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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 275, Issue 41, 31908-31913, October 13, 2000
From the Laboratory of Structural Biology, NIEHS, National
Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709 and the
Received for publication, January 24, 2000, and in revised form, July 19, 2000
Reactivity of surface lysyl residues of proteins
with a broad range of chemical agents has been proposed to be dependent
on the catalytic microenvironment of the residue. We have investigated the acetylation of wild type ubiquitin and of the UbH68N mutant to
evaluate the potential contribution of His-68 to the reactivity of
Lys-6, which is about 4 Å distant. These studies were performed using
[1-13C]acetyl salicylate or
[1,1'-13C2]acetic anhydride, and the
acetylated products were detected by two-dimensional heteronuclear
multiple quantum coherence spectroscopy. The results demonstrate
that His-68 makes a positive contribution to the rate of acetylation of
Lys-6 by labeled aspirin. Additionally, a pair of transient resonances
is observed after treatment of wild type ubiquitin with the labeled
acetic anhydride but not upon treatment of the H68N mutant. These
resonances are assigned to the acetylated His-68 residue. The loss of
intensity of the acetylhistidine resonances is accompanied by an
increase in intensity of the acetyl-Lys-6 peak, supporting the
existence of a transacetylation process between the acetylhistidine 68 and lysine 6 residues located on the protein surface. Hence,
this may be the first direct demonstration of a catalytic intermediate
forming on the protein surface.
The formation of covalent adducts by proteins and other cellular
macromolecules plays an important role in the mediation of toxicity of
both natural (e.g. non-enzymatic glycosylation) and synthetic (e.g. halothane trifluoroacetylation) substances.
Hence, developing a mechanistic basis of such adduct formation is
central to both an understanding of the structural basis for such
toxicity and the development of alternate agents that may retain useful properties while exhibiting reduced tendencies to form undesirable adducts. For perhaps a majority of the examples of stable, covalent adducts that have been reported to form with proteins, linkages to
lysine side chains are observed, despite the fact that at physiological pH values the lysyl The most extensive investigations of non-enzymatic protein modification
have involved protein glycation and the formation of "advanced
glycation end products" or "AGE" (3, 4), as shown in Scheme
1. It is clear from such studies that not
all lysines behave equivalently, and several of these studies indicate that factors other than accessibility, in particular the existence of a
catalytic microenvironment, play an important role in determining the
site of glycation and the nature of the subsequent chemistry (5-11).
In a number of studies involving glycation and the formation of other
adducts, histidine has been proposed to play an important role in
determining the reactivity of nearby lysine residues. Shilton and
Walton (8) and Shilton et al. (9) have proposed that
the imidazole group of His-348 facilitates the Amadori chemistry with
Lys-231 in alcohol dehydrogenase via acid-base catalysis. In
particular, a base supplied either by the buffer or by a nearby residue
can facilitate the Amadori rearrangement by removing the proton from
carbon 2 of the Schiff base-linked aldimine, and the subsequent
tautomerizations are also subject to acid-base catalysis. Miyata
et al. (11) similarly proposed that His-31 catalyzed Amadori
rearrangement of the glycated adduct at Ile-1 in human As noted above, Hayden et al. (2) found that imidazole and
phenol catalyzed adduct formation with metabolically generated thionoacyl fluorides. Khalifah and Sutherland (15) found that imidazole
stimulated alkylation of alcohol dehydrogenase at low concentrations
but was inhibitory at high concentrations. Thus, the effects of added
molecules can be complex, involving both catalytic activation and
competition for modification. Another complicating factor is the unique
active site chemistry of each enzyme, which can trap or specifically
bind particular agents. In the present study, we have used
two-dimensional NMR methods to study the acetylation of a very
well characterized protein, ubiquitin. Ubiquitin is a particularly
attractive target for such studies because of the wealth of available
structural data, the lack of an active site with its specific catalytic
chemistry, and the presence of a single histidine residue located in
the vicinity of Lys-6. NMR studies of the modification of ubiquitin and
its H68N mutant offer a more direct approach to the analysis of the
role of surface functionality in protein adduct formation.
Materials--
Ubiquitin was obtained from Sigma.
Methylene chloride, pyridine, deuterium oxide, deuterium chloride, and
deuterium hydroxide were purchased from Aldrich. Potassium phosphate
dibasic and monobasic salts were purchased from Mallinckrodt.
For dialysis, 2-kDa molecular mass cutoff slide-A-LyzerTM
cassettes were purchased from Pierce. Salicylic acid was purchased from
Fluka (Ronkonkoma, NY). Ethanol was purchased from Amersham Pharmacia
Biotech. [1,1'-13C2]Acetic anhydride
and [1-13C]acetyl chloride were purchased from Isotec,
Inc. (Miamisburg, OH).
Synthesis of [1-13C]Acetyl Salicylic
Acid--
[1-13C]Acetyl salicylic acid was synthesized
following an approach similar to that described by Gerig et
al. (16) by the reaction of [1-13C]acetyl chloride
with salicylic acid. Salicylic acid (1.5 g) was dissolved in 90 ml of
methylene chloride containing 1.8 ml of pyridine. A solution of 20%
[1-13C]acetyl chloride (2.8 ml) in methylene chloride
(11.2 ml) was added (14 ml total volume). The reaction container was
capped and allowed to react for 15 h at 22 °C. The reaction
container was uncapped, the methylene chloride was evaporated by
heating (~45 °C), and the sample was then lyophilized. The purity
of the [1-13C]acetyl salicylic acid was determined by
1H NMR to be >99%. The isotopically labeled aspirin was
stored in a dessicator at 0 °C.
NMR Studies--
All NMR studies were performed on a
Varian UNITY Plus 500-MHz NMR spectrometer (Palo Alto, CA).
HMQC1 spectra were obtained
using a 5-mm Nalorac triple resonance probe (Martinez, CA). Typical
HMQC spectral parameters were as follows: spectral width of 4,504.5 Hz
and 2,048 complex data points yielding an acquisition of 0.455 s with
13C WALTZ16 decoupling during acquisition,
relaxation delay of 0.4 s, scalar evolution delay of 61 ms, and a
0.4-s presaturation pulse. Typically, the t1 dimension had a spectral
width of 628.6 Hz and 64 increments and was collected in
phase-sensitive mode. The number of increments and/or transients were
varied to obtain the required resolution or signal-to-noise ratio.
Two-dimensional spectra were zero-filled to 2,048 points in t1,
and apodization consisted of a shifted sine-bell function. Peak volumes
were calculated using the Varian VNMR software (version 5.3b)
and referenced to aspirin at 174.2 ppm (13C) and 2.34 ppm
(1H) when visible in the two-dimensional spectrum; all
shift values are in ppm. When acetic anhydride was used as the
acetylating agent, the position of the acetyl-Lys-33 resonance was set
at
The kinetics of aspirin acetylation of wt ubiquitin and H68N mutants
were studied using a solution containing 8.3 mM ubiquitin or 0.4 mM H68N mutant and 40 mM
[1-13C]acetyl salicylic acid in 0.2 M
phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) in 100% D2O at a temperature of
37 °C. Although a high concentration of ubiquitin was used in this
study to facilitate peak quantification, we found that we obtained very
similar results at much lower ubiquitin concentrations; i.e.
the relative reactivities of the amino groups is approximately
independent of concentration (17). In addition to the HMQC parameters
described above, an inverse BIRD pulse was placed in front of
the HMQC sequence to suppress the increasing acetate signal that
co-resonates with the signals of interest. The inverse BIRD
sequence is essentially a spin echo with a scalar evolution delay of
78.1 ms, a presaturation pulse of 0.4 s, and a 1.063-s delay
before the start of the HMQC sequence. Each spectrum was composed of 32 transients, resulting in a temporal resolution of 3 h. Peak
volumes were calculated using the Varian VNMR software (version
5.3b). A threshold was chosen that was visually above the noise level,
and the volume borders were automatically selected by the Varian
software. Both peak volumes and peak heights were calculated based on
the peak volume integration calculation and peak picking procedure of
the software, respectively. Both measurements gave similar results, but
only the peak volumes were used for graphing time courses of the reactions.
