Improvement of crystal packing of human MAP kinase JNK1 by point mutation for neutron crystallography

Nakaniwa, Tetsuko*; Fukata, Harumi*; Inoue, Tatsuya*; Kinoshita, Takayoshi*; Adachi, Motoyasu; Tamada, Taro; Kuroki, Ryota; Tada, Toshiji*

JNK1 is a MAP kinase responsible for response of stress. JNK1 has 4 and 3 cysteine residues in embedded region and at molecular surface, respectively. Those cysteine residues would cause inactivation and aggregation of the molecule. Based of the analysis of packing in crystal of isozyme of JNK1, we found more salt bridge and hydrogen bonding interactions on the interface. In this study, we focus on the two cysteine residues and introduced modification into M3 mutant previously reported.