Engineering hybrid lantibiotics yields the highly stable and bacteriocidal peptide cerocin V

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) show promise as alternatives to traditional antibiotics for treating drug-resistant infections. Their adaptability and diverse sequence possibilities allow for rational design by modulating physicochemical determinants to achieve desired biological properties, transforming them into peptides for potential new therapies. Nisin, one of the best-studied AMPs, is believed to have potential to be used as a therapeutic, particularly against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, its instability in physiological conditions limits its use in clinical applications and pharmaceutical development. Exploration of new natural variants of nisin has uncovered diverse properties using different domains. Shuffling peptide modules can fine-tune the chemical properties of these molecules, potentially enhancing stability while maintaining or improving antimicrobial activity. In this study, hybrid AMPs were created by combining domains from three unique nisin variants, i.e. nisin A, cesin and rombocin, leading to the identification of a promising variant, named cerocin A, which harbours only 25 amino acids compared to the typical 31-35 amino acid length of nisin. Cerocin A demonstrates potent antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), approaching that of nisin itself. Cerocin A's mode of action involves a dual mechanism through the combination of two domains, consisting of a small ring/domain (6 amino acids) from the C-terminal end of rombocin attached to the preceding peptide of cesin, changing it from a bacteriostatic to a bactericidal peptide. Further mutation studies identified a new variant, cerocin V, with significantly improved resistance against trypsin degradation, while maintaining high potency. Importantly, cerocin V showed no undesired toxic effects on human red blood cells and remained stable in human plasma. In conclusion, we demonstrate that peptide construction using domain engineering is an effective strategy for manipulating both biological and physicochemical aspects, leading to the creation of novel bioactive molecules with desired properties. These constructs are appealing candidates for further optimization and development as novel antibiotics.

Altering Specificity and Enhancing Stability of the Antimicrobial Peptides Nisin and Rombocin through Dehydrated Amino Acid Residue Engineering

Nisin serves as the prototype within the lantibiotic group of antimicrobial peptides, exhibiting a broad-spectrum inhibition against Gram-positive bacteria, including important food-borne pathogens and clinically relevant antibiotic-resistant strains. The gene-encoded nature of nisin allows for gene-based bioengineering, enabling the generation of novel derivatives. It has been demonstrated that nisin mutants can be produced with improved functional properties. Here, we particularly focus on the uncommon amino acid residues dehydroalanine (Dha) and dehydrobutyrin (Dhb), whose functions are not yet fully elucidated. Prior to this study, we developed a new expression system that utilizes the nisin modification machinery NisBTC to advance expression, resulting in enhanced peptide dehydration efficiency. Through this approach, we discovered that the dehydrated amino acid Dhb at position 18 in the peptide rombocin, a short variant of nisin, displayed four times higher activity compared to the non-dehydrated peptide against the strain Lactococcus lactis. Furthermore, we observed that in the peptides nisin and rombocin, the dehydrated amino acid Dha at residue positon 18 exhibited superior activity compared to the dehydrated amino acid Dhb. Upon purifying the wild-type nisin and its variant nisinG18/Dha to homogeneity, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) indicated that the variant exhibited activity similar to that of wild-type nisin in inhibiting the growth of Bacillus cereus but showed twice the MIC values against the other four tested Gram-positive strains. Further stability tests demonstrated that the dehydrated peptide exhibited properties similar to wild-type nisin under different temperatures but displayed higher resistance to proteolytic enzymes compared to wild-type nisin.

Rombocin, a Short Stable Natural Nisin Variant, Displays Selective Antimicrobial Activity against Listeria monocytogenes and Employs a Dual Mode of Action to Kill Target Bacterial Strains

Nisin, with its unique mode of action and potent antimicrobial activity, serves as a remarkable inspiration for the design of novel antibiotics. However, peptides possess inherent weaknesses, particularly their susceptibility to proteolytic degradation, such as by trypsin, which limits their broader applications. This led us to speculate that natural variants of nisin produced by underexplored bacterial species can potentially overcome these limitations. We carried out genome mining of two Romboutsia sedimentorum strains, RC001 and RC002, leading to the discovery of rombocin A, which is a 25 amino acid residue short nisin variant that is predicted to have only four macrocycles compared to the known 31-35 amino acids long nisin variants with five macrocycles. Using the nisin-controlled expression system, we heterologously expressed fully modified and functional rombocin A in Lactococcus lactis and demonstrated its selective antimicrobial activity against Listeria monocytogenes. Rombocin A uses a dual mode of action involving lipid II binding activity and dissipation of the membrane potential to kill target bacteria. Stability tests confirmed its high stability at different pH values, temperatures, and in particular, against enzymatic degradation. With its gene-encoded characteristic, rombocin A is amenable to bioengineering to generate novel derivatives. Further mutation studies led to the identification of rombocin K, a mutant with enhanced bioactivity against L. monocytogenes. Our findings suggest that rombocin A and its bioengineered variant, rombocin K, are promising candidates for development as food preservatives or antibiotics against L. monocytogenes.

Cesin, a short natural variant of nisin, displays potent antimicrobial activity against major pathogens despite lacking two C-terminal macrocycles

Nisin is a widely used lantibiotic owing to its potent antimicrobial activity and its food-grade status. Its mode of action includes cell wall synthesis inhibition and pore formation, which are attributed to the lipid II binding and pore-forming domains, respectively. We discovered cesin, a short natural variant of nisin, produced by the psychrophilic anaerobe Clostridium estertheticum. Unlike other natural nisin variants, cesin lacks the two terminal macrocycles constituting the pore-forming domain. The current study aimed at heterologous expression and characterization of the antimicrobial activity and physicochemical properties of cesin. Following the successful heterologous expression of cesin in Lactococcus lactis, the lantibiotic demonstrated a broad and potent antimicrobial profile comparable to that of nisin. Determination of its mode of action using lipid II and lipoteichoic acid binding assays linked the potent antimicrobial activity to lipid II binding and electrostatic interactions with teichoic acids. Fluorescence microscopy showed that cesin lacks pore-forming ability in its natural form. Stability tests have shown the lantibiotic is highly stable at different pH values and temperature conditions, but that it can be degraded by trypsin. However, a bioengineered analog, cesin R15G, overcame the trypsin degradation, while keeping full antimicrobial activity. This study shows that cesin is a novel (small) nisin variant that efficiently kills target bacteria by inhibiting cell wall synthesis without pore formation. IMPORTANCE The current increase in antibiotic-resistant pathogens necessitates the discovery and application of novel antimicrobials. In this regard, we recently discovered cesin, which is a short natural variant of nisin produced by the psychrophilic Clostridium estertheticum. However, its suitability as an antimicrobial compound was in doubt due to its structural resemblance to nisin(1-22), a bioengineered short variant of nisin with low antimicrobial activity. Here, we show by heterologous expression, purification, and characterization that the potency of cesin is not only much higher than that of nisin(1-22), but that it is even comparable to the full-length nisin, despite lacking two C-terminal rings that are essential for nisin's activity. We show that cesin is a suitable scaffold for bioengineering to improve its applicability, such as resistance to trypsin. This study demonstrates the suitability of cesin for future application in food and/or for health as a potent and stable antimicrobial compound.

Lipidated variants of the antimicrobial peptide nisin produced via incorporation of methionine analogs for click chemistry show improved bioactivity

The increase in antibiotic resistance calls for accelerated molecular engineering strategies to diversify natural products for drug discovery. The incorporation of non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) is an elegant strategy for this purpose, offering a diverse pool of building blocks to introduce desired properties into antimicrobial lanthipeptides. We here report an expression system using Lactococcus lactis as a host for non-canonical amino acid incorporation with high efficiency and yield. We show that incorporating the more hydrophobic analog ethionine (instead of methionine) into nisin improves its bioactivity against several Gram-positive strains we tested. New-to-nature variants were further created by click chemistry. By azidohomoalanine (Aha) incorporation and subsequent click chemistry, we obtained lipidated variants at different positions in nisin or in truncated nisin variants. Some of them show improved bioactivity and specificity against several pathogenic bacterial strains. These results highlight the ability of this methodology for lanthipeptide multi-site lipidation, to create new-to-nature antimicrobial products with diverse features, and extend the toolbox for (lanthi)peptide drug improvement and discovery.

The Role of Tryptophan in π Interactions in Proteins: An Experimental Approach

In proteins, the amino acids Phe, Tyr, and especially Trp are frequently involved in π interactions such as π–π, cation−π, and CH−π bonds. These interactions are often crucial for protein structure and protein–ligand binding. A powerful means to study these interactions is progressive fluorination of these aromatic residues to modulate the electrostatic component of the interaction. However, to date no protein expression platform is available to produce milligram amounts of proteins labeled with such fluorinated amino acids. Here, we present a Lactococcus lactis Trp auxotroph-based expression system for efficient incorporation (≥95%) of mono-, di-, tri-, and tetrafluorinated, as well as a methylated Trp analog. As a model protein we have chosen LmrR, a dimeric multidrug transcriptional repressor protein from L. lactis. LmrR binds aromatic drugs, like daunomycin and riboflavin, between Trp96 and Trp96′ in the dimer interface. Progressive fluorination of Trp96 decreased the affinity for the drugs 6- to 70-fold, clearly establishing the importance of electrostatic π–π interactions for drug binding. Presteady state kinetic data of the LmrR–drug interaction support the enthalpic nature of the interaction, while high resolution crystal structures of the labeled protein–drug complexes provide for the first time a structural view of the progressive fluorination approach. The L. lactis expression system was also used to study the role of Trp68 in the binding of riboflavin by the membrane-bound riboflavin transport protein RibU from L. lactis. Progressive fluorination of Trp68 revealed a strong electrostatic component that contributed 15–20% to the total riboflavin-RibU binding energy.

Cyano-tryptophans as dual infrared and fluorescence spectroscopic labels to assess structural dynamics in proteins

By moving the cyano group position on the indole ring, both artificial amino acids report differently to their microscopic environment.

Development of Chemically Defined Media to Express Trp-Analog-Labeled Proteins in a Lactococcus lactis Trp Auxotroph

Chemically defined media for growth of Lactococcus lactis strains contain about 50 components, making them laborious and expensive growth media. However, they are crucial for metabolism studies as well as for expression of heterologous proteins labeled with unnatural amino acids. In particular, the L. lactis Trp auxotroph PA1002, overexpressing the tryptophanyl tRNA synthetase enzyme of L. lactis, is very suitable for the biosynthetic incorporation of Trp analogs in proteins because of its most relaxed substrate specificity reported towards Trp analogs. Here we present two much simpler defined media for L. lactis, which consist of only 24 or 31 components, respectively, and with which the L. lactis Trp auxotroph shows similar growth characteristics as with a 50-component chemically defined medium. Importantly, the expression levels of two recombinant proteins used for evaluation were up to 2-3 times higher in these new media than in the 50-component medium, without affecting the Trp analog incorporation efficiency. Taken together, the simplest chemically defined media reported so far for L. lactis are presented. Since L. lactis also shows auxotrophy for Arg, His, Ile, Leu Val, and Met, our simplified media may also be useful for the biosynthetic incorporation of analogs of these five amino acids.

Picosecond fluorescence dynamics of tryptophan and 5-fluorotryptophan in monellin: slow water-protein relaxation unmasked

Time dependent fluorescence Stokes (emission wavelength) shifts (TDFSS) from tryptophan (Trp) following sub-picosecond excitation are increasingly used to investigate protein dynamics, most recently enabling active research interest into water dynamics near the surface of proteins. Unlike many fluorescence probes, both the efficiency and the wavelength of Trp fluorescence in proteins are highly sensitive to microenvironment, and Stokes shifts can be dominated by the well-known heterogeneous nature of protein structure, leading to what we call pseudo-TDFSS: shifts that arise from differential decay rates of subpopulations. Here we emphasize a novel, general method that obviates pseudo-TDFSS by replacing Trp by 5-fluorotryptophan (5Ftrp), a fluorescent analogue with higher ionization potential and greatly suppressed electron-transfer quenching. 5FTrp slows and suppresses pseudo-TDFSS, thereby providing a clearer view of genuine relaxation caused by solvent and protein response. This procedure is applied to the sweet-tasting protein monellin which has uniquely been the subject of ultrafast studies in two different laboratories (Peon, J.; et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2002, 99, 10964; Xu, J.; et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 1214) that led to disparate interpretations of a 20 ps transient. They differed because of the pseudo-TDFSS present. The current study exploiting special properties of 5FTrp strongly supports the conclusion that both lifetime heterogeneity-based TDFSS and environment relaxation-based TDFSS are present in monellin and 5FTrp-monellin. The original experiments on monellin were most likely dominated by pseudo-TDFSS, whereas, in the present investigation of 5FTrp-monellin, the TDFSS is dominated by relaxation and any residual pseudo-TDFSS is overwhelmed and/or slowed to irrelevance.