Time-dependent studies of acetic anhydride acetylation of
wt ubiquitin and the H68N mutant were performed using a solution containing 4 mM ubiquitin or 0.66 mM H68N
mutant and 110 mM
[1,1'-13C2]acetic anhydride in 0.22 M phosphate buffer in D2O (uncorrected meter
reading of pH 7.4) at a temperature of 25 °C. A preliminary kinetic
study was performed to determine the optimum temporal spacing of data
points. The same two-dimensional HMQC NMR parameters as described above
were used. Addition of the stock acetic anhydride solutions to the
protein samples resulted in initial pH values of 6.85 and 7.2 for the
wt and H68N samples, respectively, which decreased to 6.50 and 6.40 after 10 h and 18 h, respectively. Additional kinetic studies
were performed with 4 mM ubiquitin and 4 M or 8 M [1,1'-13C2]acetic anhydride in
0.25 M phosphate buffer (pH 5.9) in 100% D2O
at a temperature of 25 °C to evaluate the effects of higher levels
of acetylation. In each of these experiments, the transient resonances
assigned to acetyl-His-68 were observed.
Unequivocal assignment of the acetyl-Lys-6 resonance was achieved by
reacting 20 mM [1-13C]acetyl salicylate with
the 0.4 mM UbK6R mutant. Acetate and unreacted aspirin were
removed by dialysis, and a 1H-13C HMQC spectrum
of the resulting acetylated UbK6R mutant was obtained, confirming our
previous assignment (17).
As shown previously (17), incubation of wt ubiquitin with
[1-13C]acetyl salicylate results in the
time-dependent formation of six adducts that give rise to
resolved resonances in two-dimensional HMQC spectra. These adduct
resonances have been previously assigned, and it was found that Lys-6
is the most rapidly acetylated residue, followed by Lys-48 and Lys-63.
Although the order of acetylation parallels the surface availability of
the residues, differences in calculated surface contact areas derived
using the Connolly algorithm are in general insufficient to explain
these differences. Lys-6 and Lys-48 are located near His-68 and Tyr-59,
respectively. This might result in enhanced acetylation by aspirin due
to pi-pi bonding or Van der Waals interactions between the aspirin and the aromatic residues. Alternatively, the proximity of Lys-6 to His-68
(the Lys-6 The use of acetic anhydride as a protein acetylating agent is expected
to result in a greater degree of acetylation of less accessible target
groups, as well as more extensive acetylation of histidine residues
(19, 20). In a study of the acetylation of prothrombin by acetic
anhydride, acetylation of one of the histidyl residues was found to
proceed so rapidly that substantial amounts of the diacetylated species
were formed, with the doubly acetylated imidazole ring decomposing to
yield a di-N-acetylated side chain with an opened imidazole
ring and loss of the ring C-2 carbon (21).
1H-13C HMQC studies of both ubiquitin and
UbH68N performed using 110 mM
[1,1'-13C2]acetic anhydride confirm the
greater acetylation of a residue corresponding to chemical shifts of
1H and 13C of 2.06 and 174.26 ppm,
respectively, which we have previously assigned to the
N-terminal methionine amino group. This result is consistent with
preliminary mass spectrometry data indicating a high level of
acetylation of Met-1 by acetic anhydride (22). In addition, two small
resonances are observed in the upper right-hand region of the spectrum
(Fig. 3A) at
Remarkably, although the acetylation of ubiquitin by acetic anhydride
proceeds sufficiently rapidly so that the reaction is essentially
complete by the first observation period (Fig.
