RESUMO
CHCHD2 and CHCHD10, linked to Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal dementia (ALS), respectively, are mitochondrial intermembrane proteins that form a heterodimer. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the CHCHD2 P14L variant, implicated in ALS, on mitochondrial function and its subsequent effects on cellular homeostasis. The missense variant of CHCHD2, P14L, found in a cohort of patients with ALS, mislocalized CHCHD2 to the cytoplasm, leaving CHCHD10 in the mitochondria. Drosophila lacking the CHCHD2 ortholog exhibited mitochondrial degeneration. In contrast, human CHCHD2 P14L, but not wild-type human CHCHD2, failed to suppress this degeneration, suggesting that P14L is a pathogenic variant. The mitochondrial Ca2+ buffering capacity was reduced in Drosophila neurons expressing human CHCHD2 P14L. The altered Ca2+-buffering phenotype was also observed in cultured human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells expressing CHCHD2 P14L. In these cells, transient elevation of cytoplasmic Ca2+ facilitated the activation of calpain and caspase-3, accompanied by the processing and insolubilization of TDP-43. These observations suggest that CHCHD2 P14L causes abnormal Ca2+ dynamics and TDP-43 aggregation, reflecting the pathophysiology of ALS.
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Transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) channels are activated by heat, vanilloids, and extracellular protons. Cryo-EM has revealed various conformations of TRPV1, and these structures suggest an intramolecular twisting motion in response to ligand binding. However, limited experimental data support this observation. Here, we analyzed the intramolecular motion of TRPV1 using diffracted X-ray tracking (DXT). DXT analyzes trajectories of Laue spots generated from attached gold nanocrystals and provides picometer spatial and microsecond time scale information about the intramolecular motion. We observed that both an agonist and a competitive antagonist evoked a rotating bias in TRPV1, though these biases were in opposing directions. Furthermore, the rotational bias generated by capsaicin was reversed between the wild-type and the capsaicin-insensitive Y511A mutant. Our findings bolster the understanding of the mechanisms used for activation and modulation of TRP channels, and this knowledge can be exploited for pharmacological usage such as inhibitor design.
Assuntos
Capsaicina , Temperatura Alta , Capsaicina/farmacologia , Movimento (Física) , PrótonsRESUMO
The C-terminal Ig-domain of lamin A plays critical roles in cell function via interaction with proteins, DNA, and chromatin. Mutations in this domain are known to cause various diseases including Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD) and familial partial lipodystrophy (FPLD). Here we examined the biophysical and biochemical properties of mutant Ig-domains identified in patients with EDMD and FPLD. EDMD-related mutant Ig-domain showed decreased stability to heat and denaturant. This result was also confirmed by experiments using full-length mutant lamin A, although the decrease in melting temperature was much less than that of the mutant Ig-domain alone. The unstable EDMD Ig-domain disrupted the proper assembly of lamin A, resulting in abnormal paracrystal formation and decreased viscosity. In contrast, FPLD-related mutant Ig-domains were thermally stable, although they lost DNA binding function. Alanine substitution experiments revealed a functional domain of DNA binding in the Ig-domain. Thus, the overall biophysical property of Ig-domains is closely associated with clinical phenotype.