Isolation of Escherichia coli mannitol permease, EIImtl, trapped in amphipol A8-35 and fluorescein-labeled A8-35

Amphipols (APols) are short amphipathic polymers that keep integral membrane proteins water-soluble while stabilizing them as compared to detergent solutions. In the present work, we have carried out functional and structural studies of a membrane transporter that had not been characterized in APol-trapped form yet, namely EII(mtl), a dimeric mannitol permease from the inner membrane of Escherichia coli. A tryptophan-less and dozens of single-tryptophan (Trp) mutants of this transporter are available, making it possible to study the environment of specific locations in the protein. With few exceptions, the single-Trp mutants show a high mannitol-phosphorylation activity when in membranes, but, as variance with wild-type EII(mtl), some of them lose most of their activity upon solubilization by neutral (PEG- or maltoside-based) detergents. Here, we present a protocol to isolate these detergent-sensitive mutants in active form using APol A8-35. Trapping with A8-35 keeps EII(mtl) soluble and functional in the absence of detergent. The specific phosphorylation activity of an APol-trapped Trp-less EII(mtl) mutant was found to be ~3× higher than the activity of the same protein in dodecylmaltoside. The preparations are suitable both for functional and for fluorescence spectroscopy studies. A fluorescein-labeled version of A8-35 has been synthesized and characterized. Exploratory studies were conducted to examine the environment of specific Trp locations in the transmembrane domain of EII(mtl) using Trp fluorescence quenching by water-soluble quenchers and by the fluorescein-labeled APol. This approach has the potential to provide information on the transmembrane topology of MPs.

Biosynthetic incorporation of tryptophan analogs in proteins

Biosynthetic incorporation of Trp analogs in a protein can help in its characterization using fluorescence spectroscopy and other methodologies like NMR and phosphorescence. Here a protocol is presented resulting in the efficient incorporation of Trp analogs in a recombinant protein, using an Escherichia coli Trp auxotroph. An overview of recent developments in the Trp analog incorporation field is also presented.

Structural investigation of the transmembrane C domain of the mannitol permease from Escherichia coli using 5-FTrp fluorescence spectroscopy

The mannitol transporter EII(mtl) from Escherichia coli is responsible for the uptake of mannitol over the inner membrane and its concomitant phosphorylation. EII(mtl) is functional as a dimer and its membrane-embedded C domain, IIC(mtl), harbors one high affinity mannitol binding site. To characterize this domain in more detail the microenvironments of thirteen residue positions were explored by 5-fluorotryptophan (5-FTrp) fluorescence spectroscopy. Because of the simpler photophysics of 5-FTrp compared to Trp, one can distinguish between the two 5-FTrp probes present in dimeric IIC(mtl). At many labeled positions, the microenvironment of the 5-FTrps in the two protomers differs. Spectroscopic properties of three mutants labeled at positions 198, 251, and 260 show that two conserved motifs (Asn194-His195 and Gly254-Ile255-His256-Glu257) are located in well-structured parts of IIC(mtl). Mannitol binding has a large impact on the structure around position 198, while only minor changes are induced at positions 251 and 260. Phosphorylation of the cytoplasmic B domain of EII(mtl) is sensed by 5-FTrp at positions 30, 42, 251 and 260. We conclude that many parts of the IIC(mtl) structure are involved in the sugar translocation. The structure of EII(mtl), as investigated in this work, differs from the recently solved structure of a IIC protein transporting diacetylchitobiose, ChbC, and also belonging to the glucose superfamily of EII sugar transporters. In EII(mtl), the sugar binding site is more close to the periplasmic face and the structure of the 2 protomers in the dimer is different, while both protomers in the ChbC dimer are essentially the same.

Localization of the substrate-binding site in the homodimeric mannitol transporter, EIImtl, of Escherichia coli

The mannitol transporter from Escherichia coli, EII(mtl), belongs to a class of membrane proteins coupling the transport of substrates with their chemical modification. EII(mtl) is functional as a homodimer, and it harbors one high affinity mannitol-binding site in the membrane-embedded C domain (IIC(mtl)). To localize this binding site, 19 single Trp-containing mutants of EII(mtl) were biosynthetically labeled with 5-fluorotryptophan (5-FTrp) and mixed with azi-mannitol, a substrate analog acting as a Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) acceptor. Typically, for mutants showing FRET, only one 5-FTrp was involved, whereas the 5-FTrp from the other monomer was too distant. This proves that the mannitol-binding site is asymmetrically positioned in dimeric IIC(mtl). Combined with the available two-dimensional projection maps of IIC(mtl), it is concluded that a second resting binding site is present in this transporter. Active transport of mannitol only takes place when EII(mtl) becomes phosphorylated at Cys(384) in the cytoplasmic B domain. Stably phosphorylated EII(mtl) mutants were constructed, and FRET experiments showed that the position of mannitol in IIC(mtl) remains the same. We conclude that during the transport cycle, the phosphorylated B domain has to move to the mannitol-binding site, located in the middle of the membrane, to phosphorylate mannitol.

Structure of the cytoplasmic loop between putative helices II and III of the mannitol permease of Escherichia coli: a tryptophan and 5-fluorotryptophan spectroscopy study

In this work, four single tryptophan (Trp) mutants of the dimeric mannitol transporter of Escherichia coli, EII(mtl), are characterized using Trp and 5-fluoroTrp (5-FTrp) fluorescence spectroscopy. The four positions, 97, 114, 126, and 133, are located in a region shown by recent studies to be involved in the mannitol translocation process. To spectroscopically distinguish between the Trp positions in each subunit of dimeric EII(mtl), 5-FTrp was biosynthetically incorporated because of its much simpler photophysics compared to those of Trp. The steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence methodologies used point out that all four positions are in structured environments, both in the absence and in the presence of a saturating concentration of mannitol. The fluorescence decay of all 5-FTrp-containing mutants was highly homogeneous, suggesting similar microenvironments for both probes per dimer. However, Stern-Volmer quenching experiments using potassium iodide indicate different solvent accessibilities for the two probes at positions 97 and 133. A 5 A two-dimensional (2D) projection map of the membrane-embedded IIC(mtl) dimer showing 2-fold symmetry is available. The results of this work are in better agreement with a 7 A projection map from a single 2D crystal on which no symmetry was imposed.

