Molecular mechanisms of the protein-protein interaction–regulated binding specificity of basic-region leucine zipper transcription factors

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Li ◽  
Le Xiong ◽  
Jun Gao ◽  
Hong-Yu Zhang
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Rümpler ◽  
Günter Theißen ◽  
Rainer Melzer

ABSTRACTThe development of angiosperm flowers is regulated by homeotic MIKC-type MADS-domain transcription factors that activate or repress target genes via the formation of DNA-bound, organ specific tetrameric complexes. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) capabilities differ considerably between different MIKC-type proteins. The floral homeotic protein SEPALLATA3 (SEP3) acts as a hub that incorporates numerous other MADS-domain proteins into tetrameric complexes that would otherwise not form. However, the molecular mechanisms that underlie these promiscuous interactions remain largely unknown. In this study we created a collection of amino acid substitution mutants of SEP3 to quantify the contribution of individual residues on protein tetramerization during DNA-binding, employing methods of molecular biophysics. We show that leucine residues at certain key positions form a leucine zipper structure that is essential for tetramerization of SEP3, whereas the introduction of physicochemically very similar residues at respective sites impedes the formation of DNA-bound tetramers. Comprehensive molecular evolutionary analyses of MADS-domain proteins from a diverse set of flowering plants revealed exceedingly high conservation of the identified leucine residues within SEP3-subfamily proteins throughout angiosperm evolution. In contrast, MADS-domain proteins that are unable to tetramerize among themselves exhibit preferences for other amino acids at homologous sites. Our findings indicate that the subfamily-specific conservation of amino acid residues at just a few key positions account for subfamily-specific interaction capabilities of MADS-domain transcription factors and shaped the present-day structure of the PPI network controlling flower development.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (22) ◽  
pp. 3654-3671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changsheng Lin ◽  
Jason Ear ◽  
Krishna Midde ◽  
Inmaculada Lopez-Sanchez ◽  
Nicolas Aznar ◽  
...  

A long-standing issue in the field of signal transduction is to understand the cross-talk between receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and heterotrimeric G proteins, two major and distinct signaling hubs that control eukaryotic cell behavior. Although stimulation of many RTKs leads to activation of trimeric G proteins, the molecular mechanisms behind this phenomenon remain elusive. We discovered a unifying mechanism that allows GIV/Girdin, a bona fide metastasis-related protein and a guanine-nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for Gαi, to serve as a direct platform for multiple RTKs to activate Gαi proteins. Using a combination of homology modeling, protein–protein interaction, and kinase assays, we demonstrate that a stretch of ∼110 amino acids within GIV C-terminus displays structural plasticity that allows folding into a SH2-like domain in the presence of phosphotyrosine ligands. Using protein–protein interaction assays, we demonstrated that both SH2 and GEF domains of GIV are required for the formation of a ligand-activated ternary complex between GIV, Gαi, and growth factor receptors and for activation of Gαi after growth factor stimulation. Expression of a SH2-deficient GIV mutant (Arg 1745→Leu) that cannot bind RTKs impaired all previously demonstrated functions of GIV—Akt enhancement, actin remodeling, and cell migration. The mechanistic and structural insights gained here shed light on the long-standing questions surrounding RTK/G protein cross-talk, set a novel paradigm, and characterize a unique pharmacological target for uncoupling GIV-dependent signaling downstream of multiple oncogenic RTKs.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burcu Bakir-Gungor ◽  
Miray Unlu Yazici ◽  
Gokhan Goy ◽  
Mustafa Temiz

AbstractDiabetes Mellitus (DM) is a group of metabolic disorder that is characterized by pancreatic dysfunction in insulin producing beta cells, glucagon secreting alpha cells, and insulin resistance or insulin in-functionality related hyperglycemia. Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D), which constitutes 90% of the diabetes cases, is a complex multifactorial disease. In the last decade, genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for type 2 diabetes (T2D) successfully pinpointed the genetic variants (typically single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs) that associate with disease risk. However, traditional GWASs focus on the ‘the tip of the iceberg’ SNPs, and the SNPs with mild effects are discarded. In order to diminish the burden of multiple testing in GWAS, researchers attempted to evaluate the collective effects of interesting variants. In this regard, pathway-based analyses of GWAS became popular to discover novel multi-genic functional associations. Still, to reveal the unaccounted 85 to 90% of T2D variation, which lies hidden in GWAS datasets, new post-GWAS strategies need to be developed. In this respect, here we reanalyze three meta-analysis data of GWAS in T2D, using the methodology that we have developed to identify disease-associated pathways by combining nominally significant evidence of genetic association with the known biochemical pathways, protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks, and the functional information of selected SNPs. In this research effort, to enlighten the molecular mechanisms underlying T2D development and progress, we integrated different in-silico approaches that proceed in top-down manner and bottom-up manner, and hence presented a comprehensive analysis at protein subnetwork, pathway, and pathway subnetwork levels. Our network and pathