The gamma-carboxylation recognition site is sufficient to direct vitamin K-dependent carboxylation on an adjacent glutamate-rich region of thrombin in a propeptide-thrombin chimera.

The propeptides of the vitamin K-dependent proteins contain a gamma-carboxylation recognition site that is required for gamma-glutamyl carboxylation. To determine whether the propeptide is sufficient to direct carboxylation, two mutant prothrombin species were expressed and characterized with regard to posttranslational gamma-carboxylation. A double point mutant, in which serine substituted for cysteines 17 and 22 disrupted a conserved loop formed by a disulfide bond, was fully carboxylated when expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. A propeptide/thrombin chimeric protein, constructed by deleting the Gla, aromatic amino acid stack, and kringle domains of prothrombin, has the signal peptide and propeptide juxtaposed to a glutamate-rich COOH-terminal region of prothrombin, residues 249-530. Of the 8 glutamic acid residues contained within the first 40 residues of the NH2 terminus adjacent to the propeptide, at least seven were fully carboxylated as demonstrated by direct gamma-carboxyglutamic acid analysis of the alkaline hydrolysate and by NH2-terminal sequence analysis. These results indicate that the gamma-carboxylation recognition site within the prothrombin propeptide in a prothrombin propeptide-thrombin chimeric protein is sufficient to direct gamma-carboxylase-catalyzed carboxylation of adjacent glutamic acid residues in a glutamate-rich region of thrombin that is not normally gamma-carboxylated. Furthermore, the disulfide loop in the Gla domain of prothrombin is not required for complete carboxylation.

Biosynthesis of prothrombin: intracellular localization of the vitamin K-dependent carboxylase and the sites of gamma-carboxylation.

Prothrombin is a vitamin K-dependent blood coagulation protein that undergoes posttranslational gamma-carboxylation and propeptide cleavage during biosynthesis. The propeptide contains the gamma-carboxylation recognition site that directs gamma-carboxylation. To identify the intracellular sites of carboxylation and propeptide cleavage, we monitored the synthesis of prothrombin in Chinese hamster ovary cells stably transfected with the prothrombin cDNA by immunofluorescent staining. The vitamin K-dependent carboxylase was located in the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi complex. Antibodies specific to prothrombin processing intermediates were used for immunocytolocalization. Anti-des-gamma-carboxyprothrombin antibodies stained only the endoplasmic reticulum whereas antiproprothrombin antibodies (specific for the propeptide) and antiprothrombin:Mg(II) antibodies (which bind the carboxylated forms of proprothrombin and prothrombin) stained both the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi complex. Antiprothrombin:Ca(II)-specific antibodies (which bind only to the carboxylated form of prothrombin lacking the propeptide) stained only the Golgi complex and secretory vesicles, and colocalized with antimannosidase II and anti-p200 in the juxtanuclear Golgi complex. These results indicate that uncarboxylated proprothrombin undergoes complete gamma-carboxylation in the endoplasmic reticulum and that gamma-carboxylation precedes propeptide cleavage during prothrombin biosynthesis.

The importance of specific gamma-carboxyglutamic acid residues in prothrombin. Evaluation by site-specific mutagenesis.

Prothrombin has 10 gamma-carboxyglutamic acid residues which are essential for the metal ion binding properties and membrane binding function of the protein. To assess the importance of each gamma-carboxyglutamic acid residue we made, by site directed mutagenesis, a series of mutant human prothrombins each with a single glutamic acid to aspartic acid substitution at positions 6, 7, 14, 16, 19, 20, 25, 26, 29, or 32 which are gamma-carboxylated in native prothrombin. Along with wild-type prothrombin, the prothrombin mutants were expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells, purified by immunoaffinity chromatography using polyclonal anti-prothrombin antibodies, and shown by amino acid analysis to contain the expected number of gamma-carboxyglutamic acid residues. Only substitution of gamma-carboxyglutamic acid 6 with aspartic acid yields a protein with procoagulant activity, affinity for phospholipid and KM(app) for prothrombinase indistinguishable from wild-type prothrombin. In contrast, the conservative gamma-carboxyglutamic acid to aspartic acid mutation at positions 16, 26, or 29 results in proteins with little or no procoagulant activity, Kd(app) for binding to phospholipid at least 200-fold higher than wild-type prothrombin and a KM(app) for interaction with the prothrombinase complex nearly 100-fold higher than wild-type prothrombin. The mutations at residues 7, 14, 19, 20, 25, or 32 yielded proteins with intermediate procoagulant activities, between 15 and 52% of wild-type prothrombin. These data have been interpreted to suggest that there are certain gamma-carboxyglutamic acid residues which are important to maintaining the basic structure of the calcium-liganded Gla domain while other gamma-carboxyglutamic acid residues subserve other functions including membrane binding and interdomain interactions.