Search results for " Quaternary"
showing 10 items of 148 documents
Amino acids in the second transmembrane helix of the Lhca4 subunit are important for formation of stable heterodimeric light-harvesting complex LHCI-…
2007
Photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes (LHCs) are assembled from apoproteins (Lhc proteins) and non-covalently attached pigments. Despite a considerable amino acid sequence identity, these proteins differ in their oligomerization behavior. To identify the amino acid residues determining the heterodimerization of Lhca1 and Lhca4 to form LHCI-730, we mutated the poorly conserved second transmembrane helix of the two subunits. Mutated genes were expressed in Escherichia coli and the resultant proteins were refolded in vitro and subsequently analyzed by gel electrophoresis. Replacement of the entire second helix in Lhca4 by the one of Lhca3 abolished heterodimerization, whereas it had no eff…
Evidence for two spectroscopically different dimers of light-harvesting complex I from green plants
2000
A preparation consisting of isolated dimeric peripheral antenna complexes from green plant photosystem I (light-harvesting complex I or LHCI) has been characterized by means of (polarized) steady-state absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy at low temperatures. We show that this preparation can be described reasonably well by a mixture of two types of dimers. In the first dimer about 10% of all Q(y)() absorption of the chlorophylls arises from two chlorophylls with absorption and emission maxima at about 711 and 733 nm, respectively, whereas in the second about 10% of the absorption arises from two chlorophylls with absorption and emission maxima at about 693 and 702 nm, respectively. The…
Molecular heterogeneity of the hemocyanin isolated from the king crabParalithodes camtschaticae
2000
Native Paralithodes camtschaticae hemocyanin is found as a mixture of dodecamers (24S; 80%) and hexamers (16S; 20%). Removal of Ca2+ ions by dialysis against EDTA-containing buffer solution at neutral pH induces complete dissociation of the 24S form into the 16S form. Under these conditions, a further increase in pH to 9.2 produces complete dissociation of the hexamers into monomers (5S). In both cases, the dissociation process is reversible. The dodecamer (24S) is composed of two different hexamers which can be discriminated only by ion-exchange chromatography in the presence of Ca2+ ions. At alkaline pH and in the presence of EDTA, two major monomeric fractions can be separated by ion-exc…
Amyloid fibrils formation and amorphous aggregation in Concanavalin A
2007
We here report an experimental study on the thermal aggregation process of concanavalin A, a protein belonging to the legume lectins family. The aggregation process and the involved conformational changes of the protein molecules were followed by means of fluorescence techniques, light scattering, circular dichroism, zeta potential measurements and atomic force microscopy. Our results show that the aggregation process of concanavalin A may evolve through two distinct pathways leading, respectively, to the formation of amyloids or amorphous aggregates. The relative extent of the two pathways is determined by pH, as amyloid aggregation is favored at high pH values ( approximately 9), while th…
Thermal stability of trimeric light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b complex (LHCIIb) in liposomes of thylakoid lipids.
2006
The major light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b complex (LHCIIb) of photosystem (PS) II functions by harvesting light energy and by limiting and balancing the energy flow directed towards the PSI and PSII reaction centers. The complex is predominantly trimeric; however, the monomeric form may play a role in one or several of the regulatory functions of LHCIIb. In this work the dissociation temperature was measured of trimeric LHCIIb isolated from Pisum thylakoids and inserted into liposomes made of various combinations of thylakoid lipids at various protein densities. Dissociation was measured by monitoring a trimer-specific circular dichroism signal in the visible range. The LHCIIb density in t…
Isolation and characterization of haemoporin, an abundant haemolymph protein from Aplysia californica.
2003
In the present study, we show the isolation and characterization of the protein haemoporin, which constitutes the second most abundant protein fraction in the haemolymph of the marine gastropod Aplysia californica. Although Aplysia is commonly used to investigate the molecular basis of learning, not much is known about the proteins in its haemolymph, which is in contact with the neurons owing to the open circulatory system of molluscs. In the native state, haemoporin is a macromolecular complex forming a cylinder with a central solvent-filled pore. The native complex most probably is a homopentamer made up from 70 kDa subunits with a molecular mass of 360 kDa and a sedimentation coefficient…
Uniqueness of Planktonic Ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea: The Response to Orbital- and Suborbital-Climatic Forcing over the Last 130,000 Years
2016
The Mediterranean Sea is an ideal location to test the response of organisms to hydrological transformations driven by climate change. Here we review studies carried out on planktonic foraminifera and coccolithophores during the late Quaternary and attempt the comparison of data scattered in time and space. We highlight the prompt response of surface water ecosystems to both orbital- and suborbital-climatic variations. A markedly different spatial response was observed in calcareous plankton assemblages, possibly due to the influence of the North Atlantic climatic system in the western, central and northern areas and of the monsoon system in the easternmost and southern sites. Orbital-induc…
Protein data condensation for effective quaternary structure classification
2007
Many proteins are composed of two or more subunits, each associated with different polypeptide chains. The number and the arrangement of subunits forming a protein are referred to as quaternary structure. The quaternary structure of a protein is important, since it characterizes the biological function of the protein when it is involved in specific biological processes. Unfortunately, quaternary structures are not trivially deducible from protein amino acid sequences. In this work, we propose a protein quaternary structure classification method exploiting the functional domain composition of proteins. It is based on a nearest neighbor condensation technique in order to reduce both the porti…
The Allosteric Effector l-Lactate Induces a Conformational Change of 2×6-meric Lobster Hemocyanin in the Oxy State as Revealed by Small Angle X-ray S…
2001
Abstract Hemocyanins are multisubunit respiratory proteins found in many invertebrates. They bind oxygen highly cooperatively. However, not much is known about the structural basis of this behavior. We studied the influence of the physiological allosteric effectorl-lactate on the oxygenated quaternary structure of the 2×6-meric hemocyanin from the lobster Homarus americanus employing small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). The presence of 20 mm l-lactate resulted in different scattering curves compared with those obtained in the absence of l-lactate. The distance distribution functionsp(r) indicated a more compact molecule in presence ofl-lactate, which is also reflected in a reduction of the …
Small-angle neutron scattering reveals an oxygen-dependent conformational change of the immunogen keyhole limpet hemocyanin type 1 (KLH1).
2001
The respiratory protein of the keyhole limpet, Megathura crenulata, the hemocyanin (KLH), commonly used as an immunogen, binds oxygen cooperatively, which implies the existence of different conformations. For the first time, two different conformations of KLH1 were detected upon oxygenation, a deoxy and an oxy state, using small-angle neutron scattering. Rearrangements in the quaternary structure of KLH1 were predicted from the different radii of gyration and the shifts of the minima and maxima in the scattering curves. Upon oxygenation, KLH1 becomes smaller and more compact. Model reconstruction of KLH1 indicates a hollow cylinder with two rings located close to both ends, which move sligh…