| Abstract: | ![]()
The structural interdependence between neurophysin (NP) self-association and ligand binding surfaces has been studied by analytical affinity chromatography of several NP sequence variants and derivatives on Met-Tyr-Phe-aminobutyl-agarose and bovine NP-II Sepharose. Elutions of radiolabeled NP's from both matrices show that hybrid dimers can form between major bovine NP's (I and II, or VLDV- and MSEL-NP's, respectively), as well as between human and bovine NP's, with affinities close to that for homologous dimer formation. Such evidence supports the view that the region of NP involved in NP-NP contact is composed primarily of conserved structural elements of the protein. NP antibodies which recognize surfaces close to or in the NP-NP contact region have been detected by their effects on bovine NP-II elution on NP-II Sepharose. Elutions of [3-nitro-Tyr 49] BNP-II from Met-Tyr-Phe-aminobutyl-agarose showed that nitration has little effect on the chromatographic properties of NP-II. This evidence substantiates previous arguments (Angal, S. & Chaiken, I.M. (1982) Biochemistry 21 , 1574–1580) that the chromatographic behavior of native NP's on the affinity matrices is an expression of the interdependence of NP self-association and ligand binding surfaces and not due to bivalent peptide binding by NP monomer. The affinity chromatographic properties of NP derivatives, including bovine NP-II photolabeled in the ligand binding site and tryptic fragments of bovine |
