Mayuko Takeda-Shitaka

Community-wide assessment of protein-interface modeling suggests improvements to design methodology

The CAPRI (Critical Assessment of Predicted Interactions) and CASP (Critical Assessment of protein Structure Prediction) experiments have demonstrated the power of community-wide tests of methodology in assessing the current state of the art and spurring progress in the very challenging areas of protein docking and structure prediction. We sought to bring the power of community-wide experiments to bear on a very challenging protein design problem that provides a complementary but equally fundamental test of current understanding of protein-binding thermodynamics. We have generated a number of designed protein-protein interfaces with very favorable computed binding energies but which do not appear to be formed in experiments, suggesting that there may be important physical chemistry missing in the energy calculations. A total of 28 research groups took up the challenge of determining what is missing: we provided structures of 87 designed complexes and 120 naturally occurring complexes and asked participants to identify energetic contributions and/or structural features that distinguish between the two sets. The community found that electrostatics and solvation terms partially distinguish the designs from the natural complexes, largely due to the nonpolar character of the designed interactions. Beyond this polarity difference, the community found that the designed binding surfaces were, on average, structurally less embedded in the designed monomers, suggesting that backbone conformational rigidity at the designed surface is important for realization of the designed function. These results can be used to improve computational design strategies, but there is still much to be learned; for example, one designed complex, which does form in experiments, was classified by all metrics as a nonbinder.

Community-wide evaluation of methods for predicting the effect of mutations on protein-protein interactions

Community‐wide blind prediction experiments such as CAPRI and CASP provide an objective measure of the current state of predictive methodology. Here we describe a community‐wide assessment of methods to predict the effects of mutations on protein–protein interactions. Twenty‐two groups predicted the effects of comprehensive saturation mutagenesis for two designed influenza hemagglutinin binders and the results were compared with experimental yeast display enrichment data obtained using deep sequencing. The most successful methods explicitly considered the effects of mutation on monomer stability in addition to binding affinity, carried out explicit side‐chain sampling and backbone relaxation, evaluated packing, electrostatic, and solvation effects, and correctly identified around a third of the beneficial mutations. Much room for improvement remains for even the best techniques, and large‐scale fitness landscapes should continue to provide an excellent test bed for continued evaluation of both existing and new prediction methodologies. Proteins 2013; 81:1980–1987.

Interaction between the antigen and antibody is controlled by the constant domains: Normal mode dynamics of the HEL–HyHEL-10 complex

The antigen binding fragment (Fab) of a monoclonal antibody (HyHEL‐10) consists of variable domains (Fv) and constant domains (CL–CH1). Normal modes have been calculated from the three‐dimensional structures of hen egg lysozyme (HEL) with Fab, those of HEL with Fv, and so on. Only a small structural change was found between HEL–Fab and HEL–Fv complexes. However, HEL–Fv had a one order of magnitude lower dissociation constant than HEL–Fab. The Cα fluctuations of HEL–Fab differed from those of HEL–Fv with normal mode calculation, and the dynamics can be thought to be related to the protein–protein interactions. CL–CH1 may have influence not only around local interfaces between CL–CH1 and Fv, but also around the interacting regions between HEL and Fv, which are longitudinally distant. Eighteen water molecules were found in HEL–Fv around the interface between HEL and Fv compared with one water molecule in HEL–Fab. These solvent molecules may occupy the holes and channels, which may occur due to imperfect complementarity of the complex. Therefore, the suppression of atomic vibration around the interface between Fv and HEL can be thought to be related to favorable and compact interface formation by complete desolvation. It is suggested that the ability to control the antigen–antibody affinity is obtained from modifying the CL–CH1. The second upper loop in the constant domain of the light chain (UL2–CL), which is a conserved gene in several light chains, showed the most remarkable fluctuation changes. UL2–CL could play an important role and could be attractive for modification in protein engineering.

Topology of AspT, the Aspartate:Alanine Antiporter of Tetragenococcus halophilus, Determined by Site-Directed Fluorescence Labeling

The gram-positive lactic acid bacterium Tetragenococcus halophilus catalyzes the decarboxylation of L-aspartate (Asp) with release of L-alanine (Ala) and CO(2). The decarboxylation reaction consists of two steps: electrogenic exchange of Asp for Ala catalyzed by an aspartate:alanine antiporter (AspT) and intracellular decarboxylation of the transported Asp catalyzed by an L-aspartate-beta-decarboxylase (AspD). AspT belongs to the newly classified aspartate:alanine exchanger family (transporter classification no. 2.A.81) of transporters. In this study, we were interested in the relationship between the structure and function of AspT and thus analyzed the topology by means of the substituted-cysteine accessibility method using the impermeant, fluorescent, thiol-specific probe Oregon Green 488 maleimide (OGM) and the impermeant, nonfluorescent, thiol-specific probe [2-(trimethylammonium)ethyl]methanethiosulfonate bromide. We generated 23 single-cysteine variants from a six-histidine-tagged cysteineless AspT template. A cysteine position was assigned an external location if the corresponding single-cysteine variant reacted with OGM added to intact cells, and a position was assigned an internal location if OGM labeling required cell lysis. The topology analyses revealed that AspT has a unique topology; the protein has 10 transmembrane helices (TMs), a large hydrophilic cytoplasmic loop (about 180 amino acids) between TM5 and TM6, N and C termini that face the periplasm, and a positively charged residue (arginine 76) within TM3. Moreover, the three-dimensional structure constructed by means of the full automatic modeling system indicates that the large hydrophilic cytoplasmic loop of AspT possesses a TrkA_C domain and a TrkA_C-like domain and that the three-dimensional structures of these domains are similar to each other even though their amino acid sequences show low similarity.

