Generation of a Functionally Distinct Rhizopus oryzae Lipase through Protein Folding Memory

PLoS One. 2015 May 13;10(5):e0124545. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0124545. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Rhizopus oryzae lipase (ROL) has a propeptide at its N-terminus that functions as an intramolecular chaperone and facilitates the folding of mature ROL (mROL). In this study, we successfully generated a functionally distinct imprinted mROL (mROLimp) through protein folding memory using a mutated propeptide. The mutated propeptide left its structural memory on mROL and produced mROLimp that exhibited different substrate specificities compared with mROLWT (prepared from the wild type propeptide), although the amino acid sequences of both mROLs were the same. mROLimp showed a preference for substrates with medium chain-length acyl groups and, noticeably, recognized a peptidase-specific substrate. In addition, ROLimp was more stable than mROLWT. These results strongly suggest that proteins with identical amino acid sequences can fold into different conformations and that mutations in intramolecular chaperones can dynamically induce changes in enzymatic activity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Escherichia coli / genetics
  • Escherichia coli / metabolism
  • Fungal Proteins / chemistry*
  • Fungal Proteins / genetics
  • Fungal Proteins / metabolism
  • Gene Expression
  • Kinetics
  • Lipase / chemistry*
  • Lipase / genetics
  • Lipase / metabolism
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Chaperones / chemistry*
  • Molecular Chaperones / genetics
  • Molecular Chaperones / metabolism
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutation
  • Protein Folding
  • Protein Precursors / chemistry*
  • Protein Precursors / genetics
  • Protein Precursors / metabolism
  • Recombinant Proteins / chemistry
  • Recombinant Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Proteins / metabolism
  • Rhizopus / chemistry*
  • Rhizopus / enzymology
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / genetics
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / metabolism
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Substrate Specificity

Substances

  • Fungal Proteins
  • Molecular Chaperones
  • Protein Precursors
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Lipase

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a research fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists (grant 26-1413, http://www.jsps.go.jp/j-pd/index.html); Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency (http://www.jst.go.jp/kisoken/crest/); and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (grant 25289293, http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/grants01.html). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.