Searching the Porphyromonas gingivalis genome with peptide fragmentation mass spectra

An approach is described for genomic database searching based on experimentally observed proteolytic fragments, e.g., isolated from 1D or 2D gels or analyzed directly, that can be applied to unfinished prokaryotic genomic data in the absence of annotations or previously assigned open reading frames (ORFs). This variation on the database search is in contrast to the more familiar use of peptide mass spectral fragmentation data to search fully annotated inferred protein databases, e.g., OWL or SWISS-PROT. We compared the SEQUEST search results from a six reading frame translation of the Porphyromonas gingivalis genome DNA sequence with those from computationally derived ORFs created using publicly available genomics software tools. The ORF approach eliminated many of the artifacts present in output from the six reading frame search. The method was applied to uninterpreted tandem mass spectrometric data derived from proteins secreted by the periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis in response to the gingival epithelial cell environment, a model system for the study of host-pathogen interactions relevant to human periodontal disease.

Molecular dynamics simulations of apocytochrome b562--the highly ordered limit of molten globules

BACKGROUND

Cytochrome B562 is a heme-containing, four-helix bundle. It has been proposed that the apo form of the protein is a molten globule. We present a molecular dynamics study of apocytochrome b562 to investigate its structural and dynamic properties.

RESULTS

Our simulations suggest that all four helices are essentially intact and confirm that the experimental difficulties of assigning helical NOEs in the C-terminal helix are not due to structural disorder. The increased 'moltenness' of the apoprotein is due to an increased mobility of the sidechains. The small observed increase in compressibility for the apoprotein is proposed to be the result of an increase in the intrinsic protein compressibility, which is opposed by the increase in the size of the protein hydration shell.

CONCLUSIONS

Apocytochrome b562 is postulated to be near the highly ordered limit of the molten globule state, a structure whose molten character is due primarily to increased sidechain mobility with concurrent loss in tertiary contacts between the helices, rather than changes in the folding topology or substantially increased disorder of the secondary structure.

The Response of Electrons to Structural Changes

The properties of a molecule are determined by the distribution of its electrons. This distribution can be described by the charge density, which is readily obtained from the wave functions derived by ab initio molecular orbital calculations. The charge density may be analyzed in a number of different fashions to give information about the effects of substituents, structural changes, and electronic excitation on the properties of molecules; one common procedure makes use of projection density or charge difference plots. Charge density also may be partitioned among atoms, and by numerical integration over appropriate volume elements one may obtain atomic charges, dipoles, kinetic energies, and other properties of the atoms in a molecule. Many chemical phenomena have been analyzed in terms of charge densities.