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Re: [ccp4bb] Zinc or Iron binding protein, that is a question!

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CCP4bb <-- 1999 <-- November 1999 <-- 30 November 1999
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Subject: Re: Zinc or Iron binding protein, that is a question!
From: Roger Rowlett rrowlett {- at -} COLGATE {- dot -} EDU
Date: 2009-08-06
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Subject: Re: Zinc or Iron binding protein, that is a question!
From: James Holton JMHolton {- at -} LBL {- dot -} GOV
Date: 2009-08-06

I don't think anyone has suggested this yet, but as long as your buffer
does not contain sulfur and your protein does contain a known number of
S atoms, then you can get an accurate molar ratio of any metal to sulfur
via PIXE (proton-induced x-ray emission). Elspeth Garman is one of the
few people in the world who can do this, but last I heard she was still
interested in having people send her samples. Very tiny samples (such
as protein crystals) are fine for this technique.

http://www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/aspsite/index.asp?pageid=578

-James Holton
MAD Scientist


Roger Rowlett wrote:
> As others have implied, quantifying metals in metalloproteins is very
> challenging. In my experience, the principal problems are (1)
> adventitious metal contamination, (2) accurate measurement of protein
> concentration, and (3) weak metal binding.
>
> Zinc and iron are ubiquitous microcontaminants, and crop up in some
> pretty unusual places. Zinc will get into everything, and plastic
> bottles and microcentrifuge tubes seem to be a pretty rich source of
> iron contamination. In addition, we have found that some plasticware
> will also bind low concentrations of zinc and other metal ions from
> solution, making standardization of instruments very frustrating.
> Having said all this, ICP-OES or ICP-MS are absolutely the best
> methods of quantifying metals in protein solutions. ICP methods are
> linear over many orders of magnitude, and sample prep can be minimal.
> We simply dilute protein solution in high-quality deionized water to
> approximately 0.1-1.0 ppm in glass (acid washed and dried if
> possible), NOT plastic, and aspirate into an ICP-OES. The protein must
> be diluted enough to reduce viscosity issues in nebulization.
> Standards can be prepared in deionized water. We dilute our protein
> solutions with the same dI water we use to prepare the blank, and
> there is always some detectable Zn background. (Fe is usually very low
> in glass containers). The key to accurate measurements is Zn
> concentrations >0.1 ppm. This has worked very well for us for
> quantifying native and metal-substituted zinc-metalloproteins. If you
> are really up against contamination, you can extract solutions with
> Chelex resin, but it is possible that this treatment could also remove
> loosely bound metals from proteins. If your putative zinc protein has
> one or more sulfur ligands, this is less likely to be a problem.
>
> Measuring protein concentrations accurately is also challenging. Every
> protein quantification method is subject to idiosyncrasies. The least
> idiosyncratic chemical methods are the microbiuret method and a
> variety of UV methods (I like one based on A230 in 0.1% Tween-100 or
> another detergent.) Measuring protein concentration will be the major
> source of error in metalloprotein stoichiometry measurements. Protein
> has to be really homogeneous for any method to be accurate.
>
> Also keep in mind that His-tagged proteins (and some proteins with
> vicinial His residues or other ligands on the surface) may
> non-specifically bind metal ions, clouding metal stoichiometry.
>
> Finally, if your metal is not in a tight binding site, it will be
> difficult to prepare solutions with the saturated stoichiometry. In
> these cases, it is possible that microcalorimetry might be useful.
>
> Xuan Yang wrote:
>> Dear Mr. Fritz,
>>
>> Yes, the protein is not an E.coli protein! Instead, it was cloned
>> from a virus. And since it was a nonstructural viral protein, I
>> thought it might be appropiate to treat it as eukaryotic proteins.
>>
>> E.coli system was quite different from eukaryotic ones, hence I was
>> quite cautious about the ICP-ES result and trying to confirm it via
>> alternative method. Thanks very much for mentioning the examples
>> which suggested that Fe might be contaminants. Indeed, when I cut the
>> protein in two parts (still with MBP) and test them via ICP-ES again,
>> Fe became negligible in both and Zn stoichiometry increaed to 1:1 in
>> the C-terminal part. The result lead me to focus on Zn instead of Fe.
>> But I still want to confirm the idea.
>>
>> Matallo biochemistry was exactly what I dreamed to do.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Xuan Yang
>>
>> 2007/8/6 Guenter Fritz
>> >
>>
>> Hi Xuan,
>> I guess your protein is not an E.coli protein. There are several
>> examples that eukaryotic Zn-proteins expressed in E.coli contain
>> Fe instead of Zn. I am sceptic whether IMAC with different metal
>> ions will give the solution of the problem. If you really want to
>> get information on the metal ion binding properties you will have
>> to do some matallo biochemistry: preparing apo protein,
>> reconstitution with metal ions, UV-Vis spectroscopy, EPR would be
>> great, ...
>>
>> Dear Sir or Madam,
>> The ICP-ES results indicated that 1 molar my protein
>> purified from E.coli Origami(DE3) contained about a half
>> molar Zinc and nearly a quarter molar Iron (whether II or III
>> was not available). The protein carried a MBP tag on the
>> N-terminal and the situation was similar with or without His
>> tag at the C terminal. I want to determine whether my protein
>> really bind Zinc or Iron. Does anyone have any experience
>> about such problems?
>> Specifically, now I want to compare the binding efficiency
>> on various IMAC, i.e. 50mM ZnSO4, FeSO4, Fe2(SO4)3,
>> NiSO4(control), or CuSO4(control). However, considering the
>> instability of Fe(II) in solution, the design still seemed
>> problematic.
>> Sincerely,
>> Xuan Yang
>> National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules and
>> Center for Infection and Immunity,
>> Institute of Biophysics,
>> Chinese Academy of Sciences,
>> Room 1617, 15 DaTun Road,Chaoyang District,
>> Beijing, China, 100101
>> Tel: 86-10-64884329
>> Academic email: YangX@moon.ibp.ac.cn
>>
>> >
>>
>> We will either find a way or make one.
>>
>>
>>
>>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Roger S. Rowlett
> Professor
> Department of Chemistry
> Colgate University
> 13 Oak Drive
> Hamilton, NY 13346
>
> tel: (315)-228-7245
> ofc: (315)-228-7395
> fax: (315)-228-7935
> email: rrowlett@mail.colgate.edu




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