Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis has identified a new subgroup of glutathione S-transferase (GST)-like proteins from a range of species extending from plants to humans. This group has been termed the Zeta class. An atomic model of the N-terminal domain suggests that the members of the Zeta class have a similar structure to that of other GSTs, binding glutathione in a similar orientation in the G site. Recombinant human GSTZ1-1 has been expressed in Escherichia coli and characterized. The protein is a dimer composed of 24.2 kDa subunits and has minimal glutathione-conjugating activity with ethacrynic acid and 7-chloro-4-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1, 3-diazole. Although low in comparison with other GSTs, GSTZ1-1 has glutathione peroxidase activity with t-butyl and cumene hydroperoxides. The members of the Zeta class have been conserved over a long evolutionary period, suggesting that they might have a role in the metabolism of a compound that is common in many living cells.

Analysis of the expressed sequence tag (EST) database by sequence alignment allows a rapid screen for polymorphisms in proteins of physiological interest. The human zeta class glutathione transferase GSTZ1 has recently been characterized and analysis of expressed sequence tag clones suggested that this gene may be polymorphic. This report identifies three GSTZ1 alleles resulting from A to G transitions at nucleotides 94 and 124 of the coding region, GSTZ1*A-A94A124; GSTZ1*B-A94G124; GSTZ1*C-G94G124. Polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of a control Caucasian population (n = 141) showed that all three alleles were present, with frequencies of 0.09, 0.28 and 0.63 for Z1*A, Z1*B and Z1*C, respectively. These nucleotide substitutions are non-synonymous, with A to G at positions 94 and 124 encoding Lys32 to Glu and Arg42 to Gly substitutions, respectively. The variant proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli as 6X His-tagged proteins and purified by Ni-agarose column chromatography. Examination of the activities of recombinant proteins revealed that GSTZ1a-1a displayed differences in activity towards several substrates compared with GSTZ1b-1b and GSTZ1c-1c, including 3.6-fold higher activity towards dichloroacetate. This report demonstrates the discovery of a functional polymorphism by analysis of the EST database.

Analysis of the expressed sequence tag (EST) database by sequence alignment allows a rapid screen for polymorphisms in proteins of physiological interest. The human zeta class glutathione transferase GSTZ1 has recently been characterized and analysis of expressed sequence tag clones suggested that this gene may be polymorphic. This report identifies three GSTZ1 alleles resulting from A to G transitions at nucleotides 94 and 124 of the coding region, GSTZ1*A-A94A124; GSTZ1*B-A94G124; GSTZ1*C-G94G124. Polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of a control Caucasian population (n = 141) showed that all three alleles were present, with frequencies of 0.09, 0.28 and 0.63 for Z1*A, Z1*B and Z1*C, respectively. These nucleotide substitutions are non-synonymous, with A to G at positions 94 and 124 encoding Lys32 to Glu and Arg42 to Gly substitutions, respectively. The variant proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli as 6X His-tagged proteins and purified by Ni-agarose column chromatography. Examination of the activities of recombinant proteins revealed that GSTZ1a-1a displayed differences in activity towards several substrates compared with GSTZ1b-1b and GSTZ1c-1c, including 3.6-fold higher activity towards dichloroacetate. This report demonstrates the discovery of a functional polymorphism by analysis of the EST database.

Systematic identification of direct protein-protein interactions is often hampered by difficulties in expressing and purifying the corresponding full-length proteins. By taking advantage of the modular nature of many regulatory proteins, we attempted to simplify protein-protein interactions to the corresponding domain-ligand recognition and employed peptide arrays to identify such binding events. A group of 12 Src homology (SH) 3 domains from eight human proteins (Swiss-Prot ID: SRC, PLCG1, P85A, NCK1, GRB2, FYN, CRK) were used to screen a peptide target array composed of 1536 potential ligands, which led to the identification of 921 binary interactions between these proteins and 284 targets. To assess the efficiency of the peptide array target screening (PATS) method in identifying authentic protein-protein interactions, we examined a set of interactions mediated by the PLCgamma1 SH3 domain by coimmunoprecipitation and/or affinity pull-downs using full-length proteins and achieved a 75% success rate. Furthermore, we characterized a novel interaction between PLCgamma1 and hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1) identified by PATS and demonstrated that the PLCgamma1 SH3 domain negatively regulated HPK1 kinase activity. Compared to protein interactions listed in the online predicted human interaction protein database (OPHID), the majority of interactions identified by PATS are novel, suggesting that, when extended to the large number of peptide interaction domains encoded by the human genome, PATS should aid in the mapping of the human interactome.

