Cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP (cAMP and cGMP) are important second messengers in key signal-transduction pathways that mediate various physiological functions in bacteria and eukaryotes. Adenylyl Cyclases (ACs) and Guanylyl Cyclases (GCs) cyclize ATP and GTP to produce cAMP and cGMP, respectively. Though most nucleotide cyclises show exquisite specificity for their substrates, there are instances where ACs were observed to have low GC activity as well, and vice versa. To understand structural basis of substrate (ATP or GTP) recognition, discrimination and binding by an adenylyl cyclase, we have taken up Ma1120, an AC from Mycobacterium avium, for our studies. Work presented in the thesis includes crystal structures of Ma1120 in the presence of substrate (ATP or GTP), by-product pyrophosphate and ATP analogue 2′,5′-dideoxyd-3′-adenosine triphosphate (2′,5′-dd-3′-ATP). A triple mutant of Ma1120 (K101→E, D157→G, A167→Y) was generated to increase specificity of Ma1120 towards GTP by mutation in the substrate specifying residues, but the enzyme showed equal specificity for ATP as well as for GTP. Ma1120 exists as a monomer in solution and crystallized as a monomer in the absence of substrate or inhibitor. The substrate specifying lysine residue plays a dual role of interacting with the substrate and stabilizing the dimer. The dimerization loop region harbouring the second substrate specifying residue, an aspartate, shows significant differences in conformation and position between the monomeric and dimeric structures. Thus, this study has not only revealed that significant structural transitions are required for the interconversion of the inactive and the active forms of the enzyme, but also provided precise nature of these transitions. ATP bound to Ma-Cat has two different conformations, one with C2′-endo and the other with C3′-endo puckering for the ribose. C3′-endo conformation is favourable for catalysis as it brings 3′-OH group of ribose and free oxygen of α-phosphate closer to each other. The crystal structure of GTP bound to Ma-Cat showed a novel mode of GTP binding to AC. This is the first report of GTP bound to AC. ATP bound to Ma-Cat-KDA→EGY forms non-cognate substrate complex and ATP is stabilized by stacking of adenines over each other with Tyr167 flanking on both sides of adenines. Ma-Cat-KDA→EGY+GTP complex is the first report of GTP bound to a guanylyl cyclase. GTP is bound in reverse orientation when compared to ATP bound to AC. Reverse orientation of GTP is attained to stabilize the guanine in highly electronegative guanine binding pocket. Also, O3' of GTP is placed in opposite orientation as compared to ATP bound to Ma-Cat. Therefore, during cyclization reaction guanine and ribose changes their orientation to bring O3' atom of ribose closer to α-phosphate, after cleavage of the bond between α- and β-phosphates. Thus, this study has revealed novel modes of binding of ATP and GTP to catalytic domains of Ma1120 and its triple mutant, mechanism of substrate discrimination and residual activity for the non-cognate substrate.

Orientador: Marinônio Lopes Cornélio / Banca: José Roberto Ruggiero / Banca: Luis Paulo Barbour Scott / Resumo: O α-tocoferol é a principal dentre as moléculas que desempenham o papel biológico de vitamina E, sendo a que apresenta maior biodisponibilidade e atividade. Além dos papéis como vitamina, o α-tocoferol tem diversas funções no organismo incluindo a inibição de proteínas da família PLA2. Esse trabalho apresenta a análise vibracional do α-tocoferol inteiro no vácuo seguido pela otimização geométrica da molécula em ambiente protéico. O estudo do tocoferol no vácuo foi realizado dentro do formalismo do DFT usando o funcional de correlação-troca B3LYP e a base de funções 6-311G**. A análise vibracional foi realizada em um programa desenvolvido pelo autor. Em ambiente protéico, o processo foi dividido em duas etapas: a otimização geométrica do sistema inteiro no formalismo da dinâmica molecular e a otimização somente do ligante e de um envelope protéico em DFT. Por dificuldades computacionais não foi possível a análise vibracional do sistema. / Abstract: The α-tocopherol is the most important molecule which has the biological role of vitamin E, having the greatest biodisponibility and activity. Besides its vitamin roles, the α- tocopherol has many functions in organisms including the inhibition of proteins of the PLA2 family. This work presents the vibrational analysis of the whole α-tocoferol in vacuum followed by the geometric optimization of the molecule in protein environment. The study of tocopherol in vacuum was done in the DFT framework using the B3LYP exchangecorrelation functional with the 6-311G** function basis and the vibrational analysis was done by a program developed by the author. The process was divided in two steps for the study in protein environment: the geometrical optimization of the whole system in the molecular dynamics framework and the optimization of the ligand and a protein envelope in DFT. Due to computational troubles it was not possible to perform the vibrational analysis of this system. / Mestre

