Neuroglobin and cytoglobin reversibly bind oxygen in competition with the distal histidine, and the observed oxygen affinity therefore depends on the properties of both ligands. In the absence of an external ligand, the iron atom of these globins is hexacoordinated. There are three cysteine residues in human neuroglobin; those at positions CD7 and D5 are sufficiently close to form an internal disulfide bond. Both cysteine residues in cytoglobin, although localized in other positions than in human neuroglobin, may form a disulfide bond as well. The existence and position of these disulfide bonds was demonstrated by mass spectrometry and thiol accessibility studies. Mutation of the cysteines involved, or the use of reducing agents to break the S-S bond, led to a decrease in the observed oxygen affinity of human neuroglobin by an order of magnitude. The critical parameter is the histidine dissociation rate, which changes by about a factor of 10. The same effect is observed with human cytoglobin, although to a much lesser extent (less than a factor of 2). These results suggest a novel mechanism for the regulation of oxygen binding; contact with an appropriate electron donor would provoke the release of oxygen. Hence the oxygen affinity would be directly linked to the redox state of the cell.

We have constructed a plasmid (pHE2) in which the synthetic human a-and 3-globin genes and the methionine aminopeptidase (Met-AP) gene from Escherichia coli are coexpressed under the control of separate tac promoters. The Hbs were expressed in E. coli JM109 and purified by fast protein liquid chromatography, producing two major components, a and b. Electrospray mass spectrometry shows that at least 98% and about 90% of the expressed a and (3 chains of component a, respectively, have the expected masses.The remaining 10% of the P chain in component a corresponds in mass to the .8 chain plus methionine. In component b, both a and (3 chains have the correct masses without detectable N-terminal methionine (<2%). These results have been confirmed by Edman degradation studies of the amino-terminal sequences of the a and ,B chains of these two recombinant Hb (rHb) samples. rHbs from components a and b exhibit visible optical spectra identical to that of human normal adult Hb (Hb A). Component a and Hb A have very similar oxygen-binding properties, but component b shows somewhat altered oxygen binding, especially at low pH values. 1H-NMR spectra of component a and Hb A are essentially identical, whereas those of component b exhibit altered ring current-shifted and hyperfine-shifted proton resonances, indicating altered heme conformation in the (3 chain. These altered resonance patterns can be changed to those of Hb A by converting component b to the ferric state and then to the deoxy state and finally back to either the carbonmonoxy or oxy form. Thus, our E. coli expression system produces native, unmodified Hb A in high yield and can be used to produce desired mutant Hbs.To make use of our ability to rationally design mutant human Hbs needed for research on structure-function relationships, an efficient expression system for producing unmodified human Hbs in high yields is needed. Human adult Hb (Hb A) is a tetrameric protein containing two a chains and two (3 chains having 141 and 146 amino acid residues each, respectively. Human globins and Hbs have been expressed in transgenic mice (1-4), transgenic swine (5), insect cell cultures (6), yeast (7, 8), and Escherichia coli (9-11). In many respects, the E. coli system is the best choice for our purposes because of its high expression efficiency and the ease ofperforming site-directed mutagenesis. The first E. coli system to express human a-and 3-globin as a fusion protein was developed by Nagai and Th0gersen (9,12), but the product processing procedure is very laborious and gives low yield. Thus, this expression system has limitations, especially when large amounts of recombinant Hb (rHb) are required for biochemical-biophysical studies. Hoffman et al.

The coding sequence for human serum transferrin was assembled from restriction fragments derived from a full-length cDNA clone isolated from a human liver cDNA library. The assembled clone was inserted into the expression vector pNUT and stably transfected into transformed baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells, leading to secretion of up to 125 mg/L recombinant protein into the tissue culture medium. As judged by mobility on NaDodSO4-PAGE, immunoreactivity, spectral properties (indicative of correct folding and iron binding), and the ability to bind to receptors on a human cell line, initial studies showed that the recombinant transferrin, is identical to three commercial human serum transferrin samples. Electrospray mass spectrometry (ESMS), anion-exchange chromatography, and urea gel analysis showed that the recombinant protein has an extremely complex carbohydrate pattern with 16 separate masses ranging from 78,833 to 80,802 daltons. Mutation of the two asparagine carbohydrate linkage sites to aspartic acid residues led to the expression and secretion of up to 25 mg/L nonglycosylated transferrin. ESMS, anion-exchange chromatography, and urea gel analysis showed a single molecular species that was consistent with the expected theoretical mass of 75,143 daltons. In equilibrium binding experiments, the nonglycosylated mutant bound to HeLa S3 cells with the same avidity and to the same extent as the glycosylated protein and the three commercial samples. These studies demonstrate conclusively that carbohydrate has no role in this function.

To elucidate the quaternary structure of the extracellular haemoglobin (Hb) of the marine polychaete Arenicola marina (lugworm) it was subjected to multi-angle laser-light scattering (MALLS) and to electrospray-ionisation mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). It was also subjected to SDS/PAGE analysis for comparative purposes. MALLS analysis gave a molecular mass of 3648 % 24 kDa and a gyration radius of 11.3 rt 1.7 nm. Maximum entropy analysis of the multiply charged electrospray spectra of the native, dehaemed, reduced and carbamidomethylated Hb forms, provided its complete polypeptide chain and subunit composition. We found, in the reduced condition, eight globin chains of molecular masses 15952. Keywords: Arenicola ; haemoglobin ; quaternary structure ; multi-angle laser-light scattering; electrospray mass spectrometry.The giant extracellular haemoglobins (Hb) and chlorocruorins found in annelids [1] and vestimentiferans [2, 31 are characterised by an acidic isoelectric point and by an hexagonal symmetry in electron micrographs consisting of two superimposed hexagonal arrays of twelve spherical subunits, the hexagonal bilayer (HBL). These HBL Hb also contain a low haem and iron contents (about 67% of those observed in other Hbs) and consist of two types of chains, globin chains (~1 6 -1 8 kDa), accounting for approximately 70% of the total mass, and haem-deficient linker chains (~2 4 -2 8 kDa) necessary for the assemblage into the HBL structure [1,. The intertidal marine polychaete Arenicola marina (L.) was one of the first 60s (~3 6 0 0 kDa)

HLA-DR13 has been associated with resistance to two major infectious diseases of humans. To investigate the peptide binding specificity of two HLA-DR13 molecules and the effects of the Gly/Val dimorphism at position 86 of the HLA-DR,B chain on natural peptide ligands, these peptides were acid-eluted from immunoaffinity-purified HLA-DRB1*1301 and -DRB1*1302, molecules that differ only at this position. The eluted peptides were subjected to pool sequencing or individual peptide sequencing by tandem MS or Edman microsequencing. Sequences were obtained for 23 peptides from nine source proteins. Three pool sequences for each allele and the sequences of individual peptides were used to define-binding motifs for each allele. Binding specificities varied only at the primary hydrophobic anchor residue, the differences being a preference for the aromatic amino acids Tyr and Phe in DRB1*1302 and a preference for Val in DRB1*1301.