A time-dependent, two-step binding mode of the nitro dye flavianic acid to trypsin in acid media

Synthetic dyes bind to proteins causing selective coprecipitation of the complexes in acid aqueous solution by a process of reversible denaturation that can be used as an alternative method for protein fractionation. The events that occur before precipitation were investigated by equilibrium dialysis using bovine trypsin and flavianic acid as a model able to cause coprecipitation. A two-step mode of interaction was found to be dependent on the incubation periods allowed for binding, with pronounced binding occurring after 42 h of incubation. The first step seems to involve hydration effects and conformational changes induced by binding of the first dye molecule, following rapid denaturation due to the binding of six additional flavianate anions to the macromolecule

A time-dependent, two-step binding mode of the nitro dye flavianic acid to trypsin in acid media.

Synthetic dyes bind to proteins causing selective coprecipitation of the complexes in acid aqueous solution by a process of reversible denaturation that can be used as an alternative method for protein fractionation. The events that occur before precipitation were investigated by equilibrium dialysis using bovine trypsin and flavianic acid as a model able to cause coprecipitation. A two-step mode of interaction was found to be dependent on the incubation periods allowed for binding, with pronounced binding occurring after 42 h of incubation. The first step seems to involve hydration effects and conformational changes induced by binding of the first dye molecule, following rapid denaturation due to the binding of six additional flavianate anions to the macromolecule.

Selective precipitation of proteins.

Selective precipitation of proteins can be used as a bulk method to recover the majority of proteins from a crude lysate, as a selective method to fractionate a subset of proteins from a protein solution, or as a very specific method to recover a single protein of interest from a purification step. This unit describes a number of methods suitable for selective precipitation. In each of the protocols that are outlined, the physical or chemical basis of the precipitation process, the parameters that can be varied for optimization, and the basic steps for developing an optimized precipitation are described.

1-anilino-8-naphthalene sulfonate as a protein conformational tightening agent.

1-Anilino-8-naphthalene sulfonate (ANS) anion is conventionally considered to bind to preexisting hydrophobic (nonpolar) surfaces of proteins, primarily through its nonpolar anilino-naphthalene group. Such binding is followed by an increase in ANS fluorescence intensity, similar to that occurring when ANS is dissolved in organic solvents. It is generally assumed that neither the negative sulfonate charge on the ANS, nor charges on the protein, participate significantly in ANS-protein interaction. However, titration calorimetry has demonstrated that most ANS binding to a number of proteins occurs through electrostatic forces, in which ion pairs are formed between ANS sulfonate groups and cationic groups on the proteins (D. Matulis and R. E. Lovrien, Biophys. J., 1998, Vol. 74, pp. 1-8). Here we show by viscometry and diffusion coefficient measurements that bovine serum albumin and gamma-globulin, starting from their acid-expanded, most hydrated conformations, undergo extensive molecular compaction upon ANS binding. As the cationic protein binds negatively charged ANS anion it also takes up positively charged protons from water to compensate the effect of the negative charge, and leaves the free hydroxide anions in solution thus shifting pH upward (the Scatchard-Black effect). These results indicate that ANS is not always a definitive reporter of protein molecular conformation that existed before ANS binding. Instead, ANS reports on a conformationally tightened state produced by the interplay of ionic and hydrophobic characters of both protein and ligand.

Microbial calorimetric analysis (MCA) of aqueous organic compounds.

Adapted bacteria used in heat conduction calorimetry may be developed as 'analytical reagents' for compounds that can be metabolized by such bacteria. Adaption can be done by growing cells such as E. coli on the analyte of interest, for example a sugar. Samples to be analyzed are mixed with adapted cells which aerobically metabolize the sought-for analyte, producing heat. The method is called microbial calorimetric analysis, MCA. Average requirements are 2-200 nanomoles of analyte, "carbon", an excess of cells ca. 2-5 mg of cells, and 1-2 ml of air to maintain aerobicity. Heat production is usually completed in 300-600 sec at 25 degrees. The combination of bacteria and heat conduction calorimetry is a sensor system having a sensitivity and selectivity dependent on bacterial adaption. The system is useful in analytical problems when analytes are in turbid suspension, are poor chromogens or not even prochromogenic. MCA takes advantage of the large aerobic heats usually generated by bacteria in active utilization of organic analytes. Typically from 20 to 70 kcal exothermic heat per mole of carbon atoms is generated, e.g., (-)300 kcal/mole glucose. Heat conduction calorimeters, batch mixing instruments, measure 2-100 millicalorie heat with +/-3% error in each run. Bacteria can be grown on many different kinds of compounds. Accordingly it is fairly easy to create diverse, specific 'analytical reagents' which function in MCA much as they function in their usual environment, in soils, etc. Intact, adapted bacteria have decided advantages over isolated enzymes as 'biosensors' for a number of practical reasons.

