JAMM: A Metalloprotease-Like Zinc Site
in the Proteasome and Signalosome
Xavier I. Ambroggio
1
, Douglas C. Rees
2,3
, Raymond J. Deshaies
1,3
*
1
Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America,
2
Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute
of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America,
3
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland, United States of America
The JAMM (JAB1/MPN/Mov34 metalloenzyme) motif in Rpn11 and Csn5 underlies isopeptidase activities intrinsic to the
proteasome and signalosome, respectively. We show here that the archaebacterial protein AfJAMM possesses the key
features of a zinc metalloprotease, yet with a distinct fold. The histidine and aspartic acid of the conserved EX
n
HS/
THX
7
SXXD motif coordinate a zinc, whereas the glutamic acid hydrogen-bonds an aqua ligand. By analogy to the active
site of thermolysin, we predict that the glutamic acid serves as an acid-base catalyst and the second serine stabilizes a
tetrahedral intermediate. Mutagenesis of Csn5 confirms these residues are required for Nedd8 isopeptidase activity.
The active site-like architecture specified by the JAMM motif motivates structure-based approaches to the study of
JAMM domain proteins and the development of therapeutic proteasome and signalosome inhibitors.
Introduction
Many cellular proteins are degraded by the proteasome
after they become covalently modified with a multiubiquitin
chain. The 26S proteasome is a massive protein composed of
a 20S core and two 19S regulatory particles (Voges et al.
1999). The 20S core can be subdivided into a dimer of
heptameric rings of
b
subunits—which contain the proteo-
lytic active sites responsible for the protein degradation
activity of the proteasome—flanked by heptameric rings of
a
subunits. The 19S regulatory particle can be divided into a
base thought to comprise a hexameric ring of AAA ATPases
and a lid composed of eight or more distinct subunits.
Whereas 20S core particles and AAA ATPase rings have been
found in compartmentalized proteases in prokaryotes, the lid
domain of the 19S regulatory particle is unique to eukaryotes
and provides the specificity of 26S proteasomes for ubiquiti-
nated substrates (Glickman et al. 1998). Ubiquitin (Ub), an 8
kD protein, is conjugated by Ub ligases to proteasome
substrates via an isopeptide bond that links its carboxyl
terminus to the amino sidechain of a lysine residue in the
substrate. Ub-like proteins (Ubls), of which there are several,
are conjugated to their target proteins in a similar manner.
Ubls typically do not promote degradation of their targets by
the proteasome, but rather regulate target activity in a more
subtle manner reminiscent of protein phosphorylation
(Hershko and Ciechanover 1998; Peters et al. 1998).
As is the case for protein phosphorylation, the attachment
of Ub and Ubls to target proteins is opposed by isopeptidase
enzymes that undo the handiwork of Ub ligases. For example,
removal of the Ubl Nedd8 (neural precursor cell expressed,
developmentally downregulated 8) regulatory modification
from the Cullin 1 (Cul1) subunit of the SCF (Skp1/Cdc53/
Cullin/F-box receptor) Ub ligase is catalyzed by the COP9
signalosome (CSN) (Lyapina et al. 2001). The CSN was
identified in
Arabidopsis thaliana
from genetic studies of
constitutively photomorphogenic mutant plants (Osterlund
et al. 1999). It later became evident that CSN and the
proteasome lid are paralogous complexes (Glickman et al.
1998; Seeger et al. 1998; Wei et al. 1998). Csn5 of CSN and
Rpn11 (regulatory particle number 11) of the proteasome lid
are the subunits that are most closely related between the two
complexes. CSN-dependent isopeptidase activity is sensitive
to metal ion chelators, and Csn5 contains a conserved,
putative metal-binding motif (EX
n
HS/THX
7
SXXD), referred
to as the JAMM motif, that is embedded within the larger
JAB1/MPN/Mov34 domain (hereafter referred to as the JAMM
domain) and is critical for Csn5 function in vivo (Cope et al.
