Patent Application: US-32168505-A

Abstract:
the present invention relates to new chimeric mutants of avidin protein with improved properties , e . g . thermostability , better stability against proteolysis , better charge properties compared to native avidin and avidin - related proteins , avrs . the chimeric avidin mutants comprise mutants where a region or regions in avidin are substituted by a corresponding region or regions from an avr protein .

Description:
the chicken avidin gene family consists of avidin and seven separate avidin related genes ( avrs ) 1 - 7 . avr4 / 5 has been found to be the most stable biotin - binding protein thus far characterized ( t m = 106 . 4 ° c .). the objective of the present invention was to identify the features that make avr4 / 5 so much more stable protein than chicken avidin ( 8 ), and to transfer this higher stability to avidin . another objective of the invention was to explore and compare the biotin - binding properties of avidin , avr4 / 5 and the chimeric proteins produced in this invention . a further objective was to determine the importance of the differences in the primary and three - dimensional structures ( eisenberg - domovich et al ., manuscript ) of these proteins for their biotin - binding and stability properties ( 8 ). to accomplish these objectives , molecular modeling and the solved three - dimensional structures were utilized and the results used to transfer the stabilising elements from avr4 / 5 to avidin . on the basis of the sequence comparison made between avidin and avr4 / 5 , the highly variable segment between the two proteins is located between l3 , 4 and l4 , 5 ( fig1 ). firstly , a chimeric avidin was engineered , in which a β4 and its adjacent loops were replaced by the corresponding region from avr4 / 5 . the thermal stability of the resultant chimera was clearly higher ( t m = 96 . 5 ° c .) than that of avidin ( t m = 83 . 5 ° c .) but lower than that of avr4 / 5 ( t m = 106 . 4 ° c .). in another mutant , a point mutation ( i117y ) was introduced into avidin from the avr4 / 5 sequence on the basis of the modeling ( 8 ) and 3 - d x - ray structure analysis ( eisenberg - domovich et al ., manuscript ), which was thought to play an important role in the intersubunit interactions and thus contribute to the thermal stability of avr4 / 5 . this substitution raised the thermal stability of the mutant thus obtained to a level ( t m = 97 . 5 ° c .) comparable to that of the above - described chimera . furthermore , when the two modifications were combined , a hyperthermostable avidin showing even greater thermal stability ( t m = 111 . 1 ° c .) than avr4 / 5 was achieved . as expected , a significantly more stable protein was obtained when a 21 - long amino acid segment ( residues 38 - 58 ) taken from avr4 / 5 was transferred to avidin by substituting the residues 38 - 60 of the avidin molecule . the shortening of the l4 , 5 loop by two residues in the chimeric avidin ( chiavd ) may provide a partial explanation for the higher stability . by comparing genomes of mesophiles , thermophiles and extremophiles , thompson and eisenberg found shorter exposed loops from temperature - resistant proteins when compared to those of their mesophilic analogues ( 25 ). the l3 , 4 loop , however has the same length in avidin and avr4 / 5 , yet its amino acid composition is entirely different ( fig1 ). the three - dimensional structure of l3 , 4 clearly shows that it has a different conformation in avr4 / 5 than in avidin ( fig5 ) ( eisenberg - domovich et al ., manuscript ). it is assumed that chiavd and avr4 / 5 share a similar l3 , 4 loop conformation . the presence of the pro41 - gly42 stretch and the salt bridge between asp39 and arg112 induces stability in the l3 , 4 loop in both the apo and biotin complex forms ( eisenberg - domovich et al ., manuscript ). the importance of certain stability “ hot - spot ” residues in protein interfaces has been noticed ( 26 - 28 ). aromatic pairs are known to form stabilizing pairs in protein structures , which have also been studied experimentally ( 16 ). in the present invention , the subunit interface of avidin was optimised by replacing ile117 residue with tyrosine according to the avr4 / 5 sequence . the previous modeling analysis ( 8 ) suggested that tyrosine in this location is able to improve the stability of the avr4 / 5 tetramer as compared to that of avidin . the three - dimensional structure of avr4 / 5 indicates the presence of π - π ( pii - pii ) stacking between two tyrosine residues from neighbouring monomers ( eisenberg - domovich et al ., manuscript ) and experimental data ( avd ( i117y ), t m = 97 . 