Structural plasticity broadens the specificity of an engineered protease |
| |
| Authors: | R Bone J L Silen D A Agard |
| |
| Affiliation: | Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco 94143-0448. |
| |
| Abstract: | The substrate specificity of alpha-lytic protease has been changed dramatically, with a concomitant increase in activity, by replacing an active-site Met with Ala. The substrate specificity of both this mutant and another similar mutant are extraordinarily broad. X-ray crystallographic analysis shows that structural plasticity, a combination of alternate side-chain conformations and binding-site flexibility, allows both large and small substrates to be well accommodated. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
