Showing papers by "George M. Sheldrick published in 2003"

Is the bond‐valence method able to identify metal atoms in protein structures?

Abstract: The proper assignment of metal ions in X-ray structures of proteins is not always easy, but in many cases this knowledge can be important, e.g. for an understanding of enzyme mechanism. In this publication, the bond-valence approach is assessed critically. A simplified version, the calcium bond-valence sum (CBVS), is proposed for the convenient analysis of the geometric environment of potential sites with a view to metal-ion assignment. The bond-valence approach is found to be more reliable for structures determined from high-resolution data (1.5 A or better).

In-house measurement of the sulfur anomalous signal and its use for phasing.

Abstract: Five test structures (orthorhombic and trigonal trypsin, cubic and rhombohedral insulin and thaumatin) have been solved by the SAD (single-wavelength anomalous diffraction) method using highly redundant data collected at 100 K with a CCD detector, rotating-anode generator and three-circle goniometer. The very weak anomalous scattering (primarily from sulfur) was sufficient to locate all the anomalous scatterers using the integrated direct and Patterson methods in SHELXD. These positions and occupancies were used without further refinement to estimate phases that were extended to native (in-house) resolution by the sphere of influence algorithm in SHELXE. The final map correlation coefficients relative to the anisotropically refined structures were in the range 0.81-0.97. The use of highly redundant medium-resolution laboratory data for sulfur-SAD phasing combined with high-resolution synchrotron native data for phase expansion and structure refinement clearly has considerable potential.

Automatic solution of heavy-atom substructures.

Abstract: Publisher Summary The determination of heavy-atom substructures using multiwavelength anomalous dispersion (MAD) or multiple isomorphous replacement (MIR) data is a straightforward, although often lengthy, process. SOLVE is designed to automate fully the analysis of such data. The MAD and MIR approaches to structure solution are conceptually similar and share several important steps. In each method, trial partial structures for heavy or anomalously scattering atoms are often obtained by the inspection of difference-Patterson functions or by semiautomated analysis. These initial structures are refined against the observed data and are used to generate initial phases. Then, additional sites and sites in other derivatives can be found from weighted difference or gradient maps using these phases. SOLVE prepares data for a heavy-atom substructure solution in two steps. First, the data are scaled using the local scaling procedure of Matthews and Czerwinski. Second, MAD data are converted to a pseudo-single isomorphous replacement with anomalous scattering (SIRAS) form that permits more rapid analysis. In many cases, an analysis of heavy-atom sites by the sequential deletion of individual sites or derivatives is also an important criterion of quality.

Locating the Anomalous Scatterer Substructures in Halide and Sulfur Phasing

Abstract: Improved data quality now makes it feasible to exploit the weak anomalous signal derived only from the sulfurs inherent to the protein or in particular from halide ions incorporated by soaking. The latter technique requires the location of a high number of partially occupied halide sites. This number appears to be roughly proportional to the exposed protein surface. This paper explores the application of dual-space ab initio methods as implemented in the program SHELXD to the location of substructures of sulfur in SAD experiments, bromide in SAD and MAD experiments and iodide using SAD and SIRAS to determine the anomalous-atom substructure. Sets of atoms consistent with the Patterson function were generated as a starting point for the dual-space recycling procedure in SHELXD. The substructure is then expanded to the full structure by maximum-likelihood phasing with SHARP and density modification with the program DM. Success in the location of the substructures and subsequent phasing depends critically on the quality of the data and on the extent of the anomalous signal. This varies with each crystal and soak, but for the same crystal the significance of the anomalous signal was found to be highly sensitive to the redundancy of the intensity measurements, which in some cases made all the difference. This is illustrated by the determination of the previously unknown structure of repeat 11 of the human mannose-6-phosphate/insulin-like growth factor II receptor (Man6P/IGFII-receptor), with 310 amino acids in the asymmetric unit, which was phased by soaking the crystals in a cryoprotectant solution containing halide anions.

