Encounter complexes and dimensionality reduction in protein-protein association

An outstanding challenge has been to understand the mechanism whereby proteins associate. We report here the results of exhaustively sampling the conformational space in protein–protein association using a physics-based energy function. The agreement between experimental intermolecular paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) data and the PRE profiles calculated from the docked structures shows that the method captures both specific and non-specific encounter complexes. To explore the energy landscape in the vicinity of the native structure, the nonlinear manifold describing the relative orientation of two solid bodies is projected onto a Euclidean space in which the shape of low energy regions is studied by principal component analysis. Results show that the energy surface is canyon-like, with a smooth funnel within a two dimensional subspace capturing over 75% of the total motion. Thus, proteins tend to associate along preferred pathways, similar to sliding of a protein along DNA in the process of protein-DNA recognition

The denatured state of N-PGK is compact and predominantly disordered

The Organisation of the structure present in the chemically denatured N-terminal domain of phosphoglycerate kinase (N-PGK) has been determined by paramagnetic relaxation enhancements (PREs) to define the conformational landscape accessible to the domain. Below 2.0 M guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl), a species of N-PGK (denoted I-b) is detected, distinct from those previously characterised by kinetic experiments [folded (F), kinetic intermediate (I-k) and denatured (D)]. The transition to I-b is never completed at equilibrium, because F predominates below 1.0 M GuHCl. Therefore, the ability of PREs to report on transient or low population species has been exploited to characterise I-b. Five single cysteine variants of N-PGK were labelled with the nitroxide electron spin-label MTSL [(1-oxyl-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3-pyrroline-3-methyl)methanesulfonate] and the denaturant dependences of the relaxation properties of the amide NMR signals between 1.2 and 3.6 M GuHCl were determined. Significant PREs for I-b were obtained, but these were distributed almost uniformly throughout the sequence. Furthermore, the PREs indicate that no specific short tertiary contacts persist. The data indicate a collapsed state with no coherent three-dimensional structure, but with a restricted radius beyond which the protein chain rarely reaches. The NMR characteristics Of I-b indicate that it forms from the fully denatured state within 100 mu s, and therefore a rapid collapse is the initial stage of folding of N-PGK from its chemically denatured state. By extrapolation, I-b is the predominant form of the denatured state under native conditions, and the non-specifically collapsed structure implies that many non-native contacts and chain reversals form early in protein folding and must be broken prior to attaining the native state topology. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Structural characterization of intrinsically disordered proteins by NMR spectroscopy.

Recent advances in NMR methodology and techniques allow the structural investigation of biomolecules of increasing size with atomic resolution. NMR spectroscopy is especially well-suited for the study of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) which are in general highly flexible and do not have a well-defined secondary or tertiary structure under functional conditions. In the last decade, the important role of IDPs in many essential cellular processes has become more evident as the lack of a stable tertiary structure of many protagonists in signal transduction, transcription regulation and cell-cycle regulation has been discovered. The growing demand for structural data of IDPs required the development and adaption of methods such as 13C-direct detected experiments, paramagnetic relaxation enhancements (PREs) or residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) for the study of 'unstructured' molecules in vitro and in-cell. The information obtained by NMR can be processed with novel computational tools to generate conformational ensembles that visualize the conformations IDPs sample under functional conditions. Here, we address NMR experiments and strategies that enable the generation of detailed structural models of IDPs

Protein docking refinement by convex underestimation in the low-dimensional subspace of encounter complexes

We propose a novel stochastic global optimization algorithm with applications to the refinement stage of protein docking prediction methods. Our approach can process conformations sampled from multiple clusters, each roughly corresponding to a different binding energy funnel. These clusters are obtained using a density-based clustering method. In each cluster, we identify a smooth “permissive” subspace which avoids high-energy barriers and then underestimate the binding energy function using general convex polynomials in this subspace. We use the underestimator to bias sampling towards its global minimum. Sampling and subspace underestimation are repeated several times and the conformations sampled at the last iteration form a refined ensemble. We report computational results on a comprehensive benchmark of 224 protein complexes, establishing that our refined ensemble significantly improves the quality of the conformations of the original set given to the algorithm. We also devise a method to enhance the ensemble from which near-native models are selected.Published versio

