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Biochem. J. (2009) 420, 239–247 (Printed in Great Britain) 239 doi:10.1042/BJ20082171 Heat capacity changes in carbohydrates and protein–carbohydrate complexes Eneas A. CHAVELAS1 and Enrique GARCÍA-HERNÁNDEZ1 Instituto de Quı́mica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, México 04510, DF, Mexico Carbohydrates are crucial for living cells, playing myriads of functional roles that range from being structural or energy-storage devices to molecular labels that, through non-covalent interaction with proteins, impart exquisite selectivity in processes such as molecular trafficking and cellular recognition. The molecular bases that govern the recognition between carbohydrates and proteins have not been fully understood yet. In the present study, we have obtained a surface-area-based model for the formation heat capacity of protein–carbohydrate complexes, which includes separate terms for the contributions of the two molecular types. The carbohydrate model, which was calibrated using carbohydrate dissolution data, indicates that the heat capacity contribution of a given group surface depends on its position in the saccharide molecule, a picture that is consistent with previous experimental and theoretical studies showing that the high abundance of hydroxy groups in carbohydrates yields particular solvation properties. This model was used to estimate the carbohydrate’s contribution in the formation of a protein– carbohydrate complex, which in turn was used to obtain the heat capacity change associated with the protein’s binding site. The model is able to account for protein–carbohydrate complexes that cannot be explained using a previous model that only considered the overall contribution of polar and apolar groups, while allowing a more detailed dissection of the elementary contributions that give rise to the formation heat capacity effects of these adducts. INTRODUCTION abundance and proximity of these groups in carbohydrates yield solvation characteristics, such as the total number of water molecules and the way they are shared inside the first hydration shell, which might depart significantly from individual hydroxy groups. In fact, heat capacities for saccharides in dilute aqueous solutions are significantly larger than values calculated from the sum of their individual chemical constituents [11]. Moreover, despite the highly polar character of carbohydrates, Raman scattering experiments have identified them as waterstructure enhancers [12]. These properties must be relevant for determining how carbohydrates interact with proteins, imparting unique characteristics to the adducts they form [13,14]. Thus the study of carbohydrate and P–CH (protein–carbohydrate) complexes represents an excellent opportunity to expand our knowledge of the role that the solvent plays in biomolecular recognition processes. In the present study, a model for the heat capacity formation of P–CH complexes (CpP−CH ) was developed. This model performs better than an ad hoc model previously obtained [15], allowing a more detailed dissection of the elementary contributions that give rise to the formation heat capacity effects of these adducts. Heat capacity effects have long been recognized as key to understanding the molecular principles that underpin noncovalent driven processes [1–4]. The absolute heat capacity of a system is determined by dispersion of the enthalpy distribution, which in turn is related to the number of vibrational, rotational and translational ‘soft’ modes susceptible to absorbing thermal energy. Changes in these soft modes are particularly large in processes that take place in aqueous solutions, due to the rearrangement of solvent molecules around solutes. The way the solvent restructures, and the consequent impact of this restructuring on the solution’s heat capacity, is highly dependent on the solute’s chemical nature. The analysis of a large body of thermodynamic data for the hydration of small organic compounds has shown an increase in heat capacity as a thermodynamic signature for the solvation of apolar groups, whereas the opposite effect is characteristic of polar groups. These distinct effects have been rationalized in terms of different restructuring responses of water molecules, depending on the surface polarity [5]. Hydrophobic solvation is thought to increase the number of energy reservoirs, by forming water–water hydrogen bonds at the first solvation layer that are stronger than at the bulk phase. In contrast, the stronger interactions occurring between solvating water molecules and polar groups prevent these interactions from being excited significantly at ordinary temperatures. Thus Cp (change in heat capacity) constitutes a powerful sensor for revealing the types and amounts of solute surfaces involved in processes such as protein folding and binding [6,7]. Carbohydrates have particular hydration characteristics which are crucial for dictating the structure and functionality of these biomolecules [8–10]. Hydroxy groups are thought to behave similarly to solvent water molecules. Nevertheless, the Key words: carbohydrate, hydration, lectin, molecular recognition, structural energetics, surface area model. THEORY Surface-area-based models for the formation heat capacity of protein–carbohydrate complexes Simple additivity models have proved to be very useful for estimating heat capacities from structural information for many classes of small non-ionic compounds. Among the different additivity schemes developed and calibrated with model compounds, those based on solvent-accessibility surface area changes (A) became widely used in the analysis of Abbreviation used: A , change in surface area; Cp, change in heat capacity; CBM9, family 9 carbohydrate binding module; 3D, three-dimensional; P–CH complex, protein–carbohydrate complex; VIF, variance inflation factor. 