Stripping interfering sugars from samples using adapted bacteria.

Bacteria adapted to individual sugars quickly remove targeted sugars--stripping them--from samples in which unwanted sugars interfere. Adapted bacteria are equivalent to specific reagents for removal of sugars down to bacterial Km values, micromolar to submicromolar concentrations. Bacterial stripping is a simple method, useful when background sugars in micro-to millimolar concentrations (or larger) interfere with analysis of sought-for sugars. Bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella are easily adapted to individual sugars such as lactose, fructose, etc., by growing the bacteria on them. Hence one can easily create (and store) many kinds of cells ready to sponge up or strip out unwanted compounds. E. coli specifically remove several sugars from samples containing 100-500 nmol of sugars, using 1-5 mg of adapted cells, and 25 degrees C temperatures. Stripping requires 1-5 min and consists of mixing cells and sample, spinning down the cells, and withdrawal of stripped supernate. A 1-5 min interval is adequate for uptake and stripping, but far too short for cells to metabolize the sugars that were taken up. Hence the cells do not leak metabolites, but act as specific adsorbants without injection of appreciable byproducts into the sample.

Colloidal Gold Cytochemistry of Endo-1,4-beta-Glucanase, 1,4-beta-D-Glucan Cellobiohydrolase, and Endo-1,4-beta-Xylanase: Ultrastructure of Sound and Decayed Birch Wood.

Colloidal gold coupled to endo-1,4-beta-glucanase II (EG II) and 1,4-beta-D-glucan cellobiohydrolase I (CBH I), isolated from Trichoderma reesei (QM9414), and endo-1,4-beta-xylanase from Aureobasium pullulans (NRRLY-2311-1) was used successfully to determine the ultrastructural localization of cellulose and xylan in sound birch wood. In addition, these enzyme-gold complexes demonstrated the distribution of cellulose and xylan after decay by three white rot fungi, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Phellinus pini, and Trametes versicolor, and one brown rot fungus, Fomitopis pinicola. Transverse sections of sound wood showed that EG II was localized primarily on the S(1) layer of the secondary wall, whereas CBH I labeled all layers of the secondary wall. Oblique sections showed a high concentration of gold labeling, using EG II or CBH I. Preference for the sides of the microfibrillar structure was observed for both EG II and CBH I, whereas only CBH I had a specificity for the cut ends of microfibrils. Labeling with the xylanase-gold complex occurred primarily in the inner regions of the S(2) layer, S(1), and the middle lamella. In contrast, little labeling occurred in the middle lamella with EG II or CBH I. Intercellular regions within the cell corners of the middle lamella were less electron dense and labeled positively when EG II- and xylanase-gold were used. Wood decayed by P. chrysosporium or P. pini was delignified, and extensive degradation of the middle lamella was evident. The remaining secondary walls labeled with EG II and CBH I, but little labeling was found with the xylanase-gold complex. Wood decayed by T. versicolor was nonselective, and erosion of all cell wall layers was apparent. Remaining wall layers near sites of erosion labeled with both EG II and CBH I. Erosion troughs that reached the S(1) layer or the middle lamella had less xylanase-gold labeling in the adjacent cell wall that remained. Brown-rotted wood had very low levels of gold particles present in sections treated with EG II or xylanase. Labeling with CBH I had the lowest concentrations in the S(2) layer near cell lumina and corresponded to sites with the most extensive degradation.

Calorimetric versus Growth Microbial Analysis of Cellulase Enzymes Acting on Cellulose.

ASSAY OF CELLULASE ENZYMOLOGY ON CELLULOSE WAS INVESTIGATED BY TWO METHODS: (i) plate colony counting to determine microbial growth and (ii) microbial calorimetry. These methods were chosen because they accept raw samples and have the potential to be far more specific than spectrophotometric reducing sugar assays. Microbial calorimetry requires ca. 0.5 to 1 h and 10 to 100 muM concentrations of cellulolytic lower sugars (glucose and cellobiose). Growth assay (liquid culture, plating, colony counting) requires 15 to 20 h and ca. 0.5 mM sugars. Microbial calorimetry requires simply aerobic metabolism, whereas growth assay requires completion of the cell cycle. A stripping technique is described for use in conjunction with the calorimetric method to enable separate analysis of the two sugars. Mixtures of glucose and cellobiose are equilibrated with Escherichia coli and spun out to remove glucose. The supernatant is calorimetrically combusted with Klebsiella sp. to quantitate cellobiose, and the same organism combusting the nonstripped mixture gives heat proportional to the sum of the two sugars. Calorimetry of cellulolysis products from individual exo- and endocellulases, and from their reconstituted mixture, was carried out to develop a microbial calorimetric means for demonstrating enzyme synergism.

