BMC Structural Biology - Latest articles

Interactions between the quality control ubiquitin ligase CHIP and ubiquitin conjugating enzymes.

Zhen Xu, Ekta Kohli, Karl I Devlin, Michael Bold, Jay C Nix and Saurav Misra — 2008-05-16

Background: Ubiquitin (E3) ligases interact with specific ubiquitin conjugating (E2) enzymes to ubiquitinate particular substrate proteins. As the combination of E2 and E3 dictates the type and biological consequence of ubiquitination, it is important to understand the basis of specificity in E2:E3 interactions. The E3 ligase CHIP interacts with the chaperones Hsp70 and Hsp90 and ubiquitinates client proteins bound by these chaperones. CHIP interacts with two types of E2 enzymes, UbcH5 and Ubc13-Uev1a. It is unclear, however, why CHIP binds these E2 enzymes rather than others, and whether CHIP interacts preferentially with UbcH5 or Ubc13-Uev1a, which form different types of polyubiquitin chains. Results: The 2.9 angstrom crystal structure of the CHIP U-box domain complexed with UbcH5a shows that CHIP binds to UbcH5 and Ubc13 through similar specificity determinants, including a key S-P-A motif on the E2 enzymes. The determinants make different relative contributions to the overall interactions between CHIP and the two E2 enzymes. CHIP undergoes auto-ubiquitination by UbcH5 but not Ubc13-Uev1a. Instead, CHIP drives the formation of unanchored polyubiquitin by Ubc13-Uev1a. CHIP also interacts productively with the class III E2 enzyme Ube2e2, in which the UbcH5- and Ubc13-binding specificity determinants are highly conserved. Conclusions: The CHIP:UbcH5a structure emphasizes the importance of specificity determinants located on the long loops and central helix of the CHIP U-box, and on the N-terminal helix and loops L4 and L7 of its cognate E2 enzymes. The S-P-A motif and other specificity determinants define the set of cognate E2 enzymes for CHIP, which likely includes several Class III E2 enzymes. CHIP's interactions with UbcH5, Ube2e2 and Ubc13-Uev1a are consistent with the notion that Ubc13-Uev1a may work sequentially with other E2 enzymes to carry out K63-linked polyubiquitination of CHIP substrates.

K2D2: estimation of protein secondary structure from circular dichroism spectra

Carolina Perez-Iratxeta and Miguel A Andrade-Navarro — 2008-05-13

Background: Circular dichroism spectroscopy is a widely used technique to analyze the secondary structure of proteins in solution. Predictive methods use the circular dichroism spectra from proteins of known tertiary structure to assess the secondary structure contents of a protein with unknown structure given its circular dichroism spectrum. Results: We developed K2D2, a method with an associated web server to estimate protein secondary structure from circular dichroism spectra. The method uses a self-organized map of spectra from proteins with known structure to deduce a map of protein secondary structure that is used to do the predictions. Conclusions: The K2D2 server is publicly accessible at http://www.ogic.ca/projects/k2d2/. It accepts as input a circular dichroism spectrum and outputs the estimated secondary structure content (alpha-helix and beta-strand) of the corresponding protein, as well as an estimated measure of error.

Improving the accuracy of template-based predictions by mixing and matching between initial models

Tianyun Liu, Michal Guerquin and Ram Samudrala — 2008-05-05

Background: Comparative modeling is a technique to predict the three dimensional structure of a given protein sequence based primarily on its alignment to one or more proteins with experimentally determined structures. A major bottleneck of current comparative modeling methods is the lack of methods to accurately refine a starting initial model so that it approaches the resolution of the corresponding experimental structure. We investigate the effectiveness of a graph-theoretic clique finding approach to solve this problem. Results: Our refinement method takes into account the information presented in multiple templates/alignments at the three-dimensional level by mixing and matching regions between different initial comparative models. This method enables us to obtain an optimized conformation ensemble representing the best combination of secondary structures, resulting in the refined models of higher quality. In addition, the process of refinement accumulates near-native conformations, resulting in discriminating the native-like conformation in a more effective manner. In the CASP7 experiment, the refined models produced are more accurate than the starting initial models. Conclusions: This novel approach can be applied without any manual intervention to improve the quality of comparative predictions where multiple template/alignment combinations are available for modeling, producing conformational models of higher quality than the starting initial predictions.

