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Protein and Peptide Letters, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1999

Contents

Oxygen Binding to a-Subunits in High-Salt Crystals of T-State Hemoglobin. Pp. 59-66.
Gregory B. Vásquez, Xinhua Ji, Igor Pechik, Clara Fronticelli and Gary L. Gilliland
[Abstract]

Effect of Introducing p-Fluorophenylalanine and Multiple Tryptophan Residues in a 13-Residue Antibacterial Peptide. Pp. 67-72.
Erugurala Bikshapathy, Narasimhaiah Sitaram and Ramakrishan Nagaraj
[Abstract]

Unusual Combination of the Distorted Structure and Frozen Internal Mobility in Inactivated Actin Molecule. Pp. 73-78.
Konstantin K. Turoverov, Irina M. Kuznetsova, Sofia Yu. Khaitlina and Vladimir Uversky.
[Abstract]

Unfolding and Disassociation of the Flg/s28 Complex are Thermodynamically Coupled. Pp. 79-86.
G. W Daughdrill
[Abstract]

Inverse Peptide Synthesis in Solution Using Free Amino Acids as Amino Components. Pp. 87-90.
Mitin Yu. V and Ryadnov M. G.
[Abstract]

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of the bZIP Domain of the c-JUN Homodimer. Pp. 91-98.
Yong-Hoon Choi, Chul-Hak Yang, Hyun-Won Kim and Seunho Jung
[Abstract]

Shuffling Algorithm for Protein Design. Pp. 99-104.
Szymon Kaczanowski, Andrzej M. Kierzek and Piotr Zielenkiewicz
[Abstract]

Effect of Acetaldehyde on Aggregation of Neuronal Tau. Pp. 105-110.
Jian-Ying Luo and Rong-Qiao He
[Abstract]

Crystallisation Report

Improved Crystals of Bovine Neurophysin II Complexed with Vasopressin. Pp. 111-114.
Bing Hu, John P. Rose, M. Gary Newton, Esther Breslow, Changshen Zheng and Bi-Cheng Wang
[Abstract]


Abstracts

[Back to top] Oxygen Binding to a-Subunits in High-Salt Crystals of T-State Hemoglobin. Gregory B. Vásquez, Xinhua Ji, Igor Pechik, Clara Fronticelli and Gary L. Gilliland.
The crystal structures of a partially-oxygenated, human, T-state hemoglobin variant, bC112G, and a deoxy structure of a related hemoglobin construct, b(C93A+C112G), have been determined at 2.0 Å and 1.8 Å resolution, respectively. Oxygen molecules fully occupy the a1-heme and partially occupy the a2-heme binding sites of the bC112G mutant hemoglobin. Comparisons of these structures with deoxy-, oxy-, and carboxyhemoglobin provide insight into hemoglobin's allosteric transition.

[Back to top] Effect of Introducing p-Fluorophenylalanine and Multiple Tryptophan Residues in a 13-Residue Antibacterial Peptide. Erugurala Bikshapathy, Narasimhaiah Sitaram and Ramakrishan Nagaraj.
The effect of introducing tryptophan residues and p-fluorophenylalanine on the biological activities of the 13-residue antibacterial peptide PKLLTKFLKSWIG was investigated. Introduction of one and two Trp residues and replacement of Try and Phe by p-fluorophenylalanine resulted in enhanced antimicrobial activity as compared to the parent peptide.

[Back to top] Unusual Combination of the Distorted Structure and Frozen Internal Mobility in Inactivated Actin Molecule. Konstantin K. Turoverov, Irina M. Kuznetsova, Sofia Yu. Khaitlina and Vladimir N. Uversky.
The structural properties of inactivated actin were studied by means of circular dichroism and fluorescence techniques. We have shown that inactivated actin, being denatured, is characterized by a relatively rigid microenvironment of aromatic amino acid residues and exhibits a considerable limitation in the internal mobility of tryptophans. This can be due to the specific self-association of partially folded protein molecules.

[Back to top] Unfolding and Disassociation of the Flg/s28 Complex are Thermodynamically Coupled. G. W Daughdrill.
FlgM and s28 regulate the transcription of flagella and chemotaxis genes in E. coli and S. typhimurium. In an attempt to deterrnine the strength of the interaction between FlgM and s28 thermal unfolding studies were perfonned using circular dichroism spectroscopy (CD). A single, cooperative, melting transition was observed for the FlgM/s28 complex suggesting that unfolding and disassociation of the complex occur simultaneously.

[Back to top] Inverse Peptide Synthesis in Solution Using Free Amino Acids as Amino Components. Mitin Yu. V and Ryadnov M. G.
We have realized inverse peptide synthesis in order to exclude deprotection reaction at every synthesis stage. This became possible using high solubility of free amino acids in dimethylformamide containing Ba(ClO4)2, Ca(ClO4)2 or Ca(NO3)2. The developed method was tested on synthesis of [Leu3]-enkephaline, pentapeptide (1-5) of cholecystokinin, pentapeptide (1-5) of indolicidin, hexapeptide of phekellistatin 7 and caeridin 1.1.

[Back to top] Molecular Dynamics Simulation of the bZIP Domain of the c-JUN Homodimer. Yong-Hoon Choi, Chul-Hak Yang, Hyun-Won Kim and Seunho Jung.
Molecular dynamics simulation of the bZIP domain of the c-Jun homodimer has been performed. The conformational analyses of leucine zipper domain showed high consistency to the solution structure obtained from NMR spectroscopy [2]. The basic domain of homodimer exhibited a Gaussian distributed inter-domain wagging motion. Constant wagging motion of the basic domain was proposed to "grope" for DNA major grooves to recognize a specific sequence.

[Back to top] Shuffling Alghorithm for Protein Design. Szymon Kaczanowski, Andrzej M. Kierzek and Piotr Zielenkiewicz.
A new algorithm producing a large number of divergent sequences which can adopt a defined structure is proposed. The algorithm can be applied to proteins of any size. This is achieved by constraining the amino acid composition to the native one and minimising the pseudoenergy function by "shuffling" the sequence. The algorithm is tested by sequence design for five different protein structures. Modelling by homology with the use of resultant sequences produces "proper" protein structures as judged using several different methods.

[Back to top] Effect of Acetaldehyde on Aggregation of Neuronal Tau. Jian-Ying Luo and Rong-Qiao He.
Acetaldehyde at a low concentration (0.25%) induces recombinant tau polymerization distinguishably without using chemical cross-linker disuccinmidyl suberate (DSS). The aggregation of the hyperphosphorylated tau occurs in the solution of acetaldehyde at 0.05%. It appears that formation of neurofibrillary tangles in alcoholics may be correlated to acetaldehyde besides alcohol, and the abnormal tau phosphorylation may accelerate acetaldehyde-induced tau polymerization.

[Back to top] Improved Crystals of Bovine Neurophysin II Complexed with Vasopressin. Bing Hu, John P. Rose, M. Gary Newton, Esther Breslow, Changshen Zheng and Bi-Cheng Wang.
A modified bovine neurophysin II in which the first six residues have been removed by digestion has been crystallized with the hormone vasopressin. The crystals belong to space group P6122 (or P6322) with unit cell constants of a = b = 50.9Å, c = 105.8Å. Crystals of the vasopressin complex have one subunit of the complex per asymmetric unit, which corresponds to a solvent content of approximately 40%. The crystals diffract to beyond 2.3Å resolution, which is substantially better than the 4 Å diffraction reported for the full-length neurophysin-vasopressin complex reported previously.