5 ° c . ; avidin , t m = 83 . 5 ° c .) support the improved structure at this site . kannan and vishveshwara compared the aromatic clusters in proteins from thermophilic and mesophilic organisms ( 15 ). they found that residues comprising aromatic clusters in proteins from thermophilics are preferably replaced by leu or lie in proteins from mesophilic organisms . it should be noted that more than one point mutation could be introduced to the protein . in an earlier application fi 20031663 , which is incorporated here as reference , new thermally stabilized biotin binding proteins were constructed using site - directed mutation . for avidin and avrs this was achieved by introducing disulphide bridges between its subunits . from the stability point of view the most interesting result was that combination of the chimera approach and the i117y point mutation produced a protein that was even more thermostable than avr4 / 5 . this indicates that the structural factors that account for the difference in stability between avidin and avr4 / 5 have successfully been recognized and transferred . it has been proposed earlier that recombination inside the avidin gene family is a frequent event ( 29 ). the results in the present application indicate , that recombination may produce functional chimeric proteins inside the gene family , since building blocks moved from avr4 / 5 seem to be able to function as part of the avidin structure without negative implications . the enhancement of the stability in chiavd is due to substitution of region between beta strands 3 and 5 from avr4 / 5 . the other avrs have fairly similar sequence in this region with avr4 / 5 and the movement of any of these regions to avidin may allow stabilisation of the end - product similarly as in the case of chiavd . for example , avidin has an isoelectric point at high ph i . e it is basic protein . instead , avr2 is acidic protein having pl close to ph 5 . therefore , one may be able to change the pl of avidin by moving parts of avidin related proteins to avidin . simultaneously one could obtain better stability of the end product when compared to wild type avidin . the isoelectric point of avidin was previously lowered by genetic methods by marttila et al . ( 38 ) and nardone et al . ( 39 ), but only individual amino acids were replaced in these studies . the invention will be further described with reference to the following non - limiting examples . in order to study the significance of the differing segment between β3 and β5 , a chiavd ( seq id no : 15 ) was constructed in which this segment was transferred from avr4 / 5 ( seq id no : 5 / seq id no : 6 ) to avidin ( seq id no : 1 ). the amino acid residues 38 - 60 of avidin were substituted by 38 - 58 amino acid residues from avr4 / 5 ( fig1 ). furthermore , isoleucine 117 in avidin was mutated to tyrosine according to avr4 / 5 ( fig1 ). chimeric chiavd protein was produced by three sequential pcr reactions , in which the final product was obtained from partially overlapping megaprimer ( 17 ) products . the oligonucleotides kimera . 1 and kimera . 2 were used in the first pcr with avr4 cdna ( 7 ) ( seq id no : 5 ) as a template . the product was isolated by agarose gel electrophoresis and used as a megaprimer in the following pcr with oligonucleotide ak33 . avidin cdna was used as a template in the second pcr . the product was again isolated by electrophoresis and used again as a megaprimer in the third pcr with oligonucleotide ak44 . avidin cdna was used as a template in the third pcr . the product was isolated by electrophoresis . the obtained dna was digested by bgiii and hindiii and ligated to the bamhi / hindiii - digested pfastbac1 - plasmid . the final product was confirmed by dna sequencing . mutation i117y was made to pfastbac1 plasmid coding for avidin or chiavd by quickchange ( stratagene , la jolla , calif ., usa ) method using oligonucleotides i117y . 1 and i117y . 