Protein disulfide bridge

Comparison of the structures of bovine trypsinogen and chymotrypsinogen A. Solid arrows show the hydrolysis sites that result in the activation of trypsinogen to trypsin, and chymotrypsinogen to chymotrypsin. Broken arrows are additional hydrolysis sites, leading to formation of a-chymotrypsin. Shaded circles represent amino acids that are Identical or similar in the two proteins. Disulfide bridges are lettered A to G. H represents the histidine residues, and S the serine residue of the active site this serine residue reacts with diisopropylfluorophosphate. Deletions are shown by lines between the circles. To aid comparison, the residue numbers of both structures are based on those of chymotrypsinogen. [B.S.Hartley etal. Nature 207 (1965) 1157-1159]... 

The three dimensional shapes of many proteins are governed and stabilized by S—S bonds connecting what would ordinarily be remote segments of the molecule We 11 have more to say about these disulfide bridges m Chapter 27... 

Equation (8.97) shows that the second virial coefficient is a measure of the excluded volume of the solute according to the model we have considered. From the assumption that solute molecules come into surface contact in defining the excluded volume, it is apparent that this concept is easier to apply to, say, compact protein molecules in which hydrogen bonding and disulfide bridges maintain the tertiary structure (see Sec. 1.4) than to random coils. We shall return to the latter presently, but for now let us consider the application of Eq. (8.97) to a globular protein. This is the objective of the following example. 

Thaumatin. Thaumatin [53850-34-3] is a mixture of proteins extracted from the fmit of a West African plant, Thaumatococcus daniellii (Beimett) Benth. Work at Unilever showed that the aqueous extract contains two principal proteins thaumatin I and thaumatin II. Thaumatin I, mol wt 22,209, contains 207 amino acids in a single chain that is cross-linked with eight disulfide bridges. Thaumatin II has the same number of amino acids, but there are five sequence differences. Production of thaumatins via genetic engineering technology has been reported (99). 

Two cysteine residues in different parts of the polypeptide chain but adjacent in the three-dimensional structure of a protein can be oxidized to form a disulfide bridge (Figure 1.4). The disulfide is usually the end product of air oxidation according to the following reaction scheme ... 

CH2SH + 1/2 O2 -CH2-S-S-CH2 + H2O This reaction requires an oxidative environment, and such disulfide bridges are usually not found in intracellular proteins, which spend their lifetime in an essentially reductive environment. Disulfide bridges do, however, occur quite frequently among extracellular proteins that are secreted from cells, and in eucaryotes, formation of these bridges occurs within the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum, the first compartment of the secretory pathway. 

The thioredoxin domain (see Figure 2.7) has a central (3 sheet surrounded by a helices. The active part of the molecule is a Pa(3 unit comprising p strands 2 and 3 joined by a helix 2. The redox-active disulfide bridge is at the amino end of this a helix and is formed by a Cys-X-X-Cys motif where X is any residue in DsbA, in thioredoxin, and in other members of this family of redox-active proteins. The a-helical domain of DsbA is positioned so that this disulfide bridge is at the center of a relatively extensive hydrophobic protein surface. Since disulfide bonds in proteins are usually buried in a hydrophobic environment, this hydrophobic surface in DsbA could provide an interaction area for exposed hydrophobic patches on partially folded protein substrates. 

Lysozyme from bacteriophage T4 is a 164 amino acid polypeptide chain that folds into two domains (Figure 17.3) There are no disulfide bridges the two cysteine residues in the amino acid sequence, Cys 54 and Cys 97, are far apart in the folded structure. The stability of both the wild-type and mutant proteins is expressed as the melting temperature, Tm, which is the temperature at which 50% of the enzyme is inactivated during reversible beat denat-uration. For the wild-type T4 lysozyme the Tm is 41.9 °C. 

One long a helix connects the two domains (purple). Thermostable mutants of this protein were constructed by introducing disulfide bridges at three different places (yellow). 

The results of this careful design of novel disulfide bridges were very encouraging (Figure 17.4). AH the mutants were more stable in their oxidized forms than wild-type protein. The longer the loop between the cysteine... 

