Preparation and preliminary study of crystals of the recombinant calcium-regulated photoprotein obelin from the bioluminescent hydroid Obelia longissima

Structures of the Ca2+-regulated photoprotein obelin Y138F mutant before and after bioluminescence support the catalytic function of a water molecule in the reaction

Ca2+-regulated photoproteins, which are responsible for light emission in a variety of marine coelenterates, are a highly valuable tool for measuring Ca2+inside living cells. All of the photoproteins are a single-chain polypeptide to which a 2-hydroperoxycoelenterazine molecule is tightly but noncovalently bound. Bioluminescence results from the oxidative decarboxylation of 2-hydroperoxycoelenterazine, generating protein-bound coelenteramide in an excited state. Here, the crystal structures of the Y138F obelin mutant before and after bioluminescence are reported at 1.72 and 1.30 Å resolution, respectively. The comparison of the spatial structures of the conformational states of Y138F obelin with those of wild-type obelin gives clear evidence that the substitution of Tyr by Phe does not affect the overall structure of both Y138F obelin and its product following Ca2+discharge compared with the corresponding conformational states of wild-type obelin. Despite the similarity of the overall structures and internal cavities of Y138F and wild-type obelins, there is a substantial difference: in the cavity of Y138F obelin a water molecule corresponding to W2in wild-type obelin is not found. However, in Ca2+-discharged Y138F obelin this water molecule now appears in the same location. This finding, together with the observed much slower kinetics of Y138F obelin, clearly supports the hypothesis that the function of a water molecule in this location is to catalyze the 2-hydroperoxycoelenterazine decarboxylation reaction by protonation of a dioxetanone anion before its decomposition into the excited-state product. Although obelin differs from other hydromedusan Ca2+-regulated photoproteins in some of its properties, they are believed to share a common mechanism.

Bioluminescent and spectroscopic properties of His-Trp-Tyr triad mutants of obelin and aequorin

Ca(2+)-regulated photoproteins are responsible for the bioluminescence of a variety of marine organisms, mostly coelenterates. The photoproteins consist of a single polypeptide chain to which an imidazopyrazinone derivative (2-hydroperoxycoelenterazine) is tightly bound. According to photoprotein spatial structures the side chains of His175, Trp179, and Tyr190 in obelin and His169, Trp173, Tyr184 in aequorin are at distances that allow hydrogen bonding with the peroxide and carbonyl groups of the 2-hydroperoxycoelenterazine ligand. We replaced these amino acids in both photoproteins by residues with different hydrogen bond donor-acceptor capacity. All mutants exhibited luciferase-like bioluminescence activity, hardly present in the wild-type photoproteins, and showed low or no photoprotein activity, except for aeqH169Q (24% of wild-type activity), obeW179Y (23%), obeW179F (67%), obeY190F (14%), and aeqY184F (22%). The results clearly support the supposition made from photoprotein spatial structures that the hydrogen bond network formed by His-Trp-Tyr triad participates in stabilizing the 2-hydroperoxy adduct of coelenterazine. These residues are also essential for the positioning of the 2-hydroperoxycoelenterazine intermediate, light emitting reaction, and for the formation of active photoprotein. In addition, we demonstrate that although the positions of His-Trp-Tyr residues in aequorin and obelin spatial structures are almost identical the substitution effects might be noticeably different.

Structural basis for the emission of violet bioluminescence from a W92F obelin mutant

Mutation of the Trp92 that is known to lie within the active site of the photoprotein obelin from Obelia longissima, results in a shift of the bioluminescence color from blue (lambda(max)=485 nm) to violet. The corrected spectrum shows a new band with lambda(max)=410 nm now contributing equally to the one at longer wavelength. The crystal structure of this W92F obelin determined at 1.72 A resolution shows that there is no significant change in the dimensions of the active site between WT obelin (recombinant Ca2+-regulated photoprotein from Obelia longissima) and the mutant. It is proposed that the bioluminescence spectral shift results from removal of a hydrogen bond from the indole of W92 nearby a hydroxyl belonging to the 6-phenyl substituent of the substrate coelenterazine. Propagation of this change through a conjugated bond system in the excited state of the product coelenteramide affects the coupling of the N1-position and the hydrogen-bonded Y138.

Structure of the Ca2+-regulated photoprotein obelin at 1.7 A resolution determined directly from its sulfur substructure

The crystal structure of the photoprotein obelin (22.2 kDa) from Obelia longissima has been determined and refined to 1.7 A resolution. Contrary to the prediction of a peroxide, the noncovalently bound substrate, coelenterazine, has only a single oxygen atom bound at the C2-position. The protein-coelenterazine 2-oxy complex observed in the crystals is photo-active because, in the presence of calcium ion, bioluminescence emission within the crystal is observed. This structure represents only the second de novo protein structure determined using the anomalous scattering signal of the sulfur substructure in the crystal. The method used here is theoretically different from that used for crambin in 1981 (4.72 kDa) and represents a significant advancement in protein crystal structure determination.