环糊精葡萄糖基转移酶N-端热稳定性研究

环糊精葡萄糖基转移酶(CGTase;EC2.4.1.19)是生产环糊精的重要工业用酶,由于工业生产条件的高温加热,使得CGTase的使用受到很大限制。除了筛选合适菌种外,人们更希望利用蛋白质工程手段改造CGTase的热稳定性。文中采用分子动力学模拟取样研究了CGTase的N-端环状区域中氢键与盐桥对其耐热性的影响作用。结果表明:随着模拟温度的升高,非电荷-非电荷氢键占有率显著降低,带电荷-带电荷氢键占有率并没有太大变化,高温下能够保持稳定的氢键几乎都是和带电氨基酸有关;由盐桥的断裂次序的分析,发现在高温下多数盐桥的占有率并没有显著降低,即盐桥的稳定存在对于抵抗高温是有效的。无论是氢键还是盐桥,它们的相同点都是带电荷-带电荷之间的反应受温度影响不大。这一结果说明在蛋白质CGTase中合适的位置增加带电氨基酸数量,增强电荷间静电相互作用,对于提高CGTase的热稳定性是有效的。     

贝叶斯方法在蛋白质耐热性分类中的研究

氨基酸含量是影响蛋白质耐热性的主要因素。本文以氨基酸含量为特征向量,研究了贝叶斯方法预测蛋白质耐热性的准确度。结果表明,基于贝叶斯方法的局部预测率和全局预测率分别为73.1%和76.1%。这不仅表明贝叶斯方法适合于蛋白质耐热性的分类,而且也证明了氨基酸含量的确对蛋白质耐热性有重要作用。     

嗜冷嗜盐菌Halorubrum lacusprofundi中蛋白质稳定性机制的探讨

研究嗜冷嗜盐菌H.lacusprofundi中蛋白质在不同结构区域的特点,对了解其稳定的结构基础及设计新型嗜冷嗜盐蛋白具有重要意义。通过对991对同源嗜冷嗜盐菌和嗜温嗜盐菌的序列及高级结构信息进行统计学对比分析,结果表明:嗜冷嗜盐菌和嗜温嗜盐菌氨基酸组成中亮氨酸、天冬酰胺、含硫氨基酸、带电氨基酸差异显著;苏氨酸差异很显著;丙氨酸、甘氨酸、谷氨酰胺、小分子氨基酸差异极显著。其中苯丙氨酸、甘氨酸、天冬酰胺、中性氨基酸在嗜冷嗜盐菌蛋白的含量较高,亮氨酸、苏氨酸、谷氨酰胺、含硫氨基酸、小分子氨基酸在嗜温嗜盐菌中的含量较高。嗜冷嗜盐蛋白含有更多的中性氨基酸、小分子氨基酸和非极性氨基酸,从而降低蛋白质中氢键等非共价键的相互作用,提高蛋白质结构的柔韧性和可变性。     

环糊精葡葡萄糖基转移酶热稳定性的研究

环糊精葡萄糖基转移酶(CGTase;EC 2.4.1.19)是一种重要的环糊精生产工业用酶,该转移酶能进行环化、偶合、歧化、水解4种反应.环糊精广泛的用于食品、医药、化妆品、农业和化学工业等生产领域,为了提高环糊精的产量,需要CGTase具有更高的热稳定性.合理的设计耐热蛋白已经成为研究热点.在本文中,首次使用分子动力学模拟研究CGTase热稳定性,以补充实验上不易获得的原子能级和时间相关的信息.使用同源建模方法构建环糊精葡糖基转移酶及其突变体的三维结构,研究氨基酸的突变对CGTase酶耐热性的影响,用CHARMM能量计算CGTase及其突变体的能量与酶蛋白热稳定性之间的关系.证明:氨基酸残基经过突变,突变型比野生型含带电残基更多.相应的,在蛋白天然结构中突变型CGTase中,盐桥数量增加了10%.这些电荷之间、非极性残基之间的非共价键作用力的增强,提高了突变体的刚性,降低了突变体蛋白质分子的总能量,最后增加突变体蛋白质的耐热性.     

