Coupling site-directed mutagenesis with high-level expression: large scale production of mutant porins from E. coli

Combination of an origin repair mutagenesis system with a new mutS host strain increased the efficiency of mutagenesis from 46% to 75% mutant clones. Overexpression with the T7 expression system afforded large quantities of proteins from mutant strains. A series of E. coli BE host strains devoid of major outer membrane proteins was constructed, facilitating the purification of mutant porins to homogeneity. This allowed preparation of 149 porin mutants in E. coli used in detailed explorations of the structure and function of this membrane protein to high resolutio

Brownian dynamics simulation of ion flow through porin channels

Bacterial porins, which allow the passage of solutes across the outer bacterial membrane, are structurally well characterized. They therefore lend themselves to detailed studies of the determinants of ion flow through transmembraneous channels. In a comparative study, we have performed Brownian dynamics simulations to obtain statistically significant transfer efficiencies for cations and anions through matrix porin OmpF, osmoporin OmpK36, phosphoporin PhoE and two OmpF charge mutants.The simulations show that the electrostatic potential at the highly charged channel constriction serves to enhance ion permeability of either cations or anions, dependent on the type of porin. At the same time translocation of counterions is not severely impeded. At the constriction, cations and anions follow distinct trajectories, due to the segregation of basic and acidic protein residues.Simulated ion selectivity and relative conductance agree well with experimental values, and are dependent crucially on the charge constellation at the pore constriction. The experimentally observed decrease in ion selectivity and single channel conductance with increasing ionic strength is well reproduced and can be attributed to electrostatic shielding of the pore lining

Metabolism of Carbaryl via 1,2-Dihydroxynaphthalene by Soil Isolates Pseudomonas sp. Strains C4, C5, and C6

Pseudomonas sp. strains C4, C5, and C6 utilize carbaryl as the sole source of carbon and energy. Identification of 1-naphthol, salicylate, and gentisate in the spent media; whole-cell O(2) uptake on 1-naphthol, 1,2-dihydroxynaphthalene, salicylaldehyde, salicylate, and gentisate; and detection of key enzymes, viz, carbaryl hydrolase, 1-naphthol hydroxylase, 1,2-dihydroxynaphthalene dioxygenase, and gentisate dioxygenase, in the cell extract suggest that carbaryl is metabolized via 1-naphthol, 1,2-dihydroxynaphthalene, and gentisate. Here, we demonstrate 1-naphthol hydroxylase and 1,2-dihydroxynaphthalene dioxygenase activities in the cell extracts of carbaryl-grown cells. 1-Naphthol hydroxylase is present in the membrane-free cytosolic fraction, requires NAD(P)H and flavin adenine dinucleotide, and has optimum activity in the pH range 7.5 to 8.0. Carbaryl-degrading enzymes are inducible, and maximum induction was observed with carbaryl. Based on these results, the proposed metabolic pathway is carbaryl → 1-naphthol → 1,2-dihydroxynaphthalene → salicylaldehyde → salicylate → gentisate → maleylpyruvate

Role of charged residues at the OmpF porin channel constriction probed by mutagenesis and simulation

The channel constriction of OmpF porin, a pore protein in the bacterial outer membrane, is highly charged due to the presence of three arginines (R42, R82, and R132) and two acidic residues (D113 and E117). The influence of these charges on ion conductance, ion selectivity, and voltage gating has been studied with mutants D113N/E117Q, R42A/R82A/R132A/D113N/E117Q, and V18K/G131K, which were designed to remove or add protein charge at the channel constriction. The crystal structures revealed no or only local changes compared to wild-type OmpF, thus allowing a comparative study. The single-channel conductance of the isosteric D113N/E117Q variant was found to be 2-fold reduced, and that of the pentuple mutant was 70% of the wild-type value, despite a considerably larger pore cross section. Ion selectivity was drastically altered by the mutations with cation/anion permeability ratios ranging from 1 to 12. Ion flow through these and eight other mutants, which have been characterized previously, was simulated by Brownian dynamics based on the detailed crystal structures. The calculated ion selectivity and relative channel conductance values agree well with the experimental data. This demonstrates that ion translocation through porin is mainly governed by pore geometry and charge, the two factors that are properly represented in the simulations

Stability of trimeric OmpF porin : the contributions of the latching loop L2

The channel-forming protein OmpF porin from Escherichia coli spans the bacterial outer membrane. Each of the three monomers comprises a hollow, 16-stranded beta-barrel. These are associated to homotrimers which are unusually stable, due mostly to hydrophobic interactions between the beta-barrels. In addition, a loop, L2 connects one subunit to its neighbor by latching into its channel. Residue E71 on loop 2 is integrated into an ionic network and forms salt bridges and hydrogen bonds with R100 and R132 on the channel wall in the adjacent subunit. To examine these contributions quantitatively, six single-site, two double, and one deletion mutant were constructed on the basis of the atomic coordinates of the protein. Differential scanning calorimetric analysis showed that the salt-bridge, E71-R100, contributes significantly to trimer stability: the substitution E71Q causes a decrease of the transition temperature from 72 to 48 degreesC, with DeltaHcal diminishing from 430 to 201 kcal mol-1. A nearby substitution in the loop, D74N, has lesser effects on thermal stability, while the deletion in L2 (Delta69-77) has an effect comparable to that of E71Q. X-ray structure analysis to 3.0 A resolution revealed only local structural differences in the mutants except for the substitution R100A, where another residue, R132, is found to fill the gap left by the truncated side chain of A100. Functional assays in planar lipid bilayers show significantly increased cation selectivities if the charge distribution was affected

