• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.770-774
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• 2012

Protein loops are often involved in diverse biological functions, and some functional loops show conformational changes upon ligand binding. Since this conformational change is directly related to ligand binding pose and protein function, there have been numerous attempts to predict this change accurately. In this study, we show that it is plausible to obtain meaningful ensembles of loop conformations for flexible, ligand-binding protein loops efficiently by applying a loop modeling method. The loop modeling method employs triaxial loop closure algorithm for trial conformation generation and conformational space annealing for global energy optimization. When loop modeling was performed on the framework of ligand-free structure, loop structures within $3\AA$ RMSD from the crystal loop structure for the ligand-bound state were sampled in 4 out of 6 cases. This result is encouraging considering that no information on the ligand-bound state was used during the loop modeling process. We therefore expect that the present loop modeling method will be useful for future developments of flexible protein-ligand docking methods.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.1393-1400
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• 2021

Acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation by the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum has been considered a promising process of industrial biofuel production. Phosphotransbutyrylase (phosphate butyryltransferase, PTB) plays a crucial role in butyrate metabolism by catalyzing the reversible conversion of butyryl-CoA into butyryl phosphate. Here, we report the crystal structure of PTB from the Clostridial host for ABE fermentation, C. acetobutylicum, (CaPTB) at a 2.9 Å resolution. The overall structure of the CaPTB monomer is quite similar to those of other acyltransferases, with some regional structural differences. The monomeric structure of CaPTB consists of two distinct domains, the N- and C-terminal domains. The active site cleft was formed at the interface between the two domains. Interestingly, the crystal structure of CaPTB contained eight molecules per asymmetric unit, forming an octamer, and the size-exclusion chromatography experiment also suggested that the enzyme exists as an octamer in solution. The structural analysis of CaPTB identifies the substrate binding mode of the enzyme and comparisons with other acyltransferase structures lead us to speculate that the enzyme undergoes a conformational change upon binding of its substrate.

• Proceedings of the Korea Crystallographic Association Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.24-24
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• 2002

HtrA (high temperature requirement A), a periplasmic heat shock protein, is known to have molecular chaperone function at low temperatures and proteolytic activity at elevated temperatures. To investigate the mechanism of functional switch to pretense, we have determined the crystal structure of the N-terminal protease domain (PD) of HtrA from Thermotoga maritima. HtrA PD shares the same fold with chymotrypsin-like serine professes. However, crystal structure suggests that HtrA PD is not an active pretense at current state since its active site is not formed properly and blocked by an additional helical lid. On the surface of the lid, HtrA PD has hydrophobic patches that could be potential substrate binding sites for molecular chaperone activity. Present structure suggests that the activation of the proteolytic function of HtrA PD at elevated temperatures might occur by the conformational change.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2015

The beta2-adrenergic receptor (${\beta}2AR$) belongs to the G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) family, which is the largest family of cell surface receptors in humans. Extra attention has been focused on the human GPCRs because they have been studied as important protein targets for pharmaceutical drug development. In fact, approximately 40% of marketed drugs directly work on GPCRs. GPCRs respond to various extracellular stimuli, such as sensory signals, neurotransmitters, chemokines, and hormones, to induce structural changes at the cytoplasmic surface, activating downstream signaling pathways, primarily through interactions with heterotrimeric G proteins or through G-protein independent pathways, such as arrestin. Most GPCRs, except for rhodhopsin, which contains covalently linked 11 cis-retinal, bind to diffusible ligands, having various conformational states between inactive and active structures. The first human GPCR structure was determined using an inverse agonist bound ${\beta}2AR$ in 2007 and since then, more than 20 distinct GPCR structures have been solved. However, most GPCR structures were solved as inactive forms, and an agonist bound fully active structure is still hard to obtain. In a structural point of view, ${\beta}2AR$ is relatively well studied since its fully active structure as a complex with G protein as well as several inactive structures are available. The structural comparison of inactive and active states gives an important clue in understanding the activation mechanism of ${\beta}2AR$. In this review, structural features of inactive and active states of ${\beta}2AR$, the interaction of ${\beta}2AR$ with heterotrimeric G protein, and the comparison with ${\beta}1AR$ will be discussed.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.585-589
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• 2008

Chronophin is a phosphatase responsible for the dephosphorylation of cofilin, which regulates the rearrangement of actin cytoskeleton. It is also known as a phosphatase for pyrodoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP), an active form of vitamin $B_6$, and maintains the level of PLP in the cytoplasm. Since this phosphatase belongs to a HAD subfamily containing a cap domain, it is expected to undergo a conformational change for the binding of a substrate. However, the crystal structure of chronophin has a disulfide bridge between the cap and core domains preventing a movement of the cap domain against the core domain. It is possible that the disulfide bond between C91 and C221 was formed by an oxidation during the crystallization. Here, we obtained chronophin crystals under a reduced condition and determined the crystal structure. This reduced chronophin does not contain a disulfide bridge and shows a closed conformation like the oxidized form. It implies that an active chronophin binds its substrate under the closed conformation without the disulfide bond and shows a high substrate specificity in the cell.

