UC Irvine

The structure of canavalin was refined to 2.1 and 2.0 A resolution in cubic and hexagonal crystals of space group P2(1)3 and P6(3), respectively. The threefold molecular symmetry is expressed in the symmetry of both crystals, where each identical subunit is an asymmetric unit. The canavalin subunit consists of two very similar domains, each comprised of a core subdomain having Swiss-roll topology with a loop subdomain that contains helices. The refined canavalin models resolved the discrepancy in amino-acid registers of the secondary-structural elements compared with phaseolin. The presence of strand Z in both domains of canavalin was confirmed and a new helix in the loop between strands A and B of each domain was observed. The models were analyzed in terms of the duplicated vicilin domains. Three strictly conserved residues, two glycines and a proline, were identified. The similarity between entire vicilin molecules is greater than that between separate domains of canavalin and phaseolin. Homology modeling of the sucrose-binding protein (SBP) from soybean showed a plausible trimeric assembly of subunits similar to that of vicilins.