1 Correspondence may be addressed to either of these authors (email [email protected] or [email protected]). c The Authors Journal compilation c 2009 Biochemical Society 240 E. A. Chavelas and E. Garcı́a-Hernández Table 1 Heat capacity parameterizations based on polar and apolar surface area changes −1 −1 −2 Values are means + − S.D. and are in units of cal · K · mol · Å . S.D. is only given where available. cppol Garcı́a-Hernández et al. [15] The present study Spolar et al. [18] Murphy and Freire [19] Makhatadze and Privalov [20] Myers et al. [21] Robertson and Murphy [22] Madan and Sharp [23] cpap 0.23 + − 0.04 0.24 + − 0.09 − 0.14 + − 0.04 − 0.27 + − 0.03 − 0.21 − 0.09 + − 0.30 0.12 + − 0.08 0.17 0.07 + − 0.03 0.06 + − 0.09 0.32 + − 0.04 0.45 + − 0.02 0.51 0.28 + − 0.12 0.16 + − 0.05 0.17 System Seven P–C complexes 14 P–C complexes Liquid amides Dipeptide crystals Protein unfolding Protein unfolding Protein unfolding Nucleic acid fragments conformational changes in macromolecules. Accessible surface area is a geometrical parameter considered to be proportional to the amount of water in contact with the solute. Therefore A models allow us to take into account a partial exposition/burial of the interacting chemical groups. A widely used A model for Cp considers this thermodynamic parameter as a simple function of the solvent-accessibility changes of polar (Apol ) and apolar (Aap ) areas [6]: Cp = cppol Apol + cpap Aap (1) Using thermodynamic and structural information for a database of seven P–CH complexes, Garcı́a-Hernández et al. [15] derived an ad hoc parameterization of eqn (1) for these adducts (Table 1). According to this parameterization, both polar and apolar surfaces elicit a decreasing effect on heat capacity upon complex formation. This result is at variance with several results obtained previously for eqn (1), where typically a negative coefficient for polar groups was obtained (Table 1). Furthermore, the absolute contribution of apolar surfaces, although of the sign expected, is relatively small. The structural–energetic behaviour of P–CH complexes is in qualitative agreement with both experimental and theoretical studies, which indicate that carbohydrates bear unique Table 2 Figure 1 Heat capacity changes for the formation of protein–carbohydrate complexes as a function of changes in polar (A pol ) and apolar (A ap ) surface areas Normalization of eqn (1) by A ap yields a straight-line model where A pol /A ap and Cp/A ap are the independent and dependent variables respectively and the slope and y -intercept correspond to cppol and cpap respectively. solvation properties imparted by the large abundance of hydroxy groups mounted on the sugar-ring scaffold [11,12,16,17]. Table 2 shows the seven P–CH complexes originally used to calibrate eqn (1), along with another seven complexes of a known 3D (three-dimensional) structure for which CpP−CH has been measured calorimetrically. Figure 1 shows CpP−CH as a function of Apol and Aap . In this plot, eqn (1) was normalized by Aap to obtain a 2D (two-dimensional) representation of eqn (1). Thus the slope and the y-intercept correspond to the values of cppol and cpap respectively. It can be seen that the new P–CH complexes (numbers 8–14 in Figure 1) show the same trend as that seen for the original complexes (numbers 1–7), yielding cppol and cpap values close to those obtained originally with the reduced set of seven P–CH complexes (see the first and second data rows Heat capacity and surface area changes in protein–carbohydrate complexes Values for –CpP−CH are means + − S.D. S.D. is only given where available. Hev-GlcNAc2 : hevein-quitobiose (GlcNAcβ1-4GlcNAc), Hev-GlcNAc3 : hevein-quitotriose (GlcNAcβ1-4GlcNAcβ14GlcNAc), Lisoz-GlcNAc2 : lysozyme-quitobiose, Lisoz-GlcNAc2 : lysozyme-quitotriose, ConA-mMan: concanavalin A-methylmannose, ConA-Man2 : concanavalin A-trimannoside core (Manα1-6[Manα1-3]Man), CBM9-Glc2 : CBM9 from Thermotoga maritima xylanase 10A-cellobiose (Glcβ1-4Glc); ConA-mMan: concanavalin A-methylglucose, ConA-Man2 : concanavalin A-mannobiose (Manα1-3Man), DGL-Man3 : Dioclea grandiflora lectin-trimannoside core, CBM9-Glc: CBM9 from Thermotoga maritima xylanase 10A-glucose (Glc), CVIIL-mFuc: Chromobacterium violaceum lectin-methylfucose, Cf CBM4-Glc5 : CBM4 from Cellulomonas fimi β1-4-glucanase-cellopentaose (Glcβ1-4Glcβ1-4Glcβ1-4Glcβ1-4Glc), TmCBM4-Glc6 : CBM4 from Thermotoga maritima β1-3-glucanase-laminarihexaose (Glcβ1-3Glcβ1-3Glcβ1-3Glcβ1-3Glc1-3Glc). Structure-based calculations of water-accessible surface areas were performed with the NACCESS program [32], using a probe radius of 1.4 Å and a slice width of 0.1 Å. Total changes in surface area (A t ) were estimated from the difference between the complex and the sum of free molecules. Polar area changes (A pol ) were obtained from the change in accessible area of nitrogen and oxygen atoms, while the apolar area change (A ap ) was computed from the contributions of carbon atoms. –A pol –A ap –A t –CpP−CH PDB Reference(s) HevGlcNAc2 1 HevGlcNAc3 2 LisozGlcNAc2 3 LisozGlcNAc3 4 ConAmMan 5 ConAMan3 6 CBM9Glc2 7 ConAmGlc 8 ConAMan2 9 DGLMan3 10 CBM9Glc 11 CVIILmFuc 12 Cf CBM4Glc5 13 Tm CBM4Glc6 14 162 313 475 64 + −6 – [13] 237 345 582 83 + −8 – [13] 276 309 545 83 + −5 1lzbm [15] 404 384 788 119 + −3 1lzb [15] 162 186 348 52 + − 11 5cna [24,25] 364 245 609 109 + −5 1cvn [24,26] 239 301 540 67 + −2 1i82 [27] 145 185 330 37 + −5 1gic [25] 246 205 451 67 + −2 1i3h [28] 364 253 617 96 1dgl [24,29] 208 175 383 34 + − 16 1i8a [27] 157 152 309 80 2boi [30] 341 522 863 50 + − 10 1gu3 [31] 407 490 897 172 + − 14 1gui [31] c The Authors Journal compilation c 2009 Biochemical Society Heat capacity changes in carbohydrates and protein–carbohydrate complexes Table 3 241 Heat capacity and accessible surface area changes for the dissolution of carbohydrates Surface areas were classified according to the heteroatom type and the configurational location within the carbohydrate molecule in terms of the distance (number of covalent bonds) from the sugar ring (see Figure 2). Surface areas were calculated using the NACCESS program [32]. Cp values were determined at 25 ◦C. Cpdiss 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11 12. 