Synthetic genes for human muscle-type adenylate kinase in Escherichia coli

Co-regulation of yeast purine and phosphate pathways in response to adenylic nucleotide variations

Adenylate kinase (Adk1p) is a pivotal enzyme in both energetic and adenylic nucleotide metabolisms. In this paper, using a transcriptomic analysis, we show that the lack of Adk1p strongly induced expression of the PHO and ADE genes involved in phosphate utilization and AMP de novo biosynthesis respectively. Isolation and characterization of adk1 point mutants affecting PHO5 expression revealed that all these mutations also severely affected Adk1p catalytic activity, as well as PHO84 and ADE1 transcription. Furthermore, overexpression of distantly related enzymes such as human adenylate kinase or yeast UMP kinase was sufficient to restore regulation. These results demonstrate that adenylate kinase catalytic activity is critical for proper regulation of the PHO and ADE pathways. We also establish that adk1 deletion and purine limitation have similar effects on both adenylic nucleotide pool and PHO84 or ADE17 expression. Finally, we show that, in the adk1 mutant, upregulation of ADE1 depends on synthesis of the previously described effector(s) (S)AICAR ((N-succinyl)-5-aminoimidazol-4-carboxamide ribotide), while upregulation of PHO84 necessitates the Spl2p positive regulator. This work reveals that adenylic nucleotide availability is a key signal used by yeast to co-ordinate phosphate utilization and purine synthesis.

Design, construction and function of a multicopy display vector using fusions to the major coat protein of bacteriophage M13

Incorporation of numerous copies of a heterologous protein (bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor; BPTI) fused to the mature major coat protein (gene VIII product; VIII) of bacteriophage M13 has been demonstrated. Optimization of the promoter, signal peptide and host bacterial strain allowed for the construction of a working vector consisting of the M13 genome, into which was cloned a synthetic gene composed of a lac (or tac) promoter, and sequences encoding the bacterial alkaline phosphatase signal peptide, mature BPTI and the mature coat protein. Processing of the BPTI-VIII fusion protein and its incorporation into the bacteriophage were found to be maximal in a host bacterial strain containing a prlA/secY mutation. Functional protein is displayed on the surface of M13 phage, as judged by specific interactions with antiserum, anhydrotrypsin, and trypsin. Such display vectors can be used for epitope mapping, production of artificial vaccines and the screening of diverse libraries of proteins or peptides having affinity for a chosen ligand. The VIII display phage system has practical advantages over the III display phage system in that many more copies of the fusion protein can be displayed per phage particle and the presence of the VII fusion protein has little or no effect on the infectivity of the resulting bacteriophage.

Combination of Trp and Glu residues for recognition of mRNA cap structure. Analysis of m7G base recognition site of human cap binding protein (IF-4E) by site-directed mutagenesis

Four mutants of the human cap binding protein (hCBP), in which Trp-102, Glu-103, Asp-104 or Glu-105 was changed to the aliphatic Leu or Ala, were prepared, and their cap binding abilities were examined. Cap binding abilities of two mutants, W102L (Trp-102----Leu) and E105A (Glu-105----Ala), were significantly decreased in comparison with the wild-type hCBP. This result suggests that Trp-102 and Glu-105 are both necessary for the cap binding, and the most probable binding mode with the m7G of cap structure is the combination of the stacking by Trp-102 and the hydrogen-bond pairing by Glu-105, as was already proposed from the model studies.

27 amino acid residues can be deleted from the N-terminus of human lymphotoxin without impairment of its cytotoxic activity

In order to study the relationship between activity and structure of human lymphotoxin (hLT, 171 aa), we synthesized the gene (519 bp) for hLT and expressed it in Escherichia coli. Purification of the recombinant hLT from crude extracts was difficult because of the low level of expression of the gene. To improve the yield of the recombinant protein, we prepared five truncated genes for mutant proteins in which 25, 26, 27, 28 and 37 amino acid residues, respectively, were missing from the N-terminus. All of the genes were efficiently expressed and adequate amounts of mutant proteins were synthesized. The proteins were recovered mainly in the supernatant fractions after disruption of cells, with the exception of LT delta 37N, in which 37 residues were absent from the N-terminal region. Cytotoxic activities against mouse fibroblast L929 cells were detected in supernatant fractions that contained these mutant proteins, except in the case of LT delta 28N, which lacks the first amino acid residue conserved in both hLT and human tumour necrosis factor (hTNF). LT delta 27N, which is the smallest of the active proteins, was purified to homogeneity, and its cytotoxic activity was found to be similar to that of recombinant hTNF.

