Subunits amino acid residues

Fig. 3. Human CG, hLH, and equine CG (eCG) P-subunits. Amino acid numbeiing is relative to maximum homology between the three subunits. Consensus glycosylation sites ate at Asn-13 and 30. = same amino acid as hCG/3. Underlined Asn residues indicate attachment of N-linked carbohydrate chains. Serines at positions 121, 127, 132, and 138 of hCGP are underlined to indicate sites of O-linked carbohydrate attachment. Residues 115—118,...

There are at least three different classes of crystallins. The a and (3 are heterogeneous assemblies of different subunits specified by different genes, whereas the gamma (y) crystallins are monomeric proteins with a polypeptide chain of around 170 amino acid residues. The structure of one such Y crystallin was determined in the laboratory of Tom Blundell in London to 1.9 A resolution. A picture of this molecule generated from a graphics display is shown in Figure 5.11. 

Figure 8.3 The DNA-binding protein Cro from bacteriophage lambda contains 66 amino acid residues that fold into three a helices and three P strands, (a) A plot of the Ca positions of the first 62 residues of the polypeptide chain. The four C-terminal residues are not visible in the electron density map. (b) A schematic diagram of the subunit structure. a helices 2 and 3 that form the helix-turn-helix motif ate colored blue and red, respectively. The view is different from that in (a), [(a) Adapted from W.F. Anderson et al., Nature 290 754-758, 1981. (b) Adapted from D. Ohlendorf et al., /. Mol. Biol. 169 757-769, 1983.]...

Figure 8.18 The subunit of the trp repressor. The subunit contains 107 amino acid residues that are folded into six a helices. Helices 4 (blue) and 5 (red) form the DNA-binding helix-tum-helix motif. (Adapted from R.W. Schevitz et ah. Nature 317 782-786, 1985.)...

Many biochemical and biophysical studies of CAP-DNA complexes in solution have demonstrated that CAP induces a sharp bend in DNA upon binding. This was confirmed when the group of Thomas Steitz at Yale University determined the crystal structure of cyclic AMP-DNA complex to 3 A resolution. The CAP molecule comprises two identical polypeptide chains of 209 amino acid residues (Figure 8.24). Each chain is folded into two domains that have separate functions (Figure 8.24b). The larger N-terminal domain binds the allosteric effector molecule, cyclic AMP, and provides all the subunit interactions that form the dimer. The C-terminal domain contains the helix-tum-helix motif that binds DNA. 

They started from the sequence of a domain, Bl, from an IgG-binding protein called Protein G. This domain of 56 amino acid residues folds into a four-stranded p sheet and one a helix (Figure 17.16). Their aim was to convert this structure into an all a-helical structure similar to that of Rop (see Chapter 3). Each subunit of Rop is 63 amino acids long and folds into two a helices connected by a short loop. The last seven residues are unstructured and were not considered in the design procedure. Two subunits of Rop form a four-helix bundle (Figure 17.16). 

As noted, hemoglobin is an tetramer. Each of the four subunits has a conformation virtually identical to that of myoglobin. Two different types of subunits, a and /3, are necessary to achieve cooperative Oa-binding by Hb. The /3-chain at 146 amino acid residues is shorter than the myoglobin chain (153 residues), mainly because its final helical segment (the H helix) is shorter. The a-chain (141 residues) also has a shortened H helix and lacks the D helix as well (Figure 15.28). Max Perutz, who has devoted his life to elucidating the atomic structure of Hb, noted very early in his studies that the molecule was... 

The structure of the UQ-cyt c reductase, also known as the cytochrome bc complex, has been determined by Johann Deisenhofer and his colleagues. (Deisenhofer was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the structure of a photosynthetic reaction center [see Chapter 22]). The complex is a dimer, with each monomer consisting of 11 protein subunits and 2165 amino acid residues (monomer mass, 248 kD). The dimeric structure is pear-shaped and consists of a large domain that extends 75 A into the mito-... 

