Theoretical study of a π-stacking interaction in carbonic anhydrase

Human carbonic anhydrase II (HCA II) catalyses the reversible hydration of CO2. In this enzyme, the imidazole ring of histidine at position 64 (His64) functions to transfer the productive proton from the zinc-bound water to the buffer molecule in bulk-water. X-ray data of HCA II show that His64 has two types of side chain orientations, ”in” and ”out”, representing the direction of the imidazole ring toward and away from the active site, respectively. Maupin et al. reported that the imidazole of His64 can be rotated in a model system of the active site to clarify the proton transfer of catalytic mechanism. However, the indole ring of tryptophan at position 5 (Trp5) that is located near the ”out” of the imidazole ring of His64 was not considered in the model system. In this study, in order to estimate detailed rotational properties of His64, we constructed two His64-containing models with and without Trp5, and then simulate the constructed structures by using MP2 method and 6-311++G(d,p) basis sets. This allows us to tentatively determine the potential energies of the π-stacking interaction of the imidazole with the indole in relation to the side chain rotation of His64. The result indicates that the π-stacking interaction causes an increase of the energy barrier between ”in” and ”out” conformations, implying that the rotational motion of His64 is not relevant to explain the proton transfer during catalysis. Alternatively, a steady position of His64 would be needed in the proton transfer in catalytic mechanism of HCA II

Stabilization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Cytochrome c551 by Systematic Amino Acid Substitutions Based on the Structure of Thermophilic Hydrogenobacter thermophilus Cytochrome c552

A heterologous overexpression system for mesophilic Pseudomonas aeruginosa holocytochrome c551 (PA c551) was established using Escherichia coli as a host organism. Amino acid residues were systematically substituted in three regions of PA c551 with the corresponding residues from thermophilic Hydrogenobacter thermophilus cytochrome c552 (HT c552), which has similar main chain folding to PA c551, but is more stable to heat. Thermodynamic properties of PA c551 with one of three single mutations (Phe-7 to Ala, Phe-34 to Tyr, or Val-78 to Ile) showed that these mutants had increased thermostability compared with that of the wild-type. Ala-7 and Ile-78 may contribute to the thermostability by tighter hydrophobic packing, which is indicated by the three dimensional structure comparison of PA c551 with HT c552. In the Phe-34 to Tyr mutant, the hydroxyl group of the Tyr residue and the guanidyl base of Arg-47 formed a hydrogen bond, which did not exist between the corresponding residues in HT c552. We also found that stability of mutant proteins to denaturation by guanidine hydrochloride correlated with that against the thermal denaturation. These results and others described here suggest that significant stabilization of PA c551 can be achieved through a few amino acid substitutions determined by molecular modeling with reference to the structure of HT c552. The higher stability of HT c552 may in part be attributed to some of these substitutions.This work was supported in part by grants from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture

Assembly and Disassembly of Nucleosome Core Particles Containing Histone Variants by Human Nucleosome Assembly Protein I

Histone variants play important roles in the maintenance and regulation of the chromatin structure. In order to characterize the biochemical properties of the chromatin structure containing histone variants, we investigated the dynamic status of nucleosome core particles (NCPs) that were assembled with recombinant histones. We found that in the presence of nucleosome assembly protein I (NAP-I), a histone chaperone, H2A-Barr body deficient (H2A.Bbd) confers the most flexible nucleosome structure among the mammalian histone H2A variants known thus far. NAP-I mediated the efficient assembly and disassembly of the H2A.Bbd-H2B dimers from NCPs. This reaction was accomplished more efficiently when the NCPs contained H3.3, a histone H3 variant known to be localized in the active chromatin, than when the NCPs contained the canonical H3. These observations indicate that the histone variants H2A.Bbd and H3.3 are involved in the formation and maintenance of the active chromatin structure. We also observed that acidic histone binding proteins, TAF-I/SET and B23.1, demonstrated dimer assembly and disassembly activity, but the efficiency of their activity was considerably lower than that of NAP-I. Thus, both the acidic nature of NAP-I and its other functional structure(s) may be essential to mediate the assembly and disassembly of the dimers in NCPs

Tautomerism of Histidine 64 Associated with Proton Transfer in Catalysis of Carbonic Anhydrase

The imidazole ^N signals of histidine 64 (His^), involved in the catalytic function of human carbonic anhydrase II (hCAII), were assigned unambiguously. This was accomplished by incorporating the labeled histidine as probes for solution NMR analysis, with ^N at ring-N and N^, ^C at ring-C∈1, ^C and ^N at all carbon and nitrogen, or ^N at the amide nitrogen and the labeled glycine with ^C at the carbonyl carbon. Using the pH dependence of ring-^N signals and a comparison between experimental and simulated curves, we determined that the tautomeric equilibrium constant (K_T) of His^ is 1.0, which differs from that of other histidine residues. This unique value characterizes the imidazole nitrogen atoms of His^ as both a general acid (a) and base (b): its ∈2-nitrogen as (a) releases one proton into the bulk, whereas itsδ1-nitrogen as (b) extracts another proton from a water molecule within the water bridge coupling to the zinc-bound water inside the cave. This accelerates the generation of zinc-bound hydroxide to react with the carbon dioxide. Releasing the productive bicarbonate ion from the inside separates the water bridge pathway, in which the next water molecules move into beside zinc ion. A new water molecule is supplied from the bulk to near the δ1-nitrogen of His^. These reconstitute the water bridge. Based on these features, we suggest here a catalytic mechanism for hCAII: the tautomerization of His^ can mediate the transfers of both protons and water molecules at a neutral pH with high efficiency, requiring no time- or energy-consuming processes