Detection of changes in pairwise interactions during allosteric transitions: coupling between local and global conformational changes in GroEL.
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ABSTRACT: A protein engineering approach for detecting and measuring local conformational changes that accompany allosteric transitions in proteins is described. Using this approach, we can identify interactions that are made or broken during allosteric transitions. The method is applied to probe for changes in pairwise interactions in the chaperonin GroEL during its ATP-induced allosteric transitions. Two pairwise interactions are investigated: one between subunits (Asp-41 with Thr-522) and the other within subunits (Glu-409 with Arg-501). We find that the intraring intersubunit interaction between Asp-41 and Thr-522 changes little during the allosteric transitions of GroEL, indicating that the hydrogen bond between these residues is maintained. In contrast, the intrasubunit salt bridge between Glu-409 and Arg-501 becomes significantly weaker during the ATP-induced allosteric transitions of GroEL. Our results are consistent with the electron microscopy observations of an ATP-induced hinge movement of the apical domains relative to the equatorial domains.
Project description:Escherichia coli chaperonin, GroEL, helps proteins fold under nonpermissive conditions. During the reaction cycle, GroEL undergoes allosteric transitions in response to binding of a substrate protein (SP), ATP, and the cochaperonin GroES. Using coarse-grained representations of the GroEL and GroES structures, we explore the link between allosteric transitions and the folding of a model SP, a de novo-designed four-helix bundle protein, with low spontaneous yield. The ensemble of GroEL-bound SP is less structured than the bulk misfolded structures. Upon binding, which kinetically occurs in two stages, the SP loses not only native tertiary contacts but also experiences a decrease in helical content. During multivalent binding and the subsequent ATP-driven transition of GroEL the SP undergoes force-induced stretching. Upon encapsulation, which occurs upon GroES binding, the SP finds itself in a "hydrophilic" cavity in which it can reach the folded conformation. Surprisingly, we find that the yield of the native state in the expanded GroEL cavity is relatively small even after it remains in it for twice the spontaneous folding time. Thus, in accord with the iterative annealing mechanism, multiple rounds of binding, partial unfolding, and release of the SP are required to enhance the yield of the folded SP.
Project description:The chaperonin GroEL-GroES, a machine that helps proteins to fold, cycles through a number of allosteric states, the T state, with high affinity for substrate proteins, the ATP-bound R state, and the R" (GroEL-ADP-GroES) complex. Here, we use a self-organized polymer model for the GroEL allosteric states and a general structure-based technique to simulate the dynamics of allosteric transitions in two subunits of GroEL and the heptamer. The T --> R transition, in which the apical domains undergo counterclockwise motion, is mediated by a multiple salt-bridge switch mechanism, in which a series of salt-bridges break and form. The initial event in the R -->R" transition, during which GroEL rotates clockwise, involves a spectacular outside-in movement of helices K and L that results in K80-D359 salt-bridge formation. In both the transitions there is considerable heterogeneity in the transition pathways. The transition state ensembles (TSEs) connecting the T, R, and R" states are broad with the TSE for the T --> R transition being more plastic than the R --> R" TSE.
Project description:Local conformational fluctuations in proteins can affect the coupling between ligand binding and global structural transitions. This finding was established by monitoring quantitatively how the population distribution in the ensemble of microstates of staphylococcal nuclease was affected by proton binding. Analysis of acid unfolding and proton-binding data with an ensemble-based model suggests that local fluctuations: (i) can be effective modulators of ligand-binding affinities, (ii) are important determinants of the cooperativity of ligand-driven global structural transitions, and (iii) are well represented thermodynamically as local unfolding processes. These studies illustrate how an ensemble-based description of proteins can be used to describe quantitatively the interdependence of local conformational fluctuations, ligand-binding processes, and global structural transitions. This level of understanding of the relationship between conformation, energy, and dynamics is required for a detailed mechanistic understanding of allostery, cooperativity, and other complex functional and regulatory properties of macromolecules.
Project description:Structure-based elastic network models (ENMs) have been remarkably successful in describing conformational transitions in a variety of biological systems. Low-frequency normal modes are usually calculated from the ENM that characterizes elastic interactions between residues in contact in a given protein structure with a uniform force constant. To explore the dynamical effects of nonuniform elastic interactions, we calculate the robustness and coupling of the low-frequency modes in the presence of nonuniform variations in the ENM force constant. The variations in the elastic interactions, approximated here by Gaussian noise, approximately account for perturbation effects of heterogeneous residue-residue interactions or evolutionary sequence changes within a protein family. First-order perturbation theory provides an efficient and qualitatively correct estimate of the mode robustness and mode coupling for finite perturbations to the ENM force constant. The mode coupling analysis and the mode robustness analysis identify groups of strongly coupled modes that encode for protein functional motions. We illustrate the new concepts using myosin II motor protein as an example. The biological implications of mode coupling in tuning the allosteric couplings among the actin-binding site, the nucleotide-binding site, and the force-generating converter and lever arm in myosin isoforms are discussed. We evaluate the robustness of the correlation functions that quantify the allosteric couplings among these three key structural motifs.