Assuntos
Lamina Tipo A/química , Distrofia Muscular de Emery-Dreifuss/metabolismo , Substituição de Aminoácidos , Fenômenos Biofísicos , DNA/química , DNA/metabolismo , Humanos , Técnicas In Vitro , Lamina Tipo A/genética , Lamina Tipo A/metabolismo , Lipodistrofia Parcial Familiar/genética , Lipodistrofia Parcial Familiar/metabolismo , Microscopia Eletrônica de Transmissão , Modelos Moleculares , Distrofia Muscular de Emery-Dreifuss/genética , Mutação , Fragmentos de Peptídeos/química , Fragmentos de Peptídeos/genética , Fragmentos de Peptídeos/metabolismo , Domínios Proteicos , Estabilidade Proteica , Proteínas Recombinantes/química , Proteínas Recombinantes/genética , Proteínas Recombinantes/metabolismoRESUMO
Eukaryotic mature mRNAs possess a poly adenylate tail (poly(A)), to which multiple molecules of poly(A)-binding protein C1 (PABPC1) bind. PABPC1 regulates translation and mRNA metabolism by binding to regulatory proteins. To understand functional mechanism of the regulatory proteins, it is necessary to reveal how multiple molecules of PABPC1 exist on poly(A). Here, we characterize the structure of the multiple molecules of PABPC1 on poly(A), by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), chemical cross-linking, and NMR spectroscopy. The TEM images and chemical cross-linking results indicate that multiple PABPC1 molecules form a wormlike structure in the PABPC1-poly(A) complex, in which the PABPC1 molecules are linearly arrayed. NMR and cross-linking analyses indicate that PABPC1 forms a multimer by binding to the neighbouring PABPC1 molecules via interactions between the RNA recognition motif (RRM) 2 in one molecule and the middle portion of the linker region of another molecule. A PABPC1 mutant lacking the interaction site in the linker, which possesses an impaired ability to form the multimer, reduced the in vitro translation activity, suggesting the importance of PABPC1 multimer formation in the translation process. We therefore propose a model of the PABPC1 multimer that provides clues to comprehensively understand the regulation mechanism of mRNA translation.
Assuntos
Poli A/metabolismo , Proteína I de Ligação a Poli(A)/química , Proteína I de Ligação a Poli(A)/metabolismo , Sítios de Ligação , Humanos , Espectroscopia de Ressonância Magnética , Microscopia Eletrônica de Transmissão , Mutação , Proteína I de Ligação a Poli(A)/genética , Ligação Proteica , Multimerização Proteica , RNA Mensageiro/química , RNA Mensageiro/metabolismoRESUMO
The NaChBac is a prokaryotic homologue of the voltage-gated sodium channel found in the genome of the alkalophilic bacterium Bacillus halodurans C-125. Like a repeating cassette of mammalian sodium channel, the NaChBac possesses hydrophobic domains corresponding to six putative transmembrane segments and a pore loop, and exerts channel function by forming a tetramer although detailed mechanisms of subunit assembly remain unclear. We generated truncated mutants from NaChBac, and investigated their ability to form tetramers in relation to their channel functions. A mutant that deletes almost all of the C-terminal coiled-coil structure lost its voltage-dependent ion permeability, although it was properly translocated to the cell surface. The mutant protein was purified as a tetramer using a reduced concentration of detergent, but the association between the subunits was shown to be much weaker than the wild type. The chemical cross-linking, blue native PAGE, sedimentation velocity experiments, size exclusion chromatography, immunoprecipitation, and electron microscopy all supported its tetrameric assembly. We further purified the C-terminal cytoplasmic domain alone and confirmed its self-oligomerization. These data suggest that the C-terminal coiled-coil structure stabilizes subunit-to-subunit interactions of NaChBac, but is not critical for their tetramer formation.
