Hydrophobic core mutations associated with cataract development in mice destabilize human gammaD-crystallin.

ABSTRACT: The human eye lens is composed of fiber cells packed with crystallins up to 450 mg/ml. Human gammaD-crystallin (HgammaD-Crys) is a monomeric, two-domain protein of the lens central nucleus. Both domains of this long lived protein have double Greek key beta-sheet folds with well packed hydrophobic cores. Three mutations resulting in amino acid substitutions in the gamma-crystallin buried cores (two in the N-terminal domain (N-td) and one in the C-terminal domain (C-td)) cause early onset cataract in mice, presumably an aggregated state of the mutant crystallins. It has not been possible to identify the aggregating precursor within lens tissues. To compare in vivo cataract-forming phenotypes with in vitro unfolding and aggregation of gamma-crystallins, mouse mutant substitutions were introdu

SUBMITTER: Moreau KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2785171 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature