Spatial Extent of Charge Repulsion Regulates Assembly Pathways for Lysozyme Amyloid Fibrils

Formation of large protein fibrils with a characteristic cross β-sheet architecture is the key indicator for a wide variety of systemic and neurodegenerative amyloid diseases. Recent experiments have strongly implicated oligomeric intermediates, transiently formed during fibril assembly, as critical contributors to cellular toxicity in amyloid diseases. At the same time, amyloid fibril assembly can proceed along different assembly pathways that might or might not involve such oligomeric intermediates. Elucidating the mechanisms that determine whether fibril formation proceeds along non-oligomeric or oligomeric pathways, therefore, is important not just for understanding amyloid fibril assembly at the molecular level but also for developing new targets for intervening with fibril formation. We have investigated fibril formation by hen egg white lysozyme, an enzyme for which human variants underlie non-neuropathic amyloidosis. Using a combination of static and dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy and circular dichroism, we find that amyloidogenic lysozyme monomers switch between three different assembly pathways: from monomeric to oligomeric fibril assembly and, eventually, disordered precipitation as the ionic strength of the solution increases. Fibril assembly only occurred under conditions of net repulsion among the amyloidogenic monomers while net attraction caused precipitation. The transition from monomeric to oligomeric fibril assembly, in turn, occurred as salt-mediated charge screening reduced repulsion among individual charged residues on the same monomer. We suggest a model of amyloid fibril formation in which repulsive charge interactions are a prerequisite for ordered fibril assembly. Furthermore, the spatial extent of non-specific charge screening selects between monomeric and oligomeric assembly pathways by affecting which subset of denatured states can form suitable intermolecular bonds and by altering the energetic and entropic requirements for the initial intermediates emerging along the monomeric vs. oligomeric assembly path

The BC component of ABC toxins is an RHS-repeat-containing protein encapsulation device

The ABC toxin complexes produced by certain bacteria are of interest owing to their potent insecticidal activity(1,2) and potential role in human disease(3). These complexes comprise at least three proteins (A, B and C), which must assemble to be fully toxic(4). The carboxyterminal region of the C protein is the main cytotoxic component(5), and is poorly conserved between different toxin complexes. A general model of action has been proposed, in which the toxin complex binds to the cell surface via the A protein, is endocytosed, and subsequently forms a pH-triggered channel, allowing the translocation of C into the cytoplasm, where it can cause cytoskeletal disruption in both insect and mammalian cells(5). Toxin complexes have been visualized using single-particle electron microscopy(6,7), but no high-resolution structures of the components are available, and the role of the B protein in the mechanism of toxicity remains unknown. Here we report the three-dimensional structure of the complex formed between the B and C proteins, determined to 2.5 angstrom by X-ray crystallography. These proteins assemble to form an unprecedented, large hollow structure that encapsulates and sequesters the cytotoxic, C-terminal region of the C protein like the shell of an egg. The shell is decorated on one end by a beta-propeller domain, which mediates attachment of the B-C heterodimer to the A protein in the native complex. The structure reveals how C auto-proteolyses when folded in complex with B. The C protein is the first example, to our knowledge, of a structure that contains rearrangement hotspot (RHS) repeats(8), and illustrates a marked structural architecture that is probably conserved across both this widely distributed bacterial protein family and the related eukaryotic tyrosine-aspartate (YD)-repeat-containing protein family, which includes the teneurins(9). The structure provides the first clues about the function of these protein repeat families, and suggests a generic mechanism for protein encapsulation and delivery