Oxidation increases the strength of the methionine-aromatic interaction

Oxidation of methionine disrupts the structure and function of a range of proteins, but little is understood about the chemistry that underlies these perturbations. Using quantum mechanical calculations, we show that oxidation increases the strength of the methionine-aromatic interaction motif—a driving force for protein folding and protein-protein interaction—by 0.5 – 1.4 kcal/mol. We find that non-hydrogen bonded interactions between dimethyl sulfoxide (a methionine analog) and aromatic groups are enriched in both the Protein Data Bank and Cambridge Structural Database. Thermal denaturation and NMR experiments on model peptides demonstrate that oxidation of methionine stabilizes the interaction by 0.5–0.6 kcal/mol. We confirm the biological relevance of these findings through a combination of cell biology, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations on 1) calmodulin structure and dynamics and 2) lymphotoxin-α/TNFR1 binding. Thus, the methionine-aromatic motif is a determinant of protein structural and functional sensitivity to oxidative stress.