Analysis of the expressed sequence tag (EST) database by sequence alignment allows a rapid screen for polymorphisms in proteins of physiological interest. The human zeta class glutathione transferase GSTZ1 has recently been characterized and analysis of expressed sequence tag clones suggested that this gene may be polymorphic. This report identifies three GSTZ1 alleles resulting from A to G transitions at nucleotides 94 and 124 of the coding region, GSTZ1*A-A94A124; GSTZ1*B-A94G124; GSTZ1*C-G94G124. Polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of a control Caucasian population (n = 141) showed that all three alleles were present, with frequencies of 0.09, 0.28 and 0.63 for Z1*A, Z1*B and Z1*C, respectively. These nucleotide substitutions are non-synonymous, with A to G at positions 94 and 124 encoding Lys32 to Glu and Arg42 to Gly substitutions, respectively. The variant proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli as 6X His-tagged proteins and purified by Ni-agarose column chromatography. Examination of the activities of recombinant proteins revealed that GSTZ1a-1a displayed differences in activity towards several substrates compared with GSTZ1b-1b and GSTZ1c-1c, including 3.6-fold higher activity towards dichloroacetate. This report demonstrates the discovery of a functional polymorphism by analysis of the EST database.

Analysis of the expressed sequence tag (EST) database by sequence alignment allows a rapid screen for polymorphisms in proteins of physiological interest. The human zeta class glutathione transferase GSTZ1 has recently been characterized and analysis of expressed sequence tag clones suggested that this gene may be polymorphic. This report identifies three GSTZ1 alleles resulting from A to G transitions at nucleotides 94 and 124 of the coding region, GSTZ1*A-A94A124; GSTZ1*B-A94G124; GSTZ1*C-G94G124. Polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of a control Caucasian population (n = 141) showed that all three alleles were present, with frequencies of 0.09, 0.28 and 0.63 for Z1*A, Z1*B and Z1*C, respectively. These nucleotide substitutions are non-synonymous, with A to G at positions 94 and 124 encoding Lys32 to Glu and Arg42 to Gly substitutions, respectively. The variant proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli as 6X His-tagged proteins and purified by Ni-agarose column chromatography. Examination of the activities of recombinant proteins revealed that GSTZ1a-1a displayed differences in activity towards several substrates compared with GSTZ1b-1b and GSTZ1c-1c, including 3.6-fold higher activity towards dichloroacetate. This report demonstrates the discovery of a functional polymorphism by analysis of the EST database.

Analysis of the expressed sequence tag (EST) database by sequence alignment allows a rapid screen for polymorphisms in proteins of physiological interest. The human zeta class glutathione transferase GSTZ1 has recently been characterized and analysis of expressed sequence tag clones suggested that this gene may be polymorphic. This report identifies three GSTZ1 alleles resulting from A to G transitions at nucleotides 94 and 124 of the coding region, GSTZ1*A-A94A124; GSTZ1*B-A94G124; GSTZ1*C-G94G124. Polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of a control Caucasian population (n = 141) showed that all three alleles were present, with frequencies of 0.09, 0.28 and 0.63 for Z1*A, Z1*B and Z1*C, respectively. These nucleotide substitutions are non-synonymous, with A to G at positions 94 and 124 encoding Lys32 to Glu and Arg42 to Gly substitutions, respectively. The variant proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli as 6X His-tagged proteins and purified by Ni-agarose column chromatography. Examination of the activities of recombinant proteins revealed that GSTZ1a-1a displayed differences in activity towards several substrates compared with GSTZ1b-1b and GSTZ1c-1c, including 3.6-fold higher activity towards dichloroacetate. This report demonstrates the discovery of a functional polymorphism by analysis of the EST database.