The isolation of a peptide from the catalytic domain of Bacillus stearothermophilus tryptophyl-tRNA synthetase. The interaction of Brown MX-5BR with tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase

Investigation into the binding of dyes within protein crystals

It was found that the crystals of at least a dozen different proteins could be thoroughly stained to an intense color with a panel of dyes. Many, if not most, of the stained protein crystals retained the dyes almost indefinitely when placed in large volumes of dye-free mother liquor. Dialysis experiments showed that most of the dyes that were retained in crystals also bound to the protein when free in solution; less frequently, some dyes bound only in the crystal. The experiments indicated a strong association of the dyes with the proteins. Four protein crystals were investigated by X-ray diffraction to ascertain the mode of binding. These were crystals of lysozyme, thaumatin, trypsin inhibited with benzamidine and satellite tobacco mosaic virus. In 30 X-ray analyses of protein crystal-dye complexes, in only three difference Fourier maps was any difference electron density present that was consistent with the binding of dye molecules, and even in these three cases (thaumatin plus thioflavin T, xylene cyanol and m-cresol purple) the amount of dye observed was inadequate to explain the intense color of the crystals. It was concluded that the dye molecules, which are clearly inside the crystals, are disordered but are paradoxically tightly bound to the protein. It is speculated that the dyes, which exhibit large hydrophobic cores and peripheral charged groups, may interact with the crystalline proteins in the manner of conventional detergents.

Reducing the complexity of the Escherichia coli proteome by chromatography on reactive dye columns

High-resolution 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DGE) is a key technology in the analysis of cellular proteomes particularly in the field of microbiology. However, the restricted resolution of 2DGE and the limited dynamic range of established staining methods limit its usefulness for characterising low abundance proteins. Consequently, methods have been developed to either enrich for low abundance proteins directly or to deplete the highly abundant proteins present in complex samples. We present a protocol for affinity chromatography on reactive dye resins for the analysis of the Escherichia coli proteome. Using a range of commercially available reactive dye resins in a traditional chromatography system we were able to enrich low abundance proteins to levels suitable for their reliable detection and, most importantly, their identification using standard peptide mass mapping and MALDI-TOF MS methods. Under the chromatography conditions employed up to 4.42% of the proteins present in the total nonfractionated E. coli cell lysates bound to the reactive dye column and were subsequently eluted by 1.5 M NaCl. Of the bound proteins approximately 50% were considered to be enriched compared to the nonfractionated cell lysate. The ability to detect low abundance proteins was due to a combination of the specific enrichment of the proteins themselves as well as the depletion of highly abundant cellular proteins, which otherwise obscured the low abundance proteins. There was evidence of some selectivity between the different reactive dye resins for particular proteins. However, the selection of suitable dye resins to selectively enrich for particular classes of proteins remains largely empirical at this time.

Purification, characterization, and properties of an aryl aldehyde oxidoreductase from Nocardia sp. strain NRRL 5646

An aryl aldehyde oxidoreductase from Nocardia sp. strain NRRL 5646 was purified 196-fold by a combination of Mono-Q, Reactive Green 19 agarose affinity, and hydroxyapatite chromatographies. The purified enzyme runs as a single band of 140 kDa on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The molecular mass was estimated to be 163 +/- 3.8 kDa by gel filtration, indicating that this enzyme is a monomeric protein. The binding of the enzyme to Reactive Green 19 agarose was Mg2+ dependent. The binding capacity was estimated to be about 0.2 mg of Reactive Green agarose per ml in the presence of 10 mM MgCl2. This enzyme can catalyze the reduction of a wide range of aryl carboxylic acids, including substituted benzoic acids, phenyl-substituted aliphatic acids, heterocyclic carboxylic acids, and polyaromatic ring carboxylic acids, to produce the corresponding aldehydes. The Km values for benzoate, ATP, and NADPH were determined to be 645 +/- 75, 29.3 +/- 3.1, and 57.3 +/- 12.5 microM, respectively. The Vmax was determined to be 0.902 +/- 0.04 micromol/min/mg of protein. Km values for (S)-(+)-alpha-methyl-4-(2-methylpropyl)-benzeneacetic acid (ibuprofen) and its (R)-(-) isomer were determined to be 155 +/- 18 and 34.5 +/- 2.5 microM, respectively. The Vmax for the (S)-(+) and (R)-(-) isomers were 1.33 and 0.15 micromol/min/mg of protein, respectively. Anthranilic acid is a competitive inhibitor with benzoic acid as a substrate, with a Ki of 261 +/- 30 microM. The N-terminal and internal amino acid sequences of a 76-kDa peptide from limited alpha-chymotrypsin digestion were determined.

Probing the substrate-binding sites of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases with the procion dye green HE-4BD

A reactive bis-dichloro derivative of the Procion dye Green HE-4BD was shown to inactivate irreversibly methionyl-tRNA synthetase (MTS) from Escherichia coli and also tryptophyl-tRNA synthetase (WTS) and tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (YTS) from Bacillus stearothermophilus at pH 8.5 and 37 degrees C. At a 5-fold excess of reactive dye over enzyme subunit concentration MTS was quantitatively inactivated within 20 min in the ATP/pyrophosphate exchange assay, whereas WTS and YTS show an 80% loss of activity over the same time period. The inactivation is affected by the addition of substrates, which either protect (WTS and YTS) or promote (YTS with tyrosine) the dye-mediated enzyme inactivation. Green HE-4BD-OH was shown to be a competitive inhibitor of MTS with respect to MgATP, methionine and tRNA substrates.