Glycophorin is linked by band 4.1 protein to the human erythrocyte membrane skeleton.

The cytoskeleton underlying the membrane of erythrocytes is thought to control changes in cell shape such as the diskocyte to the echinocyte. Since the binding of lectins to the transmembrane protein glycophorin blocks the cell shape change, we have proposed that the cytoplasmic end of glycophorin is linked to the cytoskeleton. Here we show that the cytoskeletal protein known as band 4.1 specifically associates with the cytoplasmic domain of glycophorin on inside-out erythrocyte membrane vesicles and also with glycophorin reconstituted into phosphatidylcholine vesicles. The binding of band 4.1 to glycophorin is saturable and inhibitable by antibodies which bind specifically to the cytoplasmic domain of glycophorin. We therefore believe that band 4.1 protein provides the link between glycophorin and the cytoskeleton.

Calorimetric techniques for metabolic studies of cells and organisms under normal conditions and stress.

When cells are subjected to stress, an early result is a shift in type and rate of metabolism to reflect their new conditions. The availability of metabolites, their endogenous vs exogenous origins, and the rates at which they can be used, besides availability of oxygen, dictate cell and tissue response. Measurement of heat output in such a response is a means for monitoring cells and tissues. Differential heat conduction calorimeters are reviewed to provide a listing of instrument parameters important in optimum practical use. Data obtained with one cell system, mammalian sperm, are presented to provide an example of how the combination of calorimetry and carbon balance, plus calculation from thermodynamic constants, permit an assessment of the importance of endogenous metabolism to total cellular metabolism.

Power and heat measurement by direct calorimetry of individual insect response to allelo- and toxic compounds.

A microcalorimeter was constructed for the individual insect in order to measure the insect's power output as a function of time (the thermogram). The instrument has a figure of merit of 7 microW/microV. It includes a Peltier pumped thermoelectric control loop which protects from intruding ambient thermals, and holds baseline drift to less than 2 microV/day. the design is a conventional twin, or differential heat conduction calorimeter, with two insect-holding vessels of glass. The vessels are connected by a stopcock, to give the insect the option of crawling from the sample chamber to the reference chamber. Continuous, metered air flow is provided. A small pulse of compound may be born in, as vapor with the air flow, for the study of attractants, toxic compounds, anesthetics and allelochemicals. The insect's reaction to such compounds, appears in the thermogram. Cabbage looper larvae were examined in their irritative exothermic reaction to microgram amounts of benzene, and in their neutral behavior toward similar amounts of aliphatic hydrocarbons delivered as a single pulse of vapor. The male northern corn rootworm was monitored in his attraction to female rootworm extract ("pheromone') and his tendency to move upwind, or up airflow, toward the pheromone. The instrument enables discrimination of the transient metabolism of muscle use, from that of the resting state power which is probably the true basal metabolic rate power.

Malignant hyperthermia (MH): porcine erythrocyte damage from oxidation and glutathione peroxidase deficiency.

Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a severe familial disease in both the pig and the human, with 70% fatality when fully expressed in humans. MH produces rapid elevation of temperature in response to stresses, of which there are two general kinds: Societal or emotional stress, and chemical stressors. The most commonly encountered stressor is halothane, a general anesthetic in wide use. Besides large temperature increases, there occur some twenty symptoms. Much work in other laboratories has been concentrated on elevated CPK i the plasma. However, all the symptoms are consistent with a single disorder, namely oxidative damage, especially in membranes. A deficiency in the glutathione peroxidase (GPX) system is a prime factor, likely the molecular basis allowing abnormal oxidative damage in the MH pig. Catalase activities are normal in MH pigs, but they have only 20-50% normal GPX activities. The deficiency does not cause oxidative damage. It allows failure or protective mechanisms against it. The nonstressed MH animal exhibits less acute symptoms, e.g. enhanced red cell Heinz bodies, but such animals generally mature. Under stress, their inadequate protective mechanisms dependent on GPX are overwhelmed, resulting in gross symptoms and crisis. It is important to concentrate on the GPX system(s) and their adjacent pentose shunt metabolism. We propose that a deficiency in any of these two systems is the molecular basis of the disease. Many tissues are involve in MH, but the red cell obviously provides a convenient means for assay and for screening. This paper mainly pertains to porcine MH. However, preliminary work with humans indicates that human MH has a similar molecular basis.

Energetics of the response of maize coleoptile tissue to indoleacetic acid : Characterization by flow calorimetry as a function of time, IAA concentration, and pH.

Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) promotes an increase in steady-state heat production by corn (Zea mays L.) coleoptile tissue; this increase is associated with an elevation in aerobic respiration rates. A detailed time dependence of the exothermic response to IAA was obtained using flow calorimetry. The latent period and magnitude of response were evaluated as a function of IAA concentration and pH. The data indicate that more than one response may occur. The optimal change in heat production was produced by an IAA concentration of 3·10(-5) M. It was initiated within 5 min after the start of the IAA treatment, and reached a magnitude in excess of 25% of the tissue's basal heat production. Concentrations of IAA greater than 1·10(-4) M resulted in diminished response(s), but the effect was strongly pH dependent. Several possibilities for the increased heat production triggered by IAA are discussed.

Stoichiometry of wheat germ agglutinin as a morphology controlling agent and as a morphology controlling agent and as a morphology protective agent for the human erythrocyte.

The lectin wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) is an unusually effective agent in controlling both the forward and reverse reactions of the reversible morphology conversion discocyte in equilibrium with echinocyte for the human erythrocyte. Under conditions severe enough to drive the reactions to completion in either direction without the lectin, WGA is able to stabilize both these morphologies and to fully prevent conversion of either morphology. The lectin can quantitatively block both reactions. The ability of WGA to carry out these functions has no obvious rate limitation. Its effectiveness depends mainly on its binding stoichiometry, particularly toward the transmembrane glycoprotein, glycophorin. The critical binding stoichiometries for both the lectin and the echinocytic agent were determined in relation to the binding isotherms using 125I-labeled WGA and 35S-labeled dodecyl sulfate. There appear to be two principal stoichiometries for WGA binding that are important in its control of erythrocyte morphology. The first stoichiometry marks the threshold of obvious protection of the discocyte against strong echinocytic agents such as detergents and, likely, is simply a 1:1 stoichiometry of WGA: glycophorin, assuming currently recognized values of 3--5 x 10(5) copies of glycophorin per cell. The second important stoichiometry, whereby the cell's morphology is protected against extremely severe stress, involves binding of approximately 4--5 WGA molecules per glycophorin. The controls that WGA exerts can be instantly abolished by added N-acetylglucosamine. However, N-acetylglucosamine ligands on the erythrocyte are of less importance than membrane neuraminic acid residues in enabling WGA to control the cell's morphology, as is shown by comparing intact cells with completely desialated cells. WGA can also be used to produce elliptocytes in vitro, but it does this at levels approaching monolayer coverage of the cell with WGA.

Human red cell hemolysis rates in the subsecond to seconds range. An analysis.

Hypoosmotic shock kinetics of the normal human red cell (25 degrees C) were investigated by means of a rapid kinetics apparatus, with a resolving time of about 50 ms. The results are compared with some current models for hemolysis. The fast hemolysis plots are not true symmetric sigmoids, in contrast to results from less stressful conditions, nor can they be simply fitted to an "all or none" process. In the most severe conditions, mixing with neat water, the velocities with which red cells start to hemolyze depend on the rate at which the cell is converted to a swollen sphere (lag phase). Under such conditions, the mean time to rupture and start of leaking is about 0.6 s. The rate of osmotically driven solvent flow is probably the principal controlling factor in the discocyte to sphere transformation. The overall course of hemolysis can be described in terms of two rate processes and a distribution of cell fragilities. The fragilities probably depend on the age of individual cells in the samples. In the low-salt region, the effect of hypotonicity as well as hypoosmolality is discerned. The surface charge on the red cell provided no driving force for rupture above salt concentration 0.10M, but at 0.05 M salt and below, electrostatic effects may contribute.

Equilibrium of Bowman-Birk inhibitor association with trypsin and alpha-chymotrypsin.

Association constants, enthalpies, and stoichiometries of Bowman-Birk soybean inhibitor for trypsin and alpha-chymotrypsin were measured in the pH range 4-8 at 25 degrees, 0.01 M Ca2+. The results are quoted in terms of moles of protease active sites, from active site titration. Enthalpies were obtained from calorimetry. The inhibitor was modified by carboxyl group modification, and by tryptic and chymotryptic attack. Association thermodynamics and stoichiometries of the modified inhibitors with both proteases were also determined. There is one independent site for each protease on the inhibitor protein. Modification decreases association to some extent, but does not appear to change stoichiometry or protease binding site independency. In the pH 4 region the association enthalpies are endothermic, of the order 6 kcal/mol for both trypsin and chymotrypsin. With increasing pH, the enthalpies decrease and become exothermic at pH 8 for chymotrypsin. Positive entropies, 50 cal mol-1 deg-1, occur at pH 4-5. They decrease as pH increases, but are always positive in sign. The observed to accompany the overall reaction, such as H+ transfer steps. The enthalpies and entropies probably compensate over the pH range 4-8, with a characteristic temperature of 390 plus or minus 30 degrees K. Estimates were made of the macromolecular Coulomb charge products in inhibitor-protease interaction. These range from about +5 to -60, over pH range 4-8, depending on the protease. Although intermolecular Coulombic forces cannot be easily delineated at the specific side chain level, they may operate at the macromolecule level.