Regulation of polyamine contents in cells

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1. PotD protein is a periplasmic binding protein and the primary receptor of the polyamine transport system. The crystal structure of PotD in complex with spermidine has been solved at 2.5-* resolution. The PotD protein consists of two domains with an alternating beta-alpha-beta topology. The polyamine binding site is in a central cleft lying in the interface between the domains. Spermidine binding sites on PotD were studied by measuring polyamine transport activities of right-side-out membrane vesicles with mutated PotD proteins prepared by site-directed mutagenesis of the potD gene and by measuring polyamine binding activities of these mutated PotD proteins. It was found that Trp-34, Thr-35, Clu-36, Tyr-37, Ser-83, Tyr-85, Asp-168, Glu-171, Trp-229, Trp-255, Asp-257, Tyr-293, and Gln-327 of PotD protein were involved in the binding to spermidine, and that Glu-171, Trp-255, and Asp-257 were more strongly involved in the binding of spermidine to PotD protein than the other amino acids … More listed above.2. The structure and function of the polyamine transport protein PotE was studied. Uptake of putrescine by PotE was dependent on the membrane potential. In contrast, the putrescine-ornithine antiporter activity of PotE studied with inside-out membrane vesicles was not dependent on the membrane potential. The Km values for putrescine uptake and for putrescine-ornithine antiporter activity were 1.8 and 73 muM,respectively. Thus, PotE can function not only as a putrescine-ornithine antiporter to excrete putrescine but also as a putrescine uptake protein. Both the NH_2 and COOH termini of PotE were located in the cytoplasm, as determined by the activation of alkaline phosphatase and beta-galactosidase by various PotE-fusion proteins. The activities of putrescine uptake and excretion were studied using mutated PotE proteins. It was found that glutamic acid 207 was essential for both the uptake and excretion of putrescine by the PotE protein and that glutamic acids 77 and 433 were also involved in both activities. These three glutamic acids are located on the cytoplasmic side of PotE and the function of these three residues could not be replaced by other amino acids. Less