Isomorphous Replacement Phases Research Articles

Single-support serial isomorphous replacement phasing.

The use of single isomorphous replacement (SIR) has become less widespread due to difficulties in sample preparation and the identification of isomorphous native and derivative data sets. Non-isomorphism becomes even more problematic in serial experiments, because it adds natural inter-crystal non-isomorphism to heavy-atom-soaking-induced non-isomorphism. Here, a method that can successfully address these issues (and indeed can benefit from differences in heavy-atom occupancy) and additionally significantly simplifies the SIR experiment is presented. A single heavy-atom soak into a microcrystalline slurry is performed, followed by automated serial data collection of partial data sets. This produces a set of data collections with a gradient of heavy-atom occupancies, which are reflected in differential merging statistics. These differences can be exploited by an optimized genetic algorithm to segregate the pool of data sets into `native' and `derivative' groups, which can then be used to successfully determine phases experimentally by SIR.

IPCAS: a direct-method-based pipeline from phasing to model building and refinement for macromolecular structure determination

A new version (2.0) of the pipeline IPCAS (Iterative Protein Crystal structure Automatic Solution) has been released, in which the program OASIS performs direct-method single-wavelength anomalous diffraction/single isomorphous replacement phasing and direct-method-aided partial-structure extension. IPCAS incorporates the widely used packages CCP4 and PHENIX for locating heavy atoms, density modification, molecular replacement, model building and refinement. Important extensions to the previous version of IPCAS include a resolution screening method for non-crystallographic symmetry searching, an alternate model-building protocol for avoiding premature convergence and direct-method image processing for electron microscopy maps, including single-particle cryo-EM maps. Moreover, a new graphical user interface is provided for controlling and real-time monitoring of the whole dual-space iterative process, which works as a plugin to CCP4i. Applications of the new IPCAS to difficult cases have yielded promising results, including `direct-method phasing and fragment extension' from weak anomalous diffraction signal data and `direct-method-aided partial-structure extension' from low-homology models.

Enhancement of MAD/MIR phasing at low resolution and a new procedure for automatic phase extension**Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2011CB911100) of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.

To achieve de novo protein structure determination of challenging cases, multi-wavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) and multiple isomorphous replacement (MIR) phasing can be powerful tools to obtain low-resolution initial phases from heavy-atom derivative datasets, then phase extension is needed against high-resolution data to obtain accurate structures. In this context, we propose a direct-methods procedure here that could improve the initial low-resolution MAD/MIR phase quality. And accordingly, an automated process for extending initial phases to high resolution is also described. These two procedures are both implanted in the newly released IPCAS pipeline. Three cases are used to perform the test, including one set of 4.17 Å MAD data from a membrane protein and two sets of MAD/MIR data with derivatives truncated down to 6.80 Å and 6.90 Å, respectively. All the results have shown that the initial phases generated from the direct-methods procedure are better than that from the conventional MAD/MIR methods. The automated phase extensions for the latter two cases starting from 6.80 Å to 3.00 Å and 6.90 Å to 2.80 Å are proved to be successful, leading to complete models. This may provide convenient and reliable tools for phase improvement and phase extension in difficult low-resolution tasks.

Challenges and surprises that arise with nucleic acids during model building and refinement.

The process of building and refining crystal structures of nucleic acids, although similar to that for proteins, has some peculiarities that give rise to both various complications and various benefits. Although conventional isomorphous replacement phasing techniques are typically used to generate an experimental electron-density map for the purposes of determining novel nucleic acid structures, it is also possible to couple the phasing and model-building steps to permit thesolution of complex and novel RNA three-dimensional structures without the need for conventional heavy-atom phasing approaches.

