Characterization of the photoconversion of green fluorescent protein with FTIR spectroscopy.

Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) is a bioluminescence protein from the jelly fish Aequorea victoria. It can exist in at least two spectroscopically distinct states: GFP395 and GFP480, with peak absorption at 395 and 480 nm, respectively, presumably resulting from a change in the protonation state of the phenolic ring of its chromophore. When GFP is formed upon heterologous expression in Escherichia coli, its chromophore is mainly present as the neutral species. UV and visible light convert (the chromophore of) GFP quantitatively from this neutral- into the anionic form. On the basis of X-ray diffraction, it was recently proposed (Brejc, K. et al. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 2306-2311; Palm, G. J. et al. (1997) Nat. Struct. Biol. 4, 361-365) that the carboxylic group of Glu222 functions as the proton acceptor of the chromophore of GFP, during the transition from the neutral form (i.e., GFP395) to the ionized form (GFP480). However, X-ray crystallography cannot detect protons directly. The results of FTIR difference spectroscopy, in contrast, are highly sensitive to changes in the protonation state between two conformations of a protein. Here we report the first characterization of GFP, and its photoconversion, with FTIR spectroscopy. Our results clearly show the change in protonation state of the chromophore upon photoconversion. However, they do not provide indications for a change of the protonation state of a glutamate side chain between the states GFP395 and GFP480, nor for an isomerization of the double bond that forms part of the link between the two rings of the chromophore.

Physiological factors affecting production of extracellular lipase (LipA) in Acinetobacter calcoaceticus BD413: fatty acid repression of lipA expression and degradation of LipA.

The extracellular lipase (LipA) produced by Acinetobacter calcoaceticus BD413 is required for growth of the organism on triolein, since mutant strains that lack an active lipase fail to grow with triolein as the sole carbon source. Surprisingly, extracellular lipase activity and expression of the structural lipase gene (lipA), the latter measured through lacZ as a transcriptional reporter, are extremely low in triolein cultures of LipA+ strains. The explanation for this interesting paradox lies in the effect of fatty acids on the expression of lipA. We found that long-chain fatty acids, especially, strongly repress the expression of lipA, thereby negatively influencing the production of lipase. We propose the involvement of a fatty acyl-responsive DNA-binding protein in regulation of expression of the A. calcoaceticus lipBA operon. The potential biological significance of the observed physiological competition between expression and repression of lipA in the triolein medium is discussed. Activity of the extracellular lipase is also negatively affected by proteolytic degradation, as shown in in vitro stability experiments and by Western blotting (immunoblotting) of concentrated supernatants of stationary-phase cultures. In fact, the relatively high levels of extracellular lipase produced in the early stationary phase in media which contain hexadecane are due only to enhanced stability of the extracellular enzyme under those conditions. The rapid extracellular degradation of LipA of A. calcoaceticus BD413 by an endogenous protease is remarkable and suggests that proteolytic degradation of the enzyme is another important factor in regulating the level of active extracellular lipase.

Chemical reactivity and spectroscopy of the thiol ester-linked p-coumaric acid chromophore in the photoactive yellow protein from Ectothiorhodospira halophila.

We have recently identified p-coumaric acid as the chromophore of the photoactive yellow protein (PYP) from the purple sulfur bacterium Ectothiorhodospira halophila, a blue-light photoreceptor with rhodopsin-like photochemistry [Hoff, W. D., Düx, P., Hård, K., Nugteren-Roodzant, I. M., Crielaard, W., Boelens, R., Kaptein, R., Van Beeumen, J., & Hellingwerf, K. J. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 13959-13962]. Here we report on the chemistry of the linkage of this new photoactive cofactor to apoPYP: (i) Analysis of chromophore-peptide conjugates of PYP by high-resolution mass spectrometry unambiguously shows that the p-coumaric acid molecule is bound to Cys 69 via a thiol ester bond. The PYP chromophore is the first cofactor known to be stably thiol ester-linked to its apoprotein. (ii) The chemical reactivity of this thiol ester bond with respect to dithiothreitol, performic acid, and high pH is similar to that of disulfide bridges. These treatments result in the cleavage of the thiol ester bond, concomitant with strong shifts in the UV/vis absorbance band of the chromophore. (iii) The spectral properties of the PYP chromophore under different conditions are related to the structural integrity of the protein, the presence of the thiol ester bond, and the ionization state of the phenolic proton of the chromophore. These results are important for the general problem of spectral tuning in photoreceptor proteins.