13. 14. Ai (Å2 ) −1 Carbohydrate (cal · mol Arabinose (Ara) Fructose (Fru) Galactose (Gal) Glucose (Glc) Mannose (Man) Ribose (Rib) Xylose (Xyl) Sucrose (Suc) Maltotriose (Mtri) Maltotetrose (Mtet) Methyl-mannose (mMan) Methyl-glucose (mGlc) dGlc GlcNAc 24 33 31 33 32 22 29 51 55 80 48 44 35 36 −1 ·K −2 ·A ) A ap (Å ) A pol (Å ) C0 115 126 116 117 126 118 114 191 277 364 187 200 150 188 156 182 188 186 178 152 158 258 357 429 144 141 137 182 115 38 75 70 82 118 114 81 190 236 66 69 103 62 2 2 C1 C2,3 O0,1 75 83 0 80 156 108 147 151 139 152 158 175 248 303 109 105 101 101 88 41 47 44 110 87 128 46 48 47 46 O2 NCO 74 41 35 39 83 109 126 35 36 36 38 43 Reference [11] [11] [11] [11] [11] [11] [11] [11] [35] [35] * * * * *Dr Aaron Rojas and Dr Luis A. Torres, Departamento de Quı́mica, CINVESTAV, IPN. Dr Ángeles Olvera and Dr Miguel Costas, Facultad de Quı́mica, UNAM, personal communication. in Table 1). Nevertheless, it is also evident that for several of the new complexes, the dispersion with respect to the fitting line is wider. In particular, complexes 11, 12 and 13 show the widest dispersion in Figure 1. Since the binding heat capacities for these complexes seem to have been measured carefully (for instance, at least nine different temperatures were sampled to obtain CpP−CH in each instance) [27,30,31], the divergences observed are presumably related to particular stereochemical features at their binding interfaces. Complex 11 is made of glucose and a CBM9 (family 9 carbohydrate binding module) from Thermotoga maritima xylanase 10A [27]. Notably, the complex of the same protein module binding cellobiose (complex 7) is clearly better explained by the model. A comparison between the two CBM9-complex crystal structures shows that glucose is bound with an orientation that deviates significantly from that of cellobiose [27], yielding quite different contact patterns. For instance, although the disaccharide buries more polar areas at the binding interface than the monosaccharide, the latter buries a larger amount of the secondary hydroxy’s area. Complex 12 (fucose bound to a calcium-dependent tetrameric lectin from Chromobacterium violaceum) shows the widest dispersion in Figure 1. An inspection of the crystal structure reveals that none of the fucose’s primary hydroxy groups makes contact with the protein’s binding site, whereas the calcium ion is directly mediating the binding [30]. These features are not observed in any other complex in Table 2. Finally, complex 13 corresponds to cellopentaose bound to the CBM4 from Cellulomonas fimi β1-4-glucanase [31]. Surprisingly, the CpP−CH value of this oligosaccharide complex is unusually small, falling in the range observed for monosaccharide complexes. In contrast, the complex made of an evolutionarily related CBM4 from T. maritima β1-3glucanase and laminaripentaose (complex 14) shows the largest CpP−CH value in Table 2. Overall, the above observations draw attention to the limited utility of the model in eqn (1), which only considers the global contributions of polar and apolar surface areas. An improved model is needed, which can more finely capture the molecular determinants of Cp in P–CH complexes. In the present study, we aimed to develop a refined model that considers separately the contributions from carbohydrate (CpCH ) and protein (CpP ) chemical groups: CpP−CH = CpCH + CpP = (cpi · Ai )CH + (cpi · Ai )P (2) Where cpi and Ai are the specific heat capacity and surface area changes of group type i respectively. The validity of this term separation follows from the evidence that, once corrected for protonation/deprotonation effects, heat capacity effects in the formation of P–CH complexes are mostly dictated by changes in the hydration extent of the interacting groups [15]. Following the same approach as that used with model compounds [33], the transfer of a sugar molecule from an aqueous medium to a solid (pure) state may be used to mimic the incorporation of free sugar into the highly ordered and packed environment of a P–CH interface [34]. Accordingly, dissolution data of carbohydrates may be taken advantage of to generate and calibrate a model for the CpCH term in eqn (2). Once the CpCH model has been parameterized, the carbohydrate contribution to the formation of a given P–CH adduct can be estimated by using the corresponding area changes of the ligand upon binding to its protein counterpart. This contribution can then be subtracted from the experimental CpP−CH to obtain the heat capacity change associated with the protein’s binding site. Surface-area-based model for the dissolution heat capacity of carbohydrates Table 3 shows a dataset of carbohydrates for which the dissolution Cp (Cpdiss ) has been determined calorimetrically. Cpdiss values were obtained by subtracting the sugar’s absolute heat capacity in the solid (anhydrous) state from its absolute heat capacity in an aqueous solution (at infinite dilution). The dataset is composed of 14 saccharides spanning a wide range of chemical characteristics, including