The 2.5 A X‐ray crystal structure of the acid‐stable proteinase inhibitor from human mucous secretions analysed in its complex with bovine alpha‐chymotrypsin

Orthorhombic crystals of the complex formed between bovine alpha‐chymotrypsin and a recombinant human mucous proteinase inhibitor (SLPI) were grown. Data to 2.3 A resolution were collected on the area‐detector diffractometer FAST. The crystal structure of the complex was solved by Patterson search techniques using chymotrypsin as a search model. A cyclic procedure of modeling and crystallographic refinement enabled the determination of the SLPI structure. The current crystallographic R‐value is 0.19. SLPI has a boomerang‐like shape with both wings comprising two well separated domains of similar architecture. In each domain the polypeptide chain is arranged like a stretched spiral. Two internal strands form a regular beta‐hairpin loop which is accompanied by two external strands linked by the proteinase binding segment. The polypeptide segment of each domain is interconnected by four disulfide bridges with a connectivity pattern hitherto unobserved. The reactive site loop of the second domain has elastase and chymotrypsin binding properties. It contains the scissile peptide bond between Leu72I and Met73I and has a similar conformation to that observed in other serine proteinase protein inhibitors. Eight residues of this loop, two of the adjacent hairpin loop, the C‐terminal segment and Trp30I are in direct contact with the cognate enzyme. The binding loop of the first domain (probably with anti‐trypsin activity) is disordered due to proteolytic cleavage occurring in the course of crystallization.