系统发育与古细菌Val-tRNA合成酶耐热性的关系

嗜热古细菌和常温古细菌的氨基酰-tRNA合成酶在生物合成蛋白质中都起着至关重要的作用,它们的功能相似而耐热性相差很大。为了阐明氨基酰-tRNA合成酶的耐热机制,本文从进化角度研究了具有全基因组的8种超高温古细菌、3种高温古细菌和2种常温古细菌的Val-tRNA合成酶耐热性的差异。从构建的进化树可知,不同的微生物依据其耐热性而严格的分开;进化关系较近的4种微生物,都是产甲烷的古细菌;序列比对结果表明,耐热Val-tRNA合成酶中的带电荷氨基酸随着进化,突变为疏水性氨基酸,表明常温Val-tRNA合成酶中缺乏像耐热Val-tRNA合成酶中形成盐桥的氨基酸。这表明盐桥是氨基酰-tRNA合成酶耐热的主要因素。     

利用Alignment空间理论分析蛋白质的结构

蛋白质的结构分析对研究蛋白质的功能以及进化关系十分重要,而Alignment空间理论作为数学中一个崭新的方向,可以在蛋白质结构分析中发挥显著的作用。简要介绍了Alignment空间理论,采用基于蛋白质主链的二面角序列代表蛋白质的结构,利用Alignment空间理论,通过相应的动态规划算法得到了一种可以度量蛋白质结构相似程度的指标ρ。最后经由蛋白质序列的实例计算证明该指标的有效性。     

基于SVM和KNN的蛋白质耐热性分类

以氨基酸含量为特征向量,研究了SVM和KNN预测蛋白质耐热性的准确度。结果表明,基于SVM的分类效果较好,其局部预测率和全局预测率分别为82.4%和83.4%;而基于KNN方法的局部预测率和全局预测率分别为77.6%和79.9%。两种方法的预测率均表明氨基酸含量是影响蛋白质耐热性的主要因素。     

长期定位施肥对花生产量和品质的影响

在1997~2003年进行长期定位施肥的基础上,研究了氮、磷、钾配合施用对花生产量和品质形成的研究。结果表明:与不施肥处理相比,长期施用N肥可以提高花生籽粒产量和籽粒中蛋白质含量;施用NK肥,籽粒中粗脂肪含量降低,施用NP肥,降低了籽粒中蛋白质含量;施用PK肥,降低籽粒中蛋白质含量:施用NPK肥,显著地提高了籽粒产量和蛋白质含量,说明NPK肥配合施用有利于籽粒产量的提高和籽粒品质的形成,有利于保持和提高土壤肥力。     

基于ACO优化SVM参数的蛋白质耐热性预测

氨基酸含量是影响蛋白质耐热性的主要因素,为了提高以氨基酸含量为特征向量的蛋白质耐热性预测的精度和预测模型的性能,提出了一种基于机器学习蚁群算法(ACO)优化支持向量机(SVM)参数的蛋白质耐热性预测方法。建立了SVM参数优化模型,探讨了基于网格划分策略的连续蚁群算法,通过对SVM的惩罚因子和径向基核函数的全局搜索,筛选出最优参数,使SVM的蛋白质耐热性预测率最优。结果表明:采用未优化的SVM建立的预测模型的蛋白质耐热性总预测率相对较低,约为76.5%,采用遗传算法优化预测模型参数后的预测率约为86.6%,采用ACO优化预测模型参数后预测率达到87.8%。采用ACO优化的SVM模型参数的寻优速度快,预测结果准确。     

