Fluorescence spectroscopic study of the interaction of adenine and nucleotide with trichosanthin

Trichosanthin (TCS) is an N-glycosidase that can attack the 28s rRNA of the ribosome at a highly conserved adenine residue. The interactions of adenine and its derivative nucleotides with TCS are reported. The fluorescence of Trp 192 of TCS is sensitive to the proximity of adenine, and produces a marked red shift indicative of trytophan in a more hydrophilic environment. By contrast AMP and ATP quench the maximal emission at 328nm. The binding of the adenine and ATP with TCS result in lower tryptophan accessibility to the quencher acrylamide, but higher tryptophan accessibility to the quencher iodide, while AMP caused higher tryptophan accessibility to acrylamide, and lower tryptophan accessibility to iodide. Also, the binding of nucleotides induces tryptophan heterogeneity in the protein. These findings lead us to propose that binding of nucleotides and adenine base cause different microenvironmental changes of the tryptophan residue, and Trp 192 may be involved in the active site of TCS.