Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2002. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Many human diseases including cancer have been associated with altered cellular metabolism and a changed oxygen consumption in cells. Fluorophores are sensitive to their local environment due to their long life times in transient dark states. A recent study successfully utilized this sensitivity to image differences in oxygen concentrations in cells using transient state (TRAST) microscopy together with fluorescent labels [1]. A natural continuation of this study is to investigate the possibilities of using this method with natural fluorophores already present in cells and thereby avoid articial labeling. Flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) is an auto fluorescent coenzyme that is naturally present in cells and involved in cellular metabolism. This project is an exploratory pilot study for cellular measurements with the aim to investigate if FAD can be used to probe oxygen concentrations in aqueous solution using transient state monitoring and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). This thesis includes the results from FCS and TRAST experiments on FAD in aqueous solutions with different oxygen concentrations as well as different ascorbic acid concentrations. The performed experiments showed that FAD monitored with TRAST is sensitive to differences in oxygen concentrations for the aqueous solutions used in this study.

This Ph.D. thesis addresses the structure-function relationship of the multimeric oxidoreductase WrbA with the principal aim being the explanation of the unusual kinetics of this enzyme in molecular terms, and thus getting an insight about its physiological role in bacteria. WrbA is a multimeric enzyme with FMN as a co-factor, catalyzing the oxidation of NADH by a two electrons transfer. Structure and function analysis of WrbA places this enzyme between bacterial flavodoxins and eukaryotic oxidoreductases in terms of its evolutionary relationship. The kinetic activity of WrbA was studied under varying conditions such as temperature, pH etc, and its kinetic mechanism was evaluated from parameters KM and Vmax and confirmed by product inhibition pattern experiments. Crystallization and proteolytic experiments also underpin the functional importance of the multimeric nature of WrbA and aid the understanding of the physiological role of this enzyme in molecular terms.

Abstract Most proteins carry out their functions through interactions with other molecules. Thus, proteins taking part in similar interactions are likely to carry out related functions. One way to determine whether two proteins do take part in similar interactions is by quantifying the likeness of their structures. This work focuses on the development of methods for the comparison of protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions, as well as their application to structure-based classification schemes. A method based on the MultiMer-align (or MM-align) program was developed and used to compare all known dimeric protein complexes. The results of the comparison demonstrates that the method improves over MM-align in a significant number of cases. The data was employed to classify the complexes, resulting in 1,761 different protein-protein interaction types. Through a statistical model, the number of existing protein-protein interaction types in nature was estimated at around 4,000. The model allowed the establishment of a relationship between the number of quaternary families (sequence-based groups of protein-protein complexes) and quaternary folds (structure-based groups). The interactions between proteins and small organic ligands were studied using sequence-independent methodologies. A new method was introduced to test three similarity metrics. The best of these metrics was subsequently employed, together with five other existing methodologies, to conduct an all-to-all comparison of all the known protein-FAD (Flavin-Adenine Dinucleotide) complexes. The results demonstrates that the new methodology captures the best the similarities between complexes in terms of protein-ligand contacts. Based on the all-to-all comparison, the protein-FAD complexes were subsequently separated into 237 groups. In the majority of cases, the classification divided the complexes according to their annotated function. Using a graph-based description of the FAD-binding sites, each group could be further characterized and uniquely described. The study demonstrates that the newly developed methods are superior to the existing ones. The results indicate that both the known protein-protein and the protein-FAD interactions can be classified into a reduced number of types and that in general terms these classifications are consistent with the proteins' functions. / Tiivistelmä Suurin osa proteiinien toiminnasta tapahtuu vuorovaikutuksessa muiden molekyylien kanssa. Proteiinit, jotka osallistuvat samanlaisiin vuorovaikutuksiin todennäköisesti toimivat samalla tavalla. Kahden proteiinin todennäköisyys esiintyä samanlaisissa vuorovaikutustilanteissa voidaan määrittää tutkimalla niiden rakenteellista samankaltaisuutta. Tämä väitöskirjatyö käsittelee proteiini-proteiini- ja proteiini-ligandi -vuorovaikutusten vertailuun käytettyjen menetelmien kehitystä, ja niiden soveltamista rakenteeseen perustuvissa luokittelujärjestelmissä. Tunnettuja dimeerisiä proteiinikomplekseja tutkittiin uudella MultiMer-align-ohjelmaan (MM-align) perustuvalla menetelmällä. Vertailun tulokset osoittavat, että uusi menetelmä suoriutui MM-alignia paremmin merkittävässä osassa tapauksista. Tuloksia käytettiin myös kompleksien luokitteluun, jonka tuloksena oli 1761 erilaista proteiinien välistä vuorovaikutustyyppiä. Luonnossa esiintyvien proteiinien välisten vuorovaikutusten määrän arvioitiin tilastollisen mallin avulla olevan noin 4000. Tilastollisen mallin avulla saatiin vertailtua sekä sekvenssin (”quaternary families”) sekä rakenteen (”quaternary folds”) mukaan ryhmiteltyjen proteiinikompleksien määriä. Proteiinien ja pienien orgaanisten ligandien välisiä vuorovaikutuksia tutkittiin sekvenssistä riippumattomilla menetelmillä. Uudella menetelmällä testattiin kolmea eri samankaltaisuutta mittaavaa metriikkaa. Näistä parasta käytettiin viiden muun tunnetun menetelmän kanssa vertailemaan kaikkia tunnettuja proteiini-FAD (Flavin-Adenine-Dinucleotide, flaviiniadeniinidinukleotidi) -komplekseja. Proteiini-ligandikontaktien osalta uusi menetelmä kuvasi kompleksien samankaltaisuutta muita menetelmiä paremmin. Vertailun tuloksia hyödyntäen proteiini-FAD-kompleksit luokiteltiin edelleen 237 ryhmään. Suurimmassa osassa tapauksista luokittelujärjestelmä oli onnistunut jakamaan kompleksit ryhmiin niiden toiminnallisuuden mukaisesti. Ryhmät voitiin määritellä yksikäsitteisesti kuvaamalla FAD:n sitoutumispaikka graafisesti. Väitöskirjatyö osoittaa, että siinä kehitetyt menetelmät ovat parempia kuin aikaisemmin käytetyt menetelmät. Tulokset osoittavat, että sekä proteiinien väliset että proteiini-FAD -vuorovaikutukset voidaan luokitella rajattuun määrään vuorovaikutustyyppejä ja yleisesti luokittelu on yhtenevä proteiinien toiminnan suhteen.