The physical chemical principles underlying enzymatic thermostability are keys to understand the way evolution has shaped proteins to adapt to a broad range of temperatures. Understanding the molecular determinants at the basis of protein thermostability is also an important factor for engineering more thermoresistant enzymes to be used in the industrial setting, such as, for instance, DNA ligases, which are important for DNA replication and repair and have been long used in molecular biology and biotechnology. Here, we first address the origin of thermostability in the thermophilic DNA ligase from archaeon Thermococcus sp. 1519 and identify thermosensitive regions using molecular modeling and simulations. In addition, we predict mutations that can enhance thermostability of the enzyme through bioinformatics analyses. We show that thermosensitive regions of this enzyme are stabilized at higher temperatures by optimization of charged groups on the surface, and we predict that thermostability can be further increased by further optimization of the network among these charged groups. Engineering this DNA ligase by introducing selected mutations (i.e., A287K, G304D, S364I, and A387K) eventually produced a significant and additive increase in the half-life of the enzyme when compared to that of the wild type.
DNA ligases join single-strand breaks in double-stranded DNA by catalyzing the formation of a phosphodiester bond between adjacent 5′-phosphate and 3′-hydroxyl termini. Their function is essential to maintain the integrity of the genome in DNA replication, recombination and repair. A recombinant ATP-dependent DNA ligase from the hyperthermophilic anaerobic archaeonThermococcus sibiricuswas expressed inEscherichia coliand purified. Crystals were grown by vapour diffusion using the hanging-drop method with 17%(w/v) PEG 4000 and 8.5%(v/v) 2-propanol as precipitants. A diffraction experiment was performed with a single crystal, which diffracted X-rays to 3.0 Å resolution. The crystal belonged to space groupP212121, with unit-cell parametersa = 58.590,b= 87.540,c= 126.300 Å.
SummaryThe temperate coliphage N15, unlike most low copynumber prokaryotic replicons, is maintained as a linear DNA molecule with covalently closed ends. Accurate partitioning of the plasmid prophage is assured by a close homologue of the sop locus of the F plasmid. However, the region upstream of the N15 sopAB genes contains multiple putative promoters, in contrast to F sop whose expression is driven by one negatively autoregulated promoter. In addition, the centromere of N15 is represented by four inverted repeats located at widely separated sites within the region essential for replication and control of lytic functions. We have analysed expression of N15 sop genes. We find that transcription of N15 sop is driven by two major promoters. The first, P1 , is similar in sequence and function to the F sop promoter; it is repressed by Sop proteins. The second promoter, P2 , is upstream of P1 and is several times stronger. It is insensitive to regulation by Sop proteins but is tightly repressed by protelomerase, the N15 enzyme that completes prophage replication by generating hairpin telomeres. These results establish a regulatory link between the partition system and other processes of N15 maintenance.
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