed us to fit the data with F 0,
F, and K d as free parameters.
To test the reversibility of quenching, increasing concentrations of EDTA from 0.1 to 10 mM were added to the fluorescent protein solutions previously quenched by 200 µM CuSO4. More than 90% of the fluorescence of drFP583 was recovered when the concentration of EDTA reached 1 mM; the rate of recovery is in the minutes timescale (data not shown).
Plausible copper binding domain probed by chemical modification
To determine the pH dependence of copper-induced fluorescence quenching, drFP583 was diluted into 50 mM Tris-acetate, 200 µM CuCl2, and 100 mM NaCl (pH 5.510.3), and fluorescence was measured at each pH. As shown in Figure 3, fluorescence intensity changed dramatically between pH 6 and 9 when copper was included in the solution. The pH dependence was modeled as a simple equilibrium between two species that differed in the ionization state of a single group with pKa of 7.8. This value is close to the typical side chain pKa of either a cysteine or histidine residue.
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To probe the role of His residues in copper binding, we used the histidine-specific modifier DEPC. drFP583 (3 µM) was incubated with 0.5 mM freshly diluted DEPC in 20 mM MES (pH 6.5) and 75 mM NaCl at 20°C for 10, 30, and 120 min. Samples were diluted and measured as described above. No remarkable difference was observed compared with the control (data not shown). Both mass spectrometry and amino acid analysis (data not shown) support these results. In sum, the pH titration and chemical modification experiments implicate Cys117 as a copper binding ligand in drFP583.
Possible applications of Rmu13 as a copper sensor
Rmu13 can be used as a copper sensor to determine the concentration of Cu2+ between 0.1 and 100 µM in vitro and/or in vivo. Several neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Prion disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, display the hallmark presence of aggregated protein deposits. One common feature that has been discovered for each protein deposition mechanism in each of these neurodegenerative diseases is that binding of Cu2+ facilitates the aggregation process. (Brown et al. 1997; Atwood et al.1998, 2000; Cherny et al. 2001; Qin et al. 2002, 2003; Rakhit et al. 2002). Rmu13 could be used to investigate the copper content of protein aggregates in these and other diseases; however, the copper binding affinity will need to be increased for in vivo applications.
| Materials and methods |
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Bacterial expression and protein purification
Expression of drFP583 mutants in E. coli and their purification were carried out as previously reported (Matz et al. 1999; Baird et al. 2000). The temperature and time of incubation after addition of IPTG were optimized for expression. Wild type and mutants were incubated for 24 h at 37°C, with the exception of mutants Rmu80 and RF162, which were incubated for 48 h at 30°C. Protein isolated from Cobalt affinity resin (BD Biosciences Clontech) was treated with enterokinase (Invitrogen) to remove the N-terminal histidine tag. Samples were reapplied to Cobalt affinity resin to exclude uncut protein and then further purified by using Superdex 75 HR 10/30 (Pharmacia Biotech). Samples were exchanged into 20 mM HEPES-KOH (pH 7.9), concentrated by filtration (Microcon-30, Amicon) and flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at 80°C until use. Mass Spectrometry and SDS-PAGE confirmed protein purity and molecular mass. Protein concentration was determined by using Bradford assay kit (Bio-Rad) with BSA as the standard.
Spectroscopic studies
For the calculation of molar extinction coefficient and fluorescence quantum yields, the absorption and emission spectra were acquired in 50 mM HEPES (pH 7.9), at room temperature using a U3310 spectrophotometer (Hitachi) and a F2500 fluorescence spectrophotometer (Hitachi). Fluorescence quantum yields of all mutants except gRF were determined by comparison to the drFP583 protein; for gRF, EGFP was used as standard. For the metal ion titration studies, fluorescence measurements were made using a Photon Technology International QM-1 fluorescence spectrophotometer with temperature controlled at 20°C. The bandwidth of both the excitation and emission slits was 4 nm.
Metal ion screening and titration
Metal ion screening was performed on solutions containing 0.2 µM of each fluorescent protein in Quenching Buffer (QB; 50 mM HEPES-KOH at pH 7.9, 100 mM NaCl, 1 mM MgCl2, 1 µg/mL BSA). One microliter of each 10 mM metal solution was added to 1 mL of the above buffer, and fluorescence was measured for each.
Copper titration experiments were carried out to determine the apparent binding constant. Concentrated fluorescence protein diluted with QB and CuSO4 was added stepwise in the same cell from 0.1 µM to a final concentration of 200 µM CuSO4, and the emission intensity was recorded immediately by excitation at 540 nm for drFP583, 480 nm for Rmu13, separately. Fluorescent intensity between 560 and 600 nm was integrated and plotted against copper concentration. Protein was titrated with a concentrated copper stock such that sample dilution was never >1%.
pH dependence of copper quenching
A series of buffers were prepared with pH ranging between 3.8 and 10.5 in 30 mM Tris, 30 mM acetate acid, and 100 mM NaCl. Proteins were concentrated in weakly buffered solutions and adjusted to the appropriate pH in the absence and presence of 250 µM CuSO4. Fluorescence emission was measured using the maximum excitation values of each fluorescent protein, and fluorescence intensity between 560 and 600 nm was integrated and plotted against pH.
Chemical modification and amino acid analysis
For cysteine modification, 3 µM drFP583 in 50 mM Tris-Cl (pH 7.8) and 75 mM NaCl was incubated with 5 mM iodoacetamide at room temperature for 0, 24, and 72 h. For carbethoxylation of the imidazole ring of histidine residues, 3 µM protein was reacted with 5 mM freshly diluted DEPC in 20 mM MES (pH 6.5) and 75 mM NaCl at 20°C for 0, 0.5, and 6 h. Following a 100-fold dilution using 50 mM Tris-acetate (pH 6.1), copper titration was performed on each sample. Amino acid analysis was performed on aliquots of each reacted sample to determine separately the amount of carboxy methyl cysteine or histidine.
| Footnotes |
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Article and publication are at http://www.proteinscience.org/cgi/doi/10.1110/ps.062239206.
Abbreviations: BSA, bovine serum albumin; DEPC, diethyl pyrocarbonate; FRET, fluorescence resonance energy transfer; IPTG, isopropyl
-D-galactopyranoside.
| Acknowledgments |
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