Mutagenesis point

Like modular PKSs, peptide synthetases also epimerize some substrates and/or intermediates. For example, the starter substrate amino acid of cyclosporin A is D-Ala. Racemization of alanine is not catalyzed by an integrated subunit of cyclosporin A synthetase, but by alanine racemase. This is a separate, pyridoxal phosphate-dependent enzyme [ 193]. In contrast, Grsl and Tycl covalently activate L-Phe as a thioester and subsequently epimerize the amino acid [194]. D-Phe is the only epimer accepted as a substrate for dipeptide formation by Grs2 and Tyc2 [195, 196]. No racemization activity is detected in a pantetheine-deficient mutant of Grsl [197]. Deletion mutagenesis pointed to the requirement of the COOH-terminal part of the module for epimerizing L-Phe to D-Phe [180]. In contrast, the biosynthesis of actinomycin D, a bicyclic chromo-pentapeptide lactone (Fig. 10), involves formation of the dipeptide 6-MHA (methylanthranilic acid)-L-Thr-L-Val prior to epimerization of the L-Val exten-... 

Interestingly, the conclusion that DNA secondary structure is required for ori activity in vivo was also reached for bacteriophage G4, where a strong temperature-dependent impairment of replication was found after introducing by site-directed mutagenesis point mutations which destabilize intra-strand base-pairing in the ori sequence (Lambert et al., 1987). 

Site-directed mutagenesis. Point mutations were introduced using the Quik-Giange methodology (Stratagene) using the manirfacturer- s protocol We confirmed all the mutations by DNA sequencing. 

Using a random mutagenesis approach, respiratory-deficient (34) and temperature-sensitive (46, 47) mutants of the Rieske protein of the yeast bc complex have been selected. A large fraction of the point mutants had changes of residues in the bottom of the cluster binding subdomain (the loop /S7-/38) and in the Pro loop comprising residues 174-180 of the ISF (Fig. 9 see Section III,B,3) this indicates the importance of the Pro loop for the stability of the protein. Amino... 

Fig. 14. Plot of the g values g,g ) and of the average g value g vs rhombicity (UJ of (a) wild type (open symbol) and variant forms (closed symbols) of the Rieske protein in yeast bci complex where the residues Ser 183 and Tyr 185 forming hydrogen bonds into the cluster have been replaced by site-directed mutagenesis [Denke et al. (35) Merbitz-Zahradnik, T. Link, T. A., manuscript in preparation] and of (b) the Rieske cluster in membranes of Rhodobacter capsulatus in different redox states of the quinone pool and with inhibitors added [data from Ding et al. (79)]. The solid lines represent linear fits to the data points the dashed lines reproduce the fits to the g values of all Rieske and Rieske-type proteins shown in Fig. 13.

Zoller, M. J., and Smith, M., Oligonucleotide-Directed Mutagenesis Using M13-Derived Vectors an Efficient and General Procedure for the Production of Point Mutations in Any Fragment of DNA. Nucleic Acids Res., 1982. 10(20) pp. 6487-6500. 

The basic reactions of thiolsulfonates have been known for sometime (Field et al., 1961, 1964), but more recently, they have been applied to the study of protein interactions by site-directed modification of native cysteines or through modification of cysteines introduced at particular points in proteins by mutagenesis. Such studies have yielded insights into the structure and binding site characteristics of proteins (Kirley, 1989). Pascual et al. (1998) used AEAETS to probe the acetylcholine receptor from the extracellular side of the membrane in order to investigate the molecular accessibility and electrostatic potential within the open and closed channel. 

Linker-scanning mutagenesis, 12 518 Linnaeite, 7 209t Linoleate cross-linking, 9 146 Linoleic acid (LA), 10 828 17 664 boiling point, 5 53t... 

While the results of this work are encouraging, it is clear that the structural definition of mutant proteins of this type is critical to development of rational interpretation of the results if for no other reason than that the structural perturbation introduced is presumably greater than for simple point mutations. Moreover, it would be particularly interesting to compare the functional properties of mutants compared in this manner in assays involving protein-protein reactions relevant to the species of cytochrome c on which the mutagenesis is based. For example, comparison of the activities of wild-type yeast cytochrome c with that of a loop-insertion mutant modelled on a photosynthetic cytochrome c in the reaction with the photosynthetic reaction center could help define the structural elements involved in the cytochrome c binding domain for the reaction center. 

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