I23-Long wavelength MX
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[18691]
Open Access
Abstract: Although often presented as taking single `snapshots' of the conformation of a protein, X-ray crystallography provides an averaged structure over time and space within the crystal. The important but difficult task of characterizing structural ensembles in crystals is typically limited to small conformational changes, such as multiple side-chain conformations. A crystallographic method was recently introduced that utilizes residual electron and anomalous density (READ) to characterize structural ensembles encompassing large-scale structural changes. Key to this method is an ability to accurately measure anomalous signals and distinguish them from noise or other anomalous scatterers. This report presents an optimized data-collection and analysis strategy for partially occupied iodine anomalous signals. Using the long-wavelength-optimized beamline I23 at Diamond Light Source, the ability to accurately distinguish the positions of anomalous scatterers with occupancies as low as ∼12% is demonstrated. The number and positions of these anomalous scatterers are consistent with previous biophysical, kinetic and structural data that suggest that the protein Im7 binds to the chaperone Spy in multiple partially occupied conformations. Finally, READ selections demonstrate that re-measured data using the new protocols are consistent with the previously characterized structural ensemble of the chaperone Spy with its client Im7. This study shows that a long-wavelength beamline results in easily validated anomalous signals that are strong enough to be used to detect and characterize highly disordered sections of crystal structures.
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Dec 2019
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I03-Macromolecular Crystallography
I23-Long wavelength MX
I24-Microfocus Macromolecular Crystallography
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[12579]
Open Access
Abstract: Under limiting sulfur availability, bacteria can assimilate sulfur from alkanesulfonates. Bacteria utilize ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters to internalise them for further processing to release sulfur. In gram-negative bacteria the TauABC and SsuABC ensure internalization, although, these two systems have common substrates, the former has been characterized as a taurine specific system. TauA and SsuA are substrate-binding proteins (SBPs) that bind and bring the alkanesulfonates to the ABC importer for transport. Here, we have determined the crystal structure of TauA and have characterized its thermodynamic binding parameters by isothermal titration calorimetry in complex with taurine and different alkanesulfonates. Our structures revealed that the coordination of the alkanesulfonates is conserved, with the exception of Asp205 that is absent from SsuA, but the thermodynamic parameters revealed a very high enthalpic penalty cost for binding of the other alkanesulfonates relative to taurine. Our molecular dynamic simulations indicated that the different levels of hydration of the binding site contributed to the selectivity for taurine over the other alkanesulfonates. Such selectivity mechanism is very likely to be employed by other SBPs of ABC transporters.
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Nov 2019
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I23-Long wavelength MX
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Amalie F.
Rudolf
,
Maia
Kinnebrew
,
Christiane
Kowatsch
,
T. Bertie
Ansell
,
Kamel
El Omari
,
Benjamin
Bishop
,
Els
Pardon
,
Rebekka A.
Schwab
,
Tomas
Malinauskas
,
Mingxing
Qian
,
Ramona
Duman
,
Douglas F.
Covey
,
Jan
Steyaert
,
Armin
Wagner
,
Mark S. P.
Sansom
,
Rajat
Rohatgi
,
Christian
Siebold
Abstract: Hedgehog (HH) ligands, classical morphogens that pattern embryonic tissues in all animals, are covalently coupled to two lipids—a palmitoyl group at the N terminus and a cholesteroyl group at the C terminus. While the palmitoyl group binds and inactivates Patched 1 (PTCH1), the main receptor for HH ligands, the function of the cholesterol modification has remained mysterious. Using structural and biochemical studies, along with reassessment of previous cryo-electron microscopy structures, we find that the C-terminal cholesterol attached to Sonic hedgehog (Shh) binds the first extracellular domain of PTCH1 and promotes its inactivation, thus triggering HH signaling. Molecular dynamics simulations show that this interaction leads to the closure of a tunnel through PTCH1 that serves as the putative conduit for sterol transport. Thus, Shh inactivates PTCH1 by grasping its extracellular domain with two lipidic pincers, the N-terminal palmitate and the C-terminal cholesterol, which are both inserted into the PTCH1 protein core.
