Structural characterization of the M* partly folded intermediate of wild type and P138A aspartate aminotransferase from Escherichia coli

A combination of spectroscopic techniques, hydrogen/deuterium exchange, and limited proteolysis experiments coupled to mass spectrometry analysis was used to depict the topology of the monomeric M* partly folded intermediate of aspartate aminotransferase from Escherichia coli in wild type (WT) as well as in a mutant form in which the highly conserved cis-proline at position 138 was replaced by a trans-alanine (P138A). Fluorescence analysis indicates that, although M* is an off-pathway intermediate in the folding of WT aspartate aminotransferase from E. coli, it seems to coincide with an on-pathway folding intermediate for the P138A mutant. Spectroscopic data, hydrogen/deuterium exchange, and limited proteolysis experiments demonstrated the occurrence of conformational differences between the two M* intermediates, with P138A-M* being conceivably more compact than WT-M*. Limited proteolysis data suggested that these conformational differences might be related to a different relative orientation of the small and large domains of the protein induced by the presence of the cis-proline residue at position 138. These differences between the two M* species indicated that in WT-M* Pro138 is in the cis conformation at this stage of the folding process. Moreover, hydrogen/deuterium exchange results showed the occurrence of few differences in the native N-2 forms of WT and P138A, the spectroscopic features and crystallographic structures of which are almost superimposable.