bims-indpro 2022-07-17 papers

bims-indpro

Biomed News

on Intrinsically disordered proteins

Issue of 2022‒07‒17
eight papers selected by
Sara Mingu
Johannes Gutenberg University

Comparative study of structures and functional motifs in lectins from the commercially important photosynthetic microorganisms.
The intrinsically disordered protein TgIST from Toxoplasma gondii inhibits STAT1 signaling by blocking cofactor recruitment.
Multisite Phosphorylation and Binding Alter Conformational Dynamics of the 4E-BP2 Protein.
Wild-Type α-Synuclein and Variants Occur in Different Disordered Dimers and Pre-Fibrillar Conformations in Early Stage of Aggregation.
Millisecond Hydrogen/Deuterium-Exchange Mass Spectrometry for the Study of Alpha-Synuclein Structural Dynamics under Physiological Conditions.
Intrinsic and extrinsic regulators of Aux/IAA protein degradation dynamics.
Kinetic principles underlying pioneer function of GAGA transcription factor in live cells.
Exploring the Interplay between Disordered and Ordered Oligomer Channels on the Aggregation Energy Landscapes of α-Synuclein.

Biochimie. 2022 Jul 12. pii: S0300-9084(22)00180-8. [Epub ahead of print]

Comparative study of structures and functional motifs in lectins from the commercially important photosynthetic microorganisms.

Raquel P Bezerra, Amanda S Conniff, Vladimir N Uversky.

  Photosynthetic microorganisms, specifically cyanobacteria and microalgae, can synthesize a vast array of biologically active molecules, such as lectins, that have great potential for various biotechnological and biomedical applications. However, since the structures of these proteins are not well established, likely due to the presence of intrinsically disordered regions, our ability to better understand their functionality is hampered. We embarked on a study of the carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD), intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), amino acidic composition, as well as and functional motifs in lectins from cyanobacteria of the genus Arthrospira and microalgae Chlorella and Dunaliella genus using a combination of bioinformatics techniques. This search revealed the presence of five distinctive CRD types differently distributed between the genera. Most CRDs displayed a group-specific distribution, except to C. sorokiniana possessing distinctive CRD probably due to its specific lifestyle. We also found that all CRDs contain short IDRs. Bacterial lectin of Arthrospira prokarionte showed lower intrinsic disorder and proline content when compared to the lectins from the eukaryotic microalgae (Chlorella and Dunaliella). Among the important functions predicted in all lectins were several specific motifs, which directly interacts with proteins involved in the cell-cycle control and which may be used for pharmaceutical purposes. Since the aforementioned properties of each type of lectin were investigated in silico, they need experimental confirmation. The results of our study provide an overview of the distribution of CRD, IDRs, and functional motifs within lectin from the commercially important microalgae.

Keywords:  Carbohydrate recognition domain; Intrinsically disordered protein; Intrinsically disordered region; Lectin; Microalgae

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biochi.2022.07.004
Nat Commun. 2022 Jul 13. 13(1): 4047

The intrinsically disordered protein TgIST from Toxoplasma gondii inhibits STAT1 signaling by blocking cofactor recruitment.

Zhou Huang, Hejun Liu, Jay Nix, Rui Xu, Catherine R Knoverek, Gregory R Bowman, Gaya K Amarasinghe, L David Sibley.

Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins communicate from cell-surface receptors to drive transcription of immune response genes. The parasite Toxoplasma gondii blocks STAT1-mediated gene expression by secreting the intrinsically disordered protein TgIST that traffics to the host nucleus, binds phosphorylated STAT1 dimers, and occupies nascent transcription sites that unexpectedly remain silenced. Here we define a core region within internal repeats of TgIST that is necessary and sufficient to block STAT1-mediated gene expression. Cellular, biochemical, mutational, and structural data demonstrate that the repeat region of TgIST adopts a helical conformation upon binding to STAT1 dimers. The binding interface is defined by a groove formed from two loops in the STAT1 SH2 domains that reorient during dimerization. TgIST binding to this newly exposed site at the STAT1 dimer interface alters its conformation and prevents the recruitment of co-transcriptional activators, thus defining the mechanism of blocked transcription.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31720-7
Biophys J. 2022 Jul 14. pii: S0006-3495(22)00588-4. [Epub ahead of print]

Multisite Phosphorylation and Binding Alter Conformational Dynamics of the 4E-BP2 Protein.

Spencer Smyth, Zhenfu Zhang, Alaji Bah, Thomas E Tsangaris, Jennifer Dawson, Julie D Forman-Kay, Claudiu C Gradinaru.

  Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) play critical roles in regulatory protein interactions, but detailed structural/dynamics characterization of their ensembles remain challenging, both in isolation and they form dynamic 'fuzzy' complexes. Such is the case for mRNA cap-dependent translation initiation, which is regulated by the interaction of the predominantly folded eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) with the intrinsically disordered eIF4E binding proteins (4E-BPs) in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. Single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer showed that the conformational changes of 4E-BP2 induced by binding to eIF4E are non-uniform along the sequence; while a central region containing both motifs that bind to eIF4E expands and becomes stiffer, the C-terminal region is less affected. Fluorescence anisotropy decay revealed a nonuniform segmental flexibility around six different labelling sites along the chain. Dynamic quenching of these fluorescent probes by intrinsic aromatic residues measured via fluorescence correlation spectroscopy report on transient intra- and inter-molecular contacts on ns-μs timescales. Upon hyperphosphorylation, which induces folding of ∼40 residues in 4E-BP2, the quenching rates decreased at most labelling sites. The chain dynamics around sites in the C-terminal region far away from the two binding motifs significantly increased upon binding to eIF4E, suggesting that this region is also involved in the highly dynamic 4E-BP2:eIF4E complex. Our time-resolved fluorescence data paint a sequence-level rigidity map of three states of 4E-BP2 differing in phosphorylation or binding status and distinguish regions that form contacts with eIF4E. This study adds complementary structural and dynamics information to recent studies of 4E-BP2, and it constitutes an important step towards a mechanistic understanding of this important IDP via integrative modelling.

Keywords:  IDP; PET-FCS; anisotropy decay; single-molecule fluorescence; smFRET

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2022.07.015
Front Mol Biosci. 2022 ;9 910104

Wild-Type α-Synuclein and Variants Occur in Different Disordered Dimers and Pre-Fibrillar Conformations in Early Stage of Aggregation.

Adrien Guzzo, Patrice Delarue, Ana Rojas, Adrien Nicolaï, Gia G Maisuradze, Patrick Senet.

  α-Synuclein is a 140 amino-acid intrinsically disordered protein mainly found in the brain. Toxic α-synuclein aggregates are the molecular hallmarks of Parkinson's disease. In vitro studies showed that α-synuclein aggregates in oligomeric structures of several 10th of monomers and into cylindrical structures (fibrils), comprising hundred to thousands of proteins, with polymorphic cross-β-sheet conformations. Oligomeric species, formed at the early stage of aggregation remain, however, poorly understood and are hypothezised to be the most toxic aggregates. Here, we studied the formation of wild-type (WT) and mutant (A30P, A53T, and E46K) dimers of α-synuclein using coarse-grained molecular dynamics. We identified two principal segments of the sequence with a higher propensity to aggregate in the early stage of dimerization: residues 36-55 and residues 66-95. The transient α-helices (residues 53-65 and 73-82) of α-synuclein monomers are destabilized by A53T and E46K mutations, which favors the formation of fibril native contacts in the N-terminal region, whereas the helix 53-65 prevents the propagation of fibril native contacts along the sequence for the WT in the early stages of dimerization. The present results indicate that dimers do not adopt the Greek key motif of the monomer fold in fibrils but form a majority of disordered aggregates and a minority (9-15%) of pre-fibrillar dimers both with intra-molecular and intermolecular β-sheets. The percentage of residues in parallel β-sheets is by increasing order monomer < disordered dimers < pre-fibrillar dimers. Native fibril contacts between the two monomers are present in the NAC domain for WT, A30P, and A53T and in the N-domain for A53T and E46K. Structural properties of pre-fibrillar dimers agree with rupture-force atomic force microscopy and single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer available data. This suggests that the pre-fibrillar dimers might correspond to the smallest type B toxic oligomers. The probability density of the dimer gyration radius is multi-peaks with an average radius that is 10 Å larger than the one of the monomers for all proteins. The present results indicate that even the elementary α-synuclein aggregation step, the dimerization, is a complicated phenomenon that does not only involve the NAC region.

Keywords:  CUTABI; Parkinson’s disease; amyloid; dimers; molecular dynamics; α-synuclein

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2022.910104
J Vis Exp. 2022 Jun 23.

Millisecond Hydrogen/Deuterium-Exchange Mass Spectrometry for the Study of Alpha-Synuclein Structural Dynamics under Physiological Conditions.

Neeleema Seetaloo, Jonathan J Phillips.

