Biotechnology Bulletin ›› 2014, Vol. 0 ›› Issue (11): 193-200.

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Expression, Crystallization and Substrate Binding Studies of Human Histone N-terminal Acetyltransferase Nat11

Huang Jiaxin ,Li Haitao   

  1. Department of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100086
  • Received:2014-04-08 Online:2014-11-07 Published:2014-11-07

Abstract: The alpha-amino groups of histones H4 and H2A can be acetylated by histone N-terminal acetyltransferase 11(Nat11), which plays an important role in epigenetic regulation. The cDNA of human Nat11 was amplified and cloned into pSUMO vector. The resultant construct was transformed into E.coli strain BL21(DE3)for recombinant protein expression. Homogenous Nat11 was highly purified through a series of purification procedures including nickel column affinity chromatography. Using isothermal titration calorimetry(ITC), we measured micromolar binding constants between Nat11 and histone H4 peptides. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analysis revealed that purified Nat11 was pre-bound with acetyl coenzyme A or coenzyme A that was co-purified from E.coli. After ITC titration using unmodified peptide as ligand, N-acetylated product was detected by mass spectrometry, suggesting that the purified Nat11 is active. We performed crystallization screening and successfully obtained single crystal of a truncate form of Nat11 and substrate-enzyme recombinant protein after optimization.

Key words: Alpha-amino acetyltransferase 11 , Recombinant protein expression , Protein aggregation , Enzyme-substrate binding , Crystallization