Biochemical properties and crystal structure of formate-tetrahydrofolate ligase from Methylobacterium extorquens CM4

1. Mechanisms of nucleic acid (NA) unwinding by helicases 4322. Helicases may take advantage of ‘breathing’ fluctuations in dsNAs 4342.1 Stability and dynamics of dsNAs 4342.2 dsNAs ‘breathe’ in isolation 4352.3 Thermodynamics of terminal base pairs of dsNA 4382.4 Thermal fluctuations may be responsible for sequential base-pair opening at replication forks 4392.5 Helicases may capture single base-pair opening events sequentially 4403. Biochemical properties of helicases 4433.1 Binding of NAs 4433.2 Binding and hydrolysis of NTP 4453.3 Coordination between NA binding and NTP binding and hydrolysis activities 4464. Helicase structures and mechanistic consequences 4474.1 Amino-acid sequence analysis reveals conserved motifs that constitute the NTP-binding pocket and a portion of the NA-binding site 4474.2 Organization of hepatitis virus C NS3 RNA helicase 4494.2.1 Biochemical properties of HCV NS3 4494.2.2 Crystal structures of HCV NS3 helicase 4504.2.2.1 The apoprotein 4504.2.2.2 The protein–dU8 complex 4504.2.3 A possible unwinding mechanism 4524.2.4 What is the functional oligomeric state of HCV NS3? 4524.3 Organization of the PcrA helicase 4534.3.1 The apoenzyme and ADP–PcrA complex 4544.3.2 The protein–DNA–sulfate complex 4564.3.3 The PcrA–DNA–ADPNP complex 4564.3.4 A closer look at the NTP-binding site in the crystal structure of PcrA–ADPNP–DNA 4574.3.5 Communication between domains A and B 4574.3.6 How might ssDNA stimulate the ATPase activity of PcrA? 4574.3.7 A possible helicase translocation mechanism 4584.3.8 A possible unwinding mechanism 4584.4 Organization of the Rep helicase 4594.4.1 Biochemical properties 4594.4.2 Crystal structure of Rep bound to ssDNA 4624.5 Organization of the RecG helicase 4624.6 Hexameric helicases 4664.6.1 Insights from crystal structures of hexameric helicases 4674.6.2 Possible translocation and unwinding mechanisms 4685. Conclusions 4696. Acknowledgments 4727. References 472Helicases are proteins that harness the chemical free energy of ATP hydrolysis to catalyze the unwinding of double-stranded nucleic acids. These enzymes have been much studied in isolation, and here we review what is known about the mechanisms of the unwinding process. We begin by considering the thermally driven ‘breathing’ of double-stranded nucleic acids by themselves, in order to ask whether helicases might take advantage of some of these breathing modes. We next provide a brief summary of helicase mechanisms that have been elucidated by biochemical, thermodynamic, and kinetic studies, and then review in detail recent structural studies of helicases in isolation, in order to correlate structural findings with biophysical and biochemical results. We conclude that there are certainly common mechanistic themes for helicase function, but that different helicases have devised solutions to the nucleic acid unwinding problem that differ in structural detail. In Part II of this review (to be published in the next issue of this journal) we consider how these mechanisms are further modified to reflect the functional coupling of these proteins into macromolecular machines, and discuss the role of helicases in several central biological processes to illustrate how this coupling actually works in the various processes of gene expression.

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Structural analysis of β-glucosidase mutants derived from a hyperthermophilic tetrameric structure

Acta Crystallographica Section D Biological Crystallography ◽

10.1107/s1399004713032276 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 70 (3) ◽

pp. 877-888 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Makoto Nakabayashi ◽

Misumi Kataoka ◽

Yumiko Mishima ◽

Yuka Maeno ◽

Kazuhiko Ishikawa

Keyword(s):

Crystal Structure ◽

Pyrococcus Furiosus ◽

Structural Data ◽

Biochemical Properties ◽

Intrinsic Activity ◽

Oligomeric Structure ◽

Tetrameric Structure ◽

Crystal Structural Data ◽

Dimeric Form

β-Glucosidase fromPyrococcus furiosus(BGLPf) is a hyperthermophilic tetrameric enzyme which can degrade cellooligosaccharides to glucose under hyperthermophilic conditions and thus holds promise for the saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass at high temperature. Prior to the production of large amounts of this enzyme, detailed information regarding the oligomeric structure of the enzyme is required. Several crystals of BGLPf have been prepared over the past ten years, but its crystal structure had not been solved until recently. In 2011, the first crystal structure of BGLPf was solved and a model was constructed at somewhat low resolution (2.35 Å). In order to obtain more detailed structural data on BGLPf, the relationship between its tetrameric structure and the quality of the crystal was re-examined. A dimeric form of BGLPf was constructed and its crystal structure was solved at a resolution of 1.70 Å using protein-engineering methods. Furthermore, using the high-resolution crystal structural data for the dimeric form, a monomeric form of BGLPf was constructed which retained the intrinsic activity of the tetrameric form. The thermostability of BGLPf is affected by its oligomeric structure. Here, the biophysical and biochemical properties of engineered dimeric and monomeric BGLPfs are reported, which are promising prototype models to apply to the saccharification reaction. Furthermore, details regarding the oligomeric structures of BGLPf and the reasons why the mutations yielded improved crystal structures are discussed.

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