Mechanical implications of interfacial defects between femoral hip implants and cement: A finite element analysis of interfacial gaps and interfacial porosity

Two types of defect between femoral hip implants and cement have been identified. Interfacial porosity arises from cement shrinkage during curing and presents as pores randomly located along the stem. Interfacial gaps are much larger stem—cement separations caused by air introduced during stem insertion. To investigate the mechanical consequences of both types of defect, a finite element analysis model was created on the basis of a computed tomography image of a Charnley—Kerboul stem, and alternating torsional and transverse loads were applied. The propagation of fatigue cracks within the cement and the rotational stability of the stem were assessed in models simulating increasing amounts of interfacial gaps and pores. Anterior gaps covering at least 30 per cent of the implant surface promoted cement cracks and destabilized the stem. Anterolateral gaps were less destabilizing, but had more potential to promote cracks. In both cases, cracks occurred mainly outside gap regions, in areas where the stem contacted the cement during cyclic loading. Although random interfacial pores did not destabilize the implant, they acted as crack initiators even at low fractions (10 per cent). In conclusion, random interfacial pores were more harmful for the cement mantle integrity than were larger regions of interfacial gaps, although gaps were more detrimental for the rotational stability of the stem.

Domain complementation studies reveal residues critical for the activity of the mannitol permease from Escherichia coli

This paper presents domain complementation studies in the mannitol transporter, EIImtl, from Escherichia coli. EIImtl is responsible for the transport and concomitant phosphorylation of mannitol over the cytoplasmic membrane. By using tryptophan-less EIImtl as a basis, each of the four phenylalanines located in the cytoplasmic loop between putative transmembrane helices II and III in the membrane-embedded C domain were replaced by tryptophan, yielding the mutants W97, W114, W126, and W133. Except for W97, these single-tryptophan mutants exhibited a high, wild-type-like, binding affinity for mannitol. Of the four mutants, only W114 showed a high mannitol phosphorylation activity. EIImtl is functional as a dimer and the effect of these mutations on the oligomeric activity was investigated via heterodimer formation (C/C domain complementation studies). The low phosphorylation activities of W126 and W133 could be increased 7-28 fold by forming heterodimers with either the C domain of W97 (IICmtlW97) or the inactive EIImtl mutant G196D. W126 and W133, on the other hand, did not complement each other. This study points towards a role of positions 97, 126 and 133 in the oligomeric activation of EIImtl. The involvement of specific residue positions in the oligomeric functioning of a sugar-translocating EII protein has not been presented before.

Mutations in transhydrogenase change the fluorescence emission state of TRP72 from 1La to 1Lb

The dI component of Rhodospirillum rubrum transhydrogenase has a single Trp residue (Trp(72)), which has distinctive optical properties, including short-wavelength fluorescence emission with clear vibrational fine structure, and long-lived, well-resolved phosphorescence emission. We have made a set of mutant dI proteins in which residues contacting Trp(72) are conservatively substituted. The room-temperature fluorescence-emission spectra of our three Met(97) mutants are blue shifted by approximately 4 nm, giving them a shorter-wavelength emission than any other protein described in the literature, including azurin from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Fluorescence spectra in low-temperature glasses show equivalent well-resolved vibrational bands in wild-type and the mutant dI proteins, and in azurin. Substitution of Met(97) in dI changes the relative intensities of some of these vibrational bands. The analysis supports the view that fluorescence from the Met(97) mutants arises predominantly from the (1)L(b) excited singlet state of Trp(72), whereas (1)L(a) is the predominant emitting state in wild-type dI. It is suggested that the sulfur atom of Met(97) promotes greater stabilization of (1)L(a) than either (1)L(b) or the ground state. The phosphorescence spectra of Met(97) mutants are also blue-shifted, indicating that the sulfur atom decreases the transition energy between the (3)L(a) state of the Trp and the ground state.

Lactococcus lactis as expression host for the biosynthetic incorporation of tryptophan analogues into recombinant proteins

Incorporation of Trp (tryptophan) analogues into a protein may facilitate its structural analysis by spectroscopic techniques. Development of a biological system for the biosynthetic incorpor-ation of such analogues into proteins is of considerable importance. The Gram-negative Escherichia coli is the only prokaryotic expression host regularly used for the incorporation of Trp analogues into recombinant proteins. Here, we present the use of the versatile Gram-positive expression host Lactococcus lactis for the incorporation of Trp analogues. The availability of a tightly regulated expression system for this organism, the potential to secrete modified proteins into the growth medium and the construction of the trp-synthetase deletion strain PA1002 of L. lactis rendered this organism potentially an efficient tool for the incorporation of Trp analogues into recombinant proteins. The Trp analogues 7-azatryptophan, 5-fluorotryptophan and 5-hydroxytryptophan were incorporated with efficiencies of >97, >97 and 89% respectively. Interestingly, 5-methylTrp (5-methyltryptophan) could be incorporated with 92% efficiency. Successful biosynthetical incorporation of 5-methylTrp into recombinant proteins has not been reported previously.

Tagging multiphoton ionization events by two-dimensional photoelectron spectroscopy

Two-dimensional photoelectron spectroscopy has been used to supply process-specific labels to multiphoton ionization events. Employing these tags, the authors can construct excitation and photoelectron spectra along predefined excitation routes in the neutral manifold and ionization routes to the ionic manifold from one single two-dimensional photoelectron spectrum. These results offer a novel way to elucidate the vibronic and dynamic properties of excited and ionic states.

Structural mimicry for vinculin activation by IpaA, a virulence factor of Shigella flexneri

Invasion of epithelial cells by Shigella flexneri is characterized by cytoskeletal rearrangements of the host cell membrane, promoting internalization of the bacterium. The bacterial effector IpaA is injected into the epithelial cell by a type III secretion apparatus and recruits vinculin to regulate actin polymerization at the site of entry. We analysed the complex formed between a carboxy-terminal fragment of IpaA (IpaA(560-633)) and the vinculin D1 domain (VD1), both in crystals and in solution. We present evidence that IpaA(560-633) has two alpha-helical vinculin-binding sites that simultaneously bind two VD1 molecules. The interaction of IpaA(560-633) with VD1 is highly similar to the interaction of the endogenous, eukaryotic proteins talin and alpha-actinin with VD1, showing that Shigella uses a structural mimicry strategy to activate vinculin.