4A), the
time-dependent loss of intensity of the resonances assigned to acetyl-His-68 are paralleled by a time-dependent
increase in the intensity of acetyl-Lys-6. In contrast, we observed no
time-dependent increase in the acetyl-Lys-6 resonance of
UbH68N after treatment with the same concentration of acetic anhydride
(Fig. 4B). These results indicate a direct transfer of the
[1-13C]acetyl moiety from acetyl-His-68 to Lys-6, as
shown in Scheme 2. This behavior is
consistent with the fact that acetyl imidazole is itself an acetylating
agent that has been used in many studies (23-26). In addition, the
apparent decrease in intensity of some of the acetyl lysine resonances
in Fig. 4 probably results from minor precipitation of the acetylated
ubiquitin, which is more significant for the more highly acetylated
species.
Another interesting feature of these spectra is the non-symmetric
appearance of the contour corresponding to acetyl-Lys-63, which becomes
particularly apparent under conditions of high levels of acetylation of
the protein by acetic anhydride (Fig. 5).
Fig. 5 shows a two-dimensional 1H-13C HMQC
spectrum of 4.0 mM ubiquitin and 8 M acetic
anhydride obtained 5.5 h into the reaction time course. In this
case, the intensity of the resonance previously assigned to
acetyl-Met-1 is significantly greater than in the previous study using
aspirin (17). Furthermore, the acetyl-Lys-63 resonance now appears as
two overlapping signals. In the crystal, the N-S distance of 3.6 Å corresponding to the Lys-63 N
The above results provide strong support for the conclusion that
surface catalysis can contribute to the formation of adducts of
proteins and, presumably, other macromolecules. In contrast to
catalysis at the active site of proteins, in which very precise structural relationships are maintained, the effects observed here
occur in the presence of only an average proximity of flexible side
chains. Thus, for example, in the crystal structure of ubiquitin the
mean ratio of the B-factors for the Based on ubiquitin amine surface accessibility alone (17), one would predict that the smaller, more reactive protein-modifying agent, acetic anhydride, would have a similar residue acetylation profile to aspirin. However, Lys-6 is the third most reactive at an acetic anhydride:ubiquitin molar ratio of 13:1 (Fig. 4). The basis for this difference in reactivity is unknown at present. At very high acetic anhydride:ubiquitin ratios, the intensities for the acetyl lysine resonances of the accessible residues tend to become more similar, indicating a more complete degree of modification (e.g. Fig. 5, obtained at a ratio of 2000:1). Transient acetyl histidine adducts have previously been reported using
other methods of detection (19, 20). The factors involved in the
observation of transient acetyl histidine adducts by NMR are not
completely clear at present. The data obtained demonstrate that the
potential significance of a catalytic microenvironment extends beyond
the example of the Amadori rearrangement of Schiff's bases to other
types of adducts formed with macromolecules. In fact, the most highly
acetylated lysine residues by aspirin in albumin (27) and hemoglobin
(28) are within several Ångstroms of a histidine residue, and
transient acetyl histidine adducts may be responsible for the enhanced
reactivity of certain lysine residues in these proteins as well. In
addition to the role of histidine discussed above, other residues can
presumably play analogous catalytic roles. Aspartyl and glutamyl
carboxyl groups have also been found in the vicinity of highly glycated
lysyl residues (6, 13). Similarly, tyrosyl side chains could be transiently acetylated and become involved in analogous
transacetylation reactions (2). It seems likely that all of the
catalytic effects observed at the active sites of enzymes may play a
role in non-enzymatic protein modification, although the effects in
general are expected to be considerably smaller because of the lack of
defined surface residue stereochemical constraints (29).
* The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
§ To whom correspondence should be addressed: Laboratory of Structural Biology, MR-01, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Box 12233, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709. Tel.: 919-541-4879; Fax: 919-541-5707; E-mail: london@niehs.nih.gov.
Published, JBC Papers in Press, July 21, 2000, DOI 10.1074/jbc.M000684200
The abbreviations used are: HMQC, heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence; BIRD, bilinear rotation decoupling; wt, wild type; UbH68N, ubiquitin with the histidine at position 68 replaced by asparagine.
Copyright © 2000 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc. This article has been cited by other articles:
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