Serine subtilisins

McPhalen, C. A., James, M. N. G. Structural comparison of two serine proteinase-protein inhibitor complexes Eglin-C-Subtilisin Carlsberg and CI-2-subtilisin novo. Biochemistry 27 (1988) 6582-6598... 

Subtilisins are a group of serine proteinases that are produced by different species of bacilli. These enzymes are of considerable commercial interest because they are added to the detergents in washing powder to facilitate removal of proteinaceous stains. Numerous attempts have therefore recently been made to change by protein engineering such properties of the subtilisin molecule as its thermal stability, pH optimum, and specificity. In fact, in 1988 subtilisin mutants were the subject of the first US patent granted for an engineered protein. 

Serine proteinases such as chymotrypsin and subtilisin catalyze the cleavage of peptide bonds. Four features essential for catalysis are present in the three-dimensional structures of all serine proteinases a catalytic triad, an oxyanion binding site, a substrate specificity pocket, and a nonspecific binding site for polypeptide substrates. These four features, in a very similar arrangement, are present in both chymotrypsin and subtilisin even though they are achieved in the two enzymes in completely different ways by quite different three-dimensional structures. Chymotrypsin is built up from two p-barrel domains, whereas the subtilisin structure is of the a/p type. These two enzymes provide an example of convergent evolution where completely different loop regions, attached to different framework structures, form similar active sites. 

Furin, also known as paired basic amino-acid-cleaving enzyme (PACE), is a membrane bound subtilisin-like serine protease of the irons Golgi compartment. It is ubiquitously expressed and mediates processing of many protein precursors at Arg-X-Lys/Arg-Arg sites. 

The serine proteases are the most extensively studied class of enzymes. These enzymes are characterized by the presence of a unique serine amino acid. Two major evolutionary families are presented in this class. The bacterial protease subtilisin and the trypsin family, which includes the enzymes trypsin, chymotrypsin, elastase as well as thrombin, plasmin, and others involved in a diverse range of cellular functions including digestion, blood clotting, hormone production, and complement activation. The trypsin family catalyzes the reaction ... 

The elucidation of the X-ray structure of chymotrypsin (Ref. 1) and in a later stage of subtilisin (Ref. 2) revealed an active site with three crucial groups (Fig. 7.1)-the active serine, a neighboring histidine, and a buried aspartic acid. These three residues are frequently called the catalytic triad, and are designated here as Aspc Hisc Serc (where c indicates a catalytic residue). The identification of the location of the active-site groups and intense biochemical studies led to several mechanistic proposals for the action of serine proteases (see, for example, Refs. 1 and 2). However, it appears that without some way of translating the structural information to reaction-potential surfaces it is hard to discriminate between different alternative mechanisms. Thus it is instructive to use the procedure introduced in previous chapters and to examine the feasibility of different... 

The family of serine proteases has been subjected to intensive studies of site-directed mutagenesis. These experiments provide unique information about the contributions of individual amino acids to kcat and KM. Some of the clearest conclusions have emerged from studies in subtilisin (Ref. 9), where the oxyanion intermediate is stabilized by t>e main-chain hydrogen bond of Ser 221 and an hydrogen bond from Asn 155 (Ref. 2). Replacement of Asn 155 (e.g., the Asn 155— Ala 155 described in Fig. 7.9) allows for a quantitative assessment of the effect of the protein dipoles on Ag. ... 

SCF, see Self-consistent field treatment (SCF) Schroedinger equation, 2,4,74 Secular equations, 6,10, 52 solution by matrix diagonalization, 11 computer program for, 31-33 Self-consistent field treatment (SCF), of molecular orbitals, 28 Serine, structure of, 110 Serine proteases, 170-188. See also Subtilisin Trypsin enzyme family comparison of mechanisms for, 182-184, 183... 

Serine proteases usually show primary specificity (occupation of subsite Si) for positively charged arginine or lysine (trypsin, plasmin, plasminogen activators, thrombin), large hydrophobic side chains of phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan (chymotrypsin, cathepsin G, chymase, and subtilisin), or small aliphatic side chains (elastases). Nevertheless, there are a large number of variations and in many cases, other subsites like S2 and S3 are more discriminating while maintaining the... 

BERGER, D., ALTMANN T., A subtilisin-like serine protease involved in the regulation of stomatal density and distribution in Arabidopsis thaliana, Gene Dev., 2000, 14, 1119-1131. 

The molecular weight of these enzymes is around 27,000 g/mol. The active site where the catalysis takes place consists of a catalytic triad of Serine-221, Histidine-64, and Aspartate-32 (the numbers indicates the position of the amino acid in the peptide chain). A model of a subtilisin showing the binding cleft and the amino acids of the catalytic triad is illustrated through Figure 1. 

Figure 1. A model of a subtilisin showing the binding cleft and the amino acids of the catalytic triad (Serine-221, Histidine-64, and Aspartate-32)...

The catalytic mechanism of the subtilisins is the same as that of the digestive enzymes trypsin and chymotrypsin as well as that of enzymes in the blood clotting cascade, reproduction and other mammalian enzymes. The enzymes are known as serine proteases due to the serine residue which is crucial for catalysis (Kraut, 1977 and Polgar, 1987)... 

The closest organic specie to the inorganic boric acid are the boronic acids generally described as R-B(OH)2. Boronic acids have been shown to act as inhibitors of the subtilisins. X-ray crystallographic studies of phenylboronic acid and phenyl-ethyl-boronic acid adducts with Subtilisin Novo have shown that they contain a covalent bond between the oxygen atom of the catalytic serine of the enzyme and the inhibitor boron atom (Matthews et al, 1975 and Lindquist Terry, 1974). The boron atom is co-ordinated tetrahedrally in the enzyme inhibitor complex. It is likely that boric acid itself interacts with the active site of the subtilisins in the same manner. 

Serine proteases, see Trypsin, Chymotrypsin, Elastase, Strepto-myces griseus proteases A and B, or Subtilisin Southern bean mosaic virus protein (Abad-Zapatero et al., 1980) Jellyroll Greek key (3 barrel (Fig. 81)... 

A practical enzymatic procedure using alcalase as biocatalyst has been developed for the synthesis of hydrophilic peptides.Alcalase is an industrial alkaline protease from Bacillus licheniformis produced by Novozymes that has been used as a detergent and for silk degumming. The major enzyme component of alcalase is the serine protease subtilisin Carlsberg, which is one of the fully characterized bacterial proteases. Alcalase has better stability and activity in polar organic solvents, such as alcohols, acetonitrile, dimethylformamide, etc., than other proteases. In addition, alcalase has wide specificity and both l- and o-amino acids that are accepted as nucleophiles at the p-1 subsite. Therefore, alcalase is a suitable biocatalyst to catalyse peptide bond formation in organic solvents under kinetic control without any racemization of the amino acids (Scheme 5.1). 

Proteins can be classed into groups based on their overall 3-D shapes, known as protein folds (O Figure 22-la). In general, proteins that have similar functions have similar folds. This means that if you are the proud parent of an unknown protein whose structure is solved, it may be possible to make educated guesses as to the function of the protein based on its overall fold. There are a number of well-known exceptions to this [notably, the serine protease family, subtilisin and trypsin/chymotrypsin (Hartley, 1979)], but the... 

Subtilisins are a class of related serine endo proteases produced by members of the Bacillus genus. The B.amvloliauefaciens subtilisin (BPN ) is well-characterized with regard to its DNA sequence 4 protein sequence (5), X-ray crystal structure (6) and kinetic properties (7). With this wealth of information available, BPN was chosen as the model enzyme for our recombinant approach. 

Members of both structural families of serine proteinases, the trypsinlike and the subtilisin-like, have been found to bind Ca " (references in Tables 1 and II). The role of Ca " in all of these proteolytic enzymes appears to be one of stabilization of structure and/or maintenance of... 

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