2002). Removal of Ub from proteasome substrates is also
promoted by a metal ion-dependent isopeptidase activity
associated with the proteasome (Verma et al. 2002; Yao and
Cohen 2002). The JAMM/MPN
þ
motif of Rpn11 is critical for
its function in vivo (Maytal-Kivity et al. 2002; Verma et al.
2002; Yao and Cohen 2002), and proteasomes that contain
Rpn11 bearing a mutated JAMM motif are unable to promote
deubiquitination and degradation of the proteasome sub-
strate Sic1 (Verma et al. 2002). Taken together, these
observations suggested that the JAMM motif specifies a
catalytic center that in turn defines a novel family of
metalloisopeptidases. Interestingly, the JAMM motif is found
in proteins from all three domains of life (Cope et al. 2002;
Maytal-Kivity et al. 2002), indicating that it has functions
beyond the Ub system. In this study, we present the crystal
structure of the
Archaeoglobus fulgidus AF2198
gene product
AfJAMM and explore the implications of its novel metal-
loprotease architecture.
Received August 29, 2003; Accepted October 9, 2003; Published November 24,
2003
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020002
Copyright:
Ó
2003 Ambroggio et al. This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.
Abbreviations: AfJAMM,
A. fulgidus
JAMM protein; AMSH, associated molecule with
SH3 domain of STAM; CDA, cytidine deaminase; CSN, COP9 signalosome; Cul1,
Cullin 1; DUB, deubiquitinating enzyme; JAMM, JAB1/MPN/Mov34 metalloenzyme;
MAD, multiwavelength anomalous diffraction; MPN, Mpr1p Pad1p N-terminal
domain; Nedd8, neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally downregulated
8; RMS, root-mean squared; Rpn11, regulatory particle number 11; SCF, Skp1/
Cdc53/Cullin/F-box receptor; ScNP,
S. caespitosus
zinc endoprotease; Ub, ubiquitin;
Ubls, ubiquitin-like proteins; UBP, ubiquitin-specific protease; UCH, ubiquitin C-
terminal hydrolase
Academic Editor: Hidde L. Ploegh, Harvard Medical School
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: deshaies@caltech.edu
PLoS Biology | http://biology.plosjournals.org
January 2004 | Volume 2 | Issue 1 | Page
0113
P
L
o
S
BIOLOGY
Figure 1.
Alignment of Eukaryotic JAMM Domains with AfJAMM
Eukaryotic JAMM domain proteins were aligned with AfJAMM using ClustalX and manually refined. Sequences are named with a two-letter code
corresponding to the genus and species of the respective organism followed by the name of the protein (see Supporting Information for
accession numbers), and ‘hyp’ is an abbreviation for hypothetical. The JAMM motif comprises the residues highlighted in green (E22, H67, H69,
S77, and D80), and the active site core is surrounded by a red box. Conserved residues are highlighted in gray. The disulfide cysteine residues are
highlighted in yellow (C74, C95). Active site residues that were mutated in
S. pombe
Csn5 are marked with an asterisk beneath the alignment. The
secondary structure of AfJAMM is indicated above the sequence; helices are blue, sheets are red arrows, and loops are yellow lines. The dashed
yellow line indicates a loop (F42–G58) that is disordered in the crystal.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020002.g001
Table 1.