Characterization of lipase-deficient mutants of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus BD413: identification of a periplasmic lipase chaperone essential for the production of extracellular lipase.

Acinetobacter calcoaceticus BD413 produces an extracellular lipase, which is encoded by the lipA gene. Five lipase-deficient mutants have been generated via random insertion mutagenesis. Phenotypic characterization of these mutants revealed the presence of as many as four lipolytic enzymes in A. calcoaceticus. Biochemical evidence classified four of the mutants as export mutants, which presumably are defective in translocation of the lipase across the outer membrane. The additional mutant, designated AAC302, displays a LipA- phenotype, and yet the mutation in this strain was localized 0.84 kbp upstream of lipA. Sequence analysis of this region revealed an open reading frame, designated lipB, that is disrupted in AAC302. The protein encoded by this open reading frame shows extensive similarity to a chaperone-like helper protein of several pseudomonads, required for the production of extracellular lipase. Via complementation of AAC302 with a functional extrachromosomal copy of lipA, it could be determined that LipB is essential for lipase production. As shown by the use of a translational LipB-PhoA fusion construct, the C-terminal part of LipB of A. calcoaceticus BD413 is located outside the cytoplasm. Sequence analysis further strongly suggests that A. calcoaceticus LipB is N terminally anchored in the cytoplasmic membrane. Therefore, analogous to the situation in Pseudomonas species, however, lipB in A. calcoaceticus is located upstream of the structural lipase gene. lipB and lipA form a bicistronic operon, and the two genes are cotranscribed from an Escherichia coli sigma 70-type promoter. The reversed order of genes, in comparison with the situation in Pseudomonas species, suggests that LipA and LipB are produced in equimolar amounts. Therefore, the helper protein presumably does not only have a catalytic function, e.g., in folding of the lipase, but is also likely to act as a lipase-specific chaperone. A detailed model of the export route of the lipase of A. calcoaceticus BD413 is proposed.

Characterization of the extracellular lipase, LipA, of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus BD413 and sequence analysis of the cloned structural gene.

The extracellular lipase from Acinetobacter calcoaceticus BD413 was purified to homogeneity, via hydrophobic-interaction fast performance liquid chromatography (FPLC), from cultures grown in mineral medium with hexadecane as the sole carbon source. The enzyme has an apparent molecular mass of 32 kDa on SDS-polyacrylamide gels and hydrolyses long acyl chain p-nitrophenol (pNP) esters, like pNP palmitate (pNPP), with optimal activity between pH 7.8 and 8.8. Additionally, the enzyme shows activity towards triglycerides such as olive oil and tributyrin and towards egg-yolk emulsions. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the mature protein was determined, and via reverse genetics the structural lipase gene was cloned from a gene library of A. calcoaceticus DNA in Escherichia coli phage M13. Sequence analysis of a 2.1 kb chromosomal DNA fragment revealed one complete open reading frame, lipA, encoding a mature protein with a predicted molecular mass of 32.1 kDa. This protein shows high similarity to known lipases, especially Pseudomonas lipases, that are exported in a two-step secretion mechanism and require a lipase-specific chaperone. The identification of an export signal sequence at the N-terminus of the mature lipase suggests that the lipase of Acinetobacter is also exported via a two-step translocation mechanism. However, no chaperone-encoding gene was found downstream of lipA, unlike the situation in Pseudomonas. Analysis of an A. calcoaceticus mutant showing reduced lipase production revealed that a periplasmic disulphide oxidoreductase is involved in processing of the lipase. Via sequence alignments, based upon the crystal structure of the closely related Pseudomonas glumae lipase, a model has been made of the secondary-structure elements in AcLipA. The active site serine of AcLipA was changed to an alanine, via site-directed mutagenesis, resulting in production of an inactive extracellular lipase.

Thiol ester-linked p-coumaric acid as a new photoactive prosthetic group in a protein with rhodopsin-like photochemistry.

A number of Eubacteria contain a photoactive yellow protein which has a photosensory function in negative phototaxis. It has been proposed that the cofactor responsible for the intense yellow color of this protein is retinal [McRee, D. E., et al. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 86, 6533-6537]. This would make it the first eubacterial rhodopsin. Here we report the chemical structure of this chromophoric group to be p-coumaric acid, which is covalently bound to a unique cysteine in the apoprotein via a thiol ester bond, and thus not retinal. This makes PYP the first example of a protein containing p-coumaric acid, a metabolite previously found only in plants, as a prosthetic group and establishes the photoactive yellow proteins as a new type of photochemically active receptor molecule.