• Proceedings of the Korean Biophysical Society Conference
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• 1996.07a
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• pp.4-4
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• 1996

$\alpha$$_1$-arantitrypsin, a member of the serpin (serine protease inhibitor) family, undergoes a large structural rearrangement upon the cleavage and insertion of the reactive site loop. This conformational change is driven by the metastability of the native serpin structures and has an important role in the regulation of the inhibitory-serpin function. (omitted)

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.43 no.9
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• pp.784-792
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• 2020

Arginine kinase (AK), a bioenergy-related enzyme, is distributed widely in invertebrates. The role of highly conserved histidines in AKs is still unascertained. In this study, the highly conserved histidine 284 (H284) in AK of Daphnia magna (DmAK) was replaced with alanine to elucidate the role of H284. We examined the alteration of catalytic activity and structural changes of H284A in DmAK. The catalytic activity of H284A was reduced dramatically compared to that in wild type (WT). Thus the crystal structure of H284A displayed several structural changes, including the alteration of D324, a hydrogen-bonding network around H284, and the disruption of π-stacking between the imidazole group of the H284 residue and the adenine ring of ATP. These findings suggest that such alterations might affect a conformational change of the specific loop consisting of G310-V322 at the antiparallel β-sheet region. Thus, we speculated that the H284 residue might play an important role in the conformational change of the specific loop when ATP binds to the substrate-binding site of DmAK.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.86-91
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• 2005

The layered structure of organic-inorganic perovskite hybrids, $(C_nH_{2n+1}NH_3)_2CuC1_4$ (n = 6, 8, 10, 12) have synthesized. In $(C_nH_{2n+1}NH_3)_2CuC1_4$ compounds, the long-chain protonated alkylammonium ions as tilted bilayer type are inserted into perovskite-type layers of corner sharing $CuCl_6$ octahedron. Three solid phases have been characterized in the perovskite layered compound $(C_nH_{2n+1}NH_3)_2CuC1_4$ using HT-XRD and DSC. The $(C_nH_{2n+1}NH_3)_2CuC1_4$ compounds shows solid-solid phase transitions with stepwise increasing of the layer distance. Three different structures are explained by the conformational change of the long-chain protonated alkylammonium ions.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.283-287
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• 1994

The crystal stucture of bithional surfoxide, $C_{12}H_6Cl_4O_3S$, has been determined from 2295 independent reflections collected on an automated CAD-4 diffractometer with a graphite-monochromated $Mo-K\alpha$ radiation. The crystal belongs to the monoclinic, space group P2$_1$/n, with a unit cell dimensions a = 12.448(4), b = 9.740(1), c = $11.815(2)\AA$, $\beta$ = $100.06^{\circ}$, $\mu$ = 9.02 cm$^{-1}$, Dm = 1.76 g/cm$^3$, Dc = 1.75 g/cm$^3$, F(000) = 744, and Z = 4. The structure was solved by the direct method and refined by the least-squares method. The final R values was 0.037 for 2295 independent reflections. Overall conformation of the molecule is folded with respect to central surfur atom. Comparing with the molecular conformation of bithional, one of phenyl rings was swinged with about $180^{\circ}.$ This conformational change in the molecule results in the existance of intramolecular-hydrogen bond of S-O(3)---H-O(1) type and its steric hindrance between this moiety and the other phenyl ring. The two best planes of the phenyl rings have a maximum deviation of 0.009 $\AA$ for C(1) atom. The dihedral angle between two phenyl rings is $99.22^{\circ}.$ In the crystal structure, the molecules are packed with intermolecular-hydrogen bond of O(3)---H-O(2).

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.175-183
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• 2005

Plants dissipate excess excitation energy from their photosynthetic apparatus by a process called non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). The major part of NPQ is energy dependent quenching (qE) which is dependent on the thylakoid pH and regulated by xanthophyll cycle carotenoids associated with photosystem (PS) II of higher plants. The acidification of the lumen leads to protonation and thus conformational change of light harvesting complex (LHC) proteins as well as PsbS protein of PSII, which results in the induction of qE. Although physiological importance of qE has been well established, the mechanistic understanding is rather insufficient. However, recent finding of crystal structure of LHCII trimer and identification of qE mutants in higher plants and algae enrich and sharpen our understanding of this process. This review summarizes our current knowledge on the qE mechanism. The nature of quenching sites and components involved in this process, and their contribution and interaction for the generation of qE appeared in the proposed models for the qE mechanism are discussed.