In vitro mutagenesis studies at the arginine residues of adenylate kinase. A revised binding site for AMP in the X-ray-deduced model

Although X-ray crystallographic and NMR studies have been made on the adenylate kinases, the substrate-binding sites are not unequivocally established. In an attempt to shed light on the binding sites for MgATP2- and for AMP2- in human cytosolic adenylate kinase (EC 2.7.4.3, hAK1), we have investigated the enzymic effects of replacement of the arginine residues (R44, R132, R138, and R149), which had been assumed by Pai et al. [Pai, E. F., Sachsenheimer, W., Schirmer, R. H., & Schulz, G. E. (1977) J. Mol. Biol. 114, 37-45] to interact with the phosphoryl groups of AMP2- and MgATP2-. With use of the site-directed mutagenesis method, point mutations were made in the artificial gene for hAK1 [Kim, H. J., Nishikawa, S., Tanaka, T., Uesugi, S., Takenaka, H., Hamada, M., & Kuby, S. A. (1989) Protein Eng. 2, 379-386] to replace these arginine residues with alanyl residues and yield the mutants R44A hAK1, R132A hAK1, R138A hAK1, and R149A hAK1. The resulting large increases in the Km,app values for AMP2- of the mutant enzymes, the relatively small increases in the Km,app values for MgATP2-, and the fact that the R132A, R138A, and R149A mutant enzymes proved to be very poor catalysts are consistent with the idea that the assigned substrate binding sites of Pai et al. (1977) have been reversed and that their ATP-binding site may be assigned as the AMP site.

Studies on adenosine triphosphate transphosphorylases. XVIII. Synthesis and preparation of peptides and peptide fragments of rabbit muscle ATP-AMP transphosphorylase (adenylate kinase) and their nucleotide-binding properties

Two peptide fragments, derived from the head and tail of rabbit muscle myokinase, were found to possess remarkable and specific ligand-binding properties (Hamada et al., 1979). By initiating systematic syntheses and measurements of equilibrium substrate-binding properties of these two sets of peptides, or portions thereof, which encompass the binding sites for (a) the magnesium complexes of the nucleotide substrates (MgATP2- and MgADP-) and (b) the uncomplexed nucleotide substrates (ADP3- and AMP2-) of rabbit muscle myokinase, some of the requirements for binding of the substrates to ATP-AMP transphosphorylase are being deduced and chemically outlined. One requirement for tight nucleotide binding appears to be a minimum peptide length of 15-25 residues. In addition, Lys-172 and/or Lys-194 may be involved in the binding of epsilon AMP. The syntheses are described as a set of peptides corresponding to residues 31-45, 20-45, 5-45, and 1-45, and a set of peptides corresponding to residues 178-192, 178-194, and 172-194 of rabbit muscle adenylate kinase. The ligand-binding properties of the first set of synthetic peptides to the fluorescent ligands: epsilon MgATP/epsilon ATP and epsilon MgADP/epsilon ADP are quantitatively presented in terms of their intrinsic dissociation constants (K'd) and values of N (maximal number of moles bound per mole of peptide); and compared with the peptide fragment MT-I (1-44) obtained from rabbit muscle myokinase (Kuby et al., 1984) and with the native enzyme (Hamada et al., 1979). In addition, the values of N and K'd are given for the second set of synthetic peptides to the fluorescent ligands epsilon AMP and epsilon ADP as well as for the peptide fragments MT-XII(172-194) and CB-VI(126-194) (Kuby et al., 1984) and, in turn, compared with the native enzyme. A few miscellaneous dissociation constants which had been derived kinetically are also given for comparison (e.g., the Ki for epsilon AMP and the value of KMg epsilon ATP obtained for the native enzyme) (Hamada and Kuby, 1978), and the K'd measured for Cr3+ ATP [corrected] and the synthetic peptide I1-45 (Fry et al., 1985b).