furanoses, pyranoses, pentoses, hexoses, monosaccharide derivatives and lineal oligosaccharides. The availability of these data was crucial in the present study, as they allowed the inclusion of all the c The Authors Journal compilation c 2009 Biochemical Society 242 E. A. Chavelas and E. Garcı́a-Hernández Table 4 Heat capacity parameterization based on surface area changes for the dissolution of carbohydrates Values are in units of cal · K−1 · mol−1 · Å−2 . cpC0 cpC1 cpC2,3 cpO0,1 cpO2 cpNCO Value Error 0.09 0.36 0.23 0.10 − 0.15 − 0.19 0.05 0.10 0.04 0.03 0.09 − Figure 2 Schematic representation of a disaccharide molecule showing the different sugar surface area types considered in the present study Surface areas were classified according to the heteroatom type and the configurational location in terms of the distance (number of covalent bonds) from the sugar ring. Atoms forming the amide group were considered to form a single group (NCO). O0 and O1 surfaces were gathered into a single group (O0,1), whereas C2 and C3 surfaces (excepting C2 for the NCO group) were summed up to conform to another group (C2,3). See text for details. carbohydrate chemical groups present in the P–CH complex database (Table 2). Table 3 also shows surface area changes for carbohydrate dissolution, assuming that in the solid state the molecule is completely dehydrated, whereas in the aqueous medium it is fully exposed to the solvent. Since the heat capacity contribution of a given chemical surface may depend significantly on the particular environment in which it is immersed, the surface area-based CpCH model was partitioned taking into account both the atom type (carbon, oxygen or nitrogen) and the distance of the atom from the sugar’s ring (in terms of the number of covalent bonds). The number of covalent bonds separating a particular atom from the closest sugar ring atom is indicated by numerical subscripts, where 0 corresponds to atoms forming part of the ring skeleton. This classification yields nine different surface area types, as shown schematically in Figure 2. The areas of O0 and glycosidic O1 atoms are marginal in relation to the total polar area exposed by a carbohydrate molecule (∼ 5 % and ∼ 1 % respectively). So, to reduce the number of independent variables, O0 and O1 were gathered into a single group (O0,1). Furthermore, C2 and C3 atoms corresponding to methyl groups were summed up to form another group (C2,3), whereas atoms forming the amide group were also considered as a single group (NCO). Thus the specific model for CpCH takes the form: CpCH = cpC0 · AC0 + cpC1 · AC1 + cpC2,3 · AC2,3 + cpO0,1 · AO0,1 (3) + cpO2 · AO2 + cpNCO · ANCO The complete set of parameters for eqn (3) was obtained through three sequential steps. First, cpC0 , cpC1 , cpO0,1 and cpO2 were obtained from a multilinear regression fit of eqn (3) to data in Table 3, but excluding data for mMan, mGlc and GlcNAc. Secondly, cpC2,3 was then obtained from the analysis of mMan and mGlc, as follows: using the respective surface area changes in these methyl derivatives, the theoretical contribution of C0, C1, O0,1 and O2 to the total Cpdiss was calculated. This quantity was subtracted from the experimental Cpdiss value to calculate the contribution of the methyl group (CpC2,3 ). cpC2,3 was then obtained by dividing CpC2,3 by AC2,3 . Finally, cpNCO was obtained in a similar way from the analysis of GlcNAc data. Table 4 shows the fitting values obtained through this sequential analysis. The associated errors given in this Table correspond to standard errors of the regression analysis. c The Authors Journal compilation c 2009 Biochemical Society Figure 3 Calculated versus experimental Cp for the dissolution of carbohydrates Solid symbols were obtained using parameters obtained from the analysis of the 14 P–CH complexes (the second row in Table 1). Open symbols correspond to calculated values obtained with eqn (3) and parameters in Table 4. The solid line represents the best fitting of a straight line. As can be seen in Figure 3, the early ad hoc Cp model for P–CH complexes (Table 1) systematically overestimates Cpdiss of saccharides (solid symbols), with a mean excess [=(Cpcalc – Cpexp )/Cpexp ] of 53 + − 23 %. This bias is not surprising, as the parameters are weighted by the contributions of both protein and carbohydrate chemical groups. In contrast, the CpCH model (open symbols) satisfactorily accounts for the experimental Cpdiss values (R2 = 0.98). As anticipated [36], results in Table 4 indicate that the thermodynamic behaviour of a given surface atom type is influenced by the relative position of the atom in relation to the saccharide ring. The contribution is larger for carbon atoms located outside the ring (C1 and C2,3) than for those forming the ring (C0). Oxygen surfaces located two covalent bonds away from the ring (O2) show a negative value, whereas those closer to the ring (O0,1) have a small positive value. The amide group has a negative value, similar to that reported for liquid amides [18] (Table 1). Heat capacity changes of non-saccharide hydroxylated compounds It has been typical to assume that the heat capacity effect for the solvation of a given atom or chemical group surface is constant, regardless of the covalent or non-covalent connectivity. Nevertheless, the above results paint a different picture. To explore this issue in an alternative way, an analysis of simpler Heat capacity changes in carbohydrates and protein–carbohydrate complexes Table 5 243 Cp and A for the dissolution of simple hydroxylated compounds Compound Cpdiss * (cal · K−1 · mol−1 · Å−2 ) A C † (Å2 ) A OH ‡ (Å2 ) Methanol Ethanol 1-Propanol 1-Butanol 1-Pentanol 1-Hexanol Cyclohexanol 1,3-Propanediol 