title: Active-site sulfhydryl chemistry plays a major role in the misfolding of urea-denatured rhodanese.
abstract: Unfolded bovine rhodanese, a sulfurtransferase, does not regain full activity upon refolding due to the formation of aggregates and disulfide-linked misfolded states unless a large excess of reductant such as 200 mM beta-ME and 5 mg/ml detergent are present [Tandon and Horowitz (1990), J. Biol. Chem. 265, 5967]. Even then, refolding is incomplete. We have studied the unfolding and refolding of three rhodanese forms whose crystal structures are known: ES, containing the transferred sulfur as a persulfide; E, without the transferred sulfur, and carboxymethylated rhodanese (CMR), in which the active site was blocked by chemical modification. The X-ray structures of ES, E, and CMR are virtually the same, but their tertiary structures in solution differ somewhat as revealed by near-UV CD. Among these three, CMR is the only form of rhodanese that folds reversibly, requiring 1 mM DTT. A minimum three-state folding model of CMR (N<-->I<-->U) followed by fluorescence at 363 nm, (N<-->I) by fluorescence at 318 nm, and CD (I<-->U) is consistent with the presence of a thermodynamically stable molten globule intermediate in 5-6 M urea. We conclude that the active-site sulfhydryl group in the persulfide form is very reactive; therefore, its modification leads to the successful refolding of urea-denatured rhodanese even in the absence of a large excess of reductant and detergent. The requirement for DTT for complete reversibility of CMR suggests that oxidation among the three non-active-site SH groups can represent a minor trap for refolding through species that can be easily reduced.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 78229-3900, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Panda
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Horowitz
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D011489:Protein Denaturation; D017510:Protein Folding; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D013884:Thiosulfate Sulfurtransferase / Q000737:chemistry*; D014508:Urea / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds; D014508:Urea; D013884:Thiosulfate Sulfurtransferase