Conserved residues in protein are crucial for maintaining structure and function, either by direct involvement in chemistry or indirectly, by being essential for folding, stability and oligomerisation and are mostly clustered near active sites. The variability of sequences of the same protein from diverse organisms is a reflection of the selective pressures of evolution. Sequence conservation analysis with 3397 bacterial triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) sequences using Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) TIM as template, showed full conservation of ten residues, K12, T75, H95, E97, C126, E165, P166, G209, G210 and G228. The integrity of the enzyme active site, which lies near the dimer interface, makes TIM an obligatory dimer. Attempts to engineer active monomeric TIM have not been successful. The present study assesses the effects of mutations at fully conserved position 75 (Thr) and the highly conserved position 64 (Q: 3011, E: 383) near the dimer interface, using the recombinant Plasmodial enzyme. Residue 64, Gln in Pf, and T75 interact with the catalytic E97 and K12, respectively. Preliminary analysis of available crystal structures showed that Gln 64 takes part in a single intersubunit interaction and maintains the obligatory strained backbone angles of the catalytic K12 residue, while Thr 75 is involved in four intersusunit hydrogen bond interactions. This led to the hypothesis that mostly, Gln at position 64 is crucial for enzyme activity and Thr at position 75 for the integrity of the dimer. Biophysical and kinetic data are reported for four T75 (T75S/V/C/N) and two Q64 (Q64N/E) mutants. The major findings revealed that the mutations at position 64 have a significant effect on dimer integrity with a 1000 fold increase in the dimer dissociation constant compared to the wild type enzyme, while dimer stability was unimpaired for the T75 mutants. Concentration dependence of activity yielded an estimate of dimer dissociation constant (Kd) values (Q64N 73.7±9.2 nM and Q64E 44.6±8.4 nM). Enzyme activity values of the T75 mutants are comparable to the wild type, except for T75N which shows a 4-fold drop in activity. All four T75 mutants show a dramatic fall in activity between 35 °-45 °C. Crystal structure determination of the T75S/V/N mutant offers insights into the variation in local interactions with T75N showing the largest changes. These results were unanticipated emphasising the uncertainties involved in inferring functional and structural role for individual residues based only on analysis of interactions observed in crystal structures. Nanospray ionisation mass spectrometric studies has also been used to probe the oligomeric properties of the three mutant proteins Q64N, Q64E and T75S and the wild type enzyme in the gas phase. The gas phase distributions of dimeric and monomeric species have been examined under a wild range of collision energies (40 – 160 eV). The order in the gas phase, PfTIM wild type > T75S > Q64E ~ Q64N, together with the solution phase experiments described above establish the importance of Q64 and T75 in influencing stability and activity. Inhibition studies with a 27 residue synthetic dimer interface peptide and the Q64 mutants establish that the interaction between the protein and the peptide was facilitated in the case of monomeric species.

