Domain interfaces are important to the folding, stability, structure and function of multidomain proteins. In the case of human glutathione S-transferase A1-1 (hGSTA1-1) site-directed mutagenesis studies have previously implicated the interdomain Arg13 residue of the protein in maintaining the proper catalytic function of the GST though its exact role was never determined (Stenberg et al., 1991). In this study it was shown by structural and sequence alignment of many representatives of the GST family and other thioredoxin-fold containing proteins that Arg13 is also highly conserved throughout the Alpha, Mu, Pi, Plasmodium falciparum and Sigma classes, all of which are Y-GSTs, and that it forms an interdomain salt bridge. This study therefore chose to evaluate the contribution of Arg13 towards the structure, stability and function of hGSTA1-1 by mutating the Arg residue to an Ala and performing comparative studies between wild-type and R13A hGSTA1-1. The spectral properties of R13A hGSTA1-1 monitored using far-ultraviolet circular dichroism and fluorescence indicated no significant changes in the secondary structure as compared to the native protein though fluorescence did indicate local tertiary structural changes around Trp21. Additionally, the catalytic activity of the R13A variant was reduced by 70% as compared to that of the wild-type enzyme further indicating local tertiary structural changes at and possibly near the active site which is located near the Trp21 residue. Conformational stability studies were performed by monitoring both thermal- and chemical-induced protein unfolding. The stability of the R13A variant was lower than that of the wild-type protein as revealed by a thermal-induced unfolding study which indicated that the melting point (Tm) of the R13A variant was 6 °C lower than that of the wild-type. Thermal-induced unfolding was shown not to be reversible however and the thermodynamic parameters of unfolding could not be determined. Urea-induced equilibrium unfolding studies on the other hand were reversible and displayed a variant-induced destabilisation of the conformation of the protein with a ΔΔG(H2O) of 16.7 kJ.mol−1 between the mutant and native protein. Additionally urea-induced equilibrium unfolding studies in the presence of ANS indicated that the equilibrium unfolding of both wild-type and R13A hGSTA1-1 was three-state. In summary the Arg13 residue is more important to the function of the protein than it is for its global stability or structure. Also since the Arg13 residue was found to be highly conserved in all the Y-GSTs and that it forms an interdomain interaction, the residue most likely performs a similar role in each of the Y-GSTs as well.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/12315 |
| Date | 29 January 2013 |
| Creators | Robertson, Gary Jay |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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