Efficient incorporation of deuterated amino acids into quail egg white proteins for nuclear magnetic resonance studies

Deuterium labelling in NMR structural analysis of larger proteins

In the last few years since the early NMR structural studies of small proteins such as glucagon (Braunet al.1983) andlacrepresser headpiece (Zuiderweget al.1984) the quality of the structure determinations have improved considerably. Of major importance has been the introduction of phase sensitive detection in the Tl dimension (Stateset al.1982; Marion & Wüthrich, 1983) which has allowed for absorption presentation of 2D data with the resulting enhancement in resolution, accuracy of coupling constant measurements and accuracy of peak volume integrations. Introduction of new pulse sequences, advances in instrumentation and further developments in the structure calculation algorithms have also helped improve the quality of NMR structural analyses of proteins.

Expression of the amino-terminal half-molecule of human serum transferrin in cultured cells and characterization of the recombinant protein

A human liver cDNA library was screened with a synthetic oligonucleotide, complementary to the 5' region of human transferrin mRNA, as a hybridization probe. The full-length human cDNA clone isolated from this screen contained part of the 5' untranslated region, the complete coding region for the signal peptide and the two lobes of transferrin, the 3' untranslated region, and a poly(A) tail. By use of oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis in vitro, two translational stop codons and a HindIII site were introduced after the codon for Asp-337. This fragment was inserted into two different expression vectors that were then introduced into Escherichia coli. As judged by NaDodSO4-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blot analysis, however, recombinant hTF/2N was undetectable in bacteria transformed by these plasmids. Concurrently, we developed a plasmid vector for the expression of recombinant hTF/2N in eukaryotic cells. In this case, a DNA fragment coding for the natural signal sequence, the hTF/2N lobe, and the two stop codons was cloned into the expression vector pNUT, such that the expression of hTF/2N was controlled by the mouse metallothionein promoter and the human growth hormone termination sequences. Baby hamster kidney cells containing this hTF/2N-pNUT plasmid secreted up to 20 mg of recombinant hTF/2N per liter of tissue culture medium. Recombinant hTF/2N was purified from the medium by successive chromatography steps on DEAE-Sephacel, Sephadex G-75, and FPLC on Polyanion SI. The purified protein was characterized by NaDodSO4-PAGE, urea-PAGE, amino-terminal sequence analysis, UV-visible spectroscopy, iron-binding titration, and proton NMR.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Solution NMR studies of intact lambda repressor

Using a combination of two and one-dimensional NMR spectroscopy, it is shown that in the intact bacteriophage lambda repressor, the N-terminal domain assumes the same global structure as when it remains isolated. It is further shown that the N-terminal domain is only loosely attached to the C-terminal domain in the intact repressor.

Growth of Lactobacillus casei in deuterated media. Purification of deuterated thymidylate synthase and proton nuclear magnetic resonance studies

The purification of thymidylate synthase from amethopterin-resistant Lactobacillus casei grown in a deuterated medium is described. The deuterated enzyme and the non-deuterated enzyme appear to be identical with respect to specific activity, pH optimum, electrophoretic mobility on polyacrylamide gels and ability to form ternary complexes with 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine 5'-monophosphate (FdUMP) and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate. The deuterated enzyme remained stable at 25 degrees C for 8 h during the acquisition of 400 MHz 1H-NMR spectra and was stored at 5 degrees C for 3 months without loss of catalytic activity. The incorporation of deuterium was essentially complete as demonstrated by a comparison of the NMR spectra of deuterated and non-deuterated enzyme. Proton NMR data obtained with deuterated thymidylate synthase and 1H-FdUMP are in agreement with the fluorine-19 NMR studies of Lewis et al. (Lewis, C.A., Jr., Ellis, P.D. and Dunlap, R.B. (1980) Biochemistry 19, 116-123) which support the formation of a binary complex where the enzyme is covalently linked to carbon 6 of 5-fluoro-5,6-dihydro-2'-deoxyuridylate.