Materials Studio软件涉及力场中氢键的研究

利用Materials Studio(MS)材料科学软件,分别采用pcff、COMPASS及cvff力场．计算两个乙醇分子间的氢键作用,考察了氢原子和受体氧原子间距离、成键角度等因素对各种非键作用能的影响。研究结果表明:(1)当将氢链作用看成是范德华作用和静电作用的综合结果时,对氢键的反映cvff最差,COMPASS最好;(2)只要采用合适的范德华作用势函数、力常数以及指定恰当的原子部分电荷,是可以用一般的非键作用来反映氢键的。本文为MS用户初步解释了MS中的力场是如何处理氢键的重要疑问。     

An expert system to predict protein thermostability using decision tree

Protein thermostability information is closely linked to commercial production of many biomaterials. Recent developments have shown that amino acid composition, special sequence patterns and hydrogen bonds, disulfide bonds, salt bridges and so on are of considerable importance to thermostability. In this study, we present a system to integrate these various factors that predict protein thermostability. In this study, the features of proteins in the PGTdb are analyzed. We consider both structure and sequence features and correlation coefficients are incorporated into the feature selection algorithm. Machine learning algorithms are then used to develop identification systems and performances between the different algorithms are compared. In this research, two features, (E + F + M + R)/residue and charged/non-charged, are found to be critical to the thermostability of proteins. Although the sequence and structural models achieve a higher accuracy, sequence-only models provides sufficient accuracy for sequence-only thermostability prediction.     

基于氨基酸组成预测蛋白质热稳定性的v-支持向量机方法

支持向量机有许多优点有效防止过拟和,适合大的特征空间,给定数据集的信息压缩.本文首次利用支持向量机从氨基酸组成来预测蛋白质的稳定性.总预测率可以达到80.64%,对嗜热蛋白质的预测率为82.50%,对嗜温蛋白质的预测率为80.29%从预测率可以验证氨基酸组成与蛋白质热稳定性成正相关的关系,支持向量机可以成为基于氨基酸组成预测蛋白质热稳定性的有效工具.     

Comparative structural studies of psychrophilic and mesophilic protein homologues by molecular dynamics simulation

Comparative molecular dynamics simulations of psychrophilic type III antifreeze protein from the North-Atlantic ocean-pout Macrozoarces americanus and its corresponding mesophilic counterpart, the antifreeze-like domain of human sialic acid synthase, have been performed for 10 ns each at five different temperatures. Analyses of trajectories in terms of secondary structure content, solvent accessibility, intramolecular hydrogen bonds and protein–solvent interactions indicate distinct differences in these two proteins. The two proteins also follow dissimilar unfolding pathways. The overall flexibility calculated by the trace of the diagonalized covariance matrix displays similar flexibility of both the proteins near their growth temperatures. However at higher temperatures psychrophilic protein shows increased overall flexibility than its mesophilic counterpart. Principal component analysis also indicates that the essential subspaces explored by the simulations of two proteins at different temperatures are non-overlapping and they show significantly different directions of motion. However, there are significant overlaps within the trajectories and similar directions of motion of each protein especially at 298 K, 310 K and 373 K. Overall, the psychrophilic protein leads to increased conformational sampling of the phase space than its mesophilic counterpart.Our study may help in elucidating the molecular basis of thermostability of homologous proteins from two organisms living at different temperature conditions. Such an understanding is required for designing efficient proteins with characteristics for a particular application at desired working temperatures.     

Comparative structural studies of psychrophilic and mesophilic protein homologues by molecular dynamics simulation