Single isomorphous replacement phasing of selenomethionine-containing proteins using UV-induced radiation damage

The most commonly used heavy-atom derivative, selenium, requires the use of a tunable beamline to access the Se K edge for experimental phasing using anomalous diffraction methods, whereas X-ray diffraction experiments for selenium-specific ultraviolet radiation-damage-induced phasing can be performed on fixed-wavelength beamlines or even using in-house X-ray sources. Several nonredundant X-ray diffraction data sets were collected from three different selenomethionine (Mse) derivatized protein crystals at energies far below the absorption edge before and after exposing the crystal to ultraviolet (UV) radiation using 266 nm lasers of flux density 1.7 × 10¹⁵ photons s⁻¹ mm⁻² for 10-50 min. A detailed analysis revealed that significant changes in diffracted intensities were induced by ultraviolet irradiation whilst retaining crystal isomorphism. These intensity changes allowed the crystal structures to be solved by the radiation-damage-induced phasing (RIP) technique. Inspection of the crystal structures and electron-density maps demonstrated that covalent bonds between selenium and carbon at all sites located in the core of the proteins or in a hydrophobic environment were much more susceptible to UV radiation-induced cleavage than other bonds typically present in Mse proteins. The rapid UV radiation-induced bond cleavage opens a reliable new paradigm for phasing when no tunable X-ray source is available. The behaviour of Mse derivatives of various proteins provides novel insights and an initial basis for understanding the mechanism of selenium-specific UV radiation damage.

Crystal structure and functional insights of hemopexin fold protein from grass pea.

A regulatory protein from grass pea (Lathyrus sativus), LS-24, a close homolog of albumin 2 from garden pea (Pisum sativum) that is associated with polyamine biosynthesis, was characterized and the structure of a hemopexin-type fold among plant proteins illustrated. Crystal structure of LS-24 determined at 2.2 A resolution by multiple isomorphous replacement phasing showed four-bladed beta-propeller structure having a pseudo 4-fold molecular symmetry along a metal ion-binding central channel. The structure represents typical mammalian hemopexin fold with discernible features correlated with the possible functional variations. The protein was found to exist in the dimeric state. While LS-24 dimer binds to spermine in the crystal structure as well as in solution, binding of heme in solution resulted in the dissociation of the dimer into monomers with concomitant release of bound spermine. Interactions of heme and spermine with LS-24 bear physiological implications. While binding of spermine to LS-24 can be linked with polyamine biosynthesis that of heme correlates with oxidative stress. Mutually exclusive binding of heme and spermine in different oligomeric states suggest a role for LS-24 in sensing oxidative stress through a ligand-regulated monomer-dimer transition switch.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa LD-Carboxypeptidase, a Serine Peptidase with a Ser-His-Glu Triad and a Nucleophilic Elbow*

LD-Carboxypeptidases (EC 3.4.17.13) are named for their ability to cleave amide bonds between l- and d-amino acids, which occur naturally in bacterial peptidoglycan. They are specific for the link between meso-diaminopimelic acid and d-alanine and therefore degrade GlcNAc-MurNAc tetrapeptides to the corresponding tripeptides. As only the tripeptides can be reused as peptidoglycan building blocks, ld-carboxypeptidases are thought to play a role in peptidoglycan recycling. Despite the pharmaceutical interest in peptidoglycan biosynthesis, the fold and catalytic type of ld-carboxypeptidases are unknown. Here, we show that a previously uncharacterized open reading frame in Pseudomonas aeruginosa has ld-carboxypeptidase activity and present the crystal structure of this enzyme. The structure shows that the enzyme consists of an N-terminal beta-sheet and a C-terminal beta-barrel domain. At the interface of the two domains, Ser(115) adopts a highly strained conformation in the context of a strand-turn-helix motif that is similar to the "nucleophilic elbow" in alphabeta-hydrolases. Ser(115) is hydrogen-bonded to a histidine residue, which is oriented by a glutamate residue. All three residues, which occur in the order Ser-Glu-His in the amino acid sequence, are strictly conserved in naturally occurring ld-carboxypeptidases and cannot be mutated to alanines without loss of activity. We conclude that ld-carboxypeptidases are serine peptidases with Ser-His-Glu catalytic triads.

