Oligomeric state of MaMsvR Gel filtration chromatography was used to determine the oligomeric structure of non-reduced and reduced MaMsvR. MaMsvRN-Strep®Tag was purified from E. coli under non-reducing or reducing conditions for these experiments. The molecular weight of the MaMsvRN-Strep®Tag monomer is 29.2 kDa. Under non-reducing conditions,

MaMsvR eluted from the gel filtration column MMP inhibitor with a size Selleckchem BIIB057 slightly larger than what was expected for a dimeric complex (Figure 4a, fractions b-e). SDS-PAGE analysis and staining of gel-filtration fractions confirmed the presence of MaMsvR (Figure 4a, inset). A small amount of UV absorbance was detected in the range for a monomer (Figure 4a, fraction f), but if this fraction did contain MaMsvR, the concentration was too low to be detected by SDS-PAGE (Figure 4a, inset). MaMsvR also eluted

in the range of a dimeric complex under reducing conditions (2 selleck compound mM β-ME) (Figure 4b) and SDS-PAGE confirmed the presence of MaMsvR in this peak (Figure 4b, inset). The peak had a longer tail than was present in the non-reducing samples, suggesting some MaMsvR monomer may have been present in the sample. However, only a faint band was detected by standard SDS-PAGE (Figure 4b and inset, fraction d). Taken together, these results suggest that MaMsvR predominantly exists as a dimer and that dimerization alone is not responsible Sclareol for the differences in activity of non-reduced and reduced MaMsvR. Interestingly, the N-terminal region of MaMsvR contains a predicted dimerization interface that is characteristic of the ArsR family of transcription regulators and could facilitate dimerization ([19, 31], Figure 1a, orange boxes). Figure 4 Oligomeric Structure and the Role of Disulfide Bonds. The dashed black line indicates the elution profile of the column

calibration protein mix A (left to right: ferritin, conalbumin, carbonic anhydrase and ribonuclease A). The MaMsvR monomer is 29.2 kDa. (a) The elution profile for non-reduced MaMsvR (0.65 mg loaded) is indicated by the solid black chromatogram trace. Inset is an SDS-PAGE of MaMsvR fractions collected during the gel filtration run (a-f). (b) The elution profile for reduced (0.84 mg with 2 mM β-ME in the elution buffer) MaMsvR is indicated by the solid black chromatogram trace. Inset is an SDS-PAGE of MaMsvR fractions collected during the gel filtration run (a-d). (c) Immunoblot of an SDS –PAGE gel probed with a Strep-tag antibody where MaMsvR was prepared and subjected to electrophoresis (1 pmol each protein) in non-reducing SDS-PAGE sample buffer (N) and reducing (R) SDS-PAGE sample buffer on a 15% Tris-Glycine gel (no SDS). A reduced and boiled sample of MaMsvR is shown as a control (RB). The monomer is designated by M, whereas D and T indicate bands corresponding to a possible dimer and tetramer, respectively.