The oligomeric state and stability of the mannitol transporter, EnzymeII(mtl), from Escherichia coli: a fluorescence correlation spectroscopy study

Numerous membrane proteins function as oligomers both at the structural and functional levels. The mannitol transporter from Escherichia coli, EnzymeII(mtl), is a member of the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system. During the transport cycle, mannitol is phosphorylated and released into the cytoplasm as mannitol-1-phosphate. Several studies have shown that EII(mtl) functions as an oligomeric species. However, the oligomerization number and stability of the oligomeric complex during different steps of the catalytic cycle, e.g., substrate binding and/or phosphorylation of the carrier, is still under discussion. In this paper, we have addressed the oligomeric state and stability of EII(mtl) using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. A functional double-cysteine mutant was site-specifically labeled with either Alexa Fluor 488 or Alexa Fluor 633. The subunit exchange of these two batches of proteins was followed in time during different steps of the catalytic cycle. The most important conclusions are that (1) in a detergent-solubilized state, EII(mtl) is functional as a very stable dimer; (2) the stability of the complex can be manipulated by changing the intermicellar attractive forces between PEG-based detergent micelles; (3) substrate binding destabilizes the complex whereas phosphorylation increases the stability; and (4) substrate binding to the phosphorylated species partly antagonizes the stabilizing effect.

Substrate-induced conformational changes in the membrane-embedded IIC(mtl)-domain of the mannitol permease from Escherichia coli, EnzymeII(mtl), probed by tryptophan phosphorescence spectroscopy

Membrane-bound transport proteins are expected to proceed via different conformational states during the translocation of a solute across the membrane. Tryptophan phosphorescence spectroscopy is one of the most sensitive methods used for detecting conformational changes in proteins. We employed this technique to study substrate-induced conformational changes in the mannitol permease, EnzymeII(mtl), of the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system from Escherichia coli. Ten mutants containing a single tryptophan were engineered in the membrane-embedded IIC(mtl)-domain, harboring the mannitol translocation pathway. The mutants were characterized with respect to steady-state and time-resolved phosphorescence, yielding detailed, site-specific information of the Trp microenvironment and protein conformational homogeneity. The study revealed that the Trp environments vary from apolar, unstructured, and flexible sites to buried, highly homogeneous, rigid peptide cores. The most remarkable example of the latter was observed for position 97, because its long sub-second phosphorescence lifetime and highly structured spectra in both glassy and fluid media imply a well defined and rigid core around the probe that is typical of beta-sheet-rich structural motifs. The addition of mannitol had a large impact on most of the Trp positions studied. In the case of position 97, mannitol binding induced partial unfolding of the rigid protein core. On the contrary, for residue positions 126, 133, and 147, both steady-state and time-resolved data showed that mannitol binding induces a more ordered and homogeneous structure around these residues. The observations are discussed in context of the current mechanistic and structural model of EII(mtl).

Stoichiometry and substrate affinity of the mannitol transporter, EnzymeIImtl, from Escherichia coli

Uptake and consecutive phosphorylation of mannitol in Escherichia coli is catalyzed by the mannitol permease EnzymeIImtl. The substrate is bound at an extracellular-oriented binding site, translocated to an inward-facing site, from where it is phosphorylated, and subsequently released into the cell. Previous studies have shown the presence of both a high- and a low-affinity binding site with K(D)-values in the nano- and micromolar range, respectively. However, reported K(D)-values in literature are highly variable, which casts doubts about the reliability of the measurements and data analysis. Using an optimized binding measurement system, we investigated the discrepancies reported in literature, regarding both the variability in K(D)-values and the binding stoichiometry. By comparing the binding capacity obtained with flow dialysis with different methods to determine the protein concentration (UV-protein absorption, Bradford protein detection, and a LDH-linked protein assay to quantify the number of phosphorylation sites), we proved the existence of only one mannitol binding site per dimeric species of unphosphorylated EnzymeIImtl. Furthermore, the affinity of EnzymeIImtl for mannitol appeared to be dependent on the protein concentration and seemed to reflect the presence of an endogenous ligand. The dependency could be simulated assuming that >50% of the binding sites were occupied with a ligand that shows an affinity for EnzymeIImtl in the same range as mannitol.

Ionization potentials of fluoroindoles and the origin of nonexponential tryptophan fluorescence decay in proteins

This work reports an explanation for the unusual monoexponential fluorescence decay of 5-fluorotryptophan (5FTrp) in single-Trp mutant proteins [Broos, J.; Maddalena, F.; Hesp, B. H. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 22-23] and substantially clarifies the origin of the ubiquitous nonexponential fluorescence decay of tryptophan in proteins. Our results strongly suggest that the extent of nonexponential fluorescence decay is governed primarily by the efficiency of electron transfer (ET) quenching by a nearby amide group in the peptide bond. Fluoro substitution increases the ionization potential (IP) of indole, thereby suppressing the ET rate, leading to a longer average lifetime and therefore a more homogeneous decay. We report experimental IPs for a number of substituted indoles including 5-fluoroindole, 5-fluoro-3-methylindole, and 6-fluoroindole, along with accurate ab initio calculations of the IPs for these and 20 related molecules. The results predict the IP of 5-fluorotryptophan to be 0.19 eV higher than that of tryptophan. 5-Fluoro substitution does not measurably alter the excitation-induced change in permanent dipole moment nor does it change the fluorescent state from 1La to 1Lb. In combination with electronic structure information this argues that the increased IP and the decreased excitation energy of the 1La state, together 0.3 eV, are solely responsible for the strong reduction of electron transfer quenching. 6-Fluoro substitution is predicted to increase the IP by a mere 0.09 eV. In agreement with our conclusions, the fluorescence decay curves of 6-fluorotryptophan-containing proteins are well fit using only two decay times compared to three required for Trp.

