Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-21-2011

Abstract

Mammalian type B (mitochondrial) b5 cytochromes exhibit greater amino acid sequence diversity than their type A (microsomal) counterparts, as exemplified by the type B proteins from human (hCYB5B) and rat (rCYB5B). The comparison of X-ray crystal structures of hCYB5B and rCYB5B reported herein reveals a striking difference in packing involving the five-strand ß-sheet, which can be attributed to fully buried residue 21 in strand ß4. The greater bulk of Leu21 in hCYB5B in comparison to that of Thr21 in rCYB5B results in a substantial displacement of the first two residues in ß5, and consequent loss of two of the three hydrogen bonds between ß5 and ß4. Hydrogen bonding between the residues is instead mediated by two well-ordered, fully buried water molecules. In a 10 ns molecular dynamics simulation, one of the buried water molecules in the hCYB5B structure exchanged readily with solvent via intermediates having three water molecules sandwiched between ß4 and ß5. When the buried water molecules were removed prior to a second 10 ns simulation, ß4 and ß5 formed persistent hydrogen bonds identical to those in rCYB5B, but the Leu21 side chain was forced to adopt a rarely observed conformation. Despite the apparently greater ease of access of water to the interior of hCYB5B than of rCYB5B suggested by these observations, the two proteins exhibit virtually identical stability, dynamic, and redox properties. The results provide new insight into the factors stabilizing the cytochrome b5 fold. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Biochemistry

First Page

5544

Last Page

5554

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