Alpha-synuclein (aSyn) is an intrinsically disordered protein whose fibrillar aggregates are abundant in Lewy bodies and neurites, which are the hallmarks of Parkinson's disease. Yet, much of its biological activity, as well as its aggregation, centrally involves the soluble monomer form of the protein. Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of aSyn biology and pathophysiology requires structurally highly resolved methods and is sensitive to biological conditions. Its natively unfolded, meta-stable structures make monomeric aSyn intractable to many structural biology techniques. Here, the application of one such approach is described: hydrogen/deuterium-exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) on the millisecond timescale for the study of proteins with low thermodynamic stability and weak protection factors, such as aSyn. At the millisecond timescale, HDX-MS data contain information on the solvent accessibility and hydrogen-bonded structure of aSyn, which are lost at longer labeling times, ultimately yielding structural resolution up to the amino acid level. Therefore, HDX-MS can provide information at high structural and temporal resolutions on conformational dynamics and thermodynamics, intra- and inter-molecular interactions, and the structural impact of mutations or alterations to environmental conditions. While broadly applicable, it is demonstrated how to acquire, analyze, and interpret millisecond HDX-MS measurements in monomeric aSyn.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3791/64050
Trends Biochem Sci. 2022 Jul 08. pii: S0968-0004(22)00145-1. [Epub ahead of print]

Intrinsic and extrinsic regulators of Aux/IAA protein degradation dynamics.

Marcelo Rodrigues Alves de Figueiredo, Lucia C Strader.

  The plant hormone auxin acts through regulated degradation of Auxin/INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID (Aux/IAA) proteins to regulate transcriptional events. In this review, we examine the composition and function of each Aux/IAA structural motif. We then focus on recent characterization of Aux/IAA N-terminal disordered regions, formation of secondary structure within these disordered regions, and post-translational modifications (PTMs) that affect Aux/IAA function and stability. We propose how structural variations between Aux/IAA family members may be tuned for differential transcriptional repression and degradation dynamics.

Keywords:  SLiM; auxin; binding context; degron; intrinsically disorder regions

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibs.2022.06.004
Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2022 Jul;29(7): 665-676

Kinetic principles underlying pioneer function of GAGA transcription factor in live cells.

Xiaona Tang, Taibo Li, Sheng Liu, Jan Wisniewski, Qinsi Zheng, Yikang Rong, Luke D Lavis, Carl Wu.

How pioneer factors interface with chromatin to promote accessibility for transcription control is poorly understood in vivo. Here, we directly visualize chromatin association by the prototypical GAGA pioneer factor (GAF) in live Drosophila hemocytes. Single-particle tracking reveals that most GAF is chromatin bound, with a stable-binding fraction showing nucleosome-like confinement residing on chromatin for more than 2 min, far longer than the dynamic range of most transcription factors. These kinetic properties require the full complement of GAF's DNA-binding, multimerization and intrinsically disordered domains, and are autonomous from recruited chromatin remodelers NURF and PBAP, whose activities primarily benefit GAF's neighbors such as Heat Shock Factor. Evaluation of GAF kinetics together with its endogenous abundance indicates that, despite on-off dynamics, GAF constitutively and fully occupies major chromatin targets, thereby providing a temporal mechanism that sustains open chromatin for transcriptional responses to homeostatic, environmental and developmental signals.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-022-00800-z
J Phys Chem B. 2022 Jul 10.

Exploring the Interplay between Disordered and Ordered Oligomer Channels on the Aggregation Energy Landscapes of α-Synuclein.

Xun Chen, Mingchen Chen, Peter G Wolynes.

The abnormal aggregation of α-synulcein is associated with multiple neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. The hydrophobic non-amyloid component (NAC) region of α-synuclein comprises the core of the fibril in vitro and in vivo. In this work, we study the aggregation landscape of the hydrophobic NAC region of α-synuclein using a transferrable coarse-grained force field, the associative memory water-mediated structure, and energy model (AWSEM). Using structural similarity, we can group metastable states on the free energy landscape of aggregation into three types of oligomers: disordered oligomers, prefibrillar oligomers with disordered tips, and ordered prefibrillar oligomers. The prefibrillar oligomers with disordered tips have more in-register parallel β strands than do the fully disordered oligomers but have fewer in-register parallel β strands than the ordered prefibrillar oligomers. Along with the ordered prefibrillar species, the disordered oligomeric states dominate at small oligomer sizes while the prefibrillar species with disordered tips thermodynamically dominate with the growth of oligomers. The topology of the aggregation landscape and observations in simulations suggest there is backtracking between ordered prefibrillar oligomers and other kinds of oligomers as the aggregation proceeds. The significant structural differences between the ordered prefibrillar oligomers and the disordered oligomers support the idea that the growth of these two kinds of oligomers involves kinetically independent parallel pathways. In contrast, the overall structural similarity between the fully ordered prefibrillar oligomers and the prefibrillar oligomers with disordered tips implies that two channels can interconvert on slower time scales. We also evaluate the effects of phosphorylation on the aggregation free energy landscape using statistical mechanical perturbation theory.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.2c03676