Protein structure prediction in CASP6 using CHIMERA and FAMS

In CASP6, the CHIMERA‐group predicted full‐atom models of all targets using SKE‐CHIMERA, a Web‐user interface system for protein structure prediction that allows human intervention at necessary stages; we used a lot of information from our own data and from publicly available data. Using SKE‐CHIMERA, we iterated manual step (template selection and alignment by the in‐house program CHIMERA) and automatic step (three‐dimensional model building by the in‐house program FAMS). The official CASP6 assessment showed that CHIMERA‐group was one of the most successful predictors in homology modeling, especially for FR/H (Fold Recognition/Homologous). In this article, we introduce the method of CHIMERA‐group and discuss its successes and failures in CASP6. Proteins 2005;Suppl 7:122–127.

Searching for protein–protein interaction sites and docking by the methods of molecular dynamics, grid scoring, and the pairwise interaction potential of amino acid residues

In CAPRI Rounds 1 and 2, we assumed that because there are many ionic charges that weaken electrostatic interaction forces in living cells, the hydrophobic interaction force might be important entropically. As a result of Rounds 1 and 2, the predictions for binding sites and geometric centers were acceptable, but those of the binding axes were poor, because only the largest benzene cluster was used for generating the initial docking structures. These were generated by fitting of benzene clusters formed on the surface of receptor and ligand. In CAPRI Rounds 3–5, the grid‐scoring sum on the protein–protein interaction surface and the pairwise potential of the amino acid residues, which were indicated as coming easily into the protein–protein interaction regions, were used as the calculation methods, along with the smaller benzene clusters that participated in benzene cluster fitting. Good predicted models were obtained for Targets 11 and 12. When the modeled receptor proteins were superimposed on the experimental structures, the smallest ligand root‐mean‐square deviation (RMSD) values corresponding to the RMSD between the model and experimental structures were 6.2 Å and 7.3 Å, respectively. Proteins 2005;60:289–295.

Elucidation of the cause for reduced activity of abnormal human plasmin containing an Ala55‐Thr mutation: importance of highly conserved Ala55 in serine proteases

In serine proteases, Ala55 is highly conserved and located just behind the catalytic triad. That the activity of human plasmin is reduced by the A55T substitution indicates the importance of Ala55 in catalysis. In the present study, the 3‐D model of A55T human plasmin shows that an unusual hydrogen bond between Thr55 Oγ1 and His57 Nϵ2 alters His57 into an inactive conformation in which His57 cannot accept a proton from Ser195 as a catalytic base. Our results demonstrate that Ala55 contributes heavily to the active conformation of His57 and ensures the proton transfer from Ser195 to His57.

Evaluation of the third solvent clusters fitting procedure for the prediction of protein–protein interactions based on the results at the CAPRI blind docking study

To predict protein–protein interactions, rough or coarse handling for the induced fit problem is proposed. Our method involves the overlap of two hydrophobic interactions as “third solvent clusters fitting.” Predictions for binding sites and geometric centers were acceptable, but those of the binding axes were poor. In this study, only the largest benzene cluster was used for the third solvent clusters fitting. For the next CAPRI targets, we must perform protein–protein interaction analyses, which include other smaller benzene clusters. Proteins 2003;52:15–18.

FAMS complex: a fully automated homology modeling system for protein complex structures.

The formation of a protein-protein complex is responsible for many biological functions; therefore, three-dimensional structures of protein complexes are essential for deeper understandings of protein functions and the mechanisms of diseases at the atomic level. However, compared with individual proteins, complex structures are difficult to solve experimentally because of technical limitations. Thus a method that can predict protein complex structures would be invaluable. In this study, we developed new software, FAMS Complex; a fully automated homology modeling system for protein complex structures consisting of two or more molecules. FAMS Complex requires only sequences and alignments of the target protein as input and constructs all molecules simultaneously and automatically. FAMS Complex is likely to become an essential tool for structure-based drug design, such as in silico screening to accelerate drug discovery before an experimental structure is solved. Moreover, in this post-genomic era when huge amounts of protein sequence information are available, a major goal is the determination of protein-protein interaction networks on a genomic scale. FAMS Complex will contribute to this goal, because its procedure is fully automated and so is suited for large-scale genome wide modeling.

Molecular recognition study on the binding of calcium to calbindin D9k based on 3D reference interaction site model theory.

Ca(2+)-binding proteins are widely distributed throughout cells and play various important roles. Calbindin D9k is a member of the EF-hand Ca(2+)-binding protein family. In this study, we examined the binding of Ca(2+) to calbindin D9k in terms of the free energy of solvation, as obtained by 3D reference interaction site model theory, which describes the statistical mechanics of liquids. We also investigated the main structural biological factor using spatial decomposition analysis in which the solvation free energy values are decomposed into the residue. We found some characteristic residues that contribute to stabilization of the holo-structure (Ca(2+)-binding structure). These results indicated that, in the holo-structure, these residues are newly exposed to solvent. Subsequently, the gain in solvation free energy, involving a conformational change and exposure to solvent, forms the driving force for binding of the Ca(2+) ion to the EF-hand.