title: Accurate prediction of the stability and activity effects of site-directed mutagenesis on a protein core.
abstract: Theoretical prediction of the structure, stability and activity of proteins, an important unsolved problem in molecular biology, would be of use for guiding site-directed mutagenesis and other protein-engineering techniques. X-ray diffraction studies have provided extensive structural information for many proteins, challenging theorists to develop reliable techniques able to use such knowledge as a base for prediction of mutants' characteristics. Here we report theoretical calculation of stabilization energies for 78 triple-site sequence variants of lambda repressor characterized experimentally by Lim and Sauer. The calculated energies correlate with the mutants' measured activities; active and inactive mutations are discriminated with 92% reliability. They correlate even more directly with the mutants' thermostabilities, correctly identifying two of the mutants to be more stable than the wild type.
authors.affiliation: Beckman Laboratories for Structural Biology, Department of Cell Biology, Stanford University Medical Center, California 94305.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Levitt
mesh_terms: D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D004355:Drug Stability; D015394:Molecular Structure; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014764:Viral Proteins; D054334:Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins; D054334:Viral Regulatory and Accessory Proteins; C016649:phage repressor proteins