BACKGROUND β-Crystallins are structural proteins maintaining eye lens transparency and opacification. Previous work demonstrated that dimerization of both βA3 and βB2 crystallins (βA3 and βB2) involves endothermic enthalpy of association (∼8 kcal/mol) mediated by hydrophobic interactions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Thermodynamic profiles of the associations of dimeric βA3 and βB1 and tetr...

Relative amounts of two water-soluble beta-crystallin polypeptides with molecular weights of 26,000 (26K) and 28,000 daltons (28K) were measured in a number of species and also in different age groups of rats. The data indicate an age-dependent increase in the quantity of the 26K which is concomitant with a decrease in the 28K polypeptide. The ratio of these two polypeptides in the total water-...

We have isolated the individual gamma-crystallins expressed in young human lenses and identified with which of the six known human gamma-crystallin genes they each correspond. We find that at least 90% of the gamma-crystallins synthesized in the young human lens are the products of genes gamma G3 and gamma G4. We demonstrate that gamma G4-crystallin undergoes a temperature-dependent phase separ...

A differential effect on protein synthesis has been demonstrated in the lenses of galactosemic rats. During galactose cataract development the synthesis of lens crystallins is depressed, whereas that of noncrystallin proteins is unaffected. This effect correlates with the influx of Na+ and loss of K+ from the lens. Removal of the galactose diet results in a gradual recovering of crystallin synt...

In order to characterize possible disulfide-linked interactions between lens fiber cell membranes and crystallins, two-dimensional diagonal electrophoresis has been used in combination with Western blot analysis. When these blots were probed with monospecific antisera against alpha, beta and gamma crystallins, membrane from five individual normal lenses showed no disulfide-bonded components. Me...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to determine the lens crystallin diversity of degenerative eyes from the rice eel (Monopterus albus) and walking catfish (Clarias batrachus) as compared to that of zebrafish (Danio rerio) by using comparative proteomics methodologies. We endeavored to investigate the evolution of vertebrate lenses particularly concerning the functional loss of lenses in degener...

The alpha-, beta- and gamma-crystallins are the major protein components of the vertebrate eye lens, alpha-crystallin as a molecular chaperone as well as a structural protein, beta- and gamma-crystallins as structural proteins. For the lens to be able to retain life-long transparency in the absence of protein turnover, the crystallins must meet not only the requirement of solubility associated ...