Expression, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of the olfactomedin domain from the sea urchin cell-adhesion protein amassin.

A family of animal proteins is emerging which contain a conserved protein motif known as an olfactomedin (OLF) domain. Novel extracellular protein-protein interactions occur through this domain. The OLF-family member amassin, from the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, has previously been identified to mediate a rapid cell-adhesion event resulting in a large aggregation of coelomocytes, the circulating immune cells.

Biological chiral recognition: the substrate's perspective.

A novel stereocenter-recognition (SR) model has been proposed recently for describing the stereoselectivity of biological and other macromolecules towards substrates that have multiple stereocenters, based on the topology of substrate stereocenters (Sundaresan and Abrol, Prot Sci 11:1330-1339, 2002). The SR model provides the minimum number of substrate locations interacting with receptor sites that need to be considered for understanding stereoselectivity characteristics. Interactions between substrate locations and receptor sites may be binding, nonbinding or repulsive in nature and may occur in a many-to-one or one-to-many fashion, but for a receptor to be stereoselective, its interactions with substrate stereoisomers have to involve a minimum number of locations, in the correct geometry.

Conformational diversity in NAD(H) and interacting transhydrogenase nicotinamide nucleotide binding domains.

Transhydrogenase (TH) couples direct and stereospecific hydride transfer between NAD(H) and NADP(H), bound within soluble domains I and III, respectively, to proton translocation across membrane bound domain II. The cocrystal structure of Rhodospirillum rubrum TH domains I and III has been determined in the presence of limiting NADH, under conditions in which the subunits reach equilibrium during crystallization. The crystals contain three heterotrimeric complexes, dI(2)dIII, in the asymmetric unit.

Conformational change in the NADP(H) binding domain of transhydrogenase defines four states.

Proton-translocating transhydrogenase (TH) couples direct and stereospecific hydride transfer between NAD(H) and NADP(H), bound to soluble domains dI and dIII, respectively, to proton translocation across a membrane bound domain, dII. The reaction occurs with proton-gradient coupled conformational changes, which affect the energetics of substrate binding and interdomain interactions. The crystal structure of TH dIII from Rhodospirillum rubrum has been determined in the presence of NADPH (2.

Crystal structures of transhydrogenase domain I with and without bound NADH.

Transhydrogenase (TH) is a dimeric integral membrane enzyme in mitochondria and prokaryotes that couples proton translocation across a membrane with hydride transfer between NAD(H) and NADP(H) in soluble domains. Crystal structures of the NAD(H) binding alpha1 subunit (domain I) of Rhodospirillum rubrum TH have been determined at 1.8 A resolution in the absence of dinucleotide and at 1.

Towards a general model for protein-substrate stereoselectivity.

Protein-substrate interactions in enzymatic, neurological, and immunological systems are typically characterized by a high degree of stereoselectivity towards complex substrates. We propose a novel stereocenter-recognition (SR) model for stereoselectivity of proteins (or receptors in general) towards substrates that have multiple stereocenters, based on the topology of substrate stereocenters. The model provides the minimum number of substrate locations that need to enter into binding, nonbinding, or repulsive interactions with receptor sites, for stereoselectivity to occur.