Conformational stability of pGEX-expressed Schistosoma japonicum glutathione S-transferase: A detoxification enzyme and fusion-protein affinity tag

A glutathione S-transferase (Sj26GST) from Schistosoma japonicum, which functions in the parasite's Phase II detoxification pathway, is expressed by the Pharmacia pGEX-2T plasmid and is used widely as a fusion-protein affinity tag. It contains all 217 residues of Sj26GST and an additional 9-residue peptide linker with a thrombin cleavage site at its C-terminus. Size exclusion HPLC (SEC-HPLC) and SDS-PAGE studies indicate that purification of the homodimeric protein under nonreducing conditions results in the reversible formation of significant amounts of 160-kDa and larger aggregates without a loss in catalytic activity. The basis for oxidative aggregation can be ascribed to the high degree of exposure of the four cysteine residues per subunit. The conformational stability of the dimeric protein was studied by urea- and temperature-induced unfolding techniques. Fluorescence- spectroscopy, SEC-HPLC, urea and temperature-gradient gel electrophoresis, differential scanning microcalorimetry, and enzyme activity were employed to monitor structural and functional changes. The unfolding data indicate the absence of thermodynamically stable intermediates and that the unfolding/refolding transition is a two-state process involving folded native dimer and unfolded monomer. The stability of the protein was found to be dependent on its concentration, with a ΔG°(H2O) = 26.0 ± 1.7 kcal/mol. The strong relationship observed between the m-value and the size of the protein indicates that the amount of protein surface area exposed to solvent upon unfolding is the major structural determinant for the dependence of the protein's free energy of unfolding on urea concentration. Thermograms obtained by differential scanning microcalorimetry also fitted a two-state unfolding transition model with values of ΔC(p) = 7,440 J/mo/per K, ΔH = 950.4 kJ/mol, and ΔS = 1,484 J/mol.