Binding of flexible and constrained ligands to the Grb2 SH2 domain: structural effects of ligand preorganization.

Structures of the Grb2 SH2 domain complexed with a series of pseudopeptides containing flexible (benzyl succinate) and constrained (aryl cyclopropanedicarboxylate) replacements of the phosphotyrosine (pY) residue in tripeptides derived from Ac-pYXN-NH(2) (where X = V, I, E and Q) were elucidated by X-ray crystallography. Complexes of flexible/constrained pairs having the same pY + 1 amino acid were analyzed in order to ascertain what structural differences might be attributed to constraining the phosphotyrosine replacement. In this context, a given structural dissimilarity between complexes was considered to be significant if it was greater than the corresponding difference in complexes coexisting within the same asymmetric unit. The backbone atoms of the domain generally adopt a similar conformation and orientation relative to the ligands in the complexes of each flexible/constrained pair, although there are some significant differences in the relative orientations of several loop regions, most notably in the BC loop that forms part of the binding pocket for the phosphate group in the tyrosine replacements. These variations are greater in the set of complexes of constrained ligands than in the set of complexes of flexible ligands. The constrained ligands make more direct polar contacts to the domain than their flexible counterparts, whereas the more flexible ligand of each pair makes more single-water-mediated contacts to the domain; there was no correlation between the total number of protein-ligand contacts and whether the phosphotyrosine replacement of the ligand was preorganized. The observed differences in hydrophobic interactions between the complexes of each flexible/constrained ligand pair were generally similar to those observed upon comparing such contacts in coexisting complexes. The average adjusted B factors of the backbone atoms of the domain and loop regions are significantly greater in the complexes of constrained ligands than in the complexes of the corresponding flexible ligands, suggesting greater thermal motion in the crystalline state in the former complexes. There was no apparent correlation between variations in crystal packing and observed structural differences or similarities in the complexes of flexible and constrained ligands, but the possibility that crystal packing might result in structural variations cannot be rigorously excluded. Overall, it appears that there are more variations in the three-dimensional structure of the protein and the ligand in complexes of the constrained ligands than in those of their more flexible counterparts.

Thermodynamic and structural effects of conformational constraints in protein-ligand interactions. Entropic paradoxy associated with ligand preorganization.

Succinate- and cyclopropane-derived phosphotyrosine (pY) replacements were incorporated into a series of Grb2 SH2 binding ligands wherein the pY+1 residue was varied to determine explicitly how variations in ligand preorganization affect binding energetics and structure. The complexes of these ligands with the Grb2 SH2 domain were examined in a series of thermodynamic and structural investigations using isothermal titration calorimetry and X-ray crystallography. The binding enthalpies for all ligands were favorable, and although binding entropies for all ligands having a hydrophobic residue at the pY+1 site were favorable, binding entropies for those having a hydrophilic residue at this site were unfavorable. Preorganized ligands generally bound with more favorable Gibbs energies than their flexible controls, but this increased affinity was the consequence of relatively more favorable binding enthalpies. Unexpectedly, binding entropies of the constrained ligands were uniformly disfavored relative to their flexible controls, demonstrating that the widely held belief that ligand preorganization should result in an entropic advantage is not necessarily true. Crystallographic studies of complexes of several flexible and constrained ligands having the same amino acid at the pY+1 position revealed extensive similarities, but there were some notable differences. There are a greater number of direct polar contacts in complexes of the constrained ligands that correlate qualitatively with their more favorable binding enthalpies and Gibbs energies. There are more single water-mediated contacts between the domain and the flexible ligand of each pair; although fixing water molecules at a protein-ligand interface is commonly viewed as entropically unfavorable, entropies for forming these complexes are favored relative to those of their constrained counterparts. Crystallographic b-factors in the complexes of constrained ligands are greater than those of their flexible counterparts, an observation that seems inconsistent with our finding that entropies for forming complexes of flexible ligands are relatively more favorable. This systematic study highlights the profound challenges and complexities associated with predicting how structural changes in a ligand will affect enthalpies, entropies, and structure in protein-ligand interactions.

Targeted generation of DNA strand breaks using pyrene-conjugated triplex-forming oligonucleotides.

Gene targeting by triplex-forming oligonucleotides (TFOs) has proven useful for gene modulation in vivo. Photoreactive molecules have been conjugated to TFOs to direct sequence-specific damage in double-stranded DNA. However, the photoproducts are often repaired efficiently in cells. This limitation has led to the search for sequence-specific photoreactive reagents that can produce more genotoxic lesions. Here we demonstrate that photoactivated pyrene-conjugated TFOs (pyr-TFOs) induce DNA strand breaks near the pyrene moiety with remarkably high efficiency and also produce covalent pyrene-DNA adducts. Free radical scavenging experiments demonstrated a role for singlet oxygen activated by the singlet excited state of pyrene in the mechanism of pyr-TFO-induced DNA damage. In cultured mammalian cells, the effect of photoactivated pyr-TFO-directed DNA damage was to induce mutations, in the form of deletions, approximately 7-fold over background levels, at the targeted site. Thus, pyr-TFOs represent a potentially powerful new tool for directing DNA strand breaks to specific chromosomal locations for biotechnological and potential clinical applications.

Structural and energetic aspects of Grb2-SH2 domain-swapping.

The SH2 domain of growth factor receptor-bound protein 2 (Grb2) has been the focus of numerous studies, primarily because of the important roles it plays in signal transduction. More recently, it has emerged as a useful protein to study the consequences of ligand preorganization upon energetics and structure in protein-ligand interactions. The Grb2-SH2 domain is known to form a domain-swapped dimer, and as part of our investigations toward correlating structure and energetics in biological systems, we examined the effects that domain-swapping dimerization of the Grb2-SH2 domain had upon ligand binding affinities. Isothermal titration calorimetry was performed using Grb2-SH2 in both its monomeric and domain-swapped dimeric forms and a phosphorylated tripeptide AcNH-pTyr-Val-Asn-NH(2) that is similar to the Shc sequence recognized by Grb2-SH2 in vivo. The two binding sites of domain-swapped dimer exhibited a 4- and a 13-fold reduction in ligand affinity compared to monomer. Crystal structures of peptide-bound and uncomplexed forms of Grb2-SH2 domain-swapped dimer were obtained and reveal that the orientation of residues V122, V123, and R142 may influence the conformation of W121, an amino acid that is believed to play an important role in Grb2-SH2 ligand sequence specificity. These findings suggest that domain-swapping of Grb2-SH2 not only results in a lower affinity for a Shc-derived ligand, but it may also affect ligand specificity.

Structural studies examining the substrate specificity profiles of PC-PLC(Bc) protein variants.

The phosphatidylcholine preferring phospholipase C from Bacillus cereus (PC-PLC(Bc)) catalyzes the hydrolysis of phospholipids in the following order of preference: phosphatidylcholine (PC)>phosphatidylethanolamine (PE)>phosphatidylserine (PS). In previous work, mutagenic, kinetic, and crystallographic experiments suggested that varying the amino acids at the 4th, 56th, and 66th positions had a significant influence upon the substrate specificity profile of PC-PLC(Bc). Here, we report the crystal structures of the native form of several PC-PLC(Bc) variants that exhibited altered substrate specificities for PC, PE, and PS at maximum resolutions of 1.90-2.05 Angstrom. Comparing the structures of these variants to the structure of the wild-type enzyme reveals only minor differences with respect to the number and location of active site water molecules and the side chain conformations of residues at the 4th and 56th positions. These results suggest that subtle changes in steric and electronic properties in the substrate binding site of PC-PLC(Bc) are responsible for the significant changes in substrate selectivity.