The Rieske protein in mitochondrial bci complexes is assembled when the protein is incorporated into the complex. The Rieske protein is encoded in the nucleus and synthesized in the cytosol with a mitochondrial targeting presequence, which is required to direct the apoprotein to the mitochondrial matrix. The C-terminus is then targeted back to the outside of the inner mitochondrial membrane where the Rieske cluster is assembled. In addition, the presequence is removed and the protein is processed to its mature size after the protein is inserted into the bci complex. In mammals, the presequence is cleaved in a single step by the core proteins 1 and 2, which are related to the general mitochondrial matrix processing protease (MPP) a and (3 subunits the bovine heart presequence is retained as a 8.0 kDa subunit of the complex (42, 107). In Saccharomyces cerevis-iae, processing occurs in two steps Initially, the yeast MPP removes 22 amino acid residues to convert the precursor to the intermediate form, and then the mitochondrial intermediate protease (MIP) removes 8 residues after the intermediate form is in the bci complex (47). Cleavage by MIP is independent of the assembly of the Rieske cluster Conversion of the intermediate to the mature form was observed in a yeast mutant that did not assemble any Rieske cluster (35). However, in most mutants where the assembly of the Rieske cluster is prevented, the amount of Rieske protein is drastically reduced, most likely because of instability (35, 44). 

Neurotoxins present in sea snake venoms are summarized. All sea snake venoms are extremely toxic, with low LD5Q values. Most sea snake neurotoxins consist of only 60-62 amino acid residues with 4 disulOde bonds, while some consist of 70 amino acids with 5 disulfide bonds. The origin of toxicity is due to the attachment of 2 neurotoxin molecules to 2 a subunits of an acetylcholine receptor that is composed of a2 6 subunits. The complete structure of several of the sea snake neurotoxins have been worked out. Through chemical modification studies the invariant tryptophan and tyrosine residues of post-synaptic neurotoxins were shown to be of a critical nature to the toxicity function of the molecule. Lysine and arginine are also believed to be important. Other marine vertebrate venoms are not well known. 

In the family of cation pumps, only the Na,K-ATPase and H,K-ATPase possess a p subunit glycoprotein (Table II), while the Ca-ATPase and H-ATPase only consist of an a subunit with close to 1 000 amino acid residues. It is tempting to propose that the p subunit should be involved in binding and transport of potassium, but the functional domains related to catalysis in Na,K-ATPase seem to be contributed exclusively by the a subunit. The functional role of the P subunit is related to biosynthesis, intracellular transport and cell-cell contacts. The P subunit is required for assembly of the aj8 unit in the endoplasmic reticulum [20]. Association with a j8 subunit is required for maturation of the a subunit and for intracellular transport of the xP unit to the plasma membrane. In the jSl-subunit isoform, three disulphide... 

Until recently, the possibility that H,K-ATPase consists not only of a catalytic a subunit but also of other subunits was not examined. This was mainly due to the fact that SDS-PAGE of purified gastric H,K-ATPase preparations principally gave one protein band with an apparent molecular mass of about 100 kDa, which was reported to comprise 75% or more of the total amount of protein [6,66,67]. This mass is lower than the mass deduced from its cloned cDNA [40], but may be due to the higher electrophoretic mobility of membrane-bound proteins, as consequence of having relatively high contents of hydrophobic amino acid residues [68]. 

In humans, the structural gene locus is on chromosome 19 (M17), and the gene spans over 40 kilobases (kb) including 18 exons and 17 introns (W2, X2). Neu-roleukin, a protein that acts as both a neurotrophic factor and a lymphokine, has been isolated from mouse salivary glands (G7), and subsequently the primary structure of neuroleukin was found to be identical to that of GPI by comparison of the cDNA sequences (C7, FI). The cDNA sequence encodes 558 amino acid residues. The enzyme consists of two identical subunits with a molecular weight of approximately 63,000 and neuroleukin is active as a monomer. 

Normal hemoglobin molecules are complex, three-dimensional structures consisting of four chains of amino acids known as polypeptide chains. Two of these chains are known as alpha subunits with 141 amino acid residues each, and the remaining polypeptide chains are the beta subunits with 146 amino acid residues each. The sequences of amino acids in the alpha and beta subunits are different, but fold up via noncovalent interactions to form similar three-dimensional structures. When a polypeptide chain arranges itself in space, i.e., when it folds, amino acids that were far apart in the chain are brought closer in proximity. The final overall shape of the protein molecule is influenced by (1) the amino acids in the chain, and (2) the interactions that are possible between distant amino acids. 

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