2 . the final product was confirmed by dna sequencing as chiavd ( i117y ) ( seq id no : 16 ). the final product was cloned to the pfastbac1 vector . recombinant baculoviruses coding for chiavd forms , avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) and avd ( 1117y ) were generated as instructed by the manufacturer of the bac - to - bac ™ system ( invitrogen ). proteins were produced in baculovirus - infected sf9 insect cells , in biotin - free medium as reported earlier ( 7 ). non - glycosylated avr4 / 5 ( c122s )- b was produced using the e . coli expression system ( 18 ) ( laitinen et al ., unpublished ) in order to study the influence of the carbohydrate chains on the properties of the protein ( table i ). the proteins were then purified by affinity chromatography using 2 - iminobiotin agarose , as previously described ( 19 ). the protein forms are summarised in table i . ct gct aga tct atg gtg cac gca acc tcc cc b recombinant protein produced by baculovirus expression vector system in insect cells . c recombinant protein produced by bacterial expression system . this form contains three additional residues ( gln - thr - val ) in the n - terminus from the bacterial signal peptide ( 18 ). isolated proteins showed high purity in sds - page analysis ( fig2 ). the glycosylation patterns of the purified proteins differed since avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) has three potential glycosylation sites whereas avidin has only one ( 1 , 7 ). one of these sites ( asn43 ) of avr4 / 5 was transferred to the chimeric protein , resulting in more extensive glycosylation of the chimera when compared to that of native avidin . bacterially produced avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) was non - glycosylated as expected ( fig2 ). the sequence identity between avidin and avr4 / 5 is 77 . 8 %. more than half ( 15 of 28 mutations ) of the differences between these two proteins are found on the relatively short 23 / 21 ( avidin / avr4 / 5 ) amino acid segment between the end of β3 and the beginning of β5 ( fig1 ). all residues showing contact with biotin ( 24 ) are conserved , excluding the thr38 - ala39 - thr4o - sequence located in the l3 , 4 loop ( connecting β3 and β4 strands ), which is replaced by ala38 - asp39 - asn40 in avr4 / 5 . subunit interface residues ( 41 residues ) ( 8 ) are also well - conserved , the only amino acid differences being thr38ala , ala39asp , his50leu , thr52ile , asn54his and ile117tyr ( numbering according to avidin sequence ). the proteolytic resistance of the proteins were studied using proteolysis by proteinase k , as previously described ( 7 ). protein sample ( 4 μg ) was incubated in the presence of proteinase k ( 1 / 25 w / w ) at 37 ° c . for a predetermined time period , denatured by boiling in sample buffer ( sds , 2 - mercaptoethanol ) and subjected to sds - page followed by coomassie staining . avidin and avidin mutant avd ( i117y ) were found to be 50 % digested after treatment for 16 hours with proteinase k ( fig3 ). when these proteins were saturated with biotin before treatment , no cleavage was observed . avr4 / 5 ( c122s ), however , displayed total resistance to the proteolytic activity of proteinase k , even without biotin . chiavd , chiavd ( i117y ), as well as avr4 / 5 ( c122s )- b produced in e . coli , were also found to behave as avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) in this assay , i . e . remaining intact for 16 hours in the presence of protease in the presence or absence of biotin . this indicates that the conformation of l3 , 4 of the avr4 / 5 apoprotein ( eisenberg - domovich et al ., manuscript ) protects it from digestion . furthermore , glycosylation in residue asn43 ( 8 ) did not seem to play a role in the protease resistance . proteinase k cleaves avidin in only one region in the loop between β - strands 3 and 4 ( 33 ). it was also found that biotin efficiently inhibits the cleavage . on the other hand , avr4 / 5 and streptavidin are resistant to cleavage by proteinase k , even without bound biotin ( 8 , 32 ). since proteinase k cleaves a variety of sequences , the explanation for the resistance to cleavage might lie in the conformation of the l3 , 4 loop of avr4 / 5 . the proteinase k resistance of chiavd supports these results ( fig3 ). the different loop structure can be seen in the structure of avr4 / 5 ( fig5 ) ( eisenberg - domovich et al ., manuscript ). proline in this loop seems to cause bending in the middle of the loop . accordingly , the corresponding loop in streptavidin is three residues shorter ( 34 ), and may not , therefore , be