Resumo: Esta tese tem como foco o estudo estrutural de uma lectina presente em sementes da espécie vegetal Lotus tetragonolobus (LTA). Inicialmente a LTA, previamente purificada, foi cristalizada. Os cristais foram obtidos a uma temperatura constante de 20ºC, durante 30 dias, utilizando a técnica de cristalização por difusão de vapor. Dois conjuntos de dados foram coletados a 2.00 e 2.35 Å de resolução, através da fonte de Raios X do Laboratório Nacional de Luz Síncrotron (Campinas - Brasil). Os cristais são monoclínicos e apresentam simetria do tipo P21, com parâmetros de cela de a=68.89, b=65.83 e c=102.53 Å. A substituição molecular foi feita utilizando-se o monômero da lectina presente na espécie Arachis Hypogae (Peanut). O homotetrâmero, produto da substituição, foi utilizado como ponto de partida para o refinamento cristalográfico. Diversos ciclos de refinamento por satisfação das restrições parciais foram feitos até a conversão total para valores satisfatórios de Rfree e Rfactor. A análise da estrutura revelou que a LTA possui uma forma tetramérica não identificada dentre outras lectinas de leguminosas. Sua estrutura é composta por dois dímeros, um deles semelhante ao dímero GS4 presente na lectina de Griffonia simplicifolia e outro que é único, caracterizado por ser um dímero do tipo LTA-dímero. Diversos fatores são responsáveis pela forma de tetramerização diferenciada da LTA, dentre os quais podemos destacar a influência da glicosilação no resíduo ASN4. Para investigarmos a estrutura da LTA em meio aquoso foi utilizada a técnica de espalhamento de Raios X a baixo ângulo (SAXS), que mostrou que a LTA possui a mesma forma tetramérica em solução da que foi observada no retículo cristalino... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The lectin, LTA, an agglutinin found in Lotus tetragonolobus seeds have been crystalized. Crystals grew at a temperature of 20º C during a month and were obtained using the vapor diffusion method. Two data sets were collected at 2.00 and 2.35 Å resolution using a sincrotron radiation source at Laboratório Nacional de Luz Síncrotron (Campinas - Brasil). The LTA crystals are monoclinic belonging to the P21 space group with a=68.89, b=65.83 and c=102.53 Å. The Molecular replacement was performed using the Arachis Hypogae lectin monomer (Peanut) that yielded an homotetramer which was used to initiate the crystallographic refinement. Several steps of restrained refinement were performed to obtain the best values for Rfree and Rfactor. Structural analysis of the LTA showed that its tetramer adopts a new structural oligomerization in contrast of that observed for others legume lectins. Its structure contains two GS4-like dimers disposed in an unusual dimer-interface, named as LTA-dimer. Several properties are involved in the new mode of tetramerization adopted for LTA, which includes the glycosilation at ASN4. The LTA tetramer investigation at aqueous solution was perfomed by Small Angle XRay Scattering (SAXS), showing that LTA behaves as a tetramer in solution which corroborates with the crystalline structure. Our investigations suggest that the L-fucose binding sites of LTA are disposed in a conformation that permits to perform two dimensional type-2 cross-linking interaction with divalent L-fucosyloligosaccharides. / Orientador: Walter Filgueira de Azevedo Junior / Coorientador: Valmir Fadel / Banca: Fernanda Canduri / Banca: José Márcio Machado / Banca: Paulo Sérgio Lopes de Oliveira / Banca: José Ramon Beltran Abrego / Doutor

Orientador: Fernando Luís Barroso da Silva / Banca: Laurent Emmanuel Dardenne / Banca: Marco Antonio Alves da Silva / Banca: José Roberto Ruggiero / Banca: Marcio José Tiera / Resumo: O entendimento da formação de complexos compostos por polieletrólitos e macroíons é fundamental para o estudo de vários processos biológicos e tecnológicos. Neste trabalho foram investigados os aspectos eletrostásticos da complexação, verificando os efeitos da força iônica, da carga macromolecular e do grau de polimerização do políımero na estabilidade do complexo e nas características conformacionais da cadeia. Com o objetivo de obter conclusões gerais para este tipo de sistema, um modelo simplificado foi utilizado. O políımero foi representado por um conjunto de esferas ríıgidas carregadas conectadas por um potencial harmônico, enquanto o macroíıon seguiu um modelo esférico com distribuição de carga homogênea. A interação entre as espécies carregadas foi tratada de acordo com a aproximação de Debye-H¨uckel. Utilizando simulaçãoes Monte Carlo no ensemble canônico, verificou-se que a dissociação do complexo possui características de transição de fase. Condições críticas foram obtidas em concordância com o comportamento observado empiricamente. Resultados da interação de polieletrólitos com proteínas no seu ponto isoelétrico mostraram que a contribuição devido apenas a regulação de carga é suficiente para estabilizar o complexo e pode ser aumentada através de mutações que diminuam a heterogeneidade de carga da proteína. / Abstract: The understanding of macroíon-polielectrolyte complex formation is fundamental for the biological and technological process studies. In this work the electrostatic issues on the complexation were investigated, verifying the effects of ionic strenght, macromolecular charge, and degree of polimerization on the complex stability and the chain conformational features. With the purpose of obtain general conclusions for this system, a simplified model was adopted. The polymer was represented by a set of rigid charged spheres connected by a harmonic potential, and the macroion was represented by a rigid sphere with homogeneous charge distribution. The interaction among macromolecules was described by the Debye-H¨uckel theory. Using Monte Carlo simulations within the canonical ensemble, it was verified that complex dissociation has phase-like transition behaviour. Numerical values for critical conditions were obtained in agreement with the ones experimentally observed. Results of interaction among polyeletrolyte and proteins on their isoelectric point showed that the charge regulation contribuition only is sufficient to make the complex stable. Is is also shown that charge regulation contribution is increased by mutations which promote a lower protein charge density heterogenity. 14 / Doutor

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-06-30Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:06:17Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 ricardi_es_me_sjrp.pdf: 2273724 bytes, checksum: eed74e01870d5b90b7fb020a587b9ac0 (MD5) / A Glutationa (GSH) é um tripeptídeo presente nas células, que em sua forma reduzida age como antioxidante, mantendo os grupamentos tiólicos nas proteínas em estado reduzido. Ao exercer função protetora, a glutationa é oxidada para sua forma dissulfeto, expondo quatro cargas negativas. A glutationa oxidada (GSSG) poderia interagir não covalentemente com moléculas capazes de ligar ânions, como a hemoglobina. Essa condição nos levou a investigar as possíveis mudanças estruturais e funcionais das hemoglobinas bovina, humana e majoritária do peixe matrinxã (Brycon cephalus) quando interagem alostericamente com a glutationa. As amostras de sangue bovina e humana foram purificadas e submetidas à eletroforese para verificação de pureza. As propriedades de ligação com oxigênio e controle alostérico foram analisados por tonometria a 20°C, calculando a afinidade de ligação com o O2 e a cooperatividade (n50). As condições experimentais adotadas foram, stripped, cloreto e glutationa oxidada (GSSG), nessas condições, as hemoglobinas bovina e humana apresentaram efeito Bohr alcalino. O cloreto induziu o maior efeito de diminuição da afinidade em praticamente todas as condições. As hemoglobinas apresentaram processo cooperativo de ligação de oxigênio, em todas as condições e em toda faixa de pH. No caso da hemoglobina bovina adulta, a GSSG aumentou a afinidade por O2, em toda a faixa de pH testada, enquanto para a humana isso ocorreu abaixo de pH 7,0. O cloreto capaz de diminuir a afinidade de forma efetiva em todas as condições. A hemoglobina bovina apresentou uma menor afinidade de ligação ao oxigênio em relação à hemoglobina humana. A glutationa oxidada atuou como efetor alostérico heterotrópico em hemoglobinas humana, bovina e matrinxã (Hb-II), aumentando a afinidade de ligação por oxigênio da hemoglobina. Entretanto, a glutationa na forma reduzida... / Glutathione (GSH) is an intracellular tripeptide, which in its reduced form acts as an antioxidant, keeping the cysteines in the reduced state. When exerting protective function, glutathione is oxidized to form its disulfide, exposing four negative charges. The oxidized glutathione (GSSG) could interact with molecules covalently able to bind anions, such as hemoglobin. That motivated us to investigate the possible structural and functional changes of bovine, human and a fish hemoglobin from the fish ‘matrinxã’ (Brycon cephalus) when they interact allosterically with glutathione. Samples of human and cattle blood were purified and subject to electrophoresis to verify their purity. The functional properties of oxygen binding and allosteric control were analyzed by the tonometric method at 20°C, calculating the affinity of O2-binding and cooperativity (n50). The tested experimental conditions involved hemoglobin in the absence (stripped) and in the presence of chloride and oxidized glutathione (GSSG). Under those circumstances, the human and bovine hemoglobins displayed an alkaline Bohr effect. Chloride induced the greatest effect of reducing affinity in all conditions. For all the experimental sets oxygen binding was cooperative. For bovine adult hemoglobin GSSG increased O2-affinity for all the tested pH values, whereas it occurred for human Hb for pH values above 7.0. Bovine Hb displayed lower O2-affinity than its human counterpart. Oxidized glutahione acted as a heterotropic allosteric effector in all the tested hemoglobins, increasing O2-affinity. However, GSH decreased O2-affinity of human and bovine Hbs. We assume that there is a binding site for GSSG at the R state, increasing O2-affinity, and another one for GSH at the T state, stabilizing its conformation and therefore lowering O2-affinity.

No description available.

