Thermolysin characteristics

Thus, many metal ions catalyze the hydrolysis of esters [7,8], amides [9], and nitriles [10] via electrophilic activation of the C=0 or C=N group. This type of catalysis is characteristic of coordination complexes and is very common in metalloenzyme-mediated processes. Zinc(II), for example, is a key structural component of more than 300 enzymes, in which its primary function is to act as a Lewis acid (see Chapter 4). The mechanism of action of zinc proteases, e.g., thermolysin, involves electrophilic activation of an amide carbonyl group by coordination to zinc(II) in the active site (Figure 4). 

In the C-terminal domain are five helices in a closed bundle. This characteristic fold is typical of thermolysin-like peptidases. Clan MC contains metallocarbox-ypeptidases which belong to only one family (M14) which is divided into the subfamilies A, B and C. Typical for this clan is that one zinc ion is tetrahedrally coordinated by a water molecule, two histidine and one glutamate residues. Clan MF includes aminopeptidases that require cocatalytic zinc ions for their enzymatic activity. The well-known leucyl aminopeptidase has a two-domain structure bearing the active site in the C-terminal domain. Whereas exopeptidases of clan MG require cocatalytic ions of cobalt or manganese, clan MH contains the third group of metallopeptidases that also require cocatalytic metal ions, but here these are all zinc ions. The third clan in which cocatalytic metal ions are necessary is clan MF with zinc or manganese. Only one catalytic zinc ion is required for peptidases of clans MA, MB, MC, MD and ME. 

Jornvall and Harris (91) presented data for the structures around all of the 14 cysteine residues in each protein chain. Analysis by Jornvall (92,93) of different peptide mixtures obtained after treatment of the protein with trypsin (before or after maleylation), chymotrypsin, pepsin, cyanogen bromide, or thermolysin yielded amino acid sequence information for all parts of the subunit and the primary structure of the whole protein chain was deduced (5S). It was found to contain 374 residues and is shown in Table I. An acetylated serine residue is at the N-terminus and the reactive cysteine residue is at position 46. Some residues are unevenly distributed (PS). Six of the seven histidine residues are in the N-terminal half of the molecule, the two tryptophan residues are in either terminal region, the four tyrosine residues are in the middle of the primary structure, and none of the 14 cysteine residues occur in the C-terminal quarter of the molecule. A characteristic distribution of hydrophobic residues was also noticed (93), which may now be partly correlated with the presence of large hydrophobic cores in the tertiary structure of the protein (Section II,C,3). Most regions of the primary structure were analyzed in many different overlapping peptides (92-9 ) with a corresponding increase in reliability. The structure is in excellent agreement with the total composition determined by acid hydrolysis (93). It is compatible with independently determined partial structures of... 

Another important characteristic of RET is that the transfer rate is proportional to the decay rate of the fluoro-phore (Eq. [13.1]). This means that for a D-A pair spaced by the value, the rate of transfer will be kjsx ) whether the decay time is 10 ns or 10 ms. Hence, long-lived lanthanides are expected to display RET over distances comparable to those for the nanosecond-decay-time fluorophores, as demonstrated by transfer from Tb " to Co " in thermolysin. This fortunate result occurs because the transfer rate is proportional to the emission rate of the donor. The proportionality to the emissive rate is due to the term Qq/ d in Eq. [13.2]. It is interesting to speculate what would happen if the transfer rate were independent of the decay rate. In this case, a longer-lived donor would allow more time for energy transfer. Then energy transfer would occur over longer distances where the smaller rate of transfer would still be comparable to the donor decay rate. 

The native OEE1 precursor was imported, processed and translocated to the thylakoid lumen (Rg. 1), as demonstrated by isolating thylakoids and showing that imported OEE1 protein was resistant to treatment with thermolysin but became sensitive subsequent to sonication. The translocation characteristics of OEE1 were demonstrated to be dependent on the OEE1 transit peptide. In the absence of the transit peptide, OEE1 neither imported, nor did it bind to isolated chloroplasts (data not shown). 

It is noteworthy that three His, Glu, Asp or Cys residues provide zinc ligands for all known enzyme catalytic zinc sites [ 30], Water is the fourth ligand and histidine is by far the most frequent amino acid among the catalytic site residues. Three histidines are found in human carbonic anhydrases 1 and II, p-lactamase, the DD-carboxypeptidase of Streptomyces albus G, adenosine deaminase and astacin [30]. Two histidines are characteristic of bovine carboxypeptidases A and B, thermolysin and Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase... 

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