Experimental methods for measuring accurate high-amplitude phases and their importance in isomorphous replacement experiments

Conventional experimental phasing methods are most accurate for moderate-resolution reflections, with progressively greater ambiguity in the phases of reflections away from this optimal point. Frequently, very strong (usually low-resolution) reflections are either poorly phased or altogether unrecorded. While the spatial frequency of these reflections is predominantly too low to dramatically affect the calculated electron density at an atomic level, they have a dominant impact on the determination of the large-scale distribution of matter in the unit cell. Consequently, while these few strong reflections play only a peripheral role in the latter stages of a structure-determination project, they are crucial to the success of initial phasing and model-building efforts. Here, the pivotal importance of a limited number of strong/low-resolution reflection phases is shown and a procedure to derive these phases is described. The improvement in map correlation coefficients after density modification of a marginal ;starting' MAD data set (obtained from two Zn atoms at special positions in rhombohedral insulin crystals) was compared with the improvement in map correlation coefficients observed after density modification of an ;expanded' data set obtained by combining a limited number of highly accurate phases measured using three-beam diffraction with the ;starting' MAD data. It is concluded that a small number of high-amplitude/low-resolution reflections contribute disproportionately to generating an initial structure and it is suggested that a small number of triplet phases could be measured quickly and combined with experimental isomorphous replacement phases in order to move stubborn structures for novel proteins down the structure-solution pathway.

Structure and Properties of the C-terminal Domain of Insulin-like Growth Factor-binding Protein-1 Isolated from Human Amniotic Fluid

Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) regulates the activity of the insulin-like growth factors in early pregnancy and is, thus, thought to play a key role at the fetal-maternal interface. The C-terminal domain of IGFBP-1 and three isoforms of the intact protein were isolated from human amniotic fluid, and sequencing of the four N-terminal polypeptide chains showed them to be highly pure. The addition of both intact IGFBP-1 and its C-terminal fragment to cultured fibroblasts has a similar stimulating effect on cell migration, and therefore, the domain has a biological activity on its own. The three-dimensional structure of the C-terminal domain was determined by x-ray crystallography to 1.8 Angstroms resolution. The fragment folds as a thyroglobulin type I domain and was found to bind the Fe(2+) ion in the crystals through the only histidine residue present in the polypeptide chain. Iron (II) decreases the binding of intact IGFBP-1 and the C-terminal domain to IGF-II, suggesting that the metal binding site is close to or part of the surface of interaction of the two molecules.

Molecular Basis of Intramolecular Electron Transfer in Sulfite-oxidizing Enzymes Is Revealed by High Resolution Structure of a Heterodimeric Complex of the Catalytic Molybdopterin Subunit and a c-Type Cytochrome Subunit

Sulfite-oxidizing molybdoenzymes convert the highly reactive and therefore toxic sulfite to sulfate and have been identified in insects, animals, plants, and bacteria. Although the well studied enzymes from higher animals serve to detoxify sulfite that arises from the catabolism of sulfur-containing amino acids, the bacterial enzymes have a central role in converting sulfite formed during dissimilatory oxidation of reduced sulfur compounds. Here we describe the structure of the Starkeya novella sulfite dehydrogenase, a heterodimeric complex of the catalytic molybdopterin subunit and a c-type cytochrome subunit, that reveals the molecular mechanism of intramolecular electron transfer in sulfite-oxidizing enzymes. The close approach of the two redox centers in the protein complex (Mo-Fe distance 16.6 A) allows for rapid electron transfer via tunnelling or aided by the protein environment. The high resolution structure of the complex has allowed the identification of potential through-bond pathways for electron transfer including a direct link via Arg-55A and/or an aromatic-mediated pathway. A potential site of electron transfer to an external acceptor cytochrome c was also identified on the SorB subunit on the opposite side to the interaction with the catalytic SorA subunit.

