skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The structures of T87I phosphono-CheY and T87I/Y106W phosphono-CheY help to explain their binding affinities to the FliM and CheZ peptides

Journal Article · · Arch. Biochem. Biophys.

CheY is a response regulator in bacterial chemotaxis. Escherichia coli CheY mutants T87I and T87I/Y106W CheY are phosphorylatable on Asp57 but unable to generate clockwise rotation of the flagella. To understand this phenotype in terms of structure, stable analogs of the two CheY-P mutants were synthesized: T87I phosphono-CheY and T87I phosphono-CheY. Dissociation constants for peptides derived from flagellar motor protein FliM and phosphatase CheZ were determined for phosphono-CheY and the two mutants. The peptides bind phosphono-CheY almost as strongly as CheY-P; however, they do not bind T87I phosphono-CheY or T87I/Y106W phosphono-CheY, implying that the mutant proteins cannot bind FliM or CheZ tightly in vivo. The structures of T87I phosphono-CheY and T87I/Y106W phosphono-CheY were solved to resolutions of 1.8 and 2.4 {angstrom}, respectively. The increased bulk of I87 forces the side-chain of Y106 or W106, into a more solvent-accessible conformation, which occludes the peptide-binding site.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1006978
Journal Information:
Arch. Biochem. Biophys., Vol. 479, Issue (2) ; 11, 2008; ISSN 0003-9861
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
ENGLISH