Evidence for the involvement of multiple pathways in the biodegradation of 1- and 2-methylnaphthalene by Pseudomonas putida CSV86

Pseudomonas putida CSV86, a soil bacterium, grows on 1- and 2-methylnaphthalene as the sole source of carbon and energy. In order to deduce the pathways for the biodegradation of 1- and 2-methylnaphthalene, metabolites were isolated from the spent medium and purified by thin layer chromatography. Emphasis has been placed on the structural characterisation of isolated intermediates by GC-MS, demonstration of enzyme activities in the cell free extracts and measurement of oxygen uptake by whole cells in the presence of various probable metabolic intermediates. The data obtained from such a study suggest the possibility of occurrence of multiple pathways in the degradation of 1- and 2-methylnaphthalene. We propose that, in one of the pathways, the aromatic ring adjacent to the one bearing the methyl moiety is oxidized leading to the formation of methylsalicylates and methylcatechols. In another pathway the methyl side chain is hydroxylated to -CH<SUB>2</SUB>-OH which is further converted to -CHO and -COOH resulting in the formation of naphthoic acid as the end product. In addition to this, 2-hydroxymethylnaphthalene formed by the hydroxylation of the methyl group of 2-methylnaphthalene undergoes aromatic ring hydroxylation. The resultant dihydrodiol is further oxidised by a series of enzyme catalysed reactions to form 4-hydroxymethyl catechol as the end product of the pathway

High Resolution Structures of Periplasmic Glucose-binding Protein of Pseudomonas putida CSV86 Reveal Structural Basis of Its Substrate Specificity

Periplasmic substrate-binding proteins (SBPs) bind to the specific ligand with high affinity and mediate their transport into the cytoplasm via the cognate inner membrane ATP-binding cassette proteins. Because of low sequence identities, understanding the structural basis of substrate recognition by SBPs has remained very challenging. There are several structures available for the ligand-bound sugar SBPs, but very few unliganded structures are reported. No structural data are available for sugar SBPs from Pseudomonas sp. to date. This study reports the first high resolution crystal structures of periplasmic glucose-binding protein from Pseudomonas putida CSV86 (ppGBP) in unliganded form (2.5 ) and complexed with glucose (1.25 ) and galactose (1.8 ). Asymmetric domain closure of ppGBP was observed upon substrate binding. The ppGBP was found to have an affinity of approximate to 0.3 m for glucose. The structural analysis showed that the sugars are bound to the protein mainly by hydrogen bonds, and the loss of two strong hydrogen bonds between ppGBP and galactose compared with glucose may be responsible for lowering its affinity toward galactose. The higher stability of ppGBP-glucose complex was also indicated by an 8 degrees C increase in the melting temperature compared with unliganded form and ppGBP-galactose complex. ppGBP binds to monosaccharide, but the structural features revealed it to have an oligosaccharide-binding protein fold, indicating that during evolution the sugar binding pocket may have undergone structural modulation to accommodate monosaccharide only

Purification and Characterization of 1-Naphthol-2-Hydroxylase from Carbaryl-Degrading Pseudomonas Strain C4

Pseudomonas sp. strain C4 metabolizes carbaryl (1-naphthyl-N-methylcarbamate) as the sole source of carbon and energy via 1-naphthol, 1,2-dihydroxynaphthalene, and gentisate. 1-Naphthol-2-hydroxylase (1-NH) was purified 9.1-fold to homogeneity from Pseudomonas sp. strain C4. Gel filtration and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that the enzyme is a homodimer with a native molecular mass of 130 kDa and a subunit molecular mass of 66 kDa. The enzyme was yellow, with absorption maxima at 274, 375, and 445 nm, indicating a flavoprotein. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis of the flavin moiety extracted from 1-NH suggested the presence of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). Based on the spectral properties and the molar extinction coefficient, it was determined that the enzyme contained 1.07 mol of FAD per mol of enzyme. Although the enzyme accepts electrons from NADH, it showed maximum activity with NADPH and had a pH optimum of 8.0. The kinetic constants K(m) and V(max) for 1-naphthol and NADPH were determined to be 9.6 and 34.2 μM and 9.5 and 5.1 μmol min(−1) mg(−1), respectively. At a higher concentration of 1-naphthol, the enzyme showed less activity, indicating substrate inhibition. The K(i) for 1-naphthol was determined to be 79.8 μM. The enzyme showed maximum activity with 1-naphthol compared to 4-chloro-1-naphthol (62%) and 5-amino-1-naphthol (54%). However, it failed to act on 2-naphthol, substituted naphthalenes, and phenol derivatives. The enzyme utilized one mole of oxygen per mole of NADPH. Thin-layer chromatographic analysis showed the conversion of 1-naphthol to 1,2-dihydroxynaphthalene under aerobic conditions, but under anaerobic conditions, the enzyme failed to hydroxylate 1-naphthol. These results suggest that 1-NH belongs to the FAD-containing external flavin mono-oxygenase group of the oxidoreductase class of proteins