PMID: 23295485

Authors:

Koga Y, Inazato M, Nakamura T, Hashikawa C, Chirifu M, Michi A, Yamashita T, Toma S, Kuniyasu A, Ikemizu S, Nakabeppu Y, Yamagata Y

Title:

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of human MTH1 with a homogeneous N-terminus.

Journal:

Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. 2013 Jan 1;69(Pt 1):45-8. doi: , 10.1107/S1744309112048002. Epub 2012 Dec 20.

Abstract:

Human MTH1 (hMTH1) is an enzyme that hydrolyses several oxidized purine nucleoside triphosphates to their corresponding nucleoside monophosphates. Crystallographic studies have shown that the accurate mode of interaction between 8-oxoguanine and hMTH1 cannot be understood without determining the positions of the H atoms, as can be observed in neutron and/or ultrahigh-resolution X-ray diffraction studies. The hMTH1 protein prepared in the original expression system from Escherichia coli did not appear to be suitable for obtaining high-quality crystals because the hMTH1 protein had heterogeneous N-termini of Met1 and Gly2 that resulted from N-terminal Met excision by methionine aminopeptidase from the E. coli host. To obtain homogeneous hMTH1, the Gly at the second position was replaced by Lys. As a result, mutant hMTH1 protein [hMTH1(G2K)] with a homogeneous N-terminus could be prepared and high-quality crystals which diffracted to near 1.1 A resolution using synchrotron radiation were produced. The new crystals belonged to space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = 46.36, b = 47.58, c = 123.89 A.