Exploring Allosteric Coupling in the alpha-Subunit of Heterotrimeric G Proteins Using Evolutionary and Ensemble-Based Approaches

Kemal Sayar, Ozlem Ugur, Tong Liu, Vincent J Hilser and Ongun Onaran — 2008-05-02

Background: Allosteric coupling, which can be defined as propagation of a perturbation at one region of the protein molecule (such as ligand binding) to distant sites in the same molecule, constitutes the most general mechanism of regulation of protein function. However, unlike molecular details of ligand binding, structural elements involved in allosteric effects are difficult to diagnose. Here, we used two different approaches that utilize fundamentally different and independent information to identify allosteric linkages in the alpha-subunits of heterotrimeric G proteins, which were evolved to transmit membrane receptor signals by allosteric mechanisms. Results: We analyzed: 1) correlated mutations in the G protein alpha-subunits family, and 2) cooperativity of the native state ensemble of the Galpha-i1 or transducin. The combination of these approaches not only recovered already-known details such as the switch regions that change conformation upon nucleotide exchange, and those regions that are involved in receptor, effector or G-beta-gamma interactions (indicating that the predictions of the analyses can be viewed with a measure of confidence), but also predicted new sites that are potentially involved in allosteric communication among different regions of the G-alpha protein. A summary of the new sites found in the present analysis, which were not apparent in crystallographic data, are given along with known functional and structural information, and implications of the results are discussed. Conclusions: A set of residues and/or structural elements that are potentially involved in allosteric communication in G-alpha is presented. This information can be used as a guide to structural, spectroscopic, mutational, and theoretical studies on the allosteric network in G-alpha proteins, which will provide a better understanding of G protein-mediated signal transduction.

Structural insights on the pamoic acid and the 8 kDa domain of DNA polymerase beta complex: Towards the design of higher-affinity inhibitors

2008-04-16

Background: DNA polymerase beta (pol beta), the error-prone DNA polymerase of single-stranded DNA break repair as well as base excision repair pathways, is overexpressed in several tumors and takes part in chemotherapeutic agent resistance, like that of cisplatin, through translesion synthesis. For this reason pol beta has become a therapeutic target. Several inhibitors have been identified, but none of them presents a sufficient affinity and specificity to become a drug. The fragment-based inhibitor design allows an important improvement in affinity of small molecules. The initial and critical step for setting up the fragment-based strategy consists in the identification and structural characterization of the first fragment bound to the target. Results: We have performed docking studies of pamoic acid, a 9 micromolar pol beta inhibitor, and found that it binds in a single pocket at the surface of the 8 kDa domain of pol beta. However, docking studies provided five possible conformations for pamoic acid in this site. NMR experiments were performed on the complex to select a single conformation among the five retained. Chemical Shift Mapping data confirmed pamoic acid binding site found by docking while NOESY and saturation transfer experiments provided distances between pairs of protons from the pamoic acid and those of the 8 kDa domain that allowed the identification of the correct conformation. Conclusion: Combining NMR experiments on the complex with docking results allowed us to build a three-dimensional structural model. This model serves as the starting point for further structural studies aimed at improving the affinity of pamoic acid for binding to DNA polymerase beta.

PSAIA – Protein Structure and Interaction Analyzer

2008-04-09

Background: PSAIA (Protein Structure and Interaction Analyzer) was developed to compute geometric parameters for large sets of protein structures in order to predict and investigate protein-protein interaction sites. Results: In addition to most relevant established algorithms, PSAIA offers a new method PIADA (Protein Interaction Atom Distance Algorithm) for the determination of residue interaction pairs. We found that PIADA produced more satisfactory results than comparable algorithms implemented in PSAIA.Particular advantages of PSAIA include its capacity to combine different methods to detect the locations and types of interactions between residues and its ability, without any further automation steps, to handle large numbers of protein structures and complexes. Generally, the integration of a variety of methods enables PSAIA to offer easier automation of analysis and greater reliability of results.PSAIA can be used either via a graphical user interface or from the command-line. Results are generated in either tabular or XML format. Conclusion: In a straightforward fashion and for large sets of protein structures, PSAIA enables the calculation of protein geometric parameters and the determination of location and type for protein-protein interaction sites. XML formatted output enables easy conversion of results to various formats suitable for statistic analysis.Results from smaller data sets demonstrated the influence of geometry on protein interaction sites. Comprehensive analysis of properties of large data sets lead to new information useful in the prediction of protein-protein interaction sites.

