Extensive lysine methylation in hyperthermophilic crenarchaea : potential implications for protein stability and recombinant enzymes
Abstract
In eukarya and bacteria, lysine methylation is relatively rare and is catalysed by sequence-specific lysine methyltransferases that typically have only a single-protein target. Using RNA polymerase purified from the thermophilic crenarchaeum Sulfolobus solfataricus, we identified 21 methyllysines distributed across 9 subunits of the enzyme. The modified lysines were predominantly in alpha-helices and showed no conserved sequence context. A limited survey of the Thermoproteus tenax proteome revealed widespread modification with 52 methyllysines in 30 different proteins. These observations suggest the presence of an unusual lysine methyltransferase with relaxed specificity in the crenarchaea. Since lysine methylation is known to enhance protein thermostability, this may be an adaptation to a thermophilic lifestyle. The implications of this modification for studies and applications of recombinant crenarchaeal enzymes are discussed.
Citation
Botting , C H , Talbot , P , Paytubi , S & White , M F 2010 , ' Extensive lysine methylation in hyperthermophilic crenarchaea : potential implications for protein stability and recombinant enzymes ' , Archaea , vol. 2010 , 106341 . https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/106341
Publication
Archaea
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1472-3646Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2010 Botting et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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