Mutant Tryptophan Aporepressors with Altered Specificities Of
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Copyright 0 1991 by the Genetics Society of America Mutant Tryptophan Aporepressors With Altered Specificitiesof Corepressor Recognition Dennis N. Arvidson,' Michael Shapiro' and Philip Youderian' Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Calqornia, Los Angeles, Calqornia 90089 Manuscript received November 20, 1990 Accepted for publication January 19, 199 1 ABSTRACT The Escherichia coli trpR gene encodes tryptophan aporepressor, which binds the corepressor ligand, L-tryptophan, to form an active repressor complex. The side chain of residue valine 58 of Trp aporepressor sits at the bottom of the corepressor @-tryptophan) binding pocket. Mutant trpR genes encoding changes of Vals8 to the other 19 naturally occurring amino acids were made. Each of the mutant proteins requires a higher intracellular concentration of tryptophan for activation of DNA binding than wild-type aporepressor. Whereas wild-type aporepressor is activated better by 5- methyltryptophan (5-MT) than by tryptophan, IlesHand other mutant aporepressors prefer tryptophan to 5-MT as corepressor, and Ala5' and GIY'~prefer 5-MT much more strongly than wild-type aporepressor in vivo. These mutant aporepressors are the first examples of DNA-binding proteins with altered specificities ofcofactor recognition. ANY regulatory proteins areallosteric, and bind intermonomer interactions stabilize its extraordinary M small metabolic intermediates that modify their hydrophobic core. The aporepressor dimer denatures activities, allowing the intracellular pattern of gene at a very high temperature (>go") (BAEet al. 1988). expression to respond to physiologicalchange. For Comparisons of the crystal structures of repressor example, the Escherichia coli tryptophan aporepressor (SCHEVITZet al. 1985; LAWSONet al. 1988;OTWI- (TrpR) protein binds DNA poorly. However, when NOWSKI et al. 1988), and aporepressor (ZHANG et al. complexed with L-tryptophan (corepressor), it binds 1987) suggest that activation of the TrpR dimer in- three sites (operators) on theE. coli genome to repress volves repositioning a-helices D and E with respect to transcriptionof the trp (BENNETTand YANOFSKY the rigid hydrophobic core determined by &-helices 1978), aroH (ZURAWSKIet al. 198 l), andtrpR operons A, B, C, and F. Crystal structures of theTrp repressor (GUNSALUSand YANOFSKY1980). Thus, Trp apore- complex show that each of the two symmetric core- pressor mediates the homeostatic control of trypto- pressor binding pockets ina repressor dimeris formed phan biosynthesis. by side chains from both monomers (SCHEVITZet al. Although mutations that alleviate the requirement 1985; LAWSONet al. 1988; OTWINOWSKIet al. 1988). of DNA binding proteins for their allosteric cofactors In these structures, tryptophan participates in hydro- havebeen described (ADHYA and GARGES 1990; philic and hydrophobic interactions with these side MENONand LEE 1990), no mutant repressors oracti- chains (Figure 1). Both the carboxylate and a-ammo- vators with altered specificities of cofactor recognition nium groups of tryptophan areinvolved in hydrogen- have been found to date. In this paper, we describe bonding networks. The carboxylate group forms hy- the first such mutants, Trp aporepressors altered in drogen bonds (H-bonds) with the guanidino group of theirinteractions with L-tryptophanand 5-methyl- Arg*4 from one monomer, and the hydroxyl group of tryptophan (5-MT), a toxic corepressor analog. Thr44' fromits partner monomer('). The ammonium The product of theE. coli trpR gene is a monomer group forms H-bondswith the Ser" hydroxyl and the of 107 amino acids that assembles as a dimer (GUN- main-chain carbonyls of Leu4" and Leu43'. The in- SALUS and YANOFSKY1980; JOACHIMIAK et al. 1983; dole ringmakes multiple hydrophobic interactions ARVIDSON, BRUCEand GUNSALUS 1986).The crystal with side chains that mold the binding pocket. The structure of Trp aporepressor (ZHANG et al. 1987) plane of the indole ring is sandwiched between the shows that each monomer is a bundle of six a-helices, A-F. Four of the six a-helices, A, B, C, and F are parallel, extended aliphatic side chains of ArgR4 and interwoven in thedimer, and multiple, symmetric Arg54, and the C5-C7 edge of the indole ring packs against the branched hydrophobic side chains ofIIe5' I Present address: California Institute of Biological Research, 11099 N. and Val5*. The corepressor, L-tryptophan, must act Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037. * Present address: Department of Biochemistry. University of California, like a keystone in the hydrophobic core of aporepres- Berkeley, California 94720. sor. Its hydrophobic indole ring is buried in an "argi- Genetics 128: 29-35 (May, 1991) 30 N. D. Arvidson, M. Shapiro and P. Youderian FIGURE1 .