Engineering ClpS for Selective and Enhanced N-terminal Amino Acid Binding

Published

March 1, 2019

Author(s)

Jennifer A. Tullman, Zvi Kelman, John P. Marino

Abstract

One of the central challenges in the development of single-molecule protein sequencing technologies is achieving high-fidelity, sequential recognition and detection of specific amino acids that comprise the peptide sequence. An approach towards achieving this goal is to leverage naturally occurring proteins that function through recognition of amino (N)-terminal amino acids (NAAs). One such protein, the N-End Rule Pathway adaptor protein ClpS, natively recognizes NAAs on a peptide chain. The native ClpS protein has a high specificity albeit modest affinity for the amino acid Phe at the N-terminus but also recognizes the residues Trp, Tyr, and Leu at the N-terminal position. Here, we have employed directed evolution methods to select for ClpS variants with enhanced affinity and selectivity for two NAAs (Phe and Trp). Using this approach, two variants of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens ClpS protein with native residues 34-36 ProArgGlu mutated to ProMetSer and CysProSer were identified. Using in vitro surface binding assays, the ProMetSer variant was found to have enhanced affinity for Phe at the N-terminus with 7-fold tighter binding relative to wild-type ClpS; while, the CysProSer variant is shown to bind selectively to Trp over Phe at the N-terminus while having a greater affinity for both Trp and Phe.

Citation

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Volume

103

Issue

6

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

directed evolution, yeast display, amino acid binding, peptide sequencing

Citation

Tullman, J. , Kelman, Z. and Marino, J. (2019), Engineering ClpS for Selective and Enhanced N-terminal Amino Acid Binding, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-019-09624-2 (Accessed April 18, 2024)