title: Mutagenic studies of the interaction between the aspartate receptor and methyltransferase from Escherichia coli.
abstract: The 4 glutamate residues that are the sites of methylation in the aspartate receptor, which mediates bacterial chemotaxis, were systematically mutated to aspartate residues. None of the aspartate residues were methylated. In each case, the presence of the aspartate mutations altered the methylation rates at glutamate residues on the same receptor. Methylation was nearly eliminated at residues two turns of alpha helix, in the N-terminal direction, from a site of mutation, whereas less severe changes occurred at other positions. The methyltransferase apparently must contact a glutamate or glutamine residue two turns of helix in the C-terminal direction from the site of modification in order to methylate that position at a maximal rate. Mutations from glutamate to aspartate at any of the four sites also appear to alter the methylation rate at the other sites through a change in the structure of the receptor. The aspartate mutations did not substantially alter the affinity of the methyltransferase for the receptor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley 94720.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Koshland
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D007700:Kinetics; D008745:Methylation; D008780:Methyltransferases / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008961:Models, Structural; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010957:Plasmids; D017459:Receptors, Amino Acid / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D017459:Receptors, Amino Acid; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C031959:aspartic acid receptor; D001224:Aspartic Acid; D008780:Methyltransferases; C038706:chemotaxis methyltransferase