Isoelectric pH of hemoglobin and cytochrome C by electrofocusing

Improvement of Protein Solubility in Macromolecular Crowding during Myoglobin Evolution

The inside of living cells is crowded by extremely high concentrations of biomolecules, and thus globular proteins should have been developed to increase their solubility under such crowding conditions during organic evolution. The O₂-storage protein myoglobin (Mb) is known to be expressed in myocytes of diving mammals in much larger quantities than those of land mammals. We have previously resurrected ancient whale and pinniped Mbs and experimentally demonstrated that the diving animal Mbs have evolved to maintain high solubility under the crowding conditions or to increase their tolerance against macromolecular precipitants, rather than solubility in a dilute buffer solution. However, the detail of chemical mechanisms of the precipitant tolerance remains unclear. Here, we investigated pH dependence of the precipitant tolerance (β, slope of the solubility against precipitant concentration) of extant Mbs and plotted the β values, as well as those of ancestral Mbs, against their surface net charges (Z_Mb). The results demonstrated that the precipitant tolerance was approximated by the square of Z_Mb, that is, β = aZ_Mb² + b, in which a and b are constants. This effect of Z_Mb against the precipitation is not predicted by a classical excluded volume theory that gives constant β for Mbs but can be explained by electrostatic repulsion between Mb molecules. The present study elucidates how Mb molecules have evolved to increase their in vivo solubility and shows the physiological significance of either neutral or basic isoelectric points (pI) of the natural Mbs, rather than acidic pI.

Calculation of the isoelectric points of native proteins with spreading of pKa values

The isoelectric points (pI) of native proteins are important in several separation techniques. For estimating pI values the net charge of several proteins was calculated versus pH by use of the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation. Amino acid composition, pKa values for amino acid side chains and for the N- and C-terminal groups, and the presence of other charged groups were taken into account. A set of pKa values was chosen for amino acid residues with ionizable side chains. Each particular type of ionizable group was assumed to have pKa values distributed around the chosen value, thereby simulating the situation in proteins and polypeptides. The calculated pI values showed reasonably good agreement with experimental ones for most of 16 native proteins over a wide pH range (3.4-11) when charge contributions of heme groups, sialic acid residues, etc., were taken into account. The calculated pI for the human red cell glucose transporter (Glut1) with one sialic acid residue was decreased from 8.8 to 8.5 by introducing pKa value spreading and became consistent with the experimental pI value of 8.4 +/- 0.05 at 15 degrees C determined in the presence of 6 M urea. The pI of the native Glut1 was lower, 8.0 +/- 0.1, at 22 degrees C. In general, the pI values for native proteins are affected by the three-dimensional structure of the proteins, which causes greater differences between calculated and experimental pI values than in the case of polypeptides for which pI values are determined in the presence of urea.

Ribonuclease of Entamoeba invadens

Two bands of RNAase activity were observed on gel electrophoresis of fractions obtained during partial purification of the RNAase of Entamoeba invadens. The faster migrating band which was responsible for most of the RNAase activity was isolated by gel electrophoresis. A pI of 5.5 was determined for this RNAase activity and estimates of its molecular weight and sedimentation coefficient gave values of about 25 000 and approximately 2.8 S. It exhibited maximum activity around pH 6, and digestion of RNA showed a pattern expected of an endoribonuclease.

Relationship between in vivo degradative rates and isoelectric points of proteins

Previous studies have shown that in mammalian cells proteins of large molecular weight are degraded more rapidly than small ones. Evidence is presented here that half-lives of proteins are also related to their isoelectric points. A double-isotope method was used to compare degradative rates of soluble proteins separated by isoelectric focusing. In rat liver, skeletal muscle, kidney, and brain, more rapid rates of catabolism were found for acidic protein fractions than for neutral or basic ones. Acidic proteins also tended to be degraded faster in several mouse tissues. A literature survey confirmed this trend. For 22 proteins from rat liver, a highly significant correlation was found between rates of degradation and isoelectric points (r = 0.824; P less than 0.01). This relationship between isoelectric point and half-life appears to be distinct from that between protein size and half-life.