The backbone structure of the thermophilic Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis ribose binding protein is essentially identical to its mesophilic E. coli homolog

Matthew J Cuneo, Yaji Tian, Malin Allert and Homme W Hellinga — 2008-03-28

Background: Comparison of experimentally determined mesophilic and thermophilic homologous protein structures is an important tool for understanding the mechanisms that contribute to thermal stability. Of particular interest are pairs of homologous structures that are structurally very similar, but differ significantly in thermal stability. Results: We report the X-ray crystal structure of a Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis ribose binding protein (tteRBP) determined to 1.9 Å resolution. We find that tteRBP is significantly more stable (appTm value ~102°C) than the mesophilic Escherichia coli ribose binding protein (ecRBP) (appTm value ~56°C). The tteRBP has essentially the identical backbone conformation (0.41 Å RMSD of 235/271 Cα positions and 0.65 Å RMSD of 270/271 Cα positions) as ecRBP. Classification of the amino acid substitutions as a function of structure therefore allows the identification of amino acids which potentially contribute to the observed thermal stability of tteRBP in the absence of large structural heterogeneities. Conclusion: The near identity of backbone structures of this pair of proteins entails that the significant differences in their thermal stabilities are encoded exclusively by the identity of the amino acid side-chains. Furthermore, the degree of sequence divergence is strongly correlated with structure; with a high degree of conservation in the core progressing to increased diversity in the boundary and surface regions. Different factors that may possibly contribute to thermal stability appear to be differentially encoded in each of these regions of the protein. The tteRBP/ecRBP pair therefore offers an opportunity to dissect contributions to thermal stability by side-chains alone in the absence of large structural differences.

Charge environments around phosphorylation sites in proteins

James Kitchen, Rebecca E Saunders and Jim Warwicker — 2008-03-25

Background: Phosphorylation is a central feature in many biological processes. Structural analyses have identified the importance of charge-charge interactions, for example mediating phosphorylation-driven allosteric change and protein binding to phosphopeptides. Here, we examine computationally the prevalence of charge stabilisation around phosphorylated sites in the structural database, through comparison with locations that are not phosphorylated in the same structures. Results: A significant fraction of phosphorylated sites appear to be electrostatically stabilised, largely through interaction with sidechains. Some examples of stabilisation across a subunit interface are evident from calculations with biological units. When considering the immediately surrounding environment, in many cases favourable interactions are only apparent after conformational change that accompanies phosphorylation. A simple calculation of potential interactions at longer-range, applied to non-phosphorylated structures, recovers the separation exhibited by phosphorylated structures. In a study of sites in the Phospho.ELM dataset, for which structural annotation is provided by non-phosphorylated proteins, there is little separation of the known phospho-acceptor sites relative to background, even using the wider interaction radius. However, there are differences in the distributions of patch polarity for acceptor and background sites in the Phospho.ELM dataset. Conclusion: In this study, an easy to implement procedure is developed that could contribute to the identification of phospho-acceptor sites associated with charge-charge interactions and conformational change. Since the method gives information about potential anchoring interactions subsequent to phosphorylation, it could be combined with simulations that probe conformational change. Our analysis of the Phospho.ELM dataset also shows evidence for mediation of phosphorylation effects through (i) conformational change associated with making a solvent inaccessible phospho-acceptor site accessible, and (ii) modulation of protein-protein interactions.

A multi-template combination algorithm for protein comparative modeling

Jianlin Cheng — 2008-03-17

Background: Multiple protein templates are commonly used in manual protein structure prediction. However, few automated algorithms of selecting and combining multiple templates are available. Results: Here we develop an effective multi-template combination algorithm for protein comparative modeling. The algorithm selects templates according to the similarity significance of the alignments between template and target proteins. It combines the whole template-target alignments whose similarity significance score is close to that of the top template-target alignment within a threshold, whereas it only takes alignment fragments from a less similar template-target alignment that align with a sizable uncovered region of the target.We compare the algorithm with the traditional method of using a single top template on the 45 comparative modeling targets (i.e. easy template-based modeling targets) used in the seventh edition of Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP7). The multi-template combination algorithm improves the GDT-TS scores of predicted models by 6.8% on average. The statistical analysis shows that the improvement is significant (p-value < 10-4). Compared with the ideal approach that always uses the best template, the multi-template approach yields only slightly better performance. During the CASP7 experiment, the preliminary implementation of the multi-template combination algorithm (FOLDpro) was ranked second among 67 servers in the category of high-accuracy structure prediction in terms of GDT-TS measure. Conclusion: We have developed a novel multi-template algorithm to improve protein comparative modeling.

