Unveiling the stochastic nature of human heteropolymer ferritin self-assembly mechanism.
Protein Sci
; 33(8): e5104, 2024 Aug.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38995055
ABSTRACT
Despite ferritin's critical role in regulating cellular and systemic iron levels, our understanding of the structure and assembly mechanism of isoferritins, discovered over eight decades ago, remains limited. Unveiling how the composition and molecular architecture of hetero-oligomeric ferritins confer distinct functionality to isoferritins is essential to understanding how the structural intricacies of H and L subunits influence their interactions with cellular machinery. In this study, ferritin heteropolymers with specific H to L subunit ratios were synthesized using a uniquely engineered plasmid design, followed by high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy analysis and deep learning-based amino acid modeling. Our structural examination revealed unique architectural features during the self-assembly mechanism of heteropolymer ferritins and demonstrated a significant preference for H-L heterodimer formation over H-H or L-L homodimers. Unexpectedly, while dimers seem essential building blocks in the protein self-assembly process, the overall mechanism of ferritin self-assembly is observed to proceed randomly through diverse pathways. The physiological significance of these findings is discussed including how ferritin microheterogeneity could represent a tissue-specific adaptation process that imparts distinctive tissue-specific functions to isoferritins.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Multimerización de Proteína
/
Ferritinas
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Protein Sci
Asunto de la revista:
BIOQUIMICA
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos