Glycine rescue of β-sheets from cis-proline

Mutation in Hemagglutinin Antigenic Sites in Influenza A pH1N1 Viruses from 2015-2019 in the United States Mountain West, Europe, and the Northern Hemisphere

H1N1 influenza A virus is a respiratory pathogen that undergoes antigenic shift and antigenic drift to improve viral fitness. Tracking the evolutionary trends of H1N1 aids with the current detection and the future response to new viral strains as they emerge. Here, we characterize antigenic drift events observed in the hemagglutinin (HA) sequence of the pandemic H1N1 lineage from 2015-2019. We observed the substitutions S200P, K147N, and P154S, together with other mutations in structural, functional, and/or epitope regions in 2015-2019 HA protein sequences from the Mountain West region of the United States, the larger United States, Europe, and other Northern Hemisphere countries. We reconstructed multiple phylogenetic trees to track the relationships and spread of these mutations and tested for evidence of selection pressure on HA. We found that the prevalence of amino acid substitutions at positions 147, 154, 159, 200, and 233 significantly changed throughout the studied geographical regions between 2015 and 2019. We also found evidence of coevolution among a subset of these amino acid substitutions. The results from this study could be relevant for future epidemiological tracking and vaccine prediction efforts. Similar analyses in the future could identify additional sequence changes that could affect the pathogenicity and/or infectivity of this virus in its human host.

Protein Engineering Approaches to Enhance Fungal Laccase Production in S. cerevisiae

Laccases secreted by saprotrophic basidiomycete fungi are versatile biocatalysts able to oxidize a wide range of aromatic compounds using oxygen as the sole requirement. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a preferred host for engineering fungal laccases. To assist the difficult secretion of active enzymes by yeast, the native signal peptide is usually replaced by the preproleader of S. cerevisiae alfa mating factor (MFα1). However, in most cases, only basal enzyme levels are obtained. During directed evolution in S. cerevisiae of laccases fused to the α-factor preproleader, we demonstrated that mutations accumulated in the signal peptide notably raised enzyme secretion. Here we describe different protein engineering approaches carried out to enhance the laccase activity detected in the liquid extracts of S. cerevisiae cultures. We demonstrate the improved secretion of native and engineered laccases by using the fittest mutated α-factor preproleader obtained through successive laccase evolution campaigns in our lab. Special attention is also paid to the role of protein N-glycosylation in laccase production and properties, and to the introduction of conserved amino acids through consensus design enabling the expression of certain laccases otherwise not produced by the yeast. Finally, we revise the contribution of mutations accumulated in laccase coding sequence (CDS) during previous directed evolution campaigns that facilitate enzyme production.

Proteus: a random forest classifier to predict disorder-to-order transitioning binding regions in intrinsically disordered proteins

The focus of the computational structural biology community has taken a dramatic shift over the past one-and-a-half decades from the classical protein structure prediction problem to the possible understanding of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) or proteins containing regions of disorder (IDPR). The current interest lies in the unraveling of a disorder-to-order transitioning code embedded in the amino acid sequences of IDPs/IDPRs. Disordered proteins are characterized by an enormous amount of structural plasticity which makes them promiscuous in binding to different partners, multi-functional in cellular activity and atypical in folding energy landscapes resembling partially folded molten globules. Also, their involvement in several deadly human diseases (e.g. cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases) makes them attractive drug targets, and important for a biochemical understanding of the disease(s). The study of the structural ensemble of IDPs is rather difficult, in particular for transient interactions. When bound to a structured partner, an IDPR adapts an ordered conformation in the complex. The residues that undergo this disorder-to-order transition are called protean residues, generally found in short contiguous stretches and the first step in understanding the modus operandi of an IDP/IDPR would be to predict these residues. There are a few available methods which predict these protean segments from their amino acid sequences; however, their performance reported in the literature leaves clear room for improvement. With this background, the current study presents ‘Proteus’, a random forest classifier that predicts the likelihood of a residue undergoing a disorder-to-order transition upon binding to a potential partner protein. The prediction is based on features that can be calculated using the amino acid sequence alone. Proteus compares favorably with existing methods predicting twice as many true positives as the second best method (55 vs. 27%) with a much higher precision on an independent data set. The current study also sheds some light on a possible ‘disorder-to-order’ transitioning consensus, untangled, yet embedded in the amino acid sequence of IDPs. Some guidelines have also been suggested for proceeding with a real-life structural modeling involving an IDPR using Proteus.

