Zinc fingers and thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase activities of chaperone DnaJ

Chaperone DnaJ is a homodimer with each subunit containing 10 cysteine residues and two Zn(II) ions, which have been identified to form two zinc fingers, (CDVCZn)-D-144-Zn-147(II)(CNKC200)-N-197 (Zn1) and (CPTCZn)-P-161-Zn-164(II)(CPHC186)-P-183 (Zn2), with C-265 and C-323 in reduced form. Guanidine hydrochloride at 6.4 M destroys only Zn1, which does not reform after refolding. p-Hydroxymercuriphenylsulfonate acid, but not ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) even at high concentrations, can remove two Zn(II) ions from DnaJ, but only Zn2 can be reconstituted. After removal of Zn(II) ions, only C-144 and C-147 in Zn1 are oxidation-resistant, and the other six cysteines are easily oxidizable. DnaJ shows reductase activity and oxidase activity but little, if any, isomerase activity. The reductase activity is reversibly inhibited by EDTA. Zn2 is important for the enzymatic activity, and only -(CPHC186)-P-183- among the four motifs of -CXXC- functions as the active site of the enzyme. A C-terminal (Q(181)-R-376) fragment shows a zinc finger of (CPHCZn)-P-183-Zn-186(II)(CNKC200)-N-197 and full enzymatic activity of DnaJ. The N-terminal half sequence (M-1-Q(180)) and Zn1 are not required for the enzymatic activity but are important for the chaperone activity of DnaJ.