Improving experimental phasing: the role of strongest reflections

Very strong reflections have a dominant impact on the initial phasing and model-building stages of structure determination. However, experimental phasing (MIR, SAD or MAD) fails on some of the strongest reflections when the heavy-atom contribution to scattering is relatively weak or absent. It is shown that when just a few (approximately 50-100) of these reflections are assigned low-error phases, the entire set of isomorphous replacement phases becomes significantly improved after density modification. This improvement is indicated by higher map correlation coefficients and reduced mean phase errors of the updated data. The problem of phasing the strongest reflections may be solved by the direct measurement of triplet phases in a three-beam diffraction experiment. The analysis shows that merging isomorphous replacement data with a limited number of highly accurate phases from the reference-beam diffraction experiment would significantly improve conventional experimental phasing.

Position and Orientation of Phalloidin in F-Actin Determined by X-Ray Fiber Diffraction Analysis

Knowledge of the phalloidin binding position in F-actin and the relevant understanding of the mechanism of F-actin stabilization would help to define the structural characteristics of the F-actin filament. To determine the position of bound phalloidin experimentally, x-ray fiber diffraction data were obtained from well-oriented sols of F-actin and the phalloidin-F-actin complex. The differences in the layer-line intensity distributions, which were clearly observed even at low resolution (8 Å), produced well-resolved peaks corresponding to interphalloidin vectors in the cylindrically averaged difference-Patterson map, from which the radial binding position was determined to be ∼10 Å from the filament axis. Then, the azimuthal and axial positions were determined by single isomorphous replacement phasing and a cross-Patterson map in radial projection to be ∼84° and 0.5 Å relative to the actin mass center. The refined position was close to the position found by prior researchers. The position of rhodamine attached to phalloidin in the rhodamine-phalloidin-F-actin complex was also determined, in which the conjugated Leu(OH) 7 residue was found to face the outside of the filament. The position and orientation of the bound phalloidin so determined explain the increase in the interactions between long-pitch strands of F-actin and would also account for the inhibition of phosphate release, which might also contribute to the F-actin stabilization. The method of analysis developed in this study is applicable for the determination of binding positions of other drugs, such as jasplakinolide and dolastatin 11.

Structure of human uridine-cytidine kinase 2 determined by SIRAS using a rotating-anode X-ray generator and a single samarium derivative

Uridine-cytidine nucleoside kinase 2 (UCK2) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the pyrimidine-nucleotide salvage pathway. UCK2 catalyzes the phosphorylation of the natural ribonucleosides cytidine and uridine to cytidine 5'-monophosphate (CMP) and uridine 5'-monophosphate (UMP), respectively, and activates several important frontline antimetabolite drugs. The present contribution reports the rapid crystal structure determination of human UCK2 complexed with a magnesium ion and the reaction products adenosine 5'-diphosphate (ADP) and CMP. Diffraction data were collected on a copper rotating-anode X-ray generator from one native UCK2 crystal and a single samarium-derivative crystal. Utilizing the relatively high anomalous signal from the samarium derivative at the Cu Kalpha wavelength, the structure was determined by single isomorphous replacement and single anomalous signal (SIRAS) phasing techniques. Two of the four major samarium sites are located in the active sites of the two UCK2 molecules that form the asymmetric unit and appear to displace the magnesium ions present in the native crystals. The crystal structures of UCK2 alone and in complex with various ligands have recently been determined using traditional multiple isomorphous replacement (MIR) phasing techniques and data from three heavy-atom derivatives. The reported structures validate our independently determined structure. Of more than 1000 kinase crystal structure entries in the Protein Data Bank, less than 1% of them have been determined by SIRAS. For the published kinase crystal structures determined by SIRAS, all data were reportedly collected at various synchrotron-radiation facilities. This study demonstrates that diffraction data collected from a single samarium derivative using Cu Kalpha radiation provides sufficient phasing power to determine a novel macromolecular crystal structure.

Preliminary crystallographic analysis of the antibiotic discharge outer membrane lipoprotein OprM of Pseudomonas aeruginosa with an exceptionally long unit cell and complex lattice structure.

