Role of long-range aromatic clique and community in protein stability

Abstract Aromatic interactions make an important contribution to protein structure, function, folding and have attracted intense study. Earlier studies on a recombinant xylanase from Bacillus sp. NG-27 (RBSX), which has the ubiquitous (beta/alpha) 8 -triosephosphate isomerase barrel fold showed that three aromatic residues to alanine substitutions, in the N-terminal and C-terminal regions, significantly decreased the stability of the enzyme. Of these mutations, F4A mutation decreased the stability of the enzyme by ∼4 degree C, whereas W6A mutation and Y343A mutation remarkably decreased the stability of the enzyme by ∼10 degree C. On the other hand, the F4W mutation did not affect the thermal stability of RBSX. We provide here a network perspective of aromatic-aromatic interactions in terms of aromatic clique community and long-range association. Our study reveals that disruption of long-range k-clique aromatic interaction cluster holding the N- and C-terminal regions are associated with the decreased stability of the enzyme. The present work reiterates as well as expands on those findings concerning the role of interactions between the N- and C-terminus in protein stability. Furthermore, comparative analyses of crystal structures of homologous pairs of proteins from thermophilic and mesophilic organisms emphasize the prevalence of long-range k-clique communities of aromatic interaction that may be playing an important role and highlights an additional source of stability in thermophilic proteins. The design principle based on clustering of long-range aromatic residues in the form of aromatic-clique and clique community may be effectively applied to enhance the stability of enzymes for biotechnological applications. Database The coordinates o fF4A, F4W, W6A, and Y343A are deposited in the PDB database under the accession numbers 5EFF , 5E58 , 5EFD , and 5EBA respectively. Abbreviations BSX, xylanase from Bacilllus sp. NG-27; RBSX, recombinant BSX xylanase; TIM, Triosephosphate isomerase; GH10, Glycosyl hydrolase family 10; 3D, three-dimensional; r.m.s.d, root mean square deviation; RSA, relative solvent accessible surface area; T m , melting temperature; CD, Circular Dichroism; BHX, GH10 xylanase from Bacillus halodurans ; BFX, GH10 xylanase from Bacillus firmus ; TmxB, GH10 xylanase from Thermotoga maritima