Diastereoselective protein methionine oxidation by reactive oxygen species and diastereoselective repair by methionine sulfoxide reductase

Recent studies have shown that the “calcium-sensor” protein calmodulin (CaM) suffers an age-dependent oxidation of methionine (Met) to methionine sulfoxide (MetSO) in vivo. However, MetSO did not accumulate on the Met residues that show the highest solvent-exposure. Hence, the pattern of Met oxidation in vivo may give hints as to which reactive oxygen species and oxidation mechanisms participate in the oxidation of this important protein. Here, we have exposed CaM under a series of different reaction conditions (pH, [Ca2+], [KCl]) to various biologically relevant reactive oxygen species and oxidizing systems (peroxides, HOCl, peroxynitrite, singlet oxygen, metal-catalyzed oxidation, and peroxidase-catalyzed oxidation) to investigate whether one of these systems would lead to an oxidation pattern of CaM similar to that observed in vivo. However, generally, these oxidizing conditions led to a preferred or exclusive oxidation of the C-terminal Met residues, in contrast to the oxidation pattern of CaM observed in vivo. Hence, none of the employed oxidizing conditions was able to mimic the age-dependent oxidation of CaM in vivo, indicating that other, yet unidentified oxidation mechanisms may be important in vivo. Some oxidizing species showed a quite-remarkable diastereoselectivity for the formation of either image-Met-image-SO or image-Met-image-SO. Diastereoselectivity was dependent on the nature of the oxidizing species but was less a function of the location of the target Met residue in the protein. In contrast, diastereoselective reduction of image-Met-image-SO by protein methionine sulfoxide reductase (pMSR) was efficient regardless of the position of the image-Met-image-SO residue in the protein and the presence or absence of calcium. With only the image-Met-image-SO diastereomer being a substrate for pMSR, any preferred formation of image-Met-image-SO in vivo may cause the accumulation of MetSO unless the oxidized protein is substrate for (accelerated) protein turnover.