The First Cytoplasmic Loop of the Mannitol Permease from Escherichia coli is Accessible for Sulfhydryl Reagents from the Periplasmic Side of the Membrane

The mannitol permease (EII(Mtl)) from Escherichia coli couples mannitol transport to phosphorylation of the substrate. Renewed topology prediction of the membrane-embedded C domain suggested that EII(Mtl) contains more membrane-embedded segments than the six proposed previously on the basis of a PhoA fusion study. Cysteine accessibility was used to confirm this notion. Since cysteine 384 in the cytoplasmic B domain is crucial for the phosphorylation activity of EII(Mtl), all cysteine mutants contained this activity-linked cysteine residue in addition to those introduced for probing the membrane topology of the protein. To distinguish between the activity-linked cysteine and the probed cysteine, either trypsin was used to specifically digest the two cytoplasmic domains (A and B), thereby removing Cys384, or Cys384 was protected by phosphorylation from alkylation by N-ethylmaleimide (NEM). Our data show that upon phosphorylation EII(Mtl) undergoes major conformational changes, whereby residues in the putative first cytoplasmic loop become accessible to NEM. Other residues in this loop were accessible to NEM in intact cells and inside-out membrane vesicles, but cysteine residues at these positions only reacted with the membrane-impermeable sulfhydryl reagent from the periplasmic side of the protein. These and other results suggest that the predicted loop between TM2 and TM3 may fold back into the membrane and form part of the translocation path.

Merging homogeneous catalysis with biocatalysis; papain as hydrogenation catalyst

Papain, modified at Cys-25 with a monodentate phosphite ligand and complexed with Rh(COD)2BF4, is an active catalyst in the hydrogenation of methyl 2-acetamidoacrylate.

Evaluation of the flow-dialysis technique for analysis of protein-ligand interactions: an experimental and a monte carlo study

Flow dialysis has found widespread use in determining the dissociation constant (KD) of a protein-ligand interaction or the amount of available binding sites (E0). This method has the potency to measure both these parameters in a single experiment and in this article a method to measure simultaneously the KD and E0 is presented, together with an extensive error analysis of the method. The flow-dialysis technique is experimentally simple to perform. However, a number of practical aspects of this method can have a large impact on the outcome of KD and E0. We have investigated all sources of significant systematic and random errors, using the interaction between mannitol and its transporter from Escherichia coli as a model. Monte Carlo simulations were found to be an excellent tool to assess the impact of these errors on the binding parameters and to define the experimental conditions that allow their most accurate estimation.

In vivo synthesized proteins with monoexponential fluorescence decay kinetics

Tryptophan, when in a protein, typically shows multiexponential fluorescence decay kinetics. Complex kinetics prevents a straightforward interpretation of time-resolved fluorescence protein data, particularly in anisotropy studies or if the effect of a dynamic quencher or a resonance energy transfer (RET) acceptor is investigated. Here, time-resolved fluorescence data are presented of an isosteric tryptophan analogue, 5-fluorotryptophan, which when biosynthetically incorporated in proteins shows monoexponential decay kinetics. Data are presented indicating that the presence of a fluoro atom at the 5-position suppresses the electron transfer rate from the excited indole moiety to the peptide bond. This process has been related to the multiexponential fluorescence decay of tryptophan in proteins. The monoexponential decay of 5-fluorotryptophan makes it possible to measure simultaneously multiple distances between 5-fluorotryptophan and a RET acceptor. We demonstrate that for an oligomeric protein, consisting of two single-tryptophan-containing subunits, the individual distances between 5-fluorotryptophan and the single substrate binding site can be resolved using a substrate harboring a RET acceptor.

Tryptophan phosphorescence spectroscopy reveals that a domain in the NAD(H)-binding component (dI) of transhydrogenase from Rhodospirillum rubrum has an extremely rigid and conformationally homogeneous protein core

The characteristics of tryptophan phosphorescence from the NAD(H)-binding component (dI) component of Rhodospirillum rubrum transhydrogenase are described. This enzyme couples hydride transfer between NAD(H) and NADP(H) to proton translocation across a membrane and is only active as a dimer. Tryptophan phosphorescence spectroscopy is a sensitive technique for the detection of protein conformational changes and was used here to characterize dI under mechanistically relevant conditions. Our results indicate that the single tryptophan in dI, Trp-72, is embedded in a rigid, compact, and homogeneous protein matrix that efficiently suppresses collisional quenching processes and results in the longest triplet lifetime for Trp ever reported in a protein at ambient temperature (2.9 s). The protein matrix surrounding Trp-72 is extraordinarily rigid up to 50 degrees C. In all previous studies on Trp-containing proteins, changes in structure were reflected in a different triplet lifetime. In dI, the lifetime of Trp-72 phosphorescence was barely affected by protein dimerization, cofactor binding, complexation with the NADP(H)-binding component (dIII), or by the introduction of two amino acid substitutions at the hydride-transfer site. It is suggested that the rigidity and structural invariance of the protein domain (dI.1) housing this Trp residue are important to the mechanism of transhydrogenase: movement of dI.1 affects the width of a cleft which, in turn, regulates the positioning of bound nucleotides ready for hydride transfer. The unique protein core in dI may be a paradigm for the design of compact and stable de novo proteins.

Efficient biosynthetic incorporation of tryptophan and indole analogs in an integral membrane protein

Biosynthetic incorporation of tryptophan (Trp) analogs such as 7-azatryptophan, 5-hydroxytryptophan, and fluorotryptophan into a protein can facilitate its structural analysis by spectroscopic techniques such as fluorescence, phosphorescence, nuclear magnetic resonance, and Fourier transform infrared. Until now, the approach has dealt primarily with soluble proteins. In this article, we demonstrate that four different Trp analogs can be very efficiently incorporated into a membrane protein as demonstrated for the mannitol transporter of Escherichia coli (EII(mtl)). EII(mtl) overexpression was under control of the lambdaP(R) promoter, and the E. coli Trp auxotroph M5219 was used as host. This strain constitutively expresses the heat labile repressor protein of the lambdaP(R) promoter. Together with the presence of the repressor gene on the EII(mtl) plasmid, this resulted in a tightly controlled promoter system, a prerequisite for high Trp analog incorporation. A new method for determining the analog incorporation efficiency is presented that is suitable for membrane proteins. The procedure involves fitting of the phosphorescence spectrum as a linear combination of the Trp and Trp analog contributions, taking into account the influence of the protein environment on the Trp analog spectrum. The data show that the analog content of EII(mtl) samples is very high (>95%). In addition, we report here that biosynthetic incorporation of Trp analogs can also be effected with less expensive indole analogs, which in vivo are converted to L-Trp analogs.