A rigid disulfide-linked nitroxide side chain simplifies the quantitative analysis of PRE data

The measurement of 1H transverse paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) has been used in biomolecular systems to determine long-range distance restraints and to visualize sparsely-populated transient states. The intrinsic flexibility of most nitroxide and metalchelating paramagnetic spin-labels, however, complicates the quantitative interpretation of PREs due to delocalization of the paramagnetic center. Here, we present a novel, disulfide-linked nitroxide spin label, R1p, as an alternative to these flexible labels for PRE studies. When introduced at solvent-exposed α-helical positions in two model proteins, calmodulin (CaM) and T4 lysozyme (T4L), EPR measurements show that the R1p side chain exhibits dramatically reduced internal motion compared to the commonly used R1 spin label (generated by reacting cysteine with the spin labeling compound often referred to as MTSL). Further, only a single nitroxide position is necessary to account for the PREs arising from CaM S17R1p, while an ensemble comprising multiple conformations is necessary for those observed for CaM S17R1. Together, these observations suggest that the nitroxide adopts a single, fixed position when R1p is placed at solvent-exposed α-helical positions, greatly simplifying the interpretation of PRE data by removing the need to account for the intrinsic flexibility of the spin label

Measuring transverse relaxation in highly paramagnetic systems

The enhancement of nuclear relaxation rates due to the interaction with a paramagnetic center (known as Paramagnetic Relaxation Enhancement) is a powerful source of structural and dynamics information, widely used in structural biology. However, many signals affected by the hyperfine interaction relax faster than the evolution periods of common NMR experiments and therefore they are broadened beyond detection. This gives rise to a so-called blind sphere around the paramagnetic center, which is a major limitation in the use of PREs. Reducing the blind sphere is extremely important in paramagnetic metalloproteins. The identification, characterization, and proper structural restraining of the first coordination sphere of the metal ion(s) and its immediate neighboring regions is key to understand their biological function. The novel HSQC scheme we propose here, that we termed R2-weighted, HSQC-AP, achieves this aim by detecting signals that escaped detection in a conventional HSQC experiment and provides fully reliable R2 values in the range of 1H R2 rates ca. 50–400 s−1. Independently on the type of paramagnetic center and on the size of the molecule, this experiment decreases the radius of the blind sphere and increases the number of detectable PREs. Here, we report the validation of this approach for the case of PioC, a small protein containing a high potential 4Fe-4S cluster in the reduced [Fe4S4]2+ form. The blind sphere was contracted to a minimal extent, enabling the measurement of R2 rates for the cluster coordinating residues.publishersversionpublishe

Characteristic properties of the nuclear magnetic resonance–paramagnetic relaxation enhancement arising from integer and half‐integer electron spins

