MBP-binding DARPins facilitate the crystallization of an MBP fusion protein

Acta Crystallogr F Struct Biol Commun. 2018 Sep 1;74(Pt 9):549-557. doi: 10.1107/S2053230X18009901. Epub 2018 Aug 29.

Abstract

The production of high-quality crystals is the main bottleneck in determining the structures of proteins using X-ray crystallography. In addition to being recognized as a very effective solubility-enhancing fusion partner, Escherichia coli maltose-binding protein (MBP) has also been successfully employed as a `fixed-arm' crystallization chaperone in more than 100 cases. Here, it is reported that designed ankyrin-repeat proteins (DARPins) that bind with high affinity to MBP can promote the crystallization of an MBP fusion protein when the fusion protein alone fails to produce diffraction-quality crystals. As a proof of principle, three different co-crystal structures of MBP fused to the catalytic domain of human dual-specificity phosphatase 1 in complex with DARPins are reported.

Keywords: crystallization chaperones; designed ankyrin-repeat proteins; dual-specificity phosphatase 1; maltose-binding protein; surface-entropy-reduction mutagenesis.

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Binding Sites
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Crystallization
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Dual Specificity Phosphatase 1 / chemistry*
  • Dual Specificity Phosphatase 1 / genetics
  • Dual Specificity Phosphatase 1 / metabolism
  • Escherichia coli / genetics
  • Escherichia coli / metabolism
  • Gene Expression
  • Genetic Vectors / chemistry
  • Genetic Vectors / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Maltose-Binding Proteins / chemistry*
  • Maltose-Binding Proteins / genetics
  • Maltose-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Chaperones / chemistry*
  • Molecular Chaperones / genetics
  • Molecular Chaperones / metabolism
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Conformation, alpha-Helical
  • Protein Conformation, beta-Strand
  • Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / chemistry*
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid

Substances

  • Maltose-Binding Proteins
  • Molecular Chaperones
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • DUSP1 protein, human
  • Dual Specificity Phosphatase 1