Structure of viscotoxin A3: disulfide location from weak SAD data

Abstract: The crystal structure of viscotoxin A3 (VT A3) extracted from European mistletoe (Viscum album L.) has been solved using the anomalous diffraction of the native S atoms measured in-house with Cu Kα radiation to a resolution of 2.2 A and truncated to 2.5 A. A 1.75 A resolution synchrotron data set was used for phase expansion and refinement. An innovation in the dual-space substructure-solution program SHELXD enabled the individual S atoms of the disulfide bonds to be located using the Cu Kα data; this resulted in a marked improvement in the phasing compared with the use of super-S atoms. The VT A3 monomer consists of 46 amino acids with three disulfide bridges and has an overall fold resembling the canonical architecture of the α- and β-thionins, a capital letter L. The asymmetric unit consists of two monomers related by a local twofold axis and held together by hydrophobic interactions between the monomer units. One phosphate anion (confirmed by 31P-NMR and MS) is associated with each monomer.

In-house phase determination of the lima bean trypsin inhibitor: a low-resolution sulfur-SAD case.

Abstract: SAD (single-wavelength anomalous diffraction) has enormous potential for phasing proteins using only the anomalous signal of the almost ubiquitous native sulfur, but requires extremely precise data. The previously unknown structure of the lima bean trypsin inhibitor (LBTI) was solved using highly redundant data collected to 3 A using a CCD detector with a rotating-anode generator and three-circle goniometer. The seven `super-S' atoms (disulfide bridges) were located by dual-space recycling with SHELXD and the high solvent content enabled the density-modification program SHELXE to generate high-quality maps despite the modest resolution. Subsequently, a 2.05 A synchrotron data set was collected and used for further phase extension and structure refinement.

Crystal structures of cephaibols.

Abstract: The crystal structures of the peptaibol antibiotics cephaibol A, cephaibol B and cephaibol C have been determined at ca. 0.9 A resolution. All three adopt a helical conformation with a sharp bend (of about 55 degrees) at the central hydroxyproline. All isovalines were found to possess the D configuration, superposition of all four models (there are two independent molecules in the cephaibol B structure) shows that the N-terminal helix is rigid and the C-terminus is flexible. There are differences in the hydrogen bonding patterns for the three structures that crystallize in different space groups despite relatively similar unit cell dimensions, but only in the case of cephaibol C does the packing emulate the formation of a membrane channel believed to be important for their biological function.

Structure of dimeric cytochrome c3 from Desulfovibrio gigas at 1.2 A resolution.

Abstract: The structure of dimeric cytochrome c(3) from the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio gigas, diDg, obtained by ab initio methods was further refined to 1.2 A resolution, giving final reliability factors of R(free) = 14.8% and R = 12.4%. This cytochrome is a dimer of tetraheme cytochrome c(3) molecules covalently linked by two solvent-accessible disulfide bridges, a characteristic unique to members of the cytochrome c(3) superfamily. Anisotropic analysis using the semi-rigid TLS method shows different behaviour for analogous loops in each monomer arising from their different packing environments. A detailed sequence and structural comparison with all other known cytochrome c(3) domains in single- and multi-domain cytochromes c(3) shows the presence of structurally conserved regions in this family, despite the high variability of the amino-acid sequence. An internal water molecule is conserved in a common structural arrangement in all c(3) tetraheme domains, indicating a probable electron-transfer pathway between hemes I and II. Unique features of diDg are an internal methionine residue close to heme I and to one of the axial ligands of heme III, where all other structures of the cytochrome c(3) superfamily have a phenylalanine, and a rather unusual CXXXCH heme-binding motif only found so far in this cytochrome.

Structures of four crystal forms of decaplanin

Abstract: The glycopeptide antibiotic decaplanin (1; formerly known as MM 47761 and M86-1410) crystallizes in two P21 and two P6122 crystal forms, each with four monomers in the asymmetric unit, with solvent contents varying from 48 to 69%. Although with ca. 600 unique atoms, the structures are larger than typical small molecules, one was solved by direct methods. The other three were solved by typical macromolecular methods: single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD) of the Cl-atoms present naturally in the structure, multiple-wavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) at the Br absorption edge for a crystal soaked in NaBr solution, and molecular replacement. There is evidence of appreciable radiation damage with loss of 20–30% of the covalent and ionic halogens affecting the synchrotron datasets that may even have unintentionally facilitated the MAD structure solution. The structures contain the dimer units typical of antibiotics related to vancomycin, but, in addition, there are a variety of further intermolecular interactions responsible for the polymorphy leading to intertwined 61-helices in two of the crystal forms. Except for the sugars and some sidechains, the conformations of the 16 independent monomers are very similar.