Excluded Volume and Weak Interactions in Crowded Solutions Modulate Conformations and RNA Binding of an Intrinsically Disordered Tail.

ABSTRACT: The cellular milieu is a solution crowded with a significant concentration of different components (proteins, nucleic acids, metabolites, etc.). Such a crowded environment affects protein conformations, dynamics, and interactions. Intrinsically disordered proteins and regions are particularly sensitive to these effects. Here, we investigate the impact on an intrinsically disordered tail that flanks a folded domain, the N-terminal domain, and the RNA-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein. We mimic the crowded environment of the cell using polyethylene glycol (PEG) and study its impact on protein conformations using single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer. We found that high-molecular-weight PEG induces a collapse of the disordered N-terminal tail, whereas lo

SUBMITTER: Stringer MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10331728 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature