Papiliocin, from the swallowtail butterfly, Papilio xuthus, shows high bacterial cell selectivity against Gram-negative bacteria. Recently, we designed a 22mer analog with N-terminal helix from $Lys^3$ to $Ala^{22}$, PapN. It shows outstanding antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative bacteria with low toxicity against mammalian cells. In this study, we determined the 3-D structure of PapN in 300 mM DPC micelle using NMR spectroscopy and investigated the interactions between PapN and DPC micelles. The results showed that PapN has an amphipathic ${\alpha}$-helical structure from $Lys^3$ to $Lys^{21}$. STD-NMR and DOSY experiment showed that this helix is important in binding to the bacterial cell membrane. Furthermore, we tested antibacterial activities of PapN in the presence of salt for therapeutic application. PapN was calcium- and magnesium-resistant in a physiological condition, especially against Gram-negative bacteria, implying that it can be a potent candidate as peptide antibiotics.

The plant hormone auxin is involved in all stages of plant development. Aux/IAAs are the transcriptional repressors that bind to the Auxin Response Factors (ARFs) to regulate the gene expression upon auxin release. Aux/IAA have highly conserved C-terminal domains (domains III-IV) that mediate both homotypic and heterotypic interactions between Aux/IAA and ARF family proteins. Recent studies revealed that the conserved domains III-IV share a common ${\beta}$-grasp fold that oligomerizes in a front-to-back manner. In particular, Aux/IAA contains a mobile insert helix in the domain III-IV, whereas ARFs do not. Here, we investigated the dynamics of the insert helix using paramagnetic NMR spectroscopy. The insert helix exhibited fast motions in the ps-ns time scale from $^{15}N$ relaxation data, but the amplitude of the motion is likely limited to the local neighborhood. Our result suggests that the motion of the helix may have functional implications in protein-protein interactions for transcriptional regulations.

The microcystin is a cyclic heptapeptide from metabolites of cyanobacteria in the genera mycrocystis, anabaeba as a result of eutrophication. It has been known that microcystin-LR is a potent inhibitor of the catalytic subunits of protein phosphatase-1 (PP-1) as well as powerful tumor promoter. The active site of microcystin actually has two metal ions $Fe^{2+}/Zn^{2+}$ close to the nucleophilic portion of PP-1-microcystin complex. We report the isolation and purification of this microcystin-LR from cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) obtained from Daechung Dam in Chung-cheong Do, Korea. Microcystin-LR was extracted from solid-phase extraction (SPE) sample preparation using a CN cartridge. The cyanobacteria extract was purified to obtain microcystin-LR by HPLC method and identified by LC/MS. The detail structural studies that can elucidate the possible role of monovalent and divalent metal ions in PP-1-microcystin complexation were carried out by utilizing molecular dynamics. Conformational changes in metal binding for ligands were monitored by molecular dynamic computation and potential of mean force (PMF) using the method of the free energy perturbation. The microcystin-metal binding PMF simulation results exhibit that microcystin can have very stable binding free energy of -10.95 kcal/mol by adopting the $Mg^{2+}$ ion at broad geometrical distribution of $0.5{\sim}4.5{\AA}$, and show that the $K^+$ ion can form a stable metal complex rather than other monovalent alkali metal ions.

Ryanodine receptor (RyR) is one of the two major $Ca^{2+}$ channels in membranes of intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ stores and is found in sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), endoplasmic reticulum (ER). RyR1 is also the major calmodulin-binding protein of sarcoplasmic reticulum membranes. Residues 4064-4210 in the RyR1 polypeptide chain has similar primary sequence with calmodulin (CaM) and was designated as CaM-like domain (CaMLD). When expressed as a recombinant peptide, CaMLD showed several CaM-like properties in previous studies. Still, previous studies of CaMLD were focused on protein-protein interactions rather than its own properties. Here, we studied the expression of CaMLD and its sub-domains corresponding to each lobe of CaM in Escherichia coli. CaMLD could be obtained only as inclusion body, and it was refolded using urea solubilization followed by dialysis. Using spectroscopic approaches, such as NMR, circular dichroism, and gel filtration experiment, we found that the refolded CaMLD exists as nonspecific aggregate, even though it has alpha helical secondary structure. In comparison, the first half of CaMLD (R4061-4141) could be obtained as natively soluble protein with thioredoxin fusion. After the removal of the fusion tag, it exhibited folded and helical properties as shown by NMR and circular dichroism experiments. Its oligomeric status was different from CaMLD, existing as dimeric form in solution. However, the second half of the protein could not be obtained as soluble protein regardless of fusion tag. Based on these results, we believe that CaMLD, although similar to CaM in sequence, has quite different physicochemical properties and that the second half of the protein renders it the aggregative properties.

Syndesmos, which is co-localized with syndecan-4 cytoplasmic domain ($Syn4^{cyto}$) in focal contacts, interacts with various cell adhesion adaptor proteins including $Syn4^{cyto}$ to control cell signaling. Syndesmos consists of 211 amino acids and it exists as a dimer (44kDa) in solution. Recently, we have determined the structure of syndesmos by x-ray crystallography, however, dynamics related to syndecan binding still remain elusive. In this report, we performed NMR experiments to acquire biochemical and structural information of syndesmos. Based on a series of three-dimensional triple resonance experiments on a $^{13}C/^{15}N/^2H$ labeled protein, NMR spectra were obtained with well dispersed and homogeneous NMR data. We present the sequence specific backbone assignment of syndesmos and assigned NMR data with combination structural information can be directly used for the studies on interaction with $Syn4^{cyto}$ and other binding molecules.

Bub1 is one of the spindle checkpoint proteins and plays a role in recruitment of the related proteins to kinetochore. Here, we studied the structural characteristic of the evolutionarily conserved 160 amino acid region in the N-terminus (hBub1 CD1), using Circular Dichroism (CD) and NMR. Our CD results showed that hBub1 CD1 is a highly helical protein and its structure was affected by pH: as pH was elevated to basic pH, the helical propensity increased. This could be related to the surface charge of the hBub1 CD1. However, the structural change did not largely depend on the salt concentration, though the thermal stability a little increased. The previous NMR analysis revealed that the hBub1 CD1 adopts eight helices, which is consistent with the CD result. Our result would be helpful for evaluating the molecular mechanism of the hBub1 CD1 and protein-protein interactions.

Reverse gyrase is a hyperthermophile specific protein which introduces positive supercoils into DNA molecules. Reverse gyrase consists of an N-terminal helicase-like domain and a C-terminal topoisomerase domain. The helicase-like domain shares the three-dimensional structure with two tandem RecA-folds (H1 and H2), in which the subdomain H2 is interrupted by the latch domain (H3). To understand the physical property of the hyperthermophile-specific protein, two subdomains af_H1 and af_H23 have been cloned into E. coli expression vector, pET28a. The $^{15}N$-labeled af_H1 and af_H23 proteins were expressed and purified for heteronuclear NMR study. The af_H1 protein exhibits the well-dispersion of amide signals in its $^1H/^{15}N$-HSQC spectra and thus further NMR study continues to be progressed.