Journal of Biological Chemistry
Volume 285, Issue 17, 23 April 2010, Pages 12735-12746
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Protein Structure and Folding
Identification of Conus Peptidylprolyl Cis-Trans Isomerases (PPIases) and Assessment of Their Role in the Oxidative Folding of Conotoxins

https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M109.078691Get rights and content
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Peptidylprolyl cis-trans isomerases (PPIases) are ubiquitous proteins that catalyze the cis-trans isomerization of prolines. A number of proteins, such as Drosophila rhodopsin and the human immunodeficiency viral protein HIV-1 Gag, have been identified as endogenous substrates for PPIases. However, very little is known about the interaction of PPIases with small, disulfide-rich peptides. Marine cone snails synthesize a wide array of cysteine-rich peptides, called conotoxins, many of which contain one or more prolines or hydroxyprolines. To identify whether PPIase-associated cis-trans isomerization of these residues affects the oxidative folding of conotoxins, we identified, sequenced, and expressed three functionally active isoforms of PPIase from the venom gland of Conus novaehollandiae, and we characterized their ability to facilitate oxidative folding of conotoxins in vitro. Three conotoxins, namely μ-GIIIA, μ-SIIIA, and ω-MVIIC, derived from two distinct toxin gene families were assayed. Conus PPIase significantly increased the rate of appearance of the native form of μ-GIIIA, a peptide containing three hydroxyprolines. In contrast, the presence of PPIase had no effect on the folding of μ-SIIIA and ω-MVIIC, peptides containing no or one proline residue, respectively. We further showed that an endoplasmic reticulum-resident PPIase isoform facilitated folding of μ-GIIIA more efficiently than two cytosolic isoforms. This is the first study to demonstrate PPIase-assisted folding of conotoxins, small disulfide-rich peptides with unique structural properties.

Enzymes
Peptides
Peptides/Biosynthesis
Peptides/Conformation
Protein/Prolyl Isomerase
Proteomics
Toxins/Drugs/Xenobiotics/Venom

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The nucleotide sequence(s) reported in this paper has been submitted to the GenBankTM/EBI Data Bank with accession number(s) GU046310GU046313 and GU067468.

The on-line version of this article (available at http://www.jbc.org) contains supplemental Figs. 1 and 2 and Table 1.