title: Site-directed mutagenesis of rat liver S-adenosylmethionine synthetase. Identification of a cysteine residue critical for the oligomeric state.
abstract: We have examined the functional importance of the cysteine residues of rat liver S-adenosylmethionine synthetase. For this purpose the ten cysteine residues of the molecule were changed to serines by site-directed mutagenesis. Ten recombinant enzyme mutants were obtained by using a bacterial expression system. The same level of expression was obtained for the wild type and mutants, but the ratio of S-adenosylmethionine synthetase between soluble and insoluble fractions differed for some of the mutant forms. The immunoreactivity against an anti-(rat liver S-adenosylmethionine synthetase) antibody was equivalent in all the cases. Effects on S-adenosylmethionine synthetase activities were also measured. Mutants C57S, C69S, C105S and C121S showed decreased relative specific activity of 68, 85, 63 and 29%, respectively, compared with wild-type, whereas C312S resulted in an increase of 1.6-fold. Separation of tetramer and dimer forms for wild type and mutants was carried out by using phenyl-Sepharose columns. The dimer/tetramer ratio was calculated based on the activity and on the protein level estimated by immunoblotting. No monomeric forms of the enzyme were detected in any case. Comparison of dimer/tetramer ratios indicates the importance of cysteine-69 (dimer/tetramer protein ratio of 88 versus 10.2 in the wild type) in maintaining the oligomeric state of rat liver S-adenosylmethionine synthetase. Moreover, all the mutations carried out of cysteine residues between cysteine-35 and cysteine-105 altered the ratio between oligomeric forms.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mingorance
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Góngora
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Mato
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pajares
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites / Q000235:genetics; D003545:Cysteine / Q000737:chemistry; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008099:Liver / Q000201:enzymology*; D008716:Methionine Adenosyltransferase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015394:Molecular Structure; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D011487:Protein Conformation; D051381:Rats; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D008716:Methionine Adenosyltransferase; D003545:Cysteine