Purification, crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of the SH2 domain of IL-2-inducible T-cell kinase

Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. 2011 Feb 1;67(Pt 2):269-73. doi: 10.1107/S1744309110052346. Epub 2011 Jan 27.

Abstract

Proline is a unique amino acid owing to the relatively small energy difference between the cis and trans conformations of its peptide bond. The X-Pro imide bond readily undergoes cis-trans isomerization in the context of short peptides as well as some proteins. However, the direct detection of cis-trans proline isomerization in folded proteins is technically challenging. NMR spectroscopy is well suited to the direct detection of proline isomerization in folded proteins. It is less clear how well X-ray crystallography can reveal this conformational exchange event in folded proteins. Conformational heterogeneity owing to cis-trans proline isomerization in the Src homology 2 (SH2) domain of the IL-2-inducible T-cell kinase (ITK) has been extensively characterized by NMR. Using the ITK SH2 domain as a test system, an attempt was made to determine whether proline isomerization could be detected in a crystal structure of the ITK SH2 domain. As a first step towards this goal, the purification, crystallization and preliminary characterization of the ITK SH2 domain are described.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Crystallization
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Mice
  • Molecular Conformation
  • Peptides / metabolism
  • Proline / chemistry
  • Proline / metabolism
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / chemistry*
  • X-Ray Diffraction
  • src Homology Domains*

Substances

  • Peptides
  • Proline
  • Protein-Tyrosine Kinases
  • emt protein-tyrosine kinase