No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Mammalian thioredoxin reductase (TR) contains the rare amino acid selenocysteine (Sec), which is essential for the enzyme’s catalytic activity. Substitution of the catalytic Sec residue for a cysteine (Cys) residue, results in a drop in kcat of 100- fold. Homologous high molecular weight TRs from other eukaryotes such as D. melanogaster and C. elegans, have naturally evolved a Sec to Cys substitution in their active sites and these enzymes function with high catalytic activity without the need for a Sec residue. Thus, various TRs can catalyze an identical reaction with either a Cys or Sec residue. A natural assumption in the field has always been that the lower nucleophilicity of a Cys thiol, relative to the selenol of Sec, is the reason for the much lower activity of the mammalian Cys-containing mutant. However, here I provide an alternative explanation. High Mr TRs contain either a Cys-Cys or Cys-Sec dyad that forms an eight-membered ring in the oxidized state during the redox cycle of the enzyme. These eight-membered ring structures are rare in protein structures, presumably due to the strain induced in the intervening peptide bond between the Cys residues. Here I take a “chemical approach” to studying the enzyme mechanism of TR by breaking it into two pieces. This approach is possible because of TR’s structural and mechanistic similarity to glutathione reductase (GR). In comparison to GR, TR contains an additional thiol-disulfide exchange step resulting from the presence of a sixteen amino acid C-terminal extension containing either a vicinal disulfide bond or vicinal selenylsulfide bond. This additional thiol-disulfide exchange step is in the form of the reduction and opening of the eight-membered ring motif. I have constructed a truncated version of the enzyme lacking the amino acid sequence possessing the ring motif so that I could isolate this ring-opening step from the rest of the catalytic cycle by using peptide disulfides/selenylsulfides as substrates. The results of this study using peptide substrates show that the ring opening step is the step of the catalytic cycle that is most effected by Sec to Cys substitution because the higher pKa of the Cys thiolate in comparison to the Sec selenolate means that the Cys residue must be protonated in this step.

No description available.

The ability to acquire sufficient iron from the environment is essential for growth of most bacteria, including Escherichia coli and Shigella flexneri. In E. coli, the enterobactin-mediated iron acquisition system is the major way for the cells to get iron under iron-limiting conditions. Enterobactin is a siderophore that is synthesized and secreted in response to iron limitation to scavenge external ferric iron with high affinity. In this work, I showed that the alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (Ahp) system participates in cellular iron metabolism in both E. coli and S. flexneri. The Ahp system is composed of two proteins, AhpC and AhpF. AhpC detoxifies peroxides by converting peroxides to alcohol and water, and AhpF recycles AhpC. In this work, the data showed that the ahpC mutant synthesized and secreted much less enterobactin than the wild type E. coli and had a growth defect in low iron medium. AhpC influenced the first step of enterobactin biosynthesis by either facilitating the delivery of its substrate chorismate to the enterobactin biosynthesis pathway, or maintaining an optimal concentration of chorismate inside E. coli cells. In E. coli, the data showed that deletion of both ahpF and the glutathione reductase gor affected iron uptake or utilization, but not enterobactin biosynthesis, indicating the role of AhpF and Gor in cellular iron metabolism is different from that of AhpC. In S. flexneri, the Ahp system was also found to be involved in cellular iron metabolism; however, AhpC was not required for major steps of S. flexneri virulence: invasion, intracellular replication or cell-cell spread. Overall, the Ahp system participated in multiple steps of cellular iron metabolism. / text

published_or_final_version / Molecular Biology / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Molecular Biology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) reduces 5,10-methylene THF to 5-methyl THF, the carbon donor for the methylation of homocysteine to methionine. Patients with severe MTHFR deficiency (MRD) have neurologic abnormalities while a milder form (a thermolabile MTHFR variant) has been shown to be associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). Ten MRD patients, with reduced or non-detectable activity, were studied to characterize the nature of the mutation. Southern, Northern and Western analysis did not reveal any defects in the patients. These results suggest that the mutations may be minor insertions/deletions or single base substitutions that affect catalytic activity. Single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis was used to detect base substitutions; 3 RFLPs were identified with this protocol. One was in the coding region (SphI) while the other two were in the 3$ sp prime$ untranslated region (MaeIII and MnlI). A difference in frequency of the SphI RFLP was found between control subjects and a small sample of CAD patients whose homocysteine levels were greater than the 99th percentile.

In all bacterial, plant and animal cells, as well as in many viruses, genetic information resides in DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Replication of DNA is essential for proliferation, and DNA-containing viruses (such as herpesviruses) must carry out this process within the mammalian cells they infect. The enzyme ribonucleotide reductase catalyzes the first unique step leading to the production of the four deoxy-ribonucleotides used to make DNA. Each deoxyribonucleotide is produced by reduction of the corresponding ribonucleotide. After infection of a mammalian cell with herpes simplex virus (HSV) a new ribonucleotide reductase activity appears, which is distinct from the mammalian enzyme activity. This is due to induction of a separate, virally-encoded ribonucleotide reductase. Two monoclonal antibodies were raised against HSV (type 1) ribonucleotide reductase, and were found to bind but not neutralize its enzyme activity. One antibody recognized a larger (140 kD) protein and the other a smaller (40 kD) protein, suggesting the HSV 1 ribonucleotide reductase had a heterodimeric composition similar to that found in many other organisms. The 140 kD protein was sequentially degraded to 110 kD, 93 kD and 81 kD proteins by a host (Vero) cell-specific serine protease. Of these different proteolytic products, at least the 93 kD residue was enzymatically active, suggesting that part of the 140 kD protein may have functions unrelated to ribonucleotide reduction. The 140 and 40 kD proteins bound tightly to each other in a complex of the a2ß2 type, as shown by analytical glycerol gradient centrifugation. An assay system for functional small and large subunits of HSV 1 ribonucleotide reductase was developed, using two temperaturesensitive mutant viruses, defective in either the large (tsl207) or small (tsl222) subunits. Active holoenzyme was reconstituted both in vitro, by mixing extracts from cells infected with either mutant, and in vivo by coinfection of cells with both mutants. The gene encoding the small subunit of HSV 1 ribonucleotide reductase was cloned into an expression plasmid under control of a tac promoter. The recombinant protein was purified to homogeneity from extracts of transfected E. coli, and was active when combined with large subunit, as provided by extracts of tsl222- infected hamster (BHK) cells. The protein contained a novel tyrosyl free radical that spectroscopically resembled, but was distinguishable from, the active-site free radical found in either the E. coli or mammalian small subunits of ribonucleotide reductase. The gene encoding the large subunit of HSV 1 ribonucleotide reductase was also expressed in E. coli, using similar techniques. The recombinant large subunit was immunoprecipitated from extracts of transfected bacteria, and showed weak activity when combined with small subunit, provided by extracts of tsl20-infected hamster (BHK) cells. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1989, härtill 4 uppsatser.</p> / digitalisering@umu