Domain Interaction Sites of Human Lens βB2-Crystallin

βB2-crystallin, the major component of β-crystallin, is a dimer at low concentrations but can form oligomers under physiological conditions. The interaction domains have been speculated to be the β-sheets, each of which is formed by two or more β-strands. βB2-crystallin consists of 16 β-strands, 8 in the N-terminal domain and 8 in the C-terminal domain. Domain interaction sites may be removed by destroying the β-strands, which can be done by site-specific mutations, substituting the β-formers (Val, Phe, Leu) with Glu or Asn, strong β-breakers. We have cloned the following β-strand-deleted mutants, I20E, L34E, V54E, V60E, V73E, L97E, I109E, I124E, V144E, V152E, L162E, L165E, and V187E and their corresponding X → Asn mutants. We also made two mutants, V46E and V129E, that were not on the β-strand as controls. Disruption of protein-protein interactions was screened by a mammalian two-hybrid system assay. Protein-protein interactions decreased for all β-strand-deleted mutants except I20E, L34E, and L162E mutants; this effect was not seen in the two mutant controls, V46E and V129E. The sequences around Val-54, Val-60, Val-73, and Leu-97 in the N-terminal region and Ile-109, Ile-124, Val-144, Val-152, Leu-165, and Val-187 in the C-terminal region that formed β-strands appear to be important in dimerization. Some selected mutant proteins that showed strong (V46E and V129E) and reduced (V60E, V144E, V60N, and V144N) interactions were expressed in bacterial culture and were studied with spectroscopy and chromatography. The V60E and V144E mutants were found to be partially unfolded and incapable of forming a complete dimer.