PMID: 2509460Nov 5, 1989Paper

Protein synthesis initiation factor eIF-4D. Functional comparison of native and unhypusinated forms of the protein.

The Journal of Biological Chemistry
Z Smit-McBrideJ W Hershey

Abstract

Protein synthesis initiation factor eIF-4D is a relatively abundant protein in mammalian cells and possesses a unique amino acid residue, hypusine. The role of the hypusine modification in eIF-4D function was addressed by studying the function of eIF-4D variants lacking hypusine. The cloned human cDNA encoding eIF-4D was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and a precursor form lacking hypusine was purified. This protein fails to stimulate methionyl-puromycin synthesis in vitro, nor does it significantly inhibit the action of native eIF-4D. Mammalian expression vectors were constructed with the wild-type cDNA and a mutant form in which the codon for lysine-50 (the residue hypusinated) was altered by site-directed mutagenesis to that for arginine. Transient co-transfection of COS-1 cells with the eIF-4D vector and a vector expressing dihydrofolate reductase led to strong synthesis of both eIF-4D and dihydrofolate reductase. This indicates that normal cellular levels of eIF-4D are saturating in these cells and that excess levels of eIF-4D are not detrimental. Cotransfection with the eIF-4D arginine variant caused no effect on dihydrofolate reductase synthesis, in agreement with the in vitro experiments. The inability of the unhypusi...Continue Reading

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