title: Dimerization of native and proteolytically modified neurophysins as monitored by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy: proximity of tyrosine-49 to the subunit interface.
abstract: Neurophysin is a self-associating protein in which peptide-hormone binding and dimerization are thermodynamically linked. The structural basis of the linkage is unknown. We have studied the dimerization of bovine neurophysin I and two proteolytically modified derivatives by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in order to identify residues at the intersubunit contact regions and to evaluate the origin of the reported loss of dimerization associated with tryptic excision of residues 1-8. The concentration dependence at neural pH of the spectra of native neurophysin and des-90-92-neurophysin demonstrated a finite set of dimerization-sensitive resonances that included the ring protons of Tyr-49. Using these to monitor dimerization, we confirmed predictions of a large increase in the dimerization constant associated with carboxyl protonation. By the same criteria, dimerization of the des-1-8 protein, in disagreement with earlier reports, was found to be undiminished relative to that of the native protein. However, spectral changes in the Tyr-49 ring ortho proton region associated with dimerization of the des-1-8 protein differed significantly from those in the native protein and indicated an altered conformation of the des-1-8 dimer apparently restricted to the vicinity of Tyr-49. The results are shown to place Tyr-49 adjacent to both the intersubunit contact region and the 1-8 sequence in the native protein, loss of stabilizing interactions with 1-8 leading to altered interactions of Tyr-49 with the subunit interface. Because Tyr-49 is also close to the peptide-binding site, this arrangement spatially links the peptide-binding and dimerization sites of neurophysin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods; D009481:Neurophysins / Q000378:metabolism*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014443:Tyrosine
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D009481:Neurophysins; D014443:Tyrosine