Data Collection Statistics
Native (Zn
2
þ
)
Selenomethionine MAD
Crystal 1
Crystal 2
Peak
Inflection
Remote
Peak (2)
Beamline
ALS 8.2.1
SSRL 9.2
SSRL 9.2
SSRL 9.2
SSRL 9.2
Wavelength (A
̊
)
1.1271
0.9790
0.9792
0.9184
0.9790
Resolution (A
̊
)
38-2.3
30-2.5
30-2.5
30-2.5
30-2.3
R
sym
(%)
9.4 (37.9)
7.5 (43.9)
6.8 (35.7)
6.9 (40.0)
7.3 (42.8)
Completeness (%)
99.9 (99.9)
100 (100)
99.9 (99.8)
100 (100)
100 (100)
I/
r
I
4.7 (1.8)
20.0 (3.4)
13.9 (2.5)
14.0 (2.6)
34.0 (6.1)
All reflections
278,220
111,979
55,743
56,206
285,937
Redundancy
20.6
10.5
5.2
5.3
21.1
Refinement
R
cryst
/R
free
(%)
26.1/30.4
R
N-cryst
/R
N-free
a
(%)
22.6/27.0
Number of protein atoms
1634
Number of Zn
2
þ
atoms
2
Number of waters
89
RMS deviation bonds (A
̊
)
0.006
RMS deviation angles (
8
)
1.21
a
Owing to pseudocentering, reflections with l values such that cos
2
(0.54
p
l)
,
½ are systematically weak, leading to an R-factor higher than would be expected for a
nonpseudocentered crystal structure. R
N
are the R-factors calculated with only the reflections with cos
2
(0.54
p
l)
.
½ (see Materials and Methods). Barring rearrangements of
sidechains in the vicinity of the zinc atom, no significant changes were seen between the native and selenomethionine forms.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020002.t001
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January 2004 | Volume 2 | Issue 1 | Page
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JAMM: A Metalloprotease-Like Zinc Site
Results and Discussion
We proposed that the subset of JAMM domain proteins
that contain a JAMM motif comprise a novel family of
metallopeptidases (Cope et al. 2002). To gain a clearer
understanding of these putative enzymes—in particular the
pertinent subunits of the proteasome lid and signalosome
(Figure 1)—we cloned and expressed in
Escherichia coli
a
variety of JAMM motif-containing proteins to find a suitable
candidate for crystallographic analysis. The expression of all
candidates except for AfJAMM led to insoluble aggregates.
Unlike many JAMM proteins that contain an additional
domain, the AfJAMM protein consists entirely of the JAMM
domain. We were able to purify and crystallize native and
selenomethionine-substituted AfJAMM; the latter was used
for phasing by employing the multiwavelength anomalous
diffraction (MAD) technique (see Table 1 for statistics).
AfJAMM consists of an eight-stranded
b
sheet (
b
1–
b
8),
flanked by a long
a
helix (
a
1) between the first and second
strand, and a short
a
helix (
a
2) between the fourth and fifth
strand. This
b
sheet resembles a
b
barrel halved longitudinally
and curled around
a
1 (Figure 2A). The
a
2 helix is oriented
lengthwise on the convex surface of the
b
sheet. The zinc-
binding site is adjacent to a loop that spans the end of
b
4to
the beginning of
a
2 and is stabilized by a disulfide bond
between C74 from this loop to C95 on
b
5. Although disulfide
bonds are scarce in intracellular proteins, they are often
present in homologous proteins found in hyperthermophiles
(Mallick et al. 2002). The overall fold resembles that of the
zinc metalloenzyme cytidine deaminase (CDA). CDA from
Bacillus subtilis
(Johansson et al. 2002) can be superimposed
onto AfJAMM with a root-mean squared (RMS) deviation of
3.0 A
̊
over 79
a
carbons, despite only 9% sequence identity
over structurally aligned residues. The catalytic zinc ions of
AfJAMM and CDA, 4.9 A
̊
apart in the superposition, occupy
the same general vicinity in the tertiary structures but are
coordinated by entirely different protein ligands, two
histidines and an aspartic acid in AfJAMM compared to
three cysteines in CDA, located at different positions in the
sequence (Figure 2A). Consequently, the JAMM fold repre-
sents a departure from the papain-like cysteine protease
architecture that underlies the deubiquitinating activity of
the most thoroughly characterized deubiquitinating enzymes
(DUBs), the Ub carboxy-terminal hydrolases (UCHs) (John-
ston et al. 1997) and Ub-specific proteases (UBPs) (Hu et al.
2002).
The two AfJAMM subunits in the asymmetric unit are
connected through a parallel
b
sheet formed at the dimer
interface (Figure 2B). The subunits are related by a 2-fold
screw axis along the crystallographic c-axis with a translation
of 3.38 A
̊
, corresponding to a displacement of one residue
along the
b
3 strand. AfJAMM behaves as a monomer during
size exclusion chromatography, suggesting that the dimer
observed in the asymmetric unit is an artifact of crystalliza-
tion. Yet the residues of
b
3 are highly conserved among
JAMM proteins (see Figure 1) and predominantly hydro-
phobic, which makes it difficult to regard the observed
interaction as completely insignificant. Flanking
b
3 to the
carboxy-terminal side, there is a striking covariation of
residues, MPQSGTG in Rpn11 orthologues and LPVEGTE
in Csn5 orthologues. The potential of
b
3 and the flanking
region to mediate specific protein–protein interactions, such
as the assembly of Rpn11 and Csn5 into their respective
complexes or their specificity towards Ub or Nedd8, warrants
further investigation.
The zinc-binding site of AfJAMM is located in a furrow
formed by the convex surface of the
b
2–
b
4 sheet and
a
2. The
catalytic zinc has a tetrahedral coordination sphere (Figure
3A), with ligands provided by N
e
2
of H67 and H69 on
b
4, the
carboxylate of D80 on
a
2, and a water molecule. The latter
hydrogen-bonds to the sidechain of E22 on
b
2. Thus, the
crystal structure confirms previous predictions that the
histidine and aspartic acid residues in the JAMM motif are
ligands for a metal (Cope et al. 2002; Verma et al. 2002; Yao
and Cohen 2002). It must be noted that the identity of the
physiological metal in A
fJAMM and eukaryotic JAMM
homologues is still unknown. The majority of metallopro-
teases naturally employ zinc but show altered activities with
other substituted metals (Auld 1995).
The arrangement of zinc ligands in AfJAMM resembles that
Figure 2.
Crystal Structure of AfJAMM
(A) On the left, the AfJAMM protomer is presented. The amino and
carboxyl termini are marked by N and C. The catalytic zinc atom is
depicted as a gray sphere. The zinc ligands (H67, H69, and D80) are
colored in green. Secondary structure elements are numbered
a
1–
a
2
and
b
1–
b
8. The amino acids that mark the beginning and end of the
disordered loop (P41–M60) are labeled. On the right, the crystal
structure of the cytidine deaminase protomer is shown in the same
orientation as AfJAMM to highlight the fold likeness as well as the
similarly situated zinc-binding sites. The zinc ligands (C53, C86, and
C89) are colored in green.
(B) The dimer in the asymmetric unit of AfJAMM crystals. The side
view is obtained by rotating the monomer in (A) by 90
8
as indicated
by the quarter-arrow around the y-axis. The gold protomer is related
to the green protomer by a 180
8
rotation around the crystallographic
c-axis (shown as a black bar in the side view) and a translation of 3.38 A
̊
.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020002.g002
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JAMM: A Metalloprotease-Like Zinc Site
found in thermolysin, the
Streptomyces caespitosus
zinc endo-
protease (ScNP), and neurolysin, a mammalian metallopro-
tease (Kurisu et al. 2000; Brown et al. 2001; English et al.
2001). Thermolysin, neurolysin, and ScNP are homologues
that have the classical HEXXH metalloprotease motif and
adopt the same core fold. In contrast, the sequence, zinc-
binding motif, and fold adopted by AfJAMM are entirely
distinct. Nonetheless, the active site metal and ligand atoms
of thermolysin and ScNP can be superimposed on those of
AfJAMM with an RMS deviation of approximately 0.4–0.5 A
̊
(Figure 3B).
While this manuscript was under revision, an independent
report of a crystal structure of the
AF2198
gene product
appeared (Tran et al. 2003). These authors used the fold
similarity to CDA as a framework to evaluate the function of
the JAMM motif. Given the biochemical data supporting the
JAMM motif’s role in proteolysis, the common active site
architecture seen in AfJAMM and thermolysin, and the
similarity of zinc ligands between thermolysin and AfJAMM,
we believe that the extensive body of mechanistic studies on
thermolysin and related metalloproteases provide a better
framework for the analysis of JAMM function than CDA. In
addition to the correspondence between zinc ligands, the
glutamic acid residue (E166) downstream of the HEXXH
motif of thermolysin is functionally equivalent to the aspartic
acid ligand of AfJAMM (D80). E22 in AfJAMM is functionally
equivalent to the glutamic acid in thermolysin’s HEXXH
motif, which serves as the general acid-base catalyst. The
conserved serine between the histidine ligands interacts with
E22 through a sidechain–main chain hydrogen bond. In more
distant JAMM relatives, the serine is replaced by a threonine
or asparagine (Aravind and Ponting 1998), both of which are
capable of the same bracing function. Meanwhile, the
c
-
hydroxyl group of the highly conserved S77 in AfJAMM
occupies a position similar to N
e
2
of H231 in thermolysin.
This atom flanks the ‘oxyanion hole’ and is implicated in
stabilizing the tetrahedral intermediate formed during
hydrolysis of the scissile bond (Matthews 1988; Lipscomb
and Strater 1996).
AfJAMM was tested for the ability to hydrolyze a number of
substrates, including Ub derivatives, resofurin-labeled casein,
and D-alanine compounds. Unfortunately, none of the in
vitro assays yielded positive results. As nothing is known
about AfJAMM in the context of
A. fulgidus
biology, these
negative results do not rule out the possibility that AfJAMM
functions as a peptide hydrolase in vivo. To validate the
suitability of the AfJAMM structure as a basic model for
eukaryotic JAMM proteins, we performed site-directed muta-
genesis of
Schizosaccharomyces pombe csn5
þ
. The zinc ligands of
Csn5 were previously established to be essential for its role in
sustaining cleavage of the isopeptide bond that links Nedd8
to Cul1 (Cope et al. 2002). Alanine substitutions for the
putative general acid-base catalyst (E56A) and the catalytic
serine (S128) in the JAMM motif of Csn5 likewise abolished its
ability to remove the Nedd8 moiety from Cul1 in a
csn5
þ
background (Figure 4A). The E56A mutation had no effect on
the assembly of Csn5 with Csn1
myc13
, while assembly with
S128A was slightly hindered (Figure 4A). Mutation of the
equivalent serine codon in
RPN11
destroyed complementing
activity without altering assembly of Rpn11 into the lid.
However, the effect of this mutation on Rpn11 isopeptidase
activity was not evaluated (Maytal-Kivity et al. 2002). Alanine
substitutions for a catalytic residue (E56) or zinc ligands
(H118A, D131N) exerted a modest dominant-negative phe-
notype in
csn5
þ
cells (Figure 4B).
We have been able to assign biochemical functions to Csn5
and Rpn11 (Cope et al. 2002; Verma et al. 2002; Yao and
Cohen 2002), but the functions of other eukaryotic JAMM
Figure 3.
Metalloprotease-Like Active Site of AfJAMM
(A) The active site of AfJAMM is shown centered around the catalytic zinc ion, which is represented as a dark gray sphere surrounded by
anomalous cross Fourier difference density (contoured at 9.5
r
) colored in red. The aqua ligand, which lies at 2.9 A
̊
from the zinc, is shown as a
red sphere surrounded by purple density (contoured at 3
r
)ofanF
obs
–F
calc
map, in which the aqua ligand was omitted from the calculation.
Residues that underlie isopeptide bond cleavage are shown in green. The carboxylate oxygen atoms of D80 lie 2.2 A
̊
from the zinc. The N
e
2
atoms
of H67 and H69 lie 2.1 A
̊
from the zinc. The carboxylate oxygen atoms of E22 lie 3.2–3.5 A
̊
from the aqua ligand and 4.5–5.0 A
̊
from the zinc.
Ancillary active site residues and the backbone (ribbon diagram) are shown in grey. The disulfide bond that links C74 to C95 is shown in yellow.
The JAMM motif is shown in the upper lefthand corner for reference.