1,4-Butanediol 1,5-Pentanediol 1,6-Hexanediol 1,2-Ethanediol 1,2,3-Propanetriol Arabinitol Ribitol Xylitol Mannitol Sorbitol 27 47 64 79 96 112 92 40 53 69 84 27 29 43 43 36 53 45 81 134 167 193 219 247 210 139 164 191 226 108 111 126 120 119 132 126 43 43 39 38 41 41 38 76 75 80 81 83 114 167 170 176 201 203 *Values were obtained by subtracting the absolute Cp of the solid from the absolute Cp of a dilute aqueous solution of the same compound. Absolute heat capacities for the solid state were estimated using eqn (4). Data for aqueous solutions were taken from [37,38]. †Accessible surface area of carbons. ‡Accessible surface area of oxygen atoms in hydroxy groups. hydroxylated compounds was carried out. Table 5 shows transfer heat capacity data and accessible surface areas for seven nalcohols, four diols with no contiguous hydroxy groups [i.e. HO(CH2 )n -OH, where n > 2], and seven polyols with contiguous hydroxy groups (including 1,2-ethanediol and 1,2,3-propanetriol). Analysis of these dissolution data can be used to estimate the specific heat capacity contribution of hydroxy and carbon surfaces (cpOH and cpC respectively) in non-cyclic compounds with varying densities of hydroxy groups. For mono-hydroxylated and di-hydroxylated compounds with no contiguous hydroxy groups, cpOH = –0.34 and cpC = 0.49 cal · mol−1 · K−1 · Å−2 (where 1 Å = 0.1 nm). In contrast, the analysis of polyols yields a positive value for cpOH (= 0.17 cal · mol−1 · K−1 · Å−2 ), and a significantly decreased value for cpC (= 0.13 cal · mol−1 · K−1 · Å−2 ). These results indicate that the elementary heat capacity contributions in hydroxylated compounds indeed depend on the density of hydroxy groups. As described in the Introduction section, this behaviour should be related to different characteristics of the solvent’s organization. It is worth noting that cp values for O2 and C1 surfaces in carbohydrates (Table 4) are similar both in sign and magnitude to cpOH and cpC values in n-alcohols and diols. In contrast, cp values for O0,1 and C0 surfaces in carbohydrates are closer to cpOH and cpC values. These concordances suggest that the contribution of a given atom in a sugar molecule depends on its spatial position inside the molecule: the further an atom is from the sugar ring, the closer its solvation behaviour will be to that of simpler compounds. Absolute heat capacity of carbohydrate crystals Benson and Buss [39] found that absolute heat capacities of amino acid crystals can be described adequately in terms of atomic or covalent bond composition. For instance, the authors obtained the following atom-based model from the analysis of amino acid crystals: Cpsolid = 0.85NH + 3.75NC + 3.4NO + 3.4NN (4) Figure 4 Calculated versus experimental Cpsolid for different carbohydrates Solid bars were obtained using eqn (4), whose parameters were obtained from the analysis of a dataset of amino acid crystals [39]. Open bars correspond to experimental Cpsolid values. Numbers in the X -axis stand for the list position of the corresponding carbohydrate in Table 3. where Cpsolid is the crystal’s absolute heat capacity, and Ni stands for the number of type i atoms present in the amino acid. Almost 40 years later, Gomez et al. [40] used the parameters of Benson and Buss to reproduce the absolute heat capacity of crystals of anhydrous globular proteins, finding excellent agreement between calculated and experimental values. Therefore it was concluded that Cpsolid (or primary heat capacity, using Gomez et al.’s terminology) is basically determined by the protein’s atomic composition, whereas stereochemical contribution (including the particular network of intra and inter non-covalent bonds in the crystal) is negligible. Extending this argument, it would be expected that models such as that of eqn (4) would account for the Cpsolid of other kinds of compounds, including saccharide crystals. As shown in Figure 4, this is, in fact, the case (mean error = 2 + − 4 %). This agreement is consistent with the picture that Cpdiss is not determined by the compound’s covalent architecture itself, but by the way the organization of solvating water molecules is affected by the compound’s stereochemistry. Heat capacity model for carbohydrate-binding sites in proteins Once having parameterized the CpCH model, the carbohydrate contribution to the formation of each P–CH adduct was estimated using the corresponding ligand’s area changes upon binding to its protein counterpart (Table 6). This contribution was then subtracted from the experimental CpP−CH to obtain the heat capacity change associated with the protein’s binding site desolvation: CpP = CpP−CH − CpCH = (cpi ∗ Ai )P (5) CpCH and CpP as long as A values for the different surface types are shown in Table 6. In general, the two binding counterparts contribute unequally to the overall CpP−CH . However, although CpCH can be either significantly larger or smaller than CpP , the carbohydrate tends to bury more surface area (on average 60 % of At ) than the protein. Makhatadze and Privalov [41] developed a Cp model for protein folding reactions, in which a fine dissection of protein constituent groups was performed. It was used here to calculate c The Authors Journal compilation c 2009 Biochemical Society 244 Table 6 E. A. Chavelas and E. Garcı́a-Hernández A and Cp of carbohydrates and proteins upon complex formation − A CH Sugar HevHevLisozLisozConA- ConA- CBM9- ConA- ConA- DGLCBM9- CVIIL- Cf CBM4- Tm CBM4- cp (Makhatadze GlcNAc2 1 GlcNAc3 2 GlcNAc2 3 GlcNAc3 4 mMan5 Man3 6 Glc2 7 mGlc8 Man2 9 Man3 10 Glc11 mFuc12 Glc5 13 Glc6 14 and Privalov)* O0,1 43 3 O2 NCO 47 58 C0 30 C1 85 C2,3 Total 266 − CpCH 32 Protein − A P Cal 27 113 Car Polar part of Arg Asn Asp Cys