Article

Characterization, crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of bifunctional dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase from Plasmodium falciparum.

BIOTEC, National Science and Technology Development Agency, Thailand Science Park, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand.
Acta Crystallographica Section D Biological Crystallography (impact factor: 12.62). 05/2004; 60(Pt 4):780-3. DOI:10.1107/S0907444904001544 pp.780-3
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT The full-length pfdhfr-ts genes of the wild-type TM4/8.2 and the double mutant K1CB1 (C59R+S108N) from the genomic DNA of the corresponding Plasmodium falciparum parasite have been cloned into a modified pET(17b) plasmid and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) pLysS. Conditions for the expression and purification of the P. falciparum dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (PfDHFR-TS) have been established that yield approximately 1 mg of the soluble active enzyme per litre of culture. The purified enzymes have been crystallized using a modified microbatch method with PEG 4000 as the primary precipitating agent. X-ray diffraction data were collected to 2.50 and 2.64 A resolution under cryogenic conditions from single crystals of the two PfDHFR-TS proteins in complex with NADPH, dUMP and either Pyr30 or Pyr39. Preliminary X-ray analysis indicated that the crystals belong to the orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with two molecules per asymmetric unit and approximately 52% solvent content (VM approximately 2.6 A3 Da-1). The use of a particular type of baby oil in the microbatch setup appeared to be beneficial to PfDHFR-TS crystallization and a preliminary comparison with another commonly used oil is described.

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Keywords

52% solvent content
 
asymmetric unit
 
baby oil
 
Conditions
 
corresponding Plasmodium falciparum parasite
 
cryogenic conditions
 
double mutant K1CB1
 
Escherichia coli BL21
 
full-length pfdhfr-ts genes
 
microbatch setup
 
modified microbatch method
 
modified pET(17b)
 
P. falciparum dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase
 
particular type
 
PfDHFR-TS crystallization
 
Preliminary X-ray analysis
 
purified enzymes
 
soluble active enzyme
 
two PfDHFR-TS proteins
 
X-ray diffraction data