(B) Superimposition of active site residues in ScNP, thermolysin, and AfJAMM. AfJAMM is in green, ScNP in blue, and thermolysin in red. For
clarity only, the sidechains from the residues that bind the zinc or aqua ligands are shown in their entirety. In addition, atoms that stabilize the
putative tetrahedral intermediate are shown. These include O
c
of S77 in AfJAMM, O
g
of Y95 in ScNP, and the N
e
2
of H231 in thermolysin.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0020002.g003
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JAMM: A Metalloprotease-Like Zinc Site
proteins (Figure 4C) such as AMSH and C6.1A, as well as the
prokaryotic protein RadC and the viral phage
k
tail assembly
protein K, remain unknown. The structure of AfJAMM
provides a useful tool for dissecting the functions of JAMM
motifs in these varied contexts and inspires the search for
specific JAMM active site inhibitors. The mechanistic impli-
cations of the AfJAMM structure explain why the deubiquiti-
nating activity of the lid was unaffected by inhibitors of
classical DUBs, the UCHs and UBPs. In classical DUBs, the
nucleophile that attacks the carbon of the scissile bond is
provided by a cysteine residue in the active site. This property
is exploited by using the irreversible inhibitor Ub–aldehyde,
which forms a nonhydrolyzable bond to the nucleophilic
cysteine (Johnston et al. 1999). In contrast, JAMM proteins
likely hydrolyze Ub conjugates in a manner similar to
thermolysin, in which the zinc-polarized aqua ligand serves
as the nucleophile (Lipscomb and Strater 1996). In the case of
thermolysin, metal chelators and phosphonamidate peptides
are effective inhibitors (Bartlett and Marlowe 1987), whereas
other zinc metalloproteases are sensitive to peptidomimetic
substrates bearing a hydroxamate group (Skiles et al. 2001).
Metal chelators have been shown to be effective inhibitors of
JAMM proteins (Cope et al. 2002; Verma et al. 2002); it would
be interesting to see whether phosphonamidate and hydrox-
amate peptide mimics of Ub conjugate isopeptides would be
equally effective.
The proteasome inhibitor PS-341 has gained attention for
its novelty and effectiveness in treating various forms of
cancer (Adams 2002). PS-341 was recently approved by the
United States’ Food and Drug Administration for treatment
of relapsed multiple myeloma, thereby validating the protea-
some as a target for anticancer therapies. The active site of
JAMM proteins is an intriguing target for second-generation
therapeutics targeted at the Ub–proteasome pathway for two
reasons: the JAMM motif in the proteasome lid is essential for
the proteasome to function and the JAMM motif in the CSN
specifically regulates the activity of a critical family of E3 Ub
ligases (Nalepa and Harper 2003). Inhibition of SCF and other
Cullin-based ligases by way of the JAMM motif may be a more
specific means of modulating levels of key proteasome
substrates in cancer cells.
Materials and Methods
The gene for
A. fulgidus
JAMM (Ponting et al. 1999), open reading
frame
AF2198
, was cloned from genomic DNA (ATCC #49558D;
American Type Culture Collection, Manassas, Virginia, United States)
into the pCRT7 vectors (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, California, United
States). During cloning, the alternate start codon, GTG, was replaced
with the canonical start codon, ATG. The construct was expressed in
BL21(DE3)pLysS cells (Novagen, Madison, Wisconsin, United States).
The cells were grown to midlog phase in terrific broth media and
induced with 0.5 mM IPTG. The cells were lysed by sonication and the
protein was isolated by immobilized metal ion chromatography using
a Ni-NTA resin (Qiagen, Valencia, California, United States). The
protein was further purified by gel filtration on a Sephacryl S100
column (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Chalfont St Giles, United
Kingdom) and concentrated. The amino-terminal tag was removed by
limited digestion with trypsin. Mass spectrometry analysis revealed
that trypsin only cut AfJAMM in the amino-terminal tag region, and
only a single band was evident on a Coomassie-stained polyacryla-
mide gel. The tag and uncut protein were removed with Ni-NTA resin
followed by anion-exchange chromatography with SOURCE 30Q
resin (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech). The processed protein was
then concentrated to approximately 30 mg/ml by ultrafiltration. The
selenomethionine protein was produced as described elsewhere (Van
Duyne et al. 1993) and purified using the same protocol as for the
native protein.
Protein crystals were obtained in 100 mM NH
4
H
2
PO
4
, 200 mM
sodium citrate (pH 5) using vapor diffusion with sitting drops and
hanging drops. Crystals were incubated for approximately 1 min in a
cryo-solution of equal volumes of reservoir solution and 35% meso-
erythritol for the selenomethionine crystals and supplemented with 5
mM ZnCl
2
for the native crystals. The crystals belonged to the space
group P6
5
, with cell dimensions of a
¼
b
¼
76 A
̊
,c
¼
94 A
̊
and two
subunits per asymmetric unit. Data for the selenomethionine crystals
were collected on Beamline 9.2 at the Stanford Synchrotron
Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) (Stanford, California, United States)
and data for the native crystals were collected on Beamline 8.2.1 at
the Advanced Light Source (ALS) (Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States) (see Table 1).
Phases were obtained by the MAD technique using data collected
from selenomethionine-substituted crystals (see Table 1). Three Se
Figure 4.
Mutations in the JAMM Motif of Csn5 Abrogate the
Deneddylating Activity of the CSN
(A) Mutations in the glutamic acid (E56A) that positions the aqua
ligand and in the proposed catalytic serine (S128A) of Csn5 disrupt
deneddylation of Cul1 by CSN but have no effect on assembly with
Csn1. A
csn5
D
strain of
S. pombe
was transformed with an empty pREP-
41 plasmid (lane 1) or with the plasmid encoding FLAG tagged: Csn5
(lane 2), Csn5
E56A
(lane 3), or Csn5
S128A
(lane 4). Whole-cell lysates
were used for Western blot analysis with anti-Cul1 antibodies (top
gel) and anti-FLAG antibodies (second from top). A strain with a
myc13
-tagged Csn1 was transformed with the above plasmids, and
whole-cell lysates were used for Western blot analysis. Antibodies to
the Myc tag were used to detect Csn1
myc13
(third from top), and were
used to pull down Csn1
myc13
and subsequently blot with anti-FLAG
antibodies to detect coprecipitated Csn5 mutant proteins (bottom
gel).
(B) Mutations in the JAMM motif display a modest dominant-negative
phenotype. Western blot analysis of crude cell lysates was performed
as described in (A).
(C) Selected JAMM motifs from proteins of diverse functions. The
canonical JAMM motif residues are highlighted in green. The
conserved proline is highlighted in blue, and semiconserved cysteine
is highlighted in yellow.
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JAMM: A Metalloprotease-Like Zinc Site
atoms were located by SOLVE (Terwilliger and Berendzen 1999) and
used to calculate the initial phases. Phasing was subsequently
improved by noncrystallographic symmetry averaging, using oper-
ators derived from the Se positions, and solvent flattening in
RESOLVE (Terwilliger 2000). The polypeptide model was built in O
(Jones et al. 1991) and refined with CNS (Bru
̈
nger et al. 1998).
Since two monomers in the unit cell are related by a fractional
translation along c of approximately 0.54, the intensities of the
diffraction pattern are modulated by a factor of cos
2
(0.54
p
l). As a
result, reflections with l-indices such that cos
2
(0.54
p
l)
,
½ are
systematically weak, leading to an R-factor higher than would be
expected for a nonpseudocentered crystal structure. However, when
only the reflections with cos
2
(0.54
p
l)
.
½ (which will have a more
normal intensity distribution) are used for the R-factor calculation,
reasonable values for R are obtained.
The geometry of the final model was analyzed with PROCHECK
(Morris et al. 1992). The Ramachandran plot shows 98.9% of the
residues in the allowed regions and 1.1% in the disallowed regions.
