ABSTRACT
The crystal structure of the urease gamma subunit (UreA) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Rv1848, has been determined at 1.8 A resolution. The asymmetric unit contains three copies of Rv1848 arranged into a homotrimer that is similar to the UreA trimer in the structure of urease from Klebsiella aerogenes. Small-angle X-ray scattering experiments indicate that the Rv1848 protein also forms trimers in solution. The observed homotrimer and the organization of urease genes within the M. tuberculosis genome suggest that M. tuberculosis urease has the (alphabetagamma)(3) composition observed for other bacterial ureases. The gamma subunit may be of primary importance for the formation of the urease quaternary structure.
Subject(s)
Mycobacterium tuberculosis/enzymology , Urease/chemistry , Amino Acid Sequence , Crystallography, X-Ray , Models, Molecular , Molecular Sequence Data , Protein Structure, Quaternary , Protein Structure, Tertiary , Protein Subunits/chemistry , Sequence Alignment , Sequence Homology, Amino AcidABSTRACT
A highly automated method for rapidly identifying soluble protein variants with good expression yields has been developed. This method is based on a commercially available in vitro protein expression system. It consists of two polymerase chain reactions (PCR) followed by in vitro protein expression and protein quantification by dot blot. The PCR protocols have been improved and optimized to allow automation using commercial fluid handling devices. A PCR primer design program has also been implemented to streamline protein variant design. This automated protocol is highly reliable and has tremendously improved the throughput of expression screening as compared to conventional cell-based methods and manual in vitro methods. We have applied this method to 32 problematic targets from the TB Structural Genomics Consortium. Experimental results of these studies are reported.