The influence of zero field splitting (zfs) interactions on the magnetic field dispersion profile of the nuclear magnetic resonance–paramagnetic relaxation (NMR–PRE) (i.e., the enhancement of nuclear magnetic relaxation rates that is produced by paramagnetic solute species in solution) has been explored systematically for S=1, 3/2, 2, and 5/2 spin systems using recently developed theory. To facilitate comparison of results for different spin values, the theory was expressed in a reduced form with Larmor frequencies in units of ωD (the uniaxial zfs parameter D in rad s−1), and correlation times and spin relaxation times in units of ωD−1. For S=1, the functional form of the profile can be described in terms of five types of qualitative features. Two of these are characteristic of Zeeman‐limit [Solomon, Bloembergen, and Morgan (SBM)] theory and result from the magnetic field dependence of the spin energy level splittings. The remaining three have no analog in Zeeman‐limit theory and arise from a change in the quantization axis of the electron spin precessional motion which, in the zfs limit, lies along molecule‐fixed coordinate axes, and, in the Zeeman limit, lies along the external field direction.The reduced field dispersion profiles for the integer spin systems S=1 and S=2 were found to be very similar to each other, the principal difference being that the midfield positions of the requantization features (types 2, 3, and 4) are shifted for S=2 relative to S=1, the magnitude and sign of the shift depending on the position of the nuclear spin in the molecular coordinate frame. For half‐integer spins, the dispersion profiles exhibit, in addition to the five features characteristic of integer spins, a sixth type of feature, which is centered somewhat to low field of ωSτc=1, where τc is the dipolar correlation time. The type‐6 feature results from field‐dependent level splitting of the mS=±1/2 Kramers doublet. It is present when ωDτc≥1. These theoretical predictions have been examined by means of reinterpretations of the NMR–PRE data for tris‐(acetylacetonato)–metal complexes of V(III) (S=1), Cr(III) (S=3/2), Mo(III) (S=3/2), Mn(III) (S=2), and Fe(III) (S=5/2). As predicted, type‐6 features are absent for the integer spin complexes, for which the T1 field dispersion profiles are nearly field independent.The experimental profiles were successfully simulated quantitatively by the generalized theory, but not by Zeeman‐limit theory. For the half‐integer spin systems, the predicted zfs‐related type‐6 features appear to be present in the profiles, particularly for Mo(acac)3, for which the data deviate significantly from the Zeeman‐limit profile in a manner that is explained by the generalized theory.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70993/2/JCPSA6-98-4-2507-1.pd

The two isoforms of Lyn display different intramolecular fuzzy complexes with the SH3 domain

The function of the intrinsically disordered Unique domain of the Src family of tyrosine kinases (SFK), where the largest differences between family members are concentrated, remains poorly understood. Recent studies in c-Src have demonstrated that the Unique region forms transient interactions, described as an intramolecular fuzzy complex, with the SH3 domain and suggested that similar complexes could be formed by other SFKs. Src and Lyn are members of a distinct subfamily of SFKs. Lyn is a key player in the immunologic response and exists in two isoforms originating from alternative splicing in the Unique domain. We have used NMR to compare the intramolecular interactions in the two isoforms and found that the alternatively spliced segment interacts specifically with the so-called RT-loop in the SH3 domain and that this interaction is abolished when a polyproline ligand binds to the SH3 domain. These results support the generality of the fuzzy complex formation in distinct subfamilies of SFKs and its physiological role, as the naturally occurring alternative splicing modulates the interactions in this complex

Functionally specific binding regions of microtubule-associated protein 2c exhibit distinct conformations and dynamics

Microtubule-associated protein 2c (MAP2c) is a 49-kDa intrinsically disordered protein regulating the dynamics of microtubules in developing neurons. MAP2c differs from its sequence homologue Tau in the pattern and kinetics of phosphorylation by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA). Moreover, the mechanisms through which MAP2c interacts with its binding partners and the conformational changes and dynamics associated with these interactions remain unclear. Here, we used NMR relaxation and paramagnetic relaxation enhancement techniques to determine the dynamics and long-range interactions within MAP2c. The relaxation rates revealed large differences in flexibility of individual regions of MAP2c, with the lowest flexibility observed in the known and proposed binding sites. Quantitative conformational analyses of chemical shifts, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and paramagnetic relaxation enhancement measurements disclosed that MAP2c regions interacting with important protein partners, including Fyn tyrosine kinase, plectin, and PKA, adopt specific conformations. High populations of polyproline II and alpha-helices were found in Fyn- and plectin-binding sites of MAP2c, respectively. The region binding the regulatory subunit of PKA consists of two helical motifs bridged by a more extended conformation. Of note, although MAP2c and Tau did not differ substantially in their conformations in regions of high sequence identity, we found that they differ significantly in long-range interactions, dynamics, and local conformation motifs in their N-terminal domains. These results highlight that the N-terminal regions of MAP2c provide important specificity to its regulatory roles and indicate a close relationship between MAP2c's biological functions and conformational behavior