The smallest resonance energy transfer acceptor for tryptophan

The utility of diazirine ligands as acceptors in resonance energy transfer (RET) distance measurements with tryptophan or tryptophan analogues as donor is reported. The principle is demonstrated for a diazirine derivative of d-mannitol, 2-azi-2-deoxy-d-arabino-hexitol, and single-tryptophan-containing mutants of the mannitol transporter, EIImtl, from E. coli. The Förster distance is 10 A for the tryptophan-diazirine donor-acceptor couple, allowing the measurement of distances up to 17 A. The versatility of tryptophan as an intrinsic spectroscopic probe in protein chemistry and the small size of the diazirine group makes this a very attractive donor-acceptor couple for accurate RET distance information in protein chemistry.

Mapping of the dimer interface of the Escherichia coli mannitol permease by cysteine cross-linking

A cysteine cross-linking approach was used to identify residues at the dimer interface of the Escherichia coli mannitol permease. This transport protein comprises two cytoplasmic domains and one membrane-embedded C domain per monomer, of which the latter provides the dimer contacts. A series of single-cysteine His-tagged C domains present in the native membrane were subjected to Cu(II)-(1,10-phenanthroline)(3)-catalyzed disulfide formation or cysteine cross-linking with dimaleimides of different length. The engineered cysteines were at the borders of the predicted membrane-spanning alpha-helices. Two residues were found to be located in close proximity of each other and capable of forming a disulfide, while four other locations formed cross-links with the longer dimaleimides. Solubilization of the membranes did only influence the cross-linking behavior at one position (Cys(73)). Mannitol binding only effected the cross-linking of a cysteine at the border of the third transmembrane helix (Cys(134)), indicating that substrate binding does not lead to large rearrangements in the helix packing or to dissociation of the dimer. Upon mannitol binding, the Cys(134) becomes more exposed but the residue is no longer capable of forming a stable disulfide in the dimeric IIC domain. In combination with the recently obtained projection structure of the IIC domain in two-dimensional crystals, a first proposal is made for alpha-helix packing in the mannitol permease.

Sensitive monitoring of the dynamics of a membrane-bound transport protein by tryptophan phosphorescence spectroscopy

This paper presents a tryptophan phosphorescence spectroscopy study on the membrane-bound mannitol transporter, EII(mtl), from E. coli. The protein contains four tryptophans at positions 30, 42, 109, and 117. Phosphorescence decays in buffer at 1 degrees C revealed large variations of the triplet lifetimes of the wild-type protein and four single-tryptophan-containing mutants. They ranged from <70 microseconds for the tryptophan at position 109 to 55 ms for the residue at position 30, attesting to widely different flexibilities of the tryptophan microenvironments. The decay of all tryptophans is multiexponential, reflecting multiple stable conformations of the protein. Both mannitol binding and enzyme phosphorylation had large effects on the triplet lifetimes. Mannitol binding induces a more ordered structure near the mannitol binding site, and the decay becomes significantly more homogeneous. In contrast, enzyme phosphorylation induces a large relaxation of the protein structure at the reporter sites. The implications of these structural changes on the coupling mechanism between the transport and the phosphorylation activity of EII(mtl) are discussed. Taken as a whole, our data show that tryptophan phosphorescence spectroscopy is a very sensitive technique to explore conformational dynamics in membrane proteins.

Membrane protein-ligand interactions in Escherichia coli vesicles and living cells monitored via a biosynthetically incorporated tryptophan analogue

This paper presents a deceptively straightforward experimental approach to monitoring membrane protein-ligand interactions in vesicles and in living Escherichia coli cells. This is achieved via the biosynthetic incorporation of 7-azatryptophan, a tryptophan analogue with a red-shifted absorption spectrum, allowing collection of the emission signal of the target protein in a high tryptophan background via red-edge excitation. The approach is demonstrated for the mannitol permease of E. coli (EII(mtl)), an integral membrane protein of 637 amino acids, including four tryptophans, and single-tryptophan mutants of EII(mtl). By using a tryptophan auxotroph, a high level of 7-azatryptophan incorporation in EII(mtl) was achieved. The change in emission signal of the purified enzyme upon mannitol binding (-28%) was 4-fold larger than with EII(mtl) containing tryptophan, demonstrating the known higher sensitivity of this analogue for changes in the microenvironment [Schlesinger, R. (1968) J. Biol. Chem. 243, 3877-3883]. Changes in emission signal could also be monitored (-5%) when the enzyme was situated in vesicles, although it constituted only 10-15% of the total cytoplasmic membrane fraction. Of the five single-tryptophan mutants, the emission signal of the mutant with 7-azatryptophan at position 198 was the most sensitive for mannitol binding. Changes in emission signal not only were observed in vesicles (-18%) but also could be monitored in viable cells (-5%). The fact that only modest expression levels and no protein purification are needed makes this a useful approach for the characterization of numerous protein systems under in vitro and in vivo conditions.

A mechanism to alter reversibly the oligomeric state of a membrane-bound protein demonstrated with Escherichia coli EIImtl in solution

This paper reports that the aggregation state of a membrane protein can be changed reversibly without the use of chaotropic agents or denaturants by altering the attractive interactions between micelles of polyethylene glycol-based detergents. This has been documented using mannitol permease of Escherichia coli (EIImtl), a protein whose activity is dependent on the dimerization of its membrane-embedded domains. We show that the driving force for the hydrophobic interactions responsible for the dimerization can be decreased by bringing the protein into a less polar environment. This can be done simply and reversibly by increasing the micelle cluster size of the solubilizing detergent since the micropolarity in the micelle decreases upon clustering and is directly related to the cluster size. The micelle cluster size was varied at a fixed temperature by adding sodium phosphate or a second detergent with a distinct clustering behavior, and the changes were quantified by quasi-elastic light scattering and by determining the cloud point or demixing temperature (Td) of the detergent. Maximal EIImtl activity was found when no micelle clustering occurred, but the activity gradually decreased down to 5% of the maximal activity with increasing cluster size. The inactivation was found to be completely reversible. The kinetics of heterodimer formation were also significantly affected by changes in the micelle cluster size as expected. Increasing the cluster size resulted in faster formation of functional heterodimers by increasing the rate of homodimer dissociation. This phenomenon should be generally applicable to controlling the oligomeric state of membrane-bound proteins or even water-soluble proteins if their subunit association is dominated by hydrophobic forces.