-The structure of the L-tryptophan (corepressor) binding pocket is shown as a stereo pair of diagrams. The y-methyl group of ValsRpoints toward the 5tarbon of bound tryptophan. Reprinted from SCHEVITLet al. (I 98.5) with permission from P. B. SIGLER. nine sandwich" and framed by hydrophobic interac- (5-MT) more tightly than tryptophan as corepressor tions, and its hydrophilic functional groups are on the (MARMORSTEINet al. 1987; D. N. ARVIDSONand R. surface of the repressor complex. P. GUNSALUS,unpublished results). However, by no means do the crystal structures of To investigate the nature of corepressor binding, tryptophan repressor give us a complete understand- we have examined the effects of all possible amino ing of how tryptophan binds as corepressor and elicits acid changes of residue valine 58. Thesemutants allow the allosteric change between aporepressor and re- us to explore the role of this residue in a manner pressor. In part, this is because structural differences independent of the conclusions we may draw from a between aporepressor and repressor are obscured by structure in vitro. Several amino acid changes should lattice interactions in the crystals. For example, the shorten or lengthen the Va15'side chain without com- sum ofRMS (root mean square) differences in the promising its hydrophobiccharacter. Therefore, if coordinates of two different crystal forms of repressor the carbon4 of tryptophan is close to the y-methyls is greater than the sum of differences between the of Val"" in the repressor complex, then a subset of same form of aporepressor and repressor (LAWSONet Val5" changes (including Ile"Rand Ala") should alter al. 1988). the preference of aporepressor for 5-MT and trypto- In addition, the pattern of specific weak bonds that phan. Indeed, we show that manyof these mutant stabilizes tryptophan binding in the crystal structures aporepressors have altered specificities of corepressor recognition. Even more surprisingly, we find that a of repressor must be different than the patternin vivo. wide variety of amino acid changes are tolerated at The crystal structures do not explain two things. First, this residue position, suggesting that the corepressor Thr44appears to make an important bond with the binding pocket is much less rigid than the structures tryptophan carboxylate in vitro, the change Thr4' + represented in the crystals. Ala has only a subtle effect on tryptophan binding in vitro (HE andMATTHEWS 1990). Second, the distance MATERIALS AND METHODS between carbon-5 of the tryptophan indole and they- methyl carbons of Val5' in the repressor crystal struc- Bacteria, phage and plasmids: Bacterial strains are deriv- atives of S. typhimurium LT2 or E. coli K12. Salmonella tures (ca. 3.8A) (SCHEVITZet al. 1985; LAWSONet al. strain MSl363 (leuA-am414 SUPE)(SUSSKIND 1980) was used 1988) is tooshort to accommodate an additional for the permissive growth of challenge phages; MS1868/ methyl group. This is disturbing because the related F'lacP' (BASSet al. 1987) carrying plasmid pPY2000 was Enterobacter aerogenes and Enterobacter cloacae trypto- used for challenge phage assays. The "Trp" challenge phage used to assay DNA-binding in vivo, P22 KnY 0-ref1arc- phan aporepressors are predicted to have isoleucine, amH1605 (BASSet al. 1987) carries a minimal reference-type not valine, at this position (our unpublished results). trp operator, 5' GAACTAGTTAACTAGTTC3', control- Furthermore, aporepressorbinds 5-methyltryptophan ling ant expression. Plasmid pPY2000 is a derivative of Mutant Aporepressors 31 pPY 150 (BENSONet al. 1986) missing the sequences between Ana1 the Sal1 and sites of its pBR322 backbone. Mutant plasmld pPY 2000 derivatives of pPY2000 were made by site-directed muta- frpR genesisusing the degenerate mismatch primer,5' CGTGCCTATTNNSGAAGAGCTG 3' and the "clean-up" 1 primer, 5' CGTGCTTATTSRAGAACAGCTG 3' (TAY- Trp aporepressor LOR,OTT and ECKSTEIN1985). Mutagenized plasmids were + t transformed into E. coli strain X90/F'lacfe1 (AMANN,BRO- 4- L-tryptophan SIUS and PTASHNE 1983) andsequenced by the method of SANGER,NICKLEN and COULSON(1977), using the oligonu- cleotide 5'GTCGACCTGCTTAAGAATGCC 3' includ- 1 I ing codons 23 to 29 of trpR, as primer. Strain CG103 (Alac- 00 repressor Trp pro AtrpR505 ara thi recA56 srl::TnlO)/XCLGI45) (D. N. I ARVIDSONand C. G. ARVIDSON,unpublished results) carries a lambda prophage with a fusion of the trp operator/pro- moter region and start of trpE to lacZ. Quantitation of mutant proteins: E. coli CG103 with each mutant derivative of plasmid pPY2000 was grown in Trp "drop-out" medium (BASSet al. 1987) with 50 pg/ml proline, 100 pg/ml thiamine and 400 pg/ml carbenicillin, to a density of 2 X 1O8/rnl. Proteins were resolved by SDS polyacrylanlide gel electrophoresis (SCHAGGERand