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Oct 2019
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I23-Long wavelength MX
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Open Access
Abstract: The ribosome, the largest RNA-containing macromolecular machinery in cells, requires metal ions not only to maintain its three-dimensional fold but also to perform protein synthesis. Despite the vast biochemical data regarding the importance of metal ions for efficient protein synthesis and the increasing number of ribosome structures solved by X-ray crystallography or cryo-electron microscopy, the assignment of metal ions within the ribosome remains elusive due to methodological limitations. Here we present extensive experimental data on the potassium composition and environment in two structures of functional ribosome complexes obtained by measurement of the potassium anomalous signal at the K-edge, derived from long-wavelength X-ray diffraction data. We elucidate the role of potassium ions in protein synthesis at the three-dimensional level, most notably, in the environment of the ribosome functional decoding and peptidyl transferase centers. Our data expand the fundamental knowledge of the mechanism of ribosome function and structural integrity.
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Jun 2019
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I23-Long wavelength MX
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Abstract: Long-wavelength macromolecular crystallography（MX）has been proposed for a long time as a tool for phasing novel macromolecular crystal structures without additional heavy atom labelling. Making use of anomalous diffraction from atoms natively present in the crystal, such as sulphur and phosphorus, has become increasingly popular over the past years. Nevertheless, the full potential of this technique, has not been fully exploited due to lack of dedicated experimental setups able to easily access wavelengths longer than 2 Å. Since the wavelengths for the absorption edges of sulphur and phosphorus are significantly longer, standard beamline setups are not suitable to provide high-quality, high-resolution data, as the experiments are limited by the increasing absorption effects and the diffraction angles for longer wavelengths. Currently only two synchrotron beamlines offer access to optimised sample environments using wavelengths longer than 2.7 Å：BL1A at Photon Factory, Japan and I23 at Diamond Light Source, UK. Here, we describe the challenges and solutions implemented at the in-vacuum long-wavelength MX beamline I23 and present first results.
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Dec 2018
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I23-Long wavelength MX
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[14493]
Open Access
Abstract: Potassium ion channels utilize a highly selective filter to rapidly transport K+ ions across cellular membranes. This selectivity filter is composed of four binding sites which display almost equal electron density in crystal structures with high potassium ion concentrations. This electron density can be interpreted to reflect a superposition of alternating potassium ion and water occupied states or as adjacent potassium ions. Here, we use single wavelength anomalous dispersion (SAD) X-ray diffraction data collected near the potassium absorption edge to show experimentally that all ion binding sites within the selectivity filter are fully occupied by K+ ions. These data support the hypothesis that potassium ion transport occurs by direct Coulomb knock-on, and provide an example of solving the phase problem by K-SAD.
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Oct 2018
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B21-High Throughput SAXS
I03-Macromolecular Crystallography
I23-Long wavelength MX
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[14891, 11175]
Open Access
Abstract: Calbindin-D28K is a widely expressed calcium-buffering cytoplasmic protein that is involved in many physiological processes. It has been shown to interact with other proteins, suggesting a role as a calcium sensor. Many of the targets of calbindin-D28K are of therapeutic interest: for example, inositol monophosphatase, the putative target of lithium therapy in bipolar disorder. Presented here is the first crystal structure of human calbindin-D28K. There are significant deviations in the tertiary structure when compared with the NMR structure of rat calbindin-D28K (PDB entry 2g9b), despite 98% sequence identity. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) indicates that the crystal structure better predicts the properties of calbindin-D28K in solution compared with the NMR structure. Here, the first direct visualization of the calcium-binding properties of calbindin-D28K is presented. Four of the six EF-hands that make up the secondary structure of the protein contain a calcium-binding site. Two distinct conformations of the N-terminal EF-hand calcium-binding site were identified using long-wavelength calcium single-wavelength anomalous dispersion (SAD). This flexible region has previously been recognized as a protein–protein interaction interface. SAXS data collected in both the presence and absence of calcium indicate that there are no large structural differences in the globular structure of calbindin-D28K between the calcium-loaded and unloaded proteins.