Comparative molecular dynamics simulations of psychrophilic type III antifreeze protein from the North-Atlantic ocean-pout Macrozoarces americanus and its corresponding mesophilic counterpart, the antifreeze-like domain of human sialic acid synthase, have been performed for 10 ns each at five different temperatures. Analyses of trajectories in terms of secondary structure content, solvent accessibility, intramolecular hydrogen bonds and protein–solvent interactions indicate distinct differences in these two proteins. The two proteins also follow dissimilar unfolding pathways. The overall flexibility calculated by the trace of the diagonalized covariance matrix displays similar flexibility of both the proteins near their growth temperatures. However at higher temperatures psychrophilic protein shows increased overall flexibility than its mesophilic counterpart. Principal component analysis also indicates that the essential subspaces explored by the simulations of two proteins at different temperatures are non-overlapping and they show significantly different directions of motion. However, there are significant overlaps within the trajectories and similar directions of motion of each protein especially at 298 K, 310 K and 373 K. Overall, the psychrophilic protein leads to increased conformational sampling of the phase space than its mesophilic counterpart.Our study may help in elucidating the molecular basis of thermostability of homologous proteins from two organisms living at different temperature conditions. Such an understanding is required for designing efficient proteins with characteristics for a particular application at desired working temperatures.     

Protein flexibility and dynamics using constraint theory

A new approach is presented for determining the rigid regions in proteins and the flexible joints between them. The short-range forces in proteins are modeled as constraints and we use a recently developed formalism from graph theory to analyze flexibility in the bond network. Forces included in the analysis are the covalent bond-stretching and bond-bending forces, salt bridges, and hydrogen bonds. We use a local function to associate an energy with individual hydrogen bonds, which then can be included or excluded depending on the bond strength. Colored maps of the rigid and flexible regions provide a direct visualization of where the motion of the protein can take place, consistent with these distance constraints. We also define a flexibility index that quantifies the local density of flexible or floppy modes, in terms of the dihedral angles that remain free to rotate in each flexible region. A negative flexibility index provides a measure of the density of redundant bonds in rigid regions. A new application of this approach is to simulate the maximal range of possible motions of the flexible regions by introducing Monte Carlo changes in the free dihedral angles, subject to the distance constraints. This is done using a method that maintains closure of the rings formed by covalent and hydrogen bonds in the flexible parts of the protein, and van der Waals overlaps between atoms are avoided. We use the locus of the possible motions of HIV protease as an example: movies of its motion can be seen at http://www.pa.msu.edu/~lei.     

Pharmacophore model of the quercetin binding site of the SIRT6 protein

SIRT6 is a histone deacetylase that has been proposed as a potential therapeutic target for metabolic disorders and the prevention of age-associated diseases. We have previously reported on the identification of quercetin and vitexin as SIRT6 inhibitors, and studied structurally related flavonoids including luteolin, kaempferol, apigenin and naringenin. It was determined that the SIRT6 protein remained active after immobilization and that a single frontal displacement could correctly predict the functional activity of the immobilized enzyme. The previous study generated a preliminary pharmacophore for the quercetin binding site on SIRT6, containing 3 hydrogen bond donors and one hydrogen bond acceptor. In this study, we have generated a refined pharmacophore with an additional twelve quercetin analogs. The resulting model had a positive linear behavior between the experimental elution time verses the fit values obtained from the model with a correlation coefficient of 0.8456.     

2-D DIGE and MALDI-TOF-MS analysis of the serum proteome in human osteosarcoma

We performed 2-D DIGE on proteins prepared from serum obtained from patients with osteosarcoma (OS) and controls, to identify differentially expressed proteins that might serve as serum biomarkers for OS prognosis. Proteins found to be differentially expressed were identified by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometric analysis, coupled with database interrogation. We compared serum samples from four individuals with OS to four age- and sex-matched healthy controls. We identified 24 protein spot-features that were significantly increased, and 34 that were significantly decreased in serum from patients with OS relative to the controls. The MS analysis revealed 18 unique proteins that were increased, and 25 unique proteins that were decreased in OS serum samples. Western blot and ELISA analysis confirmed increased levels of amyloid-related serum protein (SAA) in the OS serum samples. The increased expression levels of SAA were decreased after using MTX and cisplatin combination chemotherapy, and were further decreased after operation. Moreover, increased expression levels of sera SAA were seen in the relapsed patients. Our results suggested that the determination of serum SAA in OS patients might be utilized as a marker for relapse and in evaluation of the efficacy of therapy.