Transcription is a major step in expression of genes of a given organism. Due to environmental constrains this step must be regulated in the favour of the sustenance and growth of the organism. Here comes the relevance of transcription factors, mostly proteins which regulate transcription. One such important group of transcription factors is the zinc finger proteins. It is well known that in eukaryotes the C2H2 zinc finger domain containing proteins are the largest group of transcription factors while in prokaryotes the largest group of transcription factors are represented by helix-turn-helix motif containing proteins. Till now only two C2H2 zinc finger domain proteins-Ros and Muc have been found in alpha proteobacteria which are also transcription factors. In eukaryotes the second largest group of zinc finger proteins have their zinc ion coordinated by four cysteine residues- the C4 zinc finger proteins. They make the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily of proteins. They have also been shown to act as transcription factors. But in eubacteria no such proteins have been described in details except an isolated report of crystal structure of a C-terminal zinc finger domain protein- Jann_2411 from Jannaschia sp. Though a lot of transcription factors have been described in mechanistic details in Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, the list of well described mycobacterial transcription factors is short. Given this fact and the lack of any known zinc finger domain transcription factor in actinobacteria we wanted to see whether M. smegmatis genome also encode any homologue of Jann_2411 and if does whether they have ability to modulate transcription. To meet our aim we did BLASTP search against the genome of M. smegmatis using Jann_2411 as query. We found four C-terminal zinc finger domain proteins –Msmeg_0118. Msmeg_3613, Msmeg_3408 and Msmeg_1531, which we named as Mycobacterial single zinc finger protein (Mszfp) and numbered- Mszfp1, Mszfp2, Mszfp3 and Mszfp4, respectively. Mszfp1 and Mszfp2 were chosen for study as they were the top most hits. In this thesis:- Chapter1 introduces zinc finger proteins, transcription and several levels of control of transcription process in eubacteria. In chapter2 we characterised Mszfp1 biophysically and probed its secondary structure content and oligomeric state in the native and demetallated conditions. We have also shown that this conserved hypothetical protein is expressed throughout the growth phase of M. smegmatis, regulated by SigA and SigB. We have also showed that Mszfp1 is a DNA binding protein in the native state and the demetallated protein has altered DNA binding ability. It was noted that on over expression Mszfp1 affects colony morphology and biofilm forming ability, of M. smegmatis. In chapter3 the ability of Mszfp1 to bind to RNA polymerase of M. smegmatis has been explored. It was found that Mszfp1 can activate transcription by interacting with CTD/NTD of α subunit and domain 4 of σA like CRP on type II CRP activated promoter. In chapter4 similar to Mszfp1 the biophysical study of Mszfp2 has been carried out. It was found that Mszfp2 is also a predominantly alpha helical protein with oligomeric structure having DNA binding ability. Similar to Mszfp1 Mszfp2 on over expression changes the colony morphology. Chapter5 deals with the RNA polymerase binding ability of Mszfp2 and its ability to activate transcription by interacting with CTD/NTD of α subunit but not the σA. In chapter6 we have presented a glimpse of the possible biophysical properties of Mszfp3 and Mszfp4 and given a snapshot of distribution of homologues of Mszfps among other actinobacteria. We have also put forward a hypothesis about the origin of C4 and CCHC zinc finger domains. Chapter7 is the summary of the work embedded in the earlier chapters. In Appendix I is described the making of a bacteria (Bacillus licheniformis) driven heat engine. Appendix II describes an effort to study the visco-elastic properties of Mycobacterium smegmatis cells.

The influenza A virus genome consists of eight single-stranded segments of negativesense viral RNA (vRNA) with highly conserved, partially complementary termini. These termini associate in a double-stranded RNA structure, known as a panhandle, which is bound by the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase and can serve as a promoter in both viral transcription and replication. In part A of this thesis, I use a combination of classical biochemistry techniques and fluorescence techniques (both at the ensemble and single-molecule level) for a quantitative investigation of the interaction between purified influenza A RNA polymerase and the individual 5' and 3' conserved termini of the vRNA segments, as well as the double-stranded vRNA promoter. Furthermore, I report the first direct, real-time observation of the promoter changing its structure when bound by the polymerase and show that the structure assumed agrees best with the corkscrew model. In part B of this thesis, I use fluorescence to detect RNA: I design and test a singlemolecule biosensor aimed at probing the presence of influenza A RNA in a sample, on the one hand, and I use click-chemistry to fluorescently label very shorty RNAs (3-25nt) that have been generated in an in vitro transcription reaction, on the other. The biosensing assay I propose can be further developed for diagnostic purposed, while click-chemistry labelling of short RNAs can be optimised and extended such that it becomes a reliable alternative to the use of radiolabels.

No / Triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) are clinically heterogeneous, an aggressive subtype with poor diagnosis and strong resistance to therapy. There is a need to identify novel robust biomarkers with high specificity for early detection and therapeutic intervention. Microarray gene expression-based studies have offered significant advances in molecular classification and identification of diagnostic/prognostic signatures, however sample scarcity and cohort heterogeneity remains area of concern. In this study, we performed integrated analysis on independent microarray big data studies and identified a robust 880-gene signature for TNBC diagnosis. We further identified 16-gene (OGN, ESR1, GPC3, LHFP, AGR3, LPAR1, LRRC17, TCEAL1, CIRBP, NTN4, TUBA1C, TMSB10, RPL27, RPS3A, RPS18, and NOSTRIN) that are associated to TNBC tissues. The 880-gene signature achieved excellent classification accuracy ratio on each independent expression data sets with overall average of 99.06%, is an indication of its diagnostic power. Gene ontology enrichment analysis of 880-gene signature shows that cell-cycle pathways/processes are important clinical targets for triple negative breast cancer. Further verification of 880-gene signature could provide additive knowledge for better understanding and future direction of triple negative breast cancer research.