Divergent Evolution of a Protein-Protein Interaction Revealed through Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction and Resurrection.

The postsynaptic density extends across the postsynaptic dendritic spine with discs large (DLG) as the most abundant scaffolding protein. DLG dynamically alters the structure of the postsynaptic density, thus controlling the function and distribution of specific receptors at the synapse. DLG contains three PDZ domains and one important interaction governing postsynaptic architecture is that between the PDZ3 domain from DLG and a protein called cysteine-rich interactor of PDZ3 (CRIPT). However, little is known regarding functional evolution of the PDZ3:CRIPT interaction. Here, we subjected PDZ3 and CRIPT to ancestral sequence reconstruction, resurrection, and biophysical experiments. We show that the PDZ3:CRIPT interaction is an ancient interaction, which was likely present in the last common ancestor of Eukaryotes, and that high affinity is maintained in most extant animal phyla. However, affinity is low in nematodes and insects, raising questions about the physiological function of the interaction in species from these animal groups. Our findings demonstrate how an apparently established protein-protein interaction involved in cellular scaffolding in bilaterians can suddenly be subject to dynamic evolution including possible loss of function.

ELM-the eukaryotic linear motif resource in 2020.

The eukaryotic linear motif (ELM) resource is a repository of manually curated experimentally validated short linear motifs (SLiMs). Since the initial release almost 20 years ago, ELM has become an indispensable resource for the molecular biology community for investigating functional regions in many proteins. In this update, we have added 21 novel motif classes, made major revisions to 12 motif classes and added >400 new instances mostly focused on DNA damage, the cytoskeleton, SH2-binding phosphotyrosine motifs and motif mimicry by pathogenic bacterial effector proteins. The current release of the ELM database contains 289 motif classes and 3523 individual protein motif instances manually curated from 3467 scientific publications. ELM is available at: http://elm.eu.org.

UbaLAI is a monomeric Type IIE restriction enzyme.

Type II restriction endonucleases (REases) form a large and highly diverse group of enzymes. Even REases specific for a common recognition site often vary in their oligomeric structure, domain organization and DNA cleavage mechanisms. Here we report biochemical and structural characterization of the monomeric restriction endonuclease UbaLAI, specific for the pseudosymmetric DNA sequence 5'-CC/WGG-3' (where W = A/T, and '/' marks the cleavage position). We present a 1.6 Å co-crystal structure of UbaLAI N-terminal domain (UbaLAI-N) and show that it resembles the B3-family domain of EcoRII specific for the 5'-CCWGG-3' sequence. We also find that UbaLAI C-terminal domain (UbaLAI-C) is closely related to the monomeric REase MvaI, another enzyme specific for the 5'-CCWGG-3' sequence. Kinetic studies of UbaLAI revealed that it requires two recognition sites for optimal activity, and, like other type IIE enzymes, uses one copy of a recognition site to stimulate cleavage of a second copy. We propose that during the reaction UbaLAI-N acts as a handle that tethers the monomeric UbaLAI-C domain to the DNA, thereby helping UbaLAI-C to perform two sequential DNA nicking reactions on the second recognition site during a single DNA-binding event. A similar reaction mechanism may be characteristic to other monomeric two-domain REases.

PON-SC - program for identifying steric clashes caused by amino acid substitutions.

BACKGROUND: Amino acid substitutions due to DNA nucleotide replacements are frequently disease-causing because of affecting functionally important sites. If the substituting amino acid does not fit into the protein, it causes structural alterations that are often harmful. Clashes of amino acids cause local or global structural changes. Testing structural compatibility of variations has been difficult due to the lack of a dedicated method that could handle vast amounts of variation data produced by next generation sequencing technologies. RESULTS: We developed a method, PON-SC, for detecting protein structural clashes due to amino acid substitutions. The method utilizes side chain rotamer library and tests whether any of the common rotamers can be fitted into the protein structure. The tool was tested both with variants that cause and do not cause clashes and found to have accuracy of 0.71 over five test datasets. CONCLUSIONS: We developed a fast method for residue side chain clash detection. The method provides in addition to the prediction also visualization of the variant in three dimensional structure.

Short linear motif candidates in the cell entry system used by SARS-CoV-2 and their potential therapeutic implications.

The first reported receptor for SARS-CoV-2 on host cells was the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). However, the viral spike protein also has an RGD motif, suggesting that cell surface integrins may be co-receptors. We examined the sequences of ACE2 and integrins with the Eukaryotic Linear Motif (ELM) resource and identified candidate short linear motifs (SLiMs) in their short, unstructured, cytosolic tails with potential roles in endocytosis, membrane dynamics, autophagy, cytoskeleton, and cell signaling. These SLiM candidates are highly conserved in vertebrates and may interact with the µ2 subunit of the endocytosis-associated AP2 adaptor complex, as well as with various protein domains (namely, I-BAR, LC3, PDZ, PTB, and SH2) found in human signaling and regulatory proteins. Several motifs overlap in the tail sequences, suggesting that they may act as molecular switches, such as in response to tyrosine phosphorylation status. Candidate LC3-interacting region (LIR) motifs are present in the tails of integrin ß3 and ACE2, suggesting that these proteins could directly recruit autophagy components. Our findings identify several molecular links and testable hypotheses that could uncover mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 attachment, entry, and replication against which it may be possible to develop host-directed therapies that dampen viral infection and disease progression. Several of these SLiMs have now been validated to mediate the predicted peptide interactions.

How to Annotate and Submit a Short Linear Motif to the Eukaryotic Linear Motif Resource.

Over the past few years, it has become apparent that approximately 35% of the human proteome consists of intrinsically disordered regions. Many of these disordered regions are rich in short linear motifs (SLiMs) which mediate protein-protein interactions. Although these motifs are short and often partially conserved, they are involved in many important aspects of protein function, including cleavage, targeting, degradation, docking, phosphorylation, and other posttranslational modifications. The Eukaryotic Linear Motif resource (ELM) was established over 15 years ago as a repository to store and catalogue the scientific discoveries of motifs. Each motif in the database is annotated and curated manually, based on the experimental evidence gathered from publications. The entries themselves are submitted to ELM by filling in two annotation templates designed for motif class and motif instance annotation. In this protocol, we describe the steps involved in annotating new motifs and how to submit them to ELM.

PDZ Domains as Drug Targets.

Protein-protein interactions within protein networks shape the human interactome, which often is promoted by specialized protein interaction modules, such as the postsynaptic density-95 (PSD-95), discs-large, zona occludens 1 (ZO-1) (PDZ) domains. PDZ domains play a role in several cellular functions, from cell-cell communication and polarization, to regulation of protein transport and protein metabolism. PDZ domain proteins are also crucial in the formation and stability of protein complexes, establishing an important bridge between extracellular stimuli detected by transmembrane receptors and intracellular responses. PDZ domains have been suggested as promising drug targets in several diseases, ranging from neurological and oncological disorders to viral infections. In this review, the authors describe structural and genetic aspects of PDZ-containing proteins and discuss the current status of the development of small-molecule and peptide modulators of PDZ domains. An overview of potential new therapeutic interventions in PDZ-mediated protein networks is also provided.