Assuntos
Bacillus/metabolismo , Ativação do Canal Iônico/fisiologia , Canais de Sódio/química , Canais de Sódio/metabolismo , Biotina/química , Biotina/metabolismo , Reagentes de Ligações Cruzadas/química , Citoplasma/química , Citoplasma/genética , Citoplasma/metabolismo , Eletroforese , Eletrofisiologia , Interações Hidrofóbicas e Hidrofílicas , Imunoprecipitação , Ativação do Canal Iônico/genética , Mutação , Multimerização Proteica , Estabilidade Proteica , Subunidades Proteicas/química , Subunidades Proteicas/genética , Subunidades Proteicas/metabolismo , Canais de Sódio/genética , UltracentrifugaçãoRESUMO
Membrane proteins play important roles in cell functions such as neurotransmission, muscle contraction, and hormone secretion, but their structures are mostly undetermined. Several techniques have been developed to elucidate the structure of macromolecules; X-ray or electron crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and high-resolution electron microscopy. Electron microscopy-based single particle reconstruction, a computer-aided structure determination method, reconstructs a three-dimensional (3D) structure from projections of monodispersed protein. A large number of particle images are picked up from EM films, aligned and classified to generate two-dimensional (2D) averages, and, using the Euler angle of each 2D average, reconstructed into a 3D structure. This method is challenging due to the necessity for close collaboration between classical biochemistry and innovative information technology, including parallel computing. However, recent progress in electron microscopy, mathematical algorithms, and computational ability has greatly increased the subjects that are considered to be primarily addressable using single particle reconstruction. Membrane proteins are one of these targets to which the single particle reconstruction is successfully applied for understanding of their structures. In this paper, we will introduce recently reconstructed channel-related proteins and discuss the applicability of this technique in understanding molecular structures and their roles in pathology.
Assuntos
Biologia Computacional/métodos , Proteínas de Membrana/química , Conformação Proteica , Biomarcadores/análise , Biomarcadores/química , Proteínas de Membrana/ultraestrutura , PatologiaRESUMO
The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) chloride channel is a membrane-integral protein that belongs to an ATP-binding cassette superfamily. Mutations in the CFTR gene cause cystic fibrosis in which salt, water, and protein transports are defective in various tissues. Here we expressed wild-type human CFTR as a FLAG-fused protein in HEK293 cells heterologously and purified it in three steps: anti-FLAG and wheat germ agglutinin affinity chromatographies and size exclusion chromatography. The stoichiometry of the protein was analyzed using various biochemical approaches, including chemical cross-linking, blue-native PAGE, size exclusion chromatography, and electron microscopy (EM) observation of antibody-decorated CFTR. All these data support a dimeric assembly of CFTR. Using 5,039 automatically selected particles from negatively stained EM images, the three-dimensional structure of CFTR was reconstructed at 2-nm resolution assuming a 2-fold symmetry. CFTR, presumably in a closed state, was shown to be an ellipsoidal particle with dimensions of 120 x 106 x 162 A. It comprises a small dome-shaped extracellular and membrane-spanning domain and a large cytoplasmic domain with orifices beneath the putative transmembrane domain. EM observation of CFTR.anti-regulatory domain antibody complex confirmed that two regulatory domains are located around the bottom end of the larger oval cytoplasmic domain.
Assuntos
Regulador de Condutância Transmembrana em Fibrose Cística/metabolismo , Linhagem Celular , Membrana Celular/metabolismo , Cromatografia/métodos , Reagentes de Ligações Cruzadas/farmacologia , Citoplasma/metabolismo , DNA Complementar/metabolismo , Regulação da Expressão Gênica , Humanos , Processamento de Imagem Assistida por Computador , Cinética , Microscopia Eletrônica de Transmissão , Ligação Proteica , Conformação Proteica , Estrutura Terciária de ProteínaRESUMO
Using single particle images taken by electron microscopy, pH-dependent conformational changes of human serum albumin were investigated. Despite the noisy particle images of negatively stained serum albumin (67 kDa), our novel algorithm for automated particle picking and reference-free classification resulted in the appropriate grouping of the particle images. Iteratively aligned particle images in the same group provided recognizable image features for individual groups. In a pH 7.0 study, monomer images were consistent with an available crystal structure model; the dimer images were separated into different classes. At pH 3.5, the monomer images were similar to those at pH 7.0; slight differences included a small number of elongated conformations and increased population of larger multimers. Our images were also compared with projection images of an atomic model from crystallography, and demonstrated consistency of the molecular conformation both at pH 7.0 and pH 3.5. Our classification method was effective in discriminating monomers from a mixture of different conformations of the protein, enabling the study of the conformational dynamics of small proteins, using the atomic model as a reference.