accessible to the protease . no difference between the glycosylated and non - glycosylated form of avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) was observed in this analysis ; hence , the sugar moiety in this loop in avr4 / 5 cannot explain the resistance to the protease . this is also true for avidin , which showed similar stability in both the enzymatically deglycosylated and normal carbohydrate - containing forms ( 35 ). the oligomeric state of the proteins was assayed with fplc gel filtration as previously described ( 8 ). sodium carbonate buffer ( 50 mm , ph 11 ) with 150 mm nacl was used as the liquid phase . protein samples of 5 - 10 μg were used in the analysis . all the engineered proteins showed tetrameric appearance when subjected to gel filtration analysis . bacterially produced avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) showed a slightly lower apparent molecular weight as compared to the other proteins , as expected , owing to the lack of the carbohydrate moiety ( table ii ). the inactivation of the proteins during heat - treatment was analysed by using a microplate assay ( 23 ). the proteins were heated to 99 . 9 ° c . in 50 mm phosphate buffer containing 100 mm nacl ( ph 7 . 0 ) for 32 minutes . the remaining activity was probed by measuring the ability of the proteins to bind biotinylated alkaline phosphatase by coating the microplate wells with samples of the heated proteins . the remaining activity after treatment for 32 minutes is shown in table ii . these results are in line with dsc analyses showing that chiavd ( i117y ) is the most thermally stable of the proteins characterised . the transition midpoint of the heat denaturation ( t m ) of the avidin proteins was studied using a calorimetry sciences corporation ( csc ) nano ii differential scanning calorimeter , as in previous reports ( 22 , 23 ). proteins (˜ 0 . 5 mg / ml ) were analyzed both in the absence and presence of biotin ( 3 : 1 molar ratio ; biotin : avidin monomer ). in the dsc - experiments the chiavd protein and avd ( i117y ) showed significantly better thermal stability than avidin both as apoforms and holoforms ( table ii ). when these modifications were combined , the resultant chiavd ( i117y ) was found to be even more stable than avr4 / 5 ( c122s ). in all cases holoforms were clearly more stable than apoforms . we observed a significant increase in the unfolding enthalpy with an increasing melting temperature . avr4 / 5 ( c122s )- b showed similar behavior as compared to the protein produced in insect cells in the dsc analysis . a δt m is the change in t m upon addition of a three - fold molar excess of biotin . b δh value obtained from sample without biotin . the value could not be determined accurately from samples saturated with biotin because the t m values were too close to the temperature limit of the dsc instrument . d could not be determined accurately due to upper limit of temperature of the dsc instrument . the biotin - binding characteristics of the different avidins were studied by a surface plasmon resonance ( spr ) optical biosensor ( iasys ). the binding affinities to the 2 - iminobiotin surface in 50 mm borate buffer ( ph 9 . 5 , 1 m nacl ) were measured as previously reported ( 7 ). the result are shown in table iii . analysed by an iasys optical biosensor at 20 ° c . affinities to the dissociation rate of [ 3h ] biotin from avidin , avr4 / 5 and the avidin mutants was determined as described in ( 20 ) at various temperatures . the activation thermodynamic parameters for avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) and avidin were determined by analysis of the dependence of the dissociation rate upon temperature using the global fit of all data , as described in ( 21 ). it was found that avr4 / 5 binds biotin almost as tightly as avidin . the analysis of the [ 3h ] biotin dissociation data measured at different temperatures revealed that the energy barrier between unbound and bound states in avr4 is somewhat smaller than in avidin ( fig6 ). the higher free energy of the transition state might also explain the slower association rate to the 2 - iminobiotin surface of avr4 as compared to avidin ( fig6 , table iii ). because the free energy of the binding is lower in the case of avr4 ( 8 ), the biotin dissociation barrier is still lower for avr4 despite the higher transition state free energy . a potential explanation