Structural analysis of wild‐type and mutant yeast calmodulins by limited proteolysis and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Calmodulin from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified. The purified protein was structurally characterized using limited proteolysis followed by ESI mass spectrometry to identify the fragments. In the presence of Ca2+, yeast calmodulin is sequentially cleaved at arginine 126, then lysine 115, and finally at lysine 77. The rapid cleavage at Arg‐126 suggests that the fourth Ca2+‐binding loop does not bind Ca2+. In the presence of EGTA, yeast calmodulin is more susceptible to proteolysis and is preferentially cleaved at Lys‐106. In addition, mutant proteins carrying I100N, E104V or both mutations, which together confer temperature sensitivity to yeast, were characterized. The mutant proteins are more susceptible than wild‐type calmodulin to proteolysis, suggesting that each mutation disrupts the structure of calmodulin. Furthermore, whereas wild‐type calmodulin is cut at Lys‐106 only in the presence of EGTA, this cleavage site is accessible in the mutants in the presence of Ca2+ as well. In these ways, the structural consequence of each mutation mimics the loss of a calcium ion in the third loop. In addition, although wild‐type calmodulin binds to four proteins in a yeast crude extract in the presence of Ca2+, the mutants bind only to a subset of these. Thus, the inability to adopt the stable Ca2+‐bound conformation in the third Ca2+‐binding loop alters the ability of calmodulin to interact with yeast proteins in a Ca2+‐dependent manner.