To engineer a “soluble” form of membrane-bound cytochrome P45017α (CYP17)—a key enzyme in steroid hormone biosynthesis—in the present work we have built a computer model of the tertiary structure of the hemeprotein, identified the surface hydrophobic amino acid residues, substituted these residues for more hydrophilic ones, and expressed and purified hydrophilized forms of CYP17. We have constructed and purified the following mutant forms of human CYP17: CYP17dH (CYP17 with deleted hydrophobic N-terminal sequence (δ23)) and CYP17mod (CYP17dH with substituted cluster of hydrophobic amino acid residues in the region of the FG-loop). Removal of the N-terminal sequence responsible for interaction with the membrane does not dramatically change the association of the protein with the membrane. However, CYP17mod containing hydrophilic FG-loop is mostly localized in the cytosolic fraction. Thus, in the present work we for the first time engineered a “soluble” form of the usually membrane-bound human CYP17 that is not bound to membrane. The expression degree of CYP17mod is approximately 900 nmol/liter of culture. The hemeprotein can be purified to apparent homogeneity without using detergents at any purification step. It is shown that replacement of hydrophobic amino acid residues in the FG-loop region does not change the metabolic profile during hydroxylation of steroids that is characteristic for wild type CYP17. Besides, the modification of the hemeprotein does not affect the affinity of CYP17 to steroid substrates. The engineered “soluble” form of human CYP17 is used as a subject for crystallization of the hemeprotein.
为了设计一种“可溶性”的膜结合细胞色素P45017α(CYP17)形式(一种类
固醇激素
生物合成中的关键酶),在本工作中,我们构建了血红素蛋白三级结构的计算机模型,确定了表面疏
水性
氨基酸残基,用更亲
水的
氨基酸残基替换这些残基,并表达和纯化了亲
水化的CYP17形式。我们构建并纯化了以下人类CYP17突变形式:CYP17dH(CYP17,去除了疏
水性N-末端序列(δ23))和CYP17mod(CYP17dH,在FG环区域替换了疏
水性
氨基酸残基簇)。去除负责与膜相互作用的N-末端序列不会显着改变蛋白质与膜的结合。然而,含有亲
水性FG环的CYP17mod主要定位于细胞质部分。因此,在本工作中,我们首次设计了一种通常与膜结合的人类CYP17的“可溶性”形式,这种形式不与膜结合。CYP17mod的表达度约为900 nmol/升培养物。血红素蛋白可以在任何纯化步骤中不使用洗涤剂纯化到明显的均匀性。结果表明,在FG环区域替换疏
水性
氨基酸残基不会改变类
固醇羟基化过程中的代谢特征,这是野生型CYP17的特征。此外,血红