Search results for "protein folding"
showing 10 items of 196 documents
The structure of Yersinia pestis Caf1 polymer in free and adjuvant bound states
2010
Caf1 of the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis is a polymeric virulence factor and vaccine component, formed from monomers by a donor strand exchange (DSE) mechanism. Here, EM images of Caf1 reveal flexible polymers up to 1.5 microm long (4MDa). The bead-like structures along the polymer are 5.8 + or - 1 nm long and correspond to single Caf1 proteins. Short polymers often form circles, presumably by DSE. We also provide the first images of proteins bound to alhydrogel adjuvant. Caf1, hemocyanin and anthrax PA are all resolved clearly and Caf1 exhibits adjuvant bound stretches with long intervening loops draped from the edges.
The crystal structure of a cockroach pheromone-binding protein suggests a new ligand binding and release mechanism.
2003
Pheromone-binding proteins (PBPs) are small helical proteins found in sensorial organs, particularly in the antennae, of moth and other insect species. They were proposed to solubilize and carry the hydrophobic pheromonal compounds through the antennal lymph to receptors, participating thus in the peri-receptor events of signal transduction. The x-ray structure of Bombyx mori PBP (BmorPBP), from male antennae, revealed a six-helix fold forming a cavity that contains the pheromone bombykol. We have identified a PBP (LmaPBP) from the cockroach Leucophaea maderae in the antennae of the females, the gender attracted by pheromones in this species. Here we report the crystal structure of LmaPBP a…
A human CCT5 gene mutation causing distal neuropathy impairs hexadecamer assembly in an archaeal model
2014
Chaperonins mediate protein folding in a cavity formed by multisubunit rings. The human CCT has eight non-identical subunits and the His147Arg mutation in one subunit, CCT5, causes neuropathy. Knowledge is scarce on the impact of this and other mutations upon the chaperone's structure and functions. To make progress, experimental models must be developed. We used an archaeal mutant homolog and demonstrated that the His147Arg mutant has impaired oligomeric assembly, ATPase activity, and defective protein homeostasis functions. These results establish for the first time that a human chaperonin gene defect can be reproduced and studied at the molecular level with an archaeal homolog. The major…
ProteoPlex: stability optimization of macromolecular complexes by sparse-matrix screening of chemical space.
2015
Molecular machines or macromolecular complexes are supramolecular assemblies of biomolecules that ensure cellular homeostasis. Structure determination of those complexes in a purified state is often a tedious undertaking due to the compositional complexity and the related relative structural instability. To improve the stability of macromolecular complexes in vitro, we present here a generic method that optimizes the stability, homogeneity and solubility of macromolecular complexes by sparse-matrix screening of their thermal unfolding behaviour in the presence of various buffers and small molecules. The method includes the automated analysis of thermal unfolding curves based on a newly deve…
Mutational analysis of disulfide bonds in the trypsin-reactive subdomain of a Bowman-Birk-type inhibitor of trypsin and chymotrypsin--cooperative ver…
1998
It is widely believed that protein folding is a hierarchical process proceeding from secondary structure via subdomains and domains towards the complete tertiary structure. Accordingly, protein subdomains should behave as independent folding units. However, this prediction would underestimate the well-established structural significance of tertiary context and domain interfaces in proteins. The principal objective of this work was to distinguish between autonomous and cooperative refolding of protein subdomains by means of mutational analysis. The double-headed Bowman-Birk inhibitor of trypsin and chymotrypsin of known crystal structure was selected for study. The relative orientation of th…
Design of a bivalent peptide with two independent elements of secondary structure able to fold autonomously.
2008
This article describes a strategy to develop, starting from a de novo design, bivalent peptides containing two different (alpha-helix and beta-hairpin) and independent secondary-structure elements. The design was based on the use of conformationally restricted peptide libraries. Structural characterization by NMR revealed that the peptides were stable and did not show any long-range NOE interactions between the N-terminal beta-hairpin and the C-terminal alpha-helix. These results suggest that the two elements of secondary structure are stable and well folded. Copyright (C) 2008 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons. Ltd.
Multiscale simulations of protein landscapes: Using coarse-grained models as reference potentials to full explicit models
2010
Evaluating the free-energy landscape of proteins and the corresponding functional aspects presents a major challenge for computer simulation approaches. This challenge is due to the complexity of the landscape and the enormous computer time needed for converging simulations. The use of simplified coarse-grained (CG) folding models offers an effective way of sampling the landscape but such a treatment, however, may not give the correct description of the effect of the actual protein residues. A general way around this problem that has been put forward in our early work (Fan et al., Theor Chem Acc 1999;103:77-80) uses the CG model as a reference potential for free-energy calculations of diffe…
The regulation mechanism for the auto-inhibition of binding of human filamin A to integrin.
2009
The ability of adhesion receptors to transmit biochemical signals and mechanical force across cell membranes depends on interactions with the actin cytoskeleton. Human filamins are large actin cross-linking proteins that connect integrins to the cytoskeleton. Filamin binding to the cytoplasmic tail of beta integrins has been shown to prevent integrin activation in cells, which is important for controlling cell adhesion and migration. The molecular-level mechanism for filamin binding to integrin has been unclear, however, as it was recently demonstrated that filamin undergoes intramolecular auto-inhibition of integrin binding. In this study, using steered molecular dynamics simulations, we f…
When two turn into one: evolution of membrane transporters from half modules
2014
Abstract The recently increasing number of atomic structures for active transporters has not only revealed strong conservation in the architecture of sequence-unrelated transporter families, but also identified a unifying element called the ‘inverted repeat topology,’ which is found in nearly all transporter folds to date. Indeed, most membrane transporters consist of two or more domains with similar structure, so-called repeats. It is tempting to speculate that transporters have evolved by duplication of one repeat followed by gene fusion and modification events. An intriguing question is, whether recent genes encoding such a ‘half-transporter’ still exist as independent folding units. Alt…
Folding and stability of the aquaglyceroporin GlpF: Implications for human aqua(glycero)porin diseases
2015
AbstractAquaporins are highly selective polytopic transmembrane channel proteins that facilitate the permeation of water across cellular membranes in a large diversity of organisms. Defects in aquaporin function are associated with common diseases, such as nephrogenic diabetes insipidus, congenital cataract and certain types of cancer. In general, aquaporins have a highly conserved structure; from prokaryotes to humans. The conserved structure, together with structural dynamics and the structural framework for substrate selectivity is discussed. The folding pathway of aquaporins has been a topic of several studies in recent years. These studies revealed that a conserved protein structure ca…