Solution structure of the Legionella pneumophila Mip-rapamycin complex

2008-03-17

Background: Legionella pneumphila is the causative agent of Legionnaires' disease. A major virulence factor of the pathogen is the homodimeric surface protein Mip. It shows peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerase activty and is a receptor of FK506 and rapamycin, which both inhibit its enzymatic function. Insight into the binding process may be used for the design of novel Mip inhibitors as potential drugs against Legionnaires' disease. Results: We have solved the solution structure of free Mip77–213 and the Mip77–213-rapamycin complex by NMR spectroscopy. Mip77–213 showed the typical FKBP-fold and only minor rearrangements upon binding of rapamycin. Apart from the configuration of a flexible hairpin loop, which is partly stabilized upon binding, the solution structure confirms the crystal structure. Comparisons to the structures of free FKBP12 and the FKBP12-rapamycin complex suggested an identical binding mode for both proteins. Conclusion: The structural similarity of the Mip-rapamycin and FKBP12-rapamycin complexes suggests that FKBP12 ligands may be promising starting points for the design of novel Mip inhibitors. The search for a novel drug against Legionnaires' disease may therefore benefit from the large variety of known FKBP12 inhibitors.

Donor substrate recognition in the raffinose-bound E342A mutant of fructosyltransferase Bacillus subtilis levansucrase

Guoyu Meng and Klaus Fütterer — 2008-03-17

Background: Fructans – β-D-fructofuranosyl polymers with a sucrose starter unit – constitute a carbohydrate reservoir synthesised by a considerable number of bacteria and plant species. Biosynthesis of levan (αGlc(1–2)βFru [(2–6)βFru]n), an abundant form of bacterial fructan, is catalysed by levansucrase (sucrose:2,6-β-D-fructan-6-β-D-fructosyl transferase), utilizing sucrose as the sole substrate. Previously, we described the tertiary structure of Bacillus subtilis levansucrase in the ligand-free and sucrose-bound forms, establishing the mechanistic roles of three invariant carboxylate side chains, Asp86, Asp247 and Glu342, which are central to the double displacement reaction mechanism of fructosyl transfer. Still, the structural determinants of the fructosyl transfer reaction thus far have been only partially defined. Results: Here, we report high-resolution structures of three levansucrase point mutants, D86A, D247A, and E342A, and that of raffinose-bound levansucrase-E342A. The D86A and D247A substitutions have little effect on the active site geometry. In marked contrast, the E342A mutant reveals conformational flexibility of functionally relevant side chains in the vicinity of the general acid Glu342, including Arg360, a residue required for levan polymerisation. The raffinose-complex reveals a conserved mode of donor substrate binding, involving minimal contacts with the raffinose galactosyl unit, which protrudes out of the active site, and specificity-determining contacts essentially restricted to the sucrosyl moiety. Conclusion: The present structures, in conjunction with prior biochemical data, lead us to hypothesise that the conformational flexibility of Arg360 is linked to it forming a transient docking site for the fructosyl-acceptor substrate, through an interaction network involving nearby Glu340 and Asn242 at the rim of a central pocket forming the active site.

GANDivAWeb: A web server for detecting early folding units ("foldons") from protein 3D structures

Thomas Laborde, Masaru Tomita and Arun Krishnan — 2008-03-07

Background: It has long been known that small regions of proteins tend to fold independently and are then stabilized by interactions between these distinct subunits or modules. Such units, also known as autonomous folding units (AFUs) or"foldons" play a key role in protein folding. A knowledge of such early folding units has diverse applications in protein engineering as well as in developing an understanding of the protein folding process. Such AFUs can also be used as model systems in order to study the structural organization of proteins. Results: In an earlier work, we had utilized a global network partitioning algorithm to identify modules in proteins. We had shown that these modules correlate well with AFUs. In this work, we have developed a webserver, GANDivAWeb, to identify early folding units or "foldons" in networks using the algorithm described earlier. The website has three functionalities: (a) It is able to display information on the modularity of a database of 1420 proteins used in the original work, (b) It can take as input an uploaded PDB file, identify the modules using the GANDivA algorithm and email the results back to the user and (c) It can take as input an uploaded PDB file and a results file (obtained from functionality (b)) and display the results using the embedded viewer. The results include the module decomposition of the protein, plots of cartoon representations of the protein colored by module identity and connectivity as well as contour plots of the hydrophobicity and relative accessible surface area (RASA) distributions. Conclusion: We believe that the GANDivAWeb server, will be a useful tool for scientists interested in the phenomena of protein folding as well as in protein engineering. Our tool not only provides a knowledge of the AFUs through a natural graph partitioning approach but is also able to identify residues that are critical during folding. It is our intention to use this tool to study the topological determinants of protein folding by analyzing the topological changes in proteins over the unfolding/folding pathways.