Project description:Noble gases have well-established biological effects, yet their molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated, both experimentally and computationally, the molecular modes of xenon (Xe) action in bacteriophage T4 lysozyme (T4L). By combining indirect gassing methods with a colorimetric lysozyme activity assay, a reversible, Xe-specific (20 ± 3)% inhibition effect was observed. Accelerated molecular dynamic simulations revealed that Xe exerts allosteric inhibition on the protein by expanding a C-terminal hydrophobic cavity. Xe-induced cavity expansion results in global conformational changes, with long-range transduction distorting the active site where peptidoglycan binds. Interestingly, the peptide substrate binding site that enables lysozyme specificity does not change conformation. Two T4L mutants designed to reshape the C-terminal Xe cavity established a correlation between cavity expansion and enzyme inhibition. This work also highlights the use of Xe flooding simulations to identify new cryptic binding pockets. These results enrich our understanding of Xe-protein interactions at the molecular level and inspire further biochemical investigations with noble gases.
Project description:Identification of pathways involved in the structural transitions of biomolecular systems is often complicated by the transient nature of the conformations visited across energy barriers and the multiplicity of paths accessible in the multidimensional energy landscape. This task becomes even more challenging in exploring molecular systems on the order of megadaltons. Coarse-grained models that lend themselves to analytical solutions appear to be the only possible means of approaching such cases. Motivated by the utility of elastic network models for describing the collective dynamics of biomolecular systems and by the growing theoretical and experimental evidence in support of the intrinsic accessibility of functional substates, we introduce a new method, adaptive anisotropic network model (aANM), for exploring functional transitions. Application to bacterial chaperonin GroEL and comparisons with experimental data, results from action minimization algorithm, and previous simulations support the utility of aANM as a computationally efficient, yet physically plausible, tool for unraveling potential transition pathways sampled by large complexes/assemblies. An important outcome is the assessment of the critical inter-residue interactions formed/broken near the transition state(s), most of which involve conserved residues.
Project description:Fdc1 is a decarboxylase enzyme that requires the novel prenylated FMN cofactor for activity. Here, we use it as an exemplar system to show how native top-down and bottom-up mass spectrometry can measure the structural effect of cofactor binding by a protein. For Fdc1(Ubix), the cofactor confers structural stability to the enzyme. IM-MS shows the holo protein to exist in four closely related conformational families, the populations of which differ in the apo form; the two smaller families are more populated in the presence of the cofactor and depopulated in its absence. These findings, supported by MD simulations, indicate a more open structure for the apo form. HDX-MS reveals that while the dominant structural changes occur proximal to the cofactor-binding site, rearrangements on cofactor binding are evident throughout the protein, predominantly attributable to allosteric conformational tightening, consistent with IM-MS data.
Project description:In allosteric regulation, an effector molecule binding a protein at one site induces conformational changes, which alter structure and function at a distant active site. Two key challenges in the computational modeling of allostery are the prediction of the structure of one allosteric state starting from the structure of the other, and elucidating the mechanisms underlying the conformational coupling of the effector and active sites. Here we approach these two challenges using the Rosetta high-resolution structure prediction methodology. We find that the method can recapitulate the relaxation of effector-bound forms of single domain allosteric proteins into the corresponding ligand-free states, particularly when sampling is focused on regions known to change conformation most significantly. Analysis of the coupling between contacting pairs of residues in large ensembles of conformations spread throughout the landscape between and around the two allosteric states suggests that the transitions are built up from blocks of tightly coupled interacting sets of residues that are more loosely coupled to one another.
Project description:Glycine Receptors (GlyRs) provide inhibitory neuronal input in the spinal cord and brainstem, which is critical for muscle coordination and sensory perception. Synaptic GlyRs are a heteromeric assembly of α and β subunits. Here we present cryo-EM structures of full-length zebrafish α1βBGlyR in the presence of an antagonist (strychnine), agonist (glycine), or agonist with a positive allosteric modulator (glycine/ivermectin). Each structure shows a distinct pore conformation with varying degrees of asymmetry. Molecular dynamic simulations found the structures were in a closed (strychnine) and desensitized states (glycine and glycine/ivermectin). Ivermectin binds at all five interfaces, but in a distinct binding pose at the β-α interface. Subunit-specific features were sufficient to solve structures without a fiduciary marker and to confirm the 4α:1β stoichiometry recently observed. We also report features of the extracellular and intracellular domains. Together, our results show distinct compositional and conformational properties of α1βGlyR and provide a framework for further study of this physiologically important channel.
Project description:BackgroundSequence alignment algorithms are a key component of many bioinformatics applications. Though various fast Smith-Waterman local sequence alignment implementations have been developed for x86 CPUs, most are embedded into larger database search tools. In addition, fast implementations of Needleman-Wunsch global sequence alignment and its semi-global variants are not as widespread. This article presents the first software library for local, global, and semi-global pairwise intra-sequence alignments and improves the performance of previous intra-sequence implementations.ResultsA faster intra-sequence local pairwise alignment implementation is described and benchmarked, including new global and semi-global variants. Using a 375 residue query sequence a speed of 136 billion cell updates per second (GCUPS) was achieved on a dual Intel Xeon E5-2670 24-core processor system, the highest reported for an implementation based on Farrar's 'striped' approach. Rognes's SWIPE optimal database search application is still generally the fastest available at 1.2 to at best 2.4 times faster than Parasail for sequences shorter than 500 amino acids. However, Parasail was faster for longer sequences. For global alignments, Parasail's prefix scan implementation is generally the fastest, faster even than Farrar's 'striped' approach, however the opal library is faster for single-threaded applications. The software library is designed for 64 bit Linux, OS X, or Windows on processors with SSE2, SSE41, or AVX2. Source code is available from https://github.com/jeffdaily/parasail under the Battelle BSD-style license.ConclusionsApplications that require optimal alignment scores could benefit from the improved performance. For the first time, SIMD global, semi-global, and local alignments are available in a stand-alone C library.