Crystals of the drug-discharge outer membrane protein OprM (MW = 50.9 kDa) of the MexAB-OprM multidrug transporter of Pseudomonas aeruginosa have been grown at 293 K in the presence of 2-methyl-2,4-propanediol and a combination of surfactants. The crystal belonged to space group R32, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 85.43, c = 1044.3 A. Diffraction data for OprM were obtained using the undulator synchrotron-radiation beamline at SPring-8 (BL44XU, Osaka University), which allowed an extra-long specimen-to-detector distance with a wide detector area. The crystal diffracted to 2.56 A resolution using 0.9 A X-rays from the synchrotron-radiation source. A heavy-atom derivative for isomorphous replacement phasing was obtained using iridium chloride.

The molecular structure and catalytic mechanism of a novel carboxyl peptidase from Scytalidium lignicolum.

The molecular structure of the pepstatin-insensitive carboxyl peptidase from Scytalidium lignicolum, formerly known as scytalidopepsin B, was solved by multiple isomorphous replacement phasing methods and refined to an R factor of 0.230 (R(free) = 0.246) at 2.1-A resolution. In addition to the structure of the unbound peptidase, the structure of a product complex of cleaved angiotensin II bound in the active site of the enzyme was also determined. We propose the name scytalidocarboxyl peptidase B (SCP-B) for this enzyme. On the basis of conserved, catalytic residues identified at the active site, we suggest the name Eqolisin for the enzyme family. The previously uninvestigated SCP-B fold is that of a beta-sandwich; each sheet has seven antiparallel strands. A tripeptide product, Ala-Ile-His, bound in the active site of SCP-B has allowed for identification of the catalytic residues and the residues in subsites S1, S2, and S3, which are important for substrate binding. The most likely hydrolytic mechanism involves nucleophilic attack of a general base (Glu-136)-activated water (OH(-)) on the si-face of the scissile peptide carbonylcarbon atom to form a tetrahedral intermediate. Electrophilic assistance and oxyanion stabilization is provided by the side-chain amide of Gln-53. Protonation of the leaving-group nitrogen is accomplished by the general acid function of the protonated carboxyl group of Glu-136.

Application of the complex multivariate normal distribution to crystallographic methods with insights into multiple isomorphous replacement phasing

Probabilistic methods involving maximum-likelihood parameter estimation have become a powerful tool in computational crystallography. At the centre of these methods are the relevant probability distributions. Here, equations are developed based on the complex multivariate normal distribution that generalize the distributions currently used in maximum-likelihood model and heavy-atom refinement. In this treatment, the effects of various sources of error in the experiment are considered separately and allowance is made for correlations among sources of error. The multivariate distributions presented are closely related to the distributions previously derived in ab initio phasing and can be applied to many different aspects of a crystallographic structure-determination process including model refinement, density modification, heavy-atom phasing and refinement or combinations of them. The underlying probability distributions for multiple isomorphous replacement are re-examined using these techniques. The re-analysis requires the underlying assumptions to be made explicitly and results in a variance term that, unlike those previously used for maximum-likelihood multiple isomorphous replacement phasing, is expressed explicitly in terms of structure-factor covariances. Test cases presented show that the newly derived multiple isomorphous replacement likelihood functions perform satisfactorily compared with currently used programs.

Crystal Structure of Transcription Factor MalT Domain III: A Novel Helix Repeat Fold Implicated in Regulated Oligomerization

Background: MalT from Escherichia coli, the best-studied member of the MalT family of ATP-dependent transcriptional activators, regulates the genes for malto-oligosaccharide utilization. The active form of this 4 domain protein is a homooligomer, and its multimerization is induced by the binding of maltotriose. Domains II and III of MalT were suggested to mediate the oligomerization process, but its molecular mechanism and the specific functions of these domains remain to be identified. Results: We solved the crystal structure of MalT domain III at 1.45 Å resolution by multiple isomorphous replacement phasing. The structure reveals eight copies of a two-helix bundle motif arranged in a novel, right-handed superhelix fold with closed walls, followed by a small C-terminal subdomain. The MalT superhelix contains a potential maltotriose binding site and forms a large hydrophobic protein-protein interaction interface that mediates the contact between two MalT domain III molecules. Structure-based analysis of the two-helix bundle motifs revealed a novel degenerated sequence pattern, and repeats of this pattern could be identified in other regulator proteins. Conclusions: MalT domain III contains a novel superhelix fold. Its protein-protein interaction interface, however, resembles protein binding sites of other superhelical proteins, suggesting a model with domain III mediating MalT oligomerization. Maltotriose seems to modulate the interaction interface and MalT oligomerization by occupying the ligand binding site inside the superhelix. Similar structural and mechanistic features in other MalT protein-family members and unrelated regulator proteins are indicated by the reappearance of a novel sequence motif derived from the MalT domain III structure.

Structure determination of the head-tail connector of bacteriophage phi29.

The head-tail connector of bacteriophage phi29 is composed of 12 36 kDa subunits with 12-fold symmetry. It is the central component of a rotary motor that packages the genomic dsDNA into preformed proheads. This motor consists of the head-tail connector, surrounded by a phi29-encoded, 174-base, RNA and a viral ATPase protein, both of which have fivefold symmetry in three-dimensional cryo-electron microscopy reconstructions. DNA is translocated into the prohead through a 36 A diameter pore in the center of the connector, where the DNA takes the role of a motor spindle. The helical nature of the DNA allows the rotational action of the connector to be transformed into a linear translation of the DNA. The crystal structure determination of connector crystals in space group C2 was initiated by molecular replacement, using an approximately 20 A resolution model derived from cryo-electron microscopy. The model phases were extended to 3.5 A resolution using 12-fold non-crystallographic symmetry averaging and solvent flattening. Although this electron density was not interpretable, the phases were adequate to locate the position of 24 mercury sites of a thimerosal heavy-atom derivative. The resultant 3.2 A single isomorphous replacement phases were improved using density modification, producing an interpretable electron-density map. The crystallographically refined structure was used as a molecular-replacement model to solve the structures of two other crystal forms of the connector molecule. One of these was in the same space group and almost isomorphous, whereas the other was in space group P2(1)2(1)2. The structural differences between the oligomeric connector molecules in the three crystal forms and between different monomers within each crystal show that the structure is relatively flexible, particularly in the protruding domain at the wide end of the connector. This domain probably acts as a bearing, allowing the connector to rotate within the pentagonal portal of the prohead during DNA packaging.

An improved phase-extension procedure for isomorphous replacement phases.

A new phase-extension procedure has been applied to isomorphous replacement data and shown to yield improved phases and maps compared with standard solvent flattening operating on a full set of centroid phases. In this procedure, a starting subset of core phases is selected based on the sharpness of the phase-probability curves. Phase extension using solvent flattening as the density-modification procedure is then carried out, gradually adding additional phases. In tests with known protein structures, the mean phase errors for the output expanded phase sets were reduced by 3-9 degrees and the corresponding map correlation coefficients were increased by 0.05-0.18 relative to phase sets from standard solvent-flattening procedures. With SIR data, the lowest final mean phase errors were approximately 58 degrees and the corresponding map correlation coefficients were in the range 0.53-0.68.

Map self-validation: a useful discriminator of phase correctness at low resolution.

A new map-validation procedure is based on the correlation-coefficient agreement between the observed structure-factor magnitudes and their extrapolated values from suitably modified electron-density maps from which they have been each in turn systematically excluded. The correlation coefficient tends to a maximum as the phase errors in a map are reduced. This principle was used to resolve the single-wavelength anomalous scattering (SAS) and single-derivative isomorphous replacement (SIR) phase ambiguity for a number of error-free trial structures. Applications employing real data sets tend to be more difficult owing to data incompleteness and errors affecting the construction of the Argand diagram.