title: Crosslinking of phycobiliproteins from the cyanobacterium Mastigocladus laminosus with bis-imidates: localization of an intrasubunit and an intersubunit crosslink in C-phycocyanin.
abstract: The light-harvesting pigment-protein complexes allophycocyanin (AP), C-phycocyanin (PC) and phycoerythrocyanin (PEC) of the cyanobacterium Mastigocladus laminosus consist of alpha- and beta-subunits containing about 170 amino-acid residues each. These two subunits form an alpha,beta-monomer, three of which build up a disc-shaped trimer. In this study these phycobiliproteins were crosslinked with bis-imidates. Various spacer lengths of the reagent and various aggregation states of the phycobiliprotein were tested. An intersubunit crosslink could be verified in all three phycobiliproteins. PC-trimers were crosslinked with the homobifunctional reagent dimethyl pimelimidate having a maximal crosslinking distance of 10 A. Two crosslinks could be identified: an intramonomer intersubunit crosslink with a yield of 48% and an intrasubunit crosslink within alpha PC (57%). These products were chemically and enzymatically fragmented and the small crosslinked peptides were isolated and then identified by amino-acid analysis. The following amino acids were crosslinked: alpha-Val 1 with beta-Ala 1 and alpha-Lys 62 with alpha-Lys 134. Both crosslinks could be localized within the known three-dimensional structure of PC.
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D000458:Cyanobacteria; D007096:Imidoesters; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010798:Phycocyanin; D010860:Pigments, Biological; D010940:Plant Proteins; D011487:Protein Conformation
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D007096:Imidoesters; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes; D010860:Pigments, Biological; D010940:Plant Proteins; D010798:Phycocyanin