Significance of conservative asparagine residues in the thermal hysteresis activity of carrot antifreeze protein

Biochem J. 2004 Feb 1;377(Pt 3):589-95. doi: 10.1042/BJ20031249.

Abstract

The approximately 24-amino-acid leucine-rich tandem repeat motif (PXXXXXLXXLXXLXLSXNXLXGXI) of carrot antifreeze protein comprises most of the processed protein and should contribute at least partly to the ice-binding site. Structural predictions using publicly available online sources indicated that the theoretical three-dimensional model of this plant protein includes a 10-loop beta-helix containing the approximately 24-amino-acid tandem repeat. This theoretical model indicated that conservative asparagine residues create putative ice-binding sites with surface complementarity to the 1010 prism plane of ice. We used site-specific mutagenesis to test the importance of these residues, and observed a distinct loss of thermal hysteresis activity when conservative asparagines were replaced with valine or glutamine, whereas a large increase in thermal hysteresis was observed when phenylalanine or threonine residues were replaced with asparagine, putatively resulting in the formation of an ice-binding site. These results confirmed that the ice-binding site of carrot antifreeze protein consists of conservative asparagine residues in each beta-loop. We also found that its thermal hysteresis activity is directly correlated with the length of its asparagine-rich binding site, and hence with the size of its ice-binding face.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence / physiology
  • Antifreeze Proteins / chemistry*
  • Antifreeze Proteins / metabolism
  • Antifreeze Proteins / physiology*
  • Asparagine / physiology*
  • Conserved Sequence / physiology
  • Daucus carota / chemistry
  • Freezing
  • Ice
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Plant Proteins / chemistry*
  • Plant Proteins / metabolism
  • Plant Proteins / physiology*
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protein Structure, Secondary / physiology

Substances

  • AFP protein, Daucus carota
  • Antifreeze Proteins
  • Ice
  • Plant Proteins
  • Asparagine