Type VIa β-turn-fused helix N-termini: A novel helix N-cap motif containing cis proline

Helix N-capping motifs often form hydrogen bonds with terminal amide groups which otherwise would be free. Also, without an amide hydrogen, proline (trans) is over-represented at helix N-termini (N1 position) because this naturally removes the need to hydrogen bond one terminal amide. However, the preference of cisPro, vis-à-vis helix N-termini, is not known. We show that cisPro (α_R or PP_II ) often appears at the N-cap position (N0) of helices. The N-cap cisPro(α_R ) is associated with a six-residue sequence motif - X_(-2) -X_(-1) -cisPro-X₍₁₎ -X₍₂₎ -X₍₃₎ - with preference for Glu/Gln at X_(-1) , Phe/Tyr/Trp at X₍₁₎ and Ser/Thr at X₍₃₎ . The motif, formed by the fusion of a helix and a type VIa β-turn, contains a hydrogen bond between the side chain of X_(-1) and the side chain/backbone of X₍₃₎ , a α-helical hydrogen bond between X_(-2) and X₍₂₎ and stacking interaction between cisPro and an aromatic residue at X₍₁₎ . NMR experiments on peptides containing the motif and its variants showed that local interactions associated with the motif, as found in folded proteins, were not enough to significantly tilt the cis/trans equilibrium towards cisPro. This suggests that some other evolutionary pressure must select the cisPro motif (over transPro) at helix N-termini. Database analysis showed that >C = O of the pre-cisPro(α_R ) residue at the helix N-cap, directed opposite to the N→C helical axis, participates in long-range interactions. We hypothesize that the cisPro(α_R ) motif is preferred at helix N-termini because it allows the helix to participate in long-range interactions that may be structurally and functionally important.

Local control of cis-peptidyl-prolyl bonds mediated by CH···π interactions: the Xaa-Pro-Tyr motif

Compared to generic peptide bonds, the peptidyl-prolyl bond shows a strong propensity for the cis conformer. The presence of a sequence-contiguous aromatic (Aro) residue can further stabilize the cis conformer, as observed for the Aro-Pro motif. The cis propensity of the reverse sequence motif, Pro-Aro, is not so well understood, especially the effect of N-capping the Pro-Aro motif with different amino acid residues. From a comparative nuclear magnetic resonance study of two peptide series with the general sequences Ac-Xaa-Pro-Tyr-NH2 and Ac-Xaa-Pro-Ala-NH2, we present a relative thermodynamic scale that reflects how the nature of the Xaa side chain influences the cis propensity of the Xaa-Pro-Tyr motif, with Gly, Pro, and Ala at position Xaa giving the greatest enhancement of the cis-peptidyl-prolyl population. We also show that CH···π interaction between Xaa and Tyr is responsible for the enhanced cis population. However, the mere presence of the CH···π interaction does not guarantee that the peptidyl-prolyl bond will have a higher cis content in Xaa-Pro-Tyr than in Xaa-Pro-Ala. Xaa-dependent intramolecular interactions present in Xaa-trans-Pro-Tyr can nullify favorable CH···π interactions in Xaa-cis-Pro-Tyr. The relative cis-peptidyl-prolyl stabilizing propensities of Xaa (Xaa-Pro-Tyr) in proteins and in our peptide series show strong linear correlation except when Xaa is aromatic. We also explore the Xaa-Pro-Gly-Tyr sequence motif and show that mediated by a Pro-Tyr CH···π interaction, the cis-peptidyl-prolyl bond in the motif is stabilized when Xaa is Pro.

Multiple roles of the extracellular vestibule amino acid residues in the function of the rat P2X4 receptor

The binding of ATP to trimeric P2X receptors (P2XR) causes an enlargement of the receptor extracellular vestibule, leading to opening of the cation-selective transmembrane pore, but specific roles of vestibule amino acid residues in receptor activation have not been evaluated systematically. In this study, alanine or cysteine scanning mutagenesis of V47–V61 and F324–N338 sequences of rat P2X4R revealed that V49, Y54, Q55, F324, and G325 mutants were poorly responsive to ATP and trafficking was only affected by the V49 mutation. The Y54F and Y54W mutations, but not the Y54L mutation, rescued receptor function, suggesting that an aromatic residue is important at this position. Furthermore, the Y54A and Y54C receptor function was partially rescued by ivermectin, a positive allosteric modulator of P2X4R, suggesting a rightward shift in the potency of ATP to activate P2X4R. The Q55T, Q55N, Q55E, and Q55K mutations resulted in non-responsive receptors and only the Q55E mutant was ivermectin-sensitive. The F324L, F324Y, and F324W mutations also rescued receptor function partially or completely, ivermectin action on channel gating was preserved in all mutants, and changes in ATP responsiveness correlated with the hydrophobicity and side chain volume of the substituent. The G325P mutant had a normal response to ATP, suggesting that G325 is a flexible hinge. A topological analysis revealed that the G325 and F324 residues disrupt a β-sheet upon ATP binding. These results indicate multiple roles of the extracellular vestibule amino acid residues in the P2X4R function: the V49 residue is important for receptor trafficking to plasma membrane, the Y54 and Q55 residues play a critical role in channel gating and the F324 and G325 residues are critical for vestibule widening.