Jeff Cronk

Gonzaga University · Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Carbonic anhydrases catalyze the interconversion of carbon dioxide and bicarbonate ion, an essential process for growth and propagation of many organisms. A noncatalytic allosteric bicarbonate binding site was discovered in Escherichia coli carbonic anhydrase (ECCA) and is also found in Haemophilus influenzae β-carbonic anhydrase (HICA). The bindin...

The structures of beta class carbonic anhydrases (beta-CAs) determined so far fall into two distinct subclasses based on the observed coordination of the catalytic zinc (Zn2+) ion. The subclass of beta-CAs that coordinate Zn2+ tetrahedrally with four protein-derived ligands is represented by the structures of orthologues from Porphyridium purpureum...

Carbonic anhydrases fall into three distinct evolutionary and structural classes: alpha, beta, and gamma. The beta-class carbonic anhydrases (beta-CAs) are widely distributed among higher plants, simple eukaryotes, eubacteria, and archaea. We have determined the crystal structure of ECCA, a beta-CA from Escherichia coli, to a resolution of 2.0 A. I...

The N-terminal dimerization domain of the transcriptional activator hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 alpha (HNF-1 alpha) is essential for DNA binding and association of the transcriptional coactivator, DCoH (dimerization cofactor of HNF-1). To investigate the basis for dimerization of HNF-1 proteins, we determined the 1.2 Angstrom resolution X-ray cryst...

Maturity-onset diabetes of the young type 3 (MODY3) results from mutations in the transcriptional activator hepatocyte nuclear factor-1alpha (HNF-1alpha). Several MODY3 mutations target the HNF-1alpha dimerization domain (HNF-p1), which binds the coactivator, dimerization cofactor of HNF-1 (DCoH). To define the mechanism of coactivator recognition...

Carbonic anhydrases are zinc metalloenzymes that fall into three distinct evolutionary and structural classes, α, β and γ. Although α-­class enzymes, particularly mammalian carbonic anhydrase II, have been the subject of extensive structural studies, for the β class, consisting of a wide variety of prokaryotic and plant chloroplast carbonic anhydra...

DCoH, the dimerization cofactor of hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 (HNF-1), functions as both a transcriptional coactivator and a pterin dehydratase. To probe the relationship between these two functions, the X-ray crystal structures of the free enzyme and its complex with the product analogue 7,8-dihydrobiopterin were refined at 2.3 A resolution. The...

Nerve cells contain abundant subpopulations of cold-stable microtubules. We have previously isolated a calmodulin-regulated brain protein, STOP (stable tubule-only polypeptide), which reconstitutes microtubule cold stability when added to cold-labile microtubules in vitro. We have now cloned cDNA encoding STOP. We find that STOP is a 100.5-kDa prot...

DCoH, the dimerization cofactor of hepatocyte nuclear factor-1, stimulates gene expression by associating with specific DNA binding proteins and also catalyzes the dehydration of the biopterin cofactor of phenylalanine hydroxylase. The x-ray crystal structure determined at 3 angstrom resolution reveals that DCoH forms a tetramer containing two sadd...