Exploring the Sequence Landscape of the Model Protein Rop to Gain Insights Into Sequence-Stability Relationship in Proteins
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Exploring the sequence landscape of the model protein Rop to gain insights into sequence-stability relationship in proteins DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Nishanthi Panneerselvam Graduate Program in Biophysics The Ohio State University 2017 Dissertation Committee: Professor Thomas J. Magliery, Advisor Professor Charles E. Bell Professor Ralf A. Bundschuh Copyrighted by Nishanthi Panneerselvam 2017 Abstract Surface residues and surface electrostatics play an active role in maintaining protein stability. A combinatorial library randomizing five surface positions in Rop to NNK (K=G or T) codons was constructed. Interestingly, the consensus sequence had positively charged residues instead of negatively charged residues present in wild-type. Specifically, lysines were found more than arginines. To delve into this, all these five positions were individually mutated to Lys and Arg and four poly mutants were made by mutating to multiple lysines and arginines. Most of the point mutants were found to be active by Rop screen. All mutants were well folded as seen by circular dichroism studies. An important result was that most of the mutants were more thermally stable than the Cys-free wild-type scaffold AV-Rop. Thermodynamic parameters were found using Gibbs-Helmholtz analysis and the entropic change was higher for most mutants. Solubility was affected more in the poly mutants than in the point mutants. HSQC on selected variants revealed that the least stable mutant and poly mutants had more shifted peaks compared to the most stable mutant. No considerable differences were found between Lys and Arg mutants. Poly mutants had varied effects on activity and solubility compared to point mutants. ii If all the possible point mutants in a protein are subject to moderate selection for activity or function, high-throughput sequencing can measure the relative abundance of mutants in a bulk competition experiment which in turn gives the relative fitness of each mutant. This project involves making all possible point mutants of Rop by constructing 20 member positional libraries individually in 62 positions of Rop. Preliminary data includes proof-of-principle selection experiments in three positions of Rop (F14, D30 and D43). Variants were enriched 1,000 fold for activity by performing six rounds of growth based selection. Likewise, we are in the process of constructing 62 positional libraries which will be combined together in the selection screen, subject to enrichment and then sequenced by high-throughput methods to give the sequence landscape. Analyzing the sequence/fitness landscape of Rop will yield each mutant’s competitive advantage/disadvantage. iii Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Thomas Magliery for providing me the opportunity to work in his lab. I have learnt a great deal from him and I have always admired his passion towards research. The degree wouldn’t have been possible if not for the valuable inputs from his expertise. I thank him for his constant support and encouragement during tough times. I owe him a lot for all this support. I thank the Magliery group members for providing support and guidance. I would like to thank Dr. Ralf Bundschuh for being on my committee and for advising me as the Director of Biophysics. I would also like to thank my committee members Dr. Chuck Bell and Dr. Christopher Jaroniec for providing me feedback and guidance. I would like to thank everyone else who supported me in some way through my graduate school career. I would like to thank my mom and dad who share a big part in finishing the degree by being there for me. I would also like to thank my bestie Geethi for every small and big help that she did to me. I want to thank my friends Kanu, Mithila, Aishu and Nitya for making graduate school fun. I want to thank my husband Karthik for the support during completion of the degree. I would like to thank my sisters for always being there for me. I want to thank my all other friends and family. iv Vita 2009................................................................B. Tech. Industrial Biotechnology, Anna University 2013................................................................M.S. Biophysics, The Ohio State University 2013-present ...................................................Graduate associate, Biophysics program, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Biophysics v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iv Vita ...................................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... x List of Figures .................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Protein stability ......................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Plasmid regulation by the protein ‘ROP’ .................................................................. 5 1.3 ROP as a model protein ............................................................................................. 9 1.4 Role of surface residues in protein stability ............................................................ 15 1.5 Effect of surface electrostatics on protein stability ................................................. 18 1.6 Other factors that affect protein stability ................................................................. 23 1.7 Lysines vs Arginines on the protein surface ........................................................... 24 vi 1.8 Solubility ................................................................................................................. 27 1.9 Deep sequencing ..................................................................................................... 32 1.9.1 DNA Sequencing .............................................................................................. 34 1.9.2 Chain terminator sequencing ............................................................................ 35 1.9.3 Second generation sequencing.......................................................................... 39 1.9.4 Next generation sequencing methods ............................................................... 39 1.10 General applications of next generation sequencing ............................................. 52 1.11 Applications of deep sequencing in protein stability and fitness studies .............. 53 Chapter 2: Engineering surface residues of the four helix bundle protein Rop ................ 63 2.1 Summary ................................................................................................................. 64 2.2.1 Plasmids and strains.......................................................................................... 65 2.2.2 Rop NNK5-surface library construction ........................................................... 65 2.2.3 Screen and selection for active variants ........................................................... 66 2.2.4. Resequencing of pAC surface library .............................................................. 66 2.3 Results ..................................................................................................................... 69 2.4 Discussion ............................................................................................................... 78 vii Chapter 3: Effect of surface lysines and arginines on stability and other characteristics of Rop .................................................................................................................................... 80 3.1: Summary ................................................................................................................ 81 3.2 Materials and Methods ............................................................................................ 82 3.2.1 Cloning and Sequencing ................................................................................... 82 3.2.2 Solubility .......................................................................................................... 88 3.2.3 Activity ............................................................................................................. 88 3.2.4 Protein expression and purification .................................................................. 89 3.2.5 Circular Dichroism ........................................................................................... 91 3.2.6 Gibbs-Helmholtz Analysis ............................................................................... 91 3.2.7 HSQC NMR ..................................................................................................... 92 3.3 Results ..................................................................................................................... 93 3.3.1 Construction of lysine and arginine variants ...................................................