Interactions between model target peptide melittin (ME) and Euplotes octocarinatus centrin (EoCen) were investigated by fluorescence spectra, circular dichroism (CD) spectra and native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). In 0.1 mol/L N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N-2-ethanesulfonic acid (Hepes) and 150 mmol/L NaCl at pH 7.4, EoCen and isolated short C-terminal domain of EoCen (SC-EoCen) form 1:1 peptide:protein complexes. However, no detectable signal changes can be observed while isolated N-terminal domain of EoCen (N-EoCen) or isolated long C-terminal domain of EoCen (LC-EoCen) was added into solution of ME. The interaction between EoCen and ME is specified exclusively for the short C-terminal domain of EoCen. On the basis of fluorescence titration curves, the conditional binding constants of ME with EoCen and SC-EoCen were calculated to be logKME-EoCen = 6.81±0.33 and log- KME-SC-EoCen = 6.51±0.45, respectively.
Ciliate Euplotes octocarinatus centrin (EoCen) is an EF-hand calcium-binding protein closely related to the prototypical calcium sensor protein calmodulin.The first amino acid of the Ca2+-binding loops found in the EF-hand calcium-binding proteins is a highly conserved aspartic acid residue.The D37K mutant was produced to elucidate the metal binding role of the first aspartic acid of the EF-loop I of EoCen.Aromatic-sensitized Tb3+fluorescence results indicated that the metal binding ability of loop I was lost due to the D37K mutation.Based on fluorescence titration curves of Lu2-D37K,the conditional binding constants of the EoCen loop II were quantitatively found to be KII=(1.61±0.04)×105 L mol-1 and KII=(3.52±0.08)×102 L mol-1 with Tb3+ and Ca2+,respectively.Using 2-p-toluidinylnaphthalene-6-sulfonate as a hydrophobic probe,exposure of the hydrophobic surface upon metal binding was found to be significantly reduced for the metal ion-saturated EoCen D37K mutant.
LIU WenDUAN LianZHAO YaQinLIANG AiHuaYANG BinSheng
It is known that urea and guanidine hydrochloride（GuHC1） induce conformational change of proteins in a certain range of molar ratios. In our research, a-naphthylamine（NA） above 10^-4 mol/L at pH 7.0 was discovered to perturb the conformation of CopC, a copper resistant protein with a Greek fl-barrel motif; this was reflected by the greater fluorescence quenching and red-shifted emission peak of CopC. The conformation change of CopC was also verified in acrylamide collision experiment by comparing quenching levels of CopC in the presence or the abscence of NA. Comparison of emission change of CopC-Cu^2＋ with that of apo-CopC showed a consistent result with their denaturation in GuHCl. And decreasing fluorescence polarization of CopC with increasing NA concentration is consistent with a more extend conformation of CopC. Interaction mechanism was also explored.
LI Hui-qing ZHENG Xiao-yan ZHAO Ya-qin YANG Bin-sheng