for the differences in biotin - binding characteristics between avr4 / 5 and avidin lies in the differences in the l3 , 4 loop . this region has been found to be an important factor in biotin binding to streptavidin ( 30 ). both the chiavd forms showed biotin - binding properties similar to those of avr4 / 5 when measured by various methods , therefore supporting this hypothesis . we found that glycosylation may play a minor role in biotin - binding , since avr4 / 5 ( c122s )- b produced in bacteria showed slightly tighter binding characteristics in both the radiobiotin and fluorescent biotin dissociation analyses ( fig4 , table iv ). the binding of labelled biotin to avidins was analysed by a method based on the quenching of a biotin - coupled fluorescent probe arcdia bf560 ( arcdia ltd ., turku , finland ) due to binding to avidin , as previously described ( 18 ). the measurements were performed using a perkinelmer ls55 luminometer with thermostated cuvette ( 25 or 50 ° c .). the signal measured for 3600 sec ( 25 ° c .) or 2400 sec ( 50 ° c .) was used to determine the dissociation rate constant . the binding kinetics of the fluorescent biotin conjugate to different avidins were compared by measuring the dissociation rate constants at 25 ° c . and 50 ° c . ( table iv ). avidin showed a lower dissociation rate when compared to avr4 / 5 ( c122s ). chiavd showed characteristics similar to avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) in this assay . interestingly , mutation ile117tyr seemed to tighten the binding of the biotin - conjugate to proteins . ligand - binding analyses done with a iasys optical biosensor showed a slightly decreased affinity to the 2 - iminobiotin surface in the case of chiavd as compared to avidin ( table iii ). however , the affinity was nonetheless high resembling the values found for avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) ( 8 ). we also observed a slight decrease in the association rate constants of both chiavd - forms as compared to avidin and avd ( i117y ). avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) showed tight biotin binding in the radiobiotin dissociation assay ( fig4 ). however , the measured dissociation rate constants were significantly higher than those of avidin . chiavd and chiavd ( i117y ) resembled avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) in this assay . interestingly , bacterial avr4 / 5 ( c122s )- b showed a slightly slower dissociation rate in this assay than avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) produced in insect cells . avidin mutant avd ( i117y ) showed very tight , avidin - like biotin binding . the activation thermodynamic parameters were calculated from the data as described elsewhere ( 21 ) and combined with the thermodynamic parameters obtained for avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) and avidin in a previous study ( 8 ). the values obtained are shown in fig6 . the dissociation rates observed in the fluorescent biotin assay were significantly faster than those obtained from the radiobiotin analysis , but the proteins nevertheless showed similar relative characteristics ( table iv ). and at 50 ° c . the total releases of the probe after measurement for one hour are also shown . k diss is a dissociation rate constant . the information obtained from the avidin ( 24 ) and avr4 / 5 ( c122s ) ( eisenberg - domovich et al ., manuscript ) x - ray structures suggested , that the introduction of β4 and its adjacent l3 , 4 and l4 , 5 loops from avr4 / 5 to avidin cause no crucial change in the overall shape of the resulting protein . the different conformation of the l3 , 4 loop of avr4 / 5 ( fig5 ), when compared to that of avidin , should be analogously reflected in the properties of chiavd , namely in a lower number of hydrogen bonds to the bound ligand ( eisenberg - domovich et al ., manuscript ). furthermore , the interchanged sequence includes the two - residue deletion in loop l4 , 5 , which has observed not to change the structural properties of the surrounding region of the loop in avr4 / 5 ( eisenberg - domovich et al ., manuscript ). the invention has been illustrated by examples and embodiments , but it may be varied in many ways . such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the enclosed claims . 3 . wilchek , m ., and bayer , e . a . 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