Parvalbumin protein

One of these motifs, called the helix-turn-helix motif, is specific for DNA binding and is described in detail in Chapters 8 and 9. The second motif is specific for calcium binding and is present in parvalbumin, calmodulin, tro-ponin-C, and other proteins that bind calcium and thereby regulate cellular activities. This calcium-binding motif was first found in 1973 by Robert Kretsinger, University of Virginia, when he determined the structure of parvalbumin to 1.8 A resolution. 

Parvalbumin is a muscle protein with a single polypeptide chain of 109 amino acids. Its function is uncertain, but calcium binding to this protein probably plays a role in muscle relaxation. The helix-loop-helix motif appears three times in this structure, in two of the cases there is a calcium-binding site. Figure 2.13 shows this motif which is called an EF hand because the fifth and sixth helices from the amino terminus in the structure of parvalbumin, which were labeled E and F, are the parts of the structure that were originally used to illustrate calcium binding by this motif. Despite this trivial origin, the name has remained in the literature. 

Nonrepetitive but well-defined structures of this type form many important features of enzyme active sites. In some cases, a particular arrangement of coil structure providing a specific type of functional site recurs in several functionally related proteins. The peptide loop that binds iron-sulfur clusters in both ferredoxin and high potential iron protein is one example. Another is the central loop portion of the E—F hand structure that binds a calcium ion in several calcium-binding proteins, including calmodulin, carp parvalbumin, troponin C, and the intestinal calcium-binding protein. This loop, shown in Figure 6.26, connects two short a-helices. The calcium ion nestles into the pocket formed by this structure. 

Parvalbumin (Fig 1) is a cytosolic protein expressed in fast-twitch skeletal muscles and in the nervous system. In muscles, parvalbumin controls the relaxation process. In the CNS, parvalbumin, expressed in a subpopulation of GABAergic neurons, is correlated with their firing rates, protecting the cells from Ca2+ overload. 

Parvalbumin is a cytosolic protein expressed mainly in skeletal muscles and brain. 

It should be pointed out that the addition of substances, which could improve the biocompatibility of sol-gel processing and the functional characteristics of the silica matrix, is practiced rather widely. Polyethylene glycol) is one of such additives [110— 113]. Enzyme stabilization was favored by formation of polyelectrolyte complexes with polymers. For example, an increase in the lactate oxidase and glycolate oxidase activity and lifetime took place when they were combined with poly(N-vinylimida-zole) and poly(ethyleneimine), respectively, prior to their immobilization [87,114]. To improve the functional efficiency of entrapped horseradish peroxidase, a graft copolymer of polyvinylimidazole and polyvinylpyridine was added [115,116]. As shown in Refs. [117,118], the denaturation of calcium-binding proteins, cod III parvalbumin and oncomodulin, in the course of sol-gel processing could be decreased by complexation with calcium cations. 

Table XI (346-390) lists a number of calcium-binding proteins and indicates very succinctly their role in biological systems. This table both illustrates the range of functions of calcium-binding proteins and serves to introduce those which appear subsequently in this chapter. The structures and functions of particularly important calcium-binding proteins such as calmodulin, parvalbumin, and troponin C are described in standard texts on biochemistry. The minimal Table XI entry for the particularly important calmodulins is amplified in the next paragraph. Table XI provides a sprinkling of references to enable readers to gain entry into the literature, for these and for most of the less-familiar species.

Oncomodulin Osteocalcin regulator (374) P-Parvalbumin (375) Extracellular protein abundant in bone and in dentin (376,377)... 

The wide structural application of dipolar couplings is demonstrated by its use to validate models built by sequence homology methods. Additionally, dipolar couplings have been shown to reduce the RMSD between these models and the target structure. One example is the work reported by Chou et al., in which the RMSD of sequence homology models of the protein calmodulin, built from the structure of recoverin and parvalbumin, is reduced using heteronuclear dipolar couplings [110]. 

Permyakov et alS32) have compared the effects of calcium binding upon the steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence of two different species of fish parvalbumin, one with a single tryptophan (whiting) and one with a single tyrosine (pike). The fluorescence decays of both proteins were best fit by double exponentials either in the presence or absence of calcium. We focus here on the tyrosine results from pike parvalbumin. Calcium binding causes a 50% increase in the tyrosine steady-state fluorescence quantum yield and... 

A protein of similar molecular weight to that of rat oncomodulin, rat and rabbit parvalbumins, S100, and the vitamin D-dependent calcium-binding proteins has been isolated from chicken gizzard smooth muscle. In this case, however, the fluorescence emission from the four tyrosine residues is quenched by Ca2+ binding.(160) The decrease in fluorescence intensity was used to suggest that there are two different classes of Ca2+binding sites. 

Rat oncomodulin, a parvalbumin-1 ike tumor protein that has two tyrosine residues but no tryptophan, exhibits fluorescence emission at 301 and 345 nm.(135) Upon binding two moles of Ca2+ per mole of oncomodulin, the 301-nm intensity increases while the 345-nm band decreases. These results were explained in terms of acidic side chains involved in either binding Ca2+ or accepting a proton on excited-state generation of tyrosinate. The cloned... 

J. P. MacManus, D. C. Watson, and M. Yaguchi, The complete amino acid sequence of oncomodulin—a parvalbumin-like calcium-binding protein from Morris hepatoma 5123tc, Eur. J. Biochem. 136, 9-17 (1983). 

J. P. MacManus, A. G. Szabo, and R. E. Williams, Conformational changes induced by binding ofbivalent cations to oncomodulin, a parvalbumin-like tumour protein, Biochem. J. 220, 261-268 (1984). 

Figure 2.11. The dependence of the position of the fluorescence spectrum maximum on excitation wavelength for tryptophan in a model medium (glycerol) at different temperatures (a) and singletryptophan proteins (b). 1, Whiting parvalbumin, pH 6.S in the presence of Ca2+ ions 2, ribonuclease Th pH 6.5 3, ribonuclease C2, pH 6.5 4, human serum albumin, pH 7.0, +10"4 M sodium dodecyl sulfate 5, human serum albumin, pH 3.2 6, melittin, pH 7.5, +0.15 M NaCl 7, protease inhibitor IT-AJ from Actinomyces janthinus, pH 2.9 8, human serum albumin, pH 7.0 9, -casein, pH 7.5 10, protease inhibitor IT-AJ, pH 7.0 11, basic myelin protein, pH 7.0 12, melittin in water. The dashed line is the absorption spectrum of tryptophan.

Other groups may cause shortening of the lifetime. The phosphorescence of parvalbumin is quenched by free tryptophan with a quenching rate constant of about 10s M i s l (D. Calhoun, unpublished results). A more extensive survey of proteins or model compounds with known distances between tryptophans is needed to study how adjacent tryptophans affect the lifetime. It should be noted that at low temperature the phosphorescence lifetime of poly-L-tryptophan is about the same as that of die monomer.(12) This does not necessarily mean that in a fluid solution tryptophan-tryptophan interaction could not take place. Thermal fluctuations in the polypeptide chain may transiently produce overlap in the n orbitals between neighboring tryptophans, thus resulting in quenching. 

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