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Oct 2018
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B16-Test Beamline
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[18454]
Open Access
Abstract: Luminescence lifetime thermometry for remote temperature monitoring of cryogenic objects requires materials that exhibit a suitably large change of the luminescence kinetics at low temperatures. Results of systematic studies of the temperature-induced changes in the luminescence of tungstates and molybdates with the general formula ABO4 (A=Ca, Sr, Zn, Cd; B=W, Mo) over the 4.5-300 K temperature range are summarized. It is shown through analysing changes of the emission and excitation spectra, as well as the decay kinetics, that in these materials the luminescence is due to the emission by self-trapped excitons, a process that exhibits strong temperature dependence. The main emphasis of the study is on establishing the factors that determine the character of the temperature dependence of the luminescence decay time constant. We discuss our findings in terms of a model that analyses the dynamics of radiative and non-radiative transitions between the excited and ground states of the emission center. Two thermally activated processes drive the observed changes. The first is the non-radiative decay of excited states, resulting in a decrease of the luminescence decay time constant at high temperatures. Additionally it is demonstrated that in molybdates and tungstates the fine splitting of the excited state facilitates a second mechanism for thermally activated exchange of charged carriers between the two split levels. This has a noticeable effect on the dynamics of the radiative decay at low temperatures. We established that the sensitivity of the luminescence lifetime to temperature changes can be estimated by using information on the energy structure of materials. It is concluded that within tungstates and molybdates under study SrWO4 is the most promising material for application in luminescence lifetime cryothermometry.
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Oct 2018
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I03-Macromolecular Crystallography
I04-Macromolecular Crystallography
I23-Long wavelength MX
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[14744]
Open Access
Abstract: The emergence of Old and New World arenaviruses from rodent reservoirs persistently threatens human health. The GP1 subunit of the envelope-displayed arenaviral glycoprotein spike complex, GPC, mediates host-cell recognition and is an important determinant of cross-species transmission. Previous structural analyses of Old World arenaviral GP1 glycoproteins, alone and in complex with a cognate GP2 subunit, have revealed that GP1 adopts two distinct conformational states, distinguished by differences in orientation of helical regions of the molecule. Here, through comparative study of the GP1 glycoprotein architectures of Old World Loei River virus and New World Whitewater Arroyo virus, we show that these rearrangements are restricted to Old World arenaviruses and are not solely induced by the pH change that is associated with virus endosomal trafficking. Our structure-based phylogenetic analysis of arenaviral GP1s provides a blueprint for understanding the discrete structural classes adopted by these therapeutically important targets.
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Oct 2018
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I03-Macromolecular Crystallography
I04-Macromolecular Crystallography
I23-Long wavelength MX
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Harry P.
Austin
,
Mark D.
Allen
,
Bryon S.
Donohoe
,
Nicholas A.
Rorrer
,
Fiona L.
Kearns
,
Rodrigo L.
Silveira
,
Benjamin C.
Pollard
,
Graham
Dominick
,
Ramona
Duman
,
Kamel
El Omari
,
Vitaliy
Mykhaylyk
,
Armin
Wagner
,
William E.
Michener
,
Antonella
Amore
,
Munir S.
Skaf
,
Michael F.
Crowley
,
Alan W.
Thorne
,
Christopher W.
Johnson
,
H. Lee
Woodcock
,
John E.
Mcgeehan
,
Gregg T.
Beckham
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[17212]
Open Access
Abstract: Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is one of the most abundantly produced synthetic polymers and is accumulating in the environment at a staggering rate as discarded packaging and textiles. The properties that make PET so useful also endow it with an alarming resistance to biodegradation, likely lasting centuries in the environment. Our collective reliance on PET and other plastics means that this buildup will continue unless solutions are found. Recently, a newly discovered bacterium, Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6, was shown to exhibit the rare ability to grow on PET as a major carbon and energy source. Central to its PET biodegradation capability is a secreted PETase (PET-digesting enzyme). Here, we present a 0.92 Å resolution X-ray crystal structure of PETase, which reveals features common to both cutinases and lipases. PETase retains the ancestral α/β-hydrolase fold but exhibits a more open active-site cleft than homologous cutinases. By narrowing the binding cleft via mutation of two active-site residues to conserved amino acids in cutinases, we surprisingly observe improved PET degradation, suggesting that PETase is not fully optimized for crystalline PET degradation, despite presumably evolving in a PET-rich environment. Additionally, we show that PETase degrades another semiaromatic polyester, polyethylene-2,5-furandicarboxylate (PEF), which is an emerging, bioderived PET replacement with improved barrier properties. In contrast, PETase does not degrade aliphatic polyesters, suggesting that it is generally an aromatic polyesterase. These findings suggest that additional protein engineering to increase PETase performance is realistic and highlight the need for further developments of structure/activity relationships for biodegradation of synthetic polyesters.
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Apr 2018
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