Vaginal temperature is not related to the time of ovulation in sows

The relationship between vaginal temperature and ovulation time was studied in sows. The vaginal temperature was measured continuously between Day 4 and Day 10 after Altrenogest-treatment in 10 sows. Oestrus was checked with a vasectomized boar at 8-h intervals, and during oestrus, ovulation time was checked with transrectal ultrasonography at 2-h intervals between 07:00 h and 23:00 h. Two sows ovulated between 23:00 h and 07:00 h, and these sows were taken out of the experiment. In the eight remaining sows, a clear day/night rhythm in vaginal temperature was found: between 03:00 h and 09:00 h, vaginal temperature (LSM +/- sem, corrected for sow) was on average 38.2 +/- 0.01 degrees C; between 15:00 h and 21:00 h, vaginal temperature was on average 38.5 +/- 0.01 degrees C (P < 0.001). Between 4 days before ovulation and 2 days after ovulation, no changes in temperature could be found that were related to ovulation time in any of the sows. Therefore, in sows, changes in vaginal temperature cannot be used as a predictor for ovulation time, and consequently cannot be used to predict the best time for insemination.

Dynamic fluorescence spectroscopy on single tryptophan mutants of EII(mtl) in detergent micelles. Effects of substrate binding and phosphorylation on the fluorescence and anisotropy decay

The effects of substrate and substrate analogue binding and phosphorylation on the conformational dynamics of the mannitol permease of Escherichia coli were investigated, using time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy on mutants containing five single tryptophans situated in the membrane-embedded C domain of the enzyme [Swaving Dijkstra et al. (1996) Biochemistry 35, 6628-6634]. Since no fluorescent impurities are present in these mutants, the changes in fluorescence and anisotropy could be related with changes in the tryptophan microenvironment. Tryptophans at positions 30 and 42 showed changes in fluorescence intensity decay upon binding mannitol, which were reflected in the changes in lifetime distribution patterns. The disappearance of the shortest-lived decay component in these mutants, as well as in the mutant with a single tryptophan at position 109, indicates a change in the local environment such that quenching via neighboring side chains or solvent is reduced. Phosphorylation at histidine 554 and cysteine 384, located in the cytoplasmatic A and B domains of EII(mtl), respectively, induced an increase in the average fluorescence lifetimes of all of the tryptophans. The effect was most pronounced for tryptophans 30 and 109 which show large increases in the average fluorescence lifetime mainly due to loss of short-lived decay components. A correlation time distribution of the individual tryptophans deduced from an analysis of the anisotropy decay showed that they differed in their rotational mobility with tryptophan 30 showing the least local flexibility. Phosphorylation resulted in immobilization of W109 which, together with changes in the average fluorescence lifetime, is evidence for a conformational coupling between the phosphorylated B domain and the C domain. The influence of mannitol binding on the rotational behavior of the tryptophans is limited; it induces more internal flexibility at all tryptophan positions. A rotational correlation time of 30 ns was resolved for tryptophan 30, which probably represents a rotational mode of the micelle-embedded C-domain of EII(mtl) or a portion thereof. Upon phosphorylation, this rotational correlation time increases to 50 ns, probably reflecting a changed spatial orientation of W30 with respect to the C domain. Although kinetic experiments have shown that none of the tryptophans is essential for the catalytic activity of EII(mtl), it is significant that the residues most sensitive to mannitol binding, W30 and W42, are both located in the first membrane-spanning alpha-helix, a portion of which is highly conserved among mannitol-specific EII's of different bacteria.

Membrane proteins and impure detergents: procedures to purify membrane proteins to a degree suitable for tryptophan fluorescence spectroscopy

Investigation of the membrane-embedded mannitol permease of Escherichia coli (EIImtl) steady-state tryptophan fluorescence was hampered by fluorescent impurities arising from detergents and other sources during the isolation. The signals from these impurities could not be distinguished from tryptophan fluorescence on the basis of lifetimes or emission spectra. Consequently, a tryptophan-minus mutant of EIImtl, EIImtl(Trp-), was constructed to address this problem. The findings were that the fluorescent impurities, present in the detergents and/or arising from the action of the detergents on plastic vials and tubing used during the isolation procedure, accumulate in enzyme solutions to levels comparable to the signal from the tryptophan residues in the protein. The high affinity of these impurities for EIImtl makes them impossible to remove by dialysis, by reconstitution of the protein with pure phospholipids, or by detergent exchange when the protein is immobilized on a resin. A procedure was developed to completely remove all fluorescent impurities from the nonionic polyethylene glycol-based detergent, decylpenta(ethylene glycol) (C10E5). This detergent and modified isolation procedures yield EIImtl(Trp-) and single tryptophan mutants in which the impurities no longer interfere with the tryptophan emission signal. The methodologies presented in this paper might make it possible to study the fluorescence of tryptophan residues in other membrane proteins without the interference of impurities with similar fluorescence properties.

A fluorescence study of single tryptophan-containing mutants of enzyme IImtl of the Escherichia coli phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent mannitol transport system

The fluorescence properties of six different single Trp mutants of the mannitol-specific transporter of Escherichia coli were studied in order to derive structural information at different locations in the enzyme. The use of pure detergent and special protein purification protocols was essential for reliable fluorescence spectra, as judged from tyrosine-like fluorescence in a tryptophan-minus mutant (Robillard et al., 1996). The steady-state fluorescence spectra of EIImtl mutants with single tryptophan residues at positions 30, 42, 109, 117, 320, and 384 provided information concerning the polarity of the environment and the effects of mannitol binding at these positions. Tryptophan positions 42, 109, and 117 with emission maxima ranging from 337 to 340 nm are relatively polar, and position 384 with an emission maximum at 346 nm is highly polar, whereas position 30 is highly apolar with a maximum at 324 nm. The fluorescence characteristics of tryptophan 30 suggest a buried position in a hydrophobic part of the enzyme, which is confirmed by the low Stern-Volmer quenching constant for I- quenching. Positions 109 and 117 show the highest quenching constants, indicating the most exposed positions, whereas positions 320 and 42 are moderately quenched, by I-. The tryptophan residue at position 384 is, even in the absence of externally added quencher, very strongly quenched, possibly by the carboxylate from aspartate 384 or by a tyrosinate at position 458 which is nearby in the folded protein (AB et al., in preparation; van Montfort et al., in preparation). The observed emission maxima and accessibilities of the tryptophans at the different positions are consistent with the predicted topology of the enzyme (Sugiyama et al., 1991). When mannitol is bound to wild-type EIImtl, an increase in fluorescence emission intensity was observed (Wood, 1988) which can now be attributed primarily to increased fluorescence intensity of the tryptophan at position 30.