Gln Glu 24 His Lys Met Ser Thr Trp 20 Tyr 22 -CONH3 Calcium Total 209 32 − CpP 50 18 67 56 30 93 314 29 63 55 52 63 42 78 357 30 59 66 69 82 28 133 437 33 87 35 198 35 112 46 68 36 108 55 200 36 120 36 104 49 150 88 155 33 46 33 234 30 74 67 49 47 75 27 48 36 164 89 146 106 230 29 55 59 16 277 29 73 68 374 45 115 56 31 329 35 377 46 258 23 204 31 452 54 495 54 17 149 47 75 65 76 59 15 81 23 25 105 38 21 72 19 89 23 17 56 52 144 125 62 176 12 19 18 12 67 47 3 10 5 12 15 32 25 20 7 8 10 2 17 35 10 15 29 18 12 14 27 16 13 4 15 38 21 12 3 37 12 6 63 5 8 1 4 2 19 27 26 235 64 20 23 1 32 17 52 7 13 268 54 188 53 351 86 114 18 1 18 7 5 11 12 16 29 27 211 32 100 8 174 38 240 50 12 7 125 11 6 22 105 40 21 31 33 9 28 411 −4 402 118 0.53 0.29 − 0.05 − 0.23 − 0.32 − 0.93 − 0.05 − 0.12 − 0.31 − 0.38 − 0.93 − 0.31 − 0.30 0.90 0.02 − 0.39 − 0.39† *Specific heat capacity coefficients (in units of cal · K−1 · mol−1 · Å−2 ) for protein chemical groups obtained by Privalov and Makhatadze [41] from the analysis of transference data of pertinent model compounds. †Hydration Cp for calcium was taken from Markus [42]. This value was corrected for volume effects by the method of Privalov and Makhatadze [41] and normalized by the total accessible surface area to obtain the specific heat capacity coefficient. CpP in the formation of P–CH complexes. The Makhatadze and Privalov model includes terms for aliphatic and aromatic carbons (Cal and Car respectively), the peptide group (-CONH-) and the polar moiety of each of the side chains bearing a polar chemical group. The parameters were obtained from the analysis of heat capacity data for various organic model compounds used to mimic the different protein constituent groups. This model proved to estimate satisfactorily the absolute heat capacity of the native and unfolded states of a number of globular proteins [20]. The set of parameters for the Makhatadze and Privalov model, as long as the area changes for each of the proteins in Table 2, are shown in Table 6. Figure 5(A) compares ‘experimental’ CpP values, obtained through eqn (4), with the estimates obtained from the Makhatadze and Privalov model [41]. The poor agreement observed may suggest that protein-binding sites for carbohydrates have also a distinct thermodynamic behaviour. Therefore an ad hoc model for these binding sites was calibrated using CpP values. To keep a moderate number of independent variables, polar areas were separated only into neutral and charged polar areas (Pneu and Pchg respectively), whereas apolar areas, following the Makhatadze and Privalov scheme, were partitioned into aliphatic and aromatic carbon areas. CpP = cpCal ACal + cpCar ACar + cppneu Apneu + cppchg Apchg c The Authors Journal compilation c 2009 Biochemical Society (6) As mentioned above, the Cf CBM4–Glc5 complex (complex 13 in Table 2) has an unusually small CpP−CH value (– 50 cal · K−1 · mol−1 ), comparable with those shown by monosaccharide complexes. In contrast, the evolutionarily related TmCBM4–Glc6 complex (complex 14) shows a much more negative CpP−CH value. In spite of this large difference, the two complexes bury fairly similar amounts and kinds of areas at the binding interface (Table 6). Even though detailed structural and thermodynamic comparisons between these complexes have been performed, the bases for this dissimilar behaviour are still unclear [31]. According to our CpCH model, ligands in complexes 13 and 14 contribute similar heat capacity changes, – 54 cal · K−1 · mol−1 (Table 6). Whereas for complex 14 this contribution represents about one-third of the total CpP−CH , it exceeds the total change in complex 13. Therefore a positive CpP value for Cf CBM4 is predicted. In view of this anomalous result, complex 13 was excluded in parameterizing eqn (6). Table 7 shows the parameterization obtained for eqn (6) from a multilinear regression analysis of CpP and AP values from Table 6. It is worth noting that both cpCal and cpCar values for carbohydrate-recognition protein sites are similar to those in other parameterizations (Table 1), with cpCal being larger than cpCar , in agreement with that obtained by Makhatadze and Privalov using model compounds [41]. Furthermore, the cppchg value is comparable with the specific values for an aspartic acid residue or lysine, although considerably more negative than those for glutamic or arginine. In contrast, the large positive value Heat capacity changes in carbohydrates and protein–carbohydrate complexes 245 the solution [43–45]. To test whether this factor is significant in the formation of P–CH adducts, we performed a regression analysis, in which a term for interface water molecules was included in eqn (6): Cpw = cpw N w , where N w is the number of water molecules exchanged. By considering the crystallographic water molecules located within 3 Å (1 Å = 0.1 nm) from both the protein and the carbohydrate, the analysis yielded cpw = –5.8 + − 11.0 cal · K−1 · mol−1 . This value is close to the difference between the absolute heat capacities of liquid water and ice (approx. –8 cal · K−1 · mol−1 at 25 ◦C). However, it has a large regression standard error associated. Furthermore, the inclusion of Cpw does not affect significantly the cppneu value (= 0.37 + − 0.24 cal · K−1 · mol−1 ), whereas the quality of the fitting decreases slightly (R = 0.93 with Cpw versus R = 0.95 without Cpw ). Heat capacity model for protein–carbohydrate complexes Using values in Tables 4 and 7 in eqn (2), the final parameterized model for protein–carbohydrate complexes derived here is: CpP−CH = 0.09AC0 + 0.36AC1 + 0.22AC2,3 + 0.10AO0,1 − 0.15AO2 − 0.14ANCO + 0.35ACal + 0.16ACar + 0.43Apneu − 0.27Apchg Figure 5 Heat capacity changes for dehydration of the protein-binding site (A) and for formation of P–CH complexes (B) In both panels, solid circles correspond to experimental values. In (A), open triangles represent values calculated with the Makhatadze and Privalov model (see Table 6), and solid triangles are values calculated with the ad hoc parameters for carbohydrate-binding sites in proteins (eqn 6 and Table 7). In (B), open squares correspond to values calculated with eqn (1) using parameters for P–CH complexes (the second row in Table 1), and solid triangles are values calculated with the extended P–CH’s Cp model obtained in the present study (eqn 7). Table 7 Specific heat capacity coefficients for surfaces on binding sites of carbohydrate-recognition proteins cpCal cpCar cppneu cppchg Value Error 0.35 0.16 0.43 − 0.27 0.19 0.09 0.16 0.36 for cppneu differs significantly from most of the specific values for neutral polar areas in the Makhatadze and Privalov model, although it is smaller than the coefficient for the polar part of tryptophan. It is worth mentioning that we tried grouping neutral polar areas in different ways (for instance, separating the aromatic and/or amide surface from the rest of neutral polar surfaces), always obtaining positive values for the corresponding fitting coefficients. Among polar areas forming part of carbohydrate-binding sites of proteins, neutral areas predominate over charged areas. Thus the positive sign of cppneu could help rationalize why the Makhatadze and Privalov model tends to underestimate CpP . Nevertheless, other factors not considered hitherto could also be responsible for such a discrepancy. One of these factors could be the incorporation of water molecules into the P–CH interface. The transference of a bulk water molecule to a highly ordered protein environment is expected to decrease the heat capacity of (7) As shown in Figure 5(B), this new model performs better for reproducing experimental CpP−CH than the original model, which considers only total polar and apolar areas. Furthermore, the refined model is able to explain quantitatively cppol and cpap values for the complete dataset of P–CH complexes in Table 2. By summing up the contributions of O0,1, O2, NCO, Pneu and Pchg surfaces, the total heat capacity contribution for polar groups (Cppol ) can be obtained for each complex. The slope of Cppol versus Apol yields directly cppol (= 0.16 + − 0.04). The same approach yields cpap = 0.22 + 0.03. The values obtained − in this way are, within statistical uncertainty, the same as those obtained for eqn (1) using P–CH complexes in Table 2. A co-linearity analysis of eqn (7) yielded values for VIF (variance inflation factor) smaller than 10 for all the independent variables, with exception of AC0 and AO0,1 . Although this indicates a low co-linearity degree in the model, it is clear that Cpdiss data for additional (preferentially deoxy and other derivatized) carbohydrates are required in order to further strengthen the model statistically. In the meantime, we think that the co-linearity for AC0 and AO0,1 is tolerable due to the following reasons: (i) none has a VIF value larger than 30; and (ii) the exclusion of any of the saccharides in Table 2 does not yield significant variations in the regression parameters, showing therefore an acceptable stability in the estimations. Additionally, the model is able to account satisfactorily for Cpdiss of: (i) 2-deoxy-glucose, which exhibits a significant variation between AC0 and AO0,1 in relation to the other saccharides considered here and (ii) other sugars not included in Table 3, namely α, β and γ cyclodextrins, which are cyclic β1-4 oligosaccharides composed of six, seven and eight glucose residues respectively (results not shown). DISCUSSION Carbohydrates have stereochemical properties that impart unique thermodynamic behaviour to these molecules. Not surprisingly, P–CH complexes bearing unique thermodynamic properties have also evolved. Formation G and H, normalized per unit of interface surface area, are significantly larger for P–CH complexes than for other types of protein systems [14]. Furthermore, c The Authors Journal compilation c 2009 Biochemical Society 246 E. A. Chavelas and E. Garcı́a-Hernández models obtained for protein folding or protein–protein binding processes perform poorly in accounting for CpP−CH [15]. This situation makes it imperative to obtain ad hoc structural– energetic models for P–CH adducts. In the present study, we have derived a refined model for CpP−CH , taking advantage of dissolution thermodynamic data of sugars. The use of transference data of model compounds has been recurrent in trying to elucidate the molecular determinants of the thermodynamic behaviour of macromolecules. Nevertheless, there is a question always lingering in these kinds of studies, regarding the appropriateness of extrapolating thermodynamic data derived from small compounds to macromolecular systems. As stated by Hedwig and Hinz [46], ‘ . . . to ensure the best quantitative success of a group additivity scheme, it is preferable to choose model compounds that reflect as closely as possible the size, surface area, charge and hydrophobicity of the target moieties for which the thermodynamic properties are to be evaluated.’ Following this premise, the authors used data of oligopeptide molecules to mimic the properties of unfolded proteins, obtaining an additivity scheme that performed better than those calibrated using simpler model compounds. To a large extent, our CpP−CH model achieves this reliability in stereochemical representation, as the transference data used to parameterize it correspond directly to one of the counterparts involved in the macromolecular complex studied. According to the lines of reasoning exposed in the Introduction section of the present paper, the high positive Cp values observed for the hydration of saccharides indicate predominance of hydrophobic solvation effects. Nevertheless, the CpCH model obtained here yields an alternative picture. Contrary to what has been observed for polar groups in most of the previous studies, hydroxy groups attached directly to carbon atoms forming the sugar ring increase the solution’s heat capacity. Since secondary hydroxy groups are abundant in saccharide molecules, their positive contribution to the heat capacity is significant. Based on molecular simulations, Lemieux [16,36] proposed that hydroxy groups in sugars direct water molecules towards them, generating ‘gaps’ or ‘void’ spaces over carbon atoms forming part of the sugar ring, i.e. they should have a diminished heat capacity contribution due to an inefficient hydration. Therefore it would be expected that the solvation thermodynamics of carbon atoms forming the sugar ring would be altered in relation to the properties of ‘fully’ solvated carbon atoms. In agreement with this, the heat capacity contribution of the ring’s carbon atoms (cpC0 ) is significantly smaller than that of those located outside the ring (cpC2,3 ). Furthermore, cpC0 is smaller than the corresponding contribution of carbon atoms in simple hydroxylated compounds (cpC ) or smaller than the cpap value of any of the previous parameterizations for eqn (1) [18–23]. A corollary of Lemieux’s hypothesis is that the more distant a chemical group is from the sugar ring, the more ‘typical’ should its solvation be. This is what is seen in the CCH model. Both primary hydroxy and acetamide groups show the characteristic decreasing heat capacity effect of polar groups, whereas the contribution of outer carbon surfaces falls within the range of values observed in simpler model compounds. Surfaces at the binding sites of carbohydrate-recognition sites in proteins presented similar specific heat capacity contributions to those observed in model compounds and protein folding events. Nevertheless, polar-neutral surfaces are a notable exception, as they showed a large positive solvation heat capacity. Interestingly, Madan and Sharp [23] also obtained a positive value (0.17 cal · K−1 · mol−1 · Å−2 ) for polar groups in nucleic acids. The reason for this thermodynamic behaviour is still unclear, although it is presumably related to the hydration properties elicited by the spatial proximity of polar groups in these molecules. c The Authors Journal compilation c 2009 Biochemical Society Concluding remarks P–CH complexes have unique properties that put them in a separate energetic–structural class among protein complexes. Accordingly, ad hoc structural–energetic correlations for these heterocomplexes are required. Previously, we obtained a Abased model for heat capacity formation of P–CH adducts with preformed protein-binding sites. This model, containing a single term for each of the polar and apolar area changes, indicated that both kinds of surfaces diminish the heat capacity upon binding, with the apolar contribution being relatively small in comparison with other parameterizations obtained from protein folding and model compound studies. These results are in qualitative agreement with previous studies demonstrating that the hydration behaviour of carbohydrates is atypical. In the present study, a more sophisticated CpP−CH model was developed, in which the contributions of the two binding counterparts were dissected. No previous parameterizations are able to account for desolvation heat capacity effects of carbohydrates or proteinbinding sites. The model obtained for saccharides shows that, indeed, these molecules exhibit unique and rather complex solvation behaviours. The specific heat capacity of a given saccharide surface depends not only on the atom and group type, but also on its configurational location. The further away the surface is from the sugar ring, the closer is its solvation behaviour to simpler model compounds. Carbohydrate-binding sites of proteins, in particular neutral polar groups, seem also to show unique solvation properties. Explicit consideration of these stereochemical properties allows accounting for the energetics of a larger variety of P–CH complexes. Although these results are encouraging, it is to be anticipated that the inclusion of other factors not considered in the present study might lead to an improvement of predicted P–CH heat capacities. For binding processes where solvation/desolvation effects are predominant, A models are able to explain the observed Cp satisfactorily. Nevertheless, large differences between experimental and calculated Cp values have been observed for an increasing number of protein complexes [7,43]. In many of these instances, the occurrence of coupled equilibria such as exchange of counterions, structural water molecules, protonation/deprotonation of ionizable groups and large conformational dynamics changes has been established. These factors, which imply additional contributions to the simple change in solvent exposition of the interacting surfaces, have been named by Ladbury and Williams [47] as the extended interface. Clear evidence for non-local effects in P–CH complexes has appeared in the literature in the last few years [48]. As more quantitative information about these effects accumulates, it will be possible to elaborate more accurate semi-empirical models for these kinds of biomolecular adducts. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We thank Dr Miguel Costas for his critical review and valuable comments on this paper prior to submission. 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