The main chain of K66, which constitutes the residue in the
disallowed region, was modeled on segments taken from well-refined,
high-resolution structures. The Protein Data Bank was searched for
structural neighbors of AfJAMM using the DALI server (Holm and
Sander 1993). The superpositions with cytidine deaminase (1JTK),
thermolysin (1FJQ), and ScNP (1C7K) were done using the LSQKAB
program of the CCP4 distribution (CCP4 1994). All structural figures
were made with PyMOL (DeLano 2000).The experiments with
S. pombe
were performed as previously described by Cope et al. (2002).
Supporting Information
Accession Numbers
The accession numbers for the proteins discussed in this paper are
20S proteasomes (PDB ID 1RYP), AfJAMM (Entrez Protein ID
NP_071023; PDB ID 1R5X), AMSH (Entrez Protein ID
NP_006454), AtCSN5/AJH1 (Entrez Protein ID NP_173705),
AtRpn11 (Entrez Protein ID NP_197745), C6.1A (Entrez Protein ID
NP_077308), CeCSN5 (Entrez Protein ID NP_500841), CeRpn11
(Entrez Protein ID NP_494712), Csn5 (Entrez Protein ID
NP_593131), Cul1 (Entrez Protein ID NP_594259), cytidine deam-
inase (PDB ID 1JTK), DmCsn5/CH5 (Entrez Protein ID NP_477442),
DmRpn11/p37b (Entrez Protein ID AAF08394), EcRadC (Entrez
Protein ID NP_418095), HsAMSH (Entrez Protein ID NP_006454),
HsC6.1A (Entrez Protein ID NP_077308), HsCsn5 (Entrez Protein ID
NP_006828), HsRpn11/POH1 (Entrez Protein ID NP_005796), JAB1
(Entrez Protein ID AAC17179)
, lambdaK (Entrez Protein ID
AAA96551), Mov34 (Entrez Protein ID NP_034947), Mpr1p (Entrez
Protein ID AAN77865), Nedd8 (Swiss-Prot ID Q15843), neurolysin
(PDB ID 1I1I), Pad1p (Entrez Protein ID NP_594014), phage
k
tail
assembly protein K (Entrez Protein ID AAA96551), RadC (Entrez
Protein ID NP_418095), Rpn11 (Entrez Protein ID AAN77865), SCF
(PDB ID 1LDK), ScNP (PDB ID 1C7K), ScRpn11 (Entrez Protein ID
AAN77865), Sic1 (Entrez Protein ID 1360441), SpCsn5 (Entrez
Protein ID NP_593131), SpRpn11/Pad1 (Entrez Protein ID
NP_594014), thermolysin (PDB ID 1FJQ), ubiquitin (Swiss-Prot ID
P04838), UBP (PDB ID 1NB8), and UCH (PDB ID 1UCH).
These databases may be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/
(Entrez Protein), http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/ (Protein Data Bank [PDB]),
and http://us.expasy.org/sprot/ (Swiss-Prot).
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation
Graduate Research Fellowship and the Gordon Moore Foundation
(to XIA), as well as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (to DCR and
RJD). We would like to thank the staff at the Stanford Synchrotron
Radiation Laboratory, a national user facility operated by Stanford
University on behalf of the United States Department of Energy,
Office of Basic Energy Sciences, and the Advanced Light Source,
which is supported by the Director of the Office of Science, Office of
Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences Division of the United
States Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC03-
76SF00098 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Special thanks
go to R. Verma and G. Cope for assistance with the associated
biochemistry, T. Yeates and O. Einsle for insights concerning the
treatment of the pseudocentered crystals, K. Locher and P. Strop for
helpful discussions, and J. Ambroggio for back massages and constant
support.
Conflicts of interest.
The authors have declared that no conflicts of
interest exist.
Author contributions.
XIA, DCR, and RJD conceived and designed
the experiments. XIA performed the experiments. XIA, DCR, and
RJD analyzed the data. XIA, DCR, and RJD contributed reagents/
materials/analysis tools. XIA wrote the paper.
&
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