Disulfide bridge (Section 27.7) An S—S bond between the sulfur atoms of two cysteine residues in a peptide or protein. 

FIGURE 5.18 Methods for cleavage of disulfide bonds in proteins, (a) Oxidative cleavage by reaction with performic acid, (b) Reductive cleavage with snlfliydryl compounds. Disulfide bridges can be broken by reduction of the S—S link with snlfliydryl agents such as 2-mercaptoethanol or dithiothreitol. Because reaction between the newly reduced —SH groups to re-establish disulfide bonds is a likelihood, S—S reduction must be followed by —SH modification (1) alkylation with iodoac-etate (ICH,COOH) or (2) modification with 3-bromopropylamine (Br— (CH,)3—NH,). 

This thiol-disulfide interconversion is a key part of numerous biological processes. WeTJ see in Chapter 26, for instance, that disulfide formation is involved in defining the structure and three-dimensional conformations of proteins, where disulfide "bridges" often form cross-links between q steine amino acid units in the protein chains. Disulfide formation is also involved in the process by which cells protect themselves from oxidative degradation. A cellular component called glutathione removes potentially harmful oxidants and is itself oxidized to glutathione disulfide in the process. Reduction back to the thiol requires the coenzyme flavin adenine dinucleotide (reduced), abbreviated FADH2. 

Also important for stabilizing a protein s tertiary stmcture are the formation of disulfide bridges between cysteine residues, the formation of hydrogen bonds between nearby amino acid residues, and the presence of ionic attractions, called salt bridges, between positively and negatively charged sites on various amino acid side chains within the protein. 

Forty-four amino acid module characterized by three internal disulfide bridges and an octahedrical cage for a calcium ion. Complement-type repeats are found in many cell surface proteins and form the ligand-binding domain of receptors of the LDL receptor gene family. 

The primary structure - the sequence of peptide-bonded amino acids in the protein chain and the location of any disulfide bridges. 

In the Rieske proteins from bci or b f complexes, loops (34-/35 and (36-/37 both contain an additional cysteine residue (Cys 144 and Cys 160 in the ISF and Cys 112 and Cys 127 in RFS) these cysteines form a disulfide bridge connecting the two loops (Fig. 3b). These cysteines are not present in the sequences of Rieske-type proteins, that is, in neither NDO nor Rieske-type ferredoxins. In Rieske proteins, the disulfide bridge appears to be important for the stabilization of the fold around the cluster as the two loops are not shielded by other parts of the protein in NDO, the Rieske cluster is stabilized without a disulfide bridge since it is completely buried by surrounding a and (3 subunits. 

Early mutational studies of the Rieske protein from 6ci complexes have been performed with the intention of identifying the ligands of the Rieske cluster. These studies have shown that the four conserved cysteine residues as well as the two conserved histidine residues are essential for the insertion of the [2Fe-2S] cluster (44, 45). Small amounts of a Rieske cluster with altered properties were obtained in Rhodobacter capsulatus when the second cysteine in the cluster binding loop II (Cys 155, corresponding to Cys 160 in the bovine ISF) was replaced by serine (45). The fact that all four cysteine residues are essential in Rieske clusters from be complexes, but that only two cysteines are conserved in Rieske-type clusters, led to the suggestion that the Rieske protein may contain a disulfide bridge the disulfide bridge was finally shown to exist in the X-ray structure (9). 

Only the ligands of the Rieske cluster, the two cysteines forming the disulfide bridge, and one glycine are fully conserved in all Rieske proteins (see Section III,A,1)... 

In summary, it appears that the protein has to adopt the correct fold before the Rieske cluster can be inserted. The correct folding will depend on the stability of the protein the Rieske protein from the thermoacidophilic archaebacterium Sulfolobus seems to be more stable than Rieske proteins from other bacteria so that the Rieske cluster can be inserted into the soluble form of the protein during expression with the help of the chaperonins. If the protein cannot adopt the correct fold, the result will be either no cluster or a distorted iron sulfur cluster, perhaps using the two cysteines that form the disulfide bridge in correctly assembled Rieske proteins. 

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