Ml. Zani et al., MUTATION OF POLAR AND CHARGED RESIDUES IN THE HYDROPHOBIC NH2-TERMINAL DOMAINS OF THE MELIBIOSE PERMEASE OF ESCHERICHIA-COLI, The Journal of biological chemistry, 269(40), 1994, pp. 24883-24889
The suggestion that acidic residues in the hydrophobic NH2-terminal do
mains of Mel permease (Asp-31 in helix I, Asp-51 and Asp-55 in helix I
I, Asp-120 in helix IV) may be essential components of a coordination
network involved in cation recognition (Pourcher, T., Zani, M. L., and
Leblanc, G. (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268, 3209-3215) is further analyzed
using site-directed mutagenesis. To study whether nearby polar residu
es also contribute to the cation recognition process, Tyr-24, Tyr-27 a
nd Tyr-28 (aligned with Asp-31) and Tyr-109 and Tyr-116 (aligned with
Asp-120) were individually converted into a phenylalanine. The effect
of replacing Arg-48 (aligned with Asp-51 and Asp-55) or Asn-83 (in the
middle of helix III) by an alanine was also studied. The importance o
f the position of the carboxylate of the residue at position 31, 51, 5
5, or 120 was next examined by replacing each Asp by a Glu residue. Su
gar binding and/or transport activity measurements indicate that all p
olar --> apolar or Asp --> Glu mutants use Na+ or Li+ for active sugar
transport. Moreover, two groups of mutants could be distinguished. On
e group, composed of Y27F, Y28F, D31E, and Y109F mutants, retains wild
type permease properties. A second group (Y24F, N83A, and Y116F and a
lso D51E, D55E, and D120E) exhibits concomitant reduction of affinity
for sodium and sugars and altered sugar specificity but conserves wild
type cation selectivity profile. The data reinforce the notion that A
sp-51, Asp-55, and Asp-120 residues and the position of their carboxyl
side chains are of primary importance for cation recognition. Finally
, since Mel permease properties are predominantly modified by mutageni
zing residues located in the cytoplasmic half of the permease, we prop
ose that Mel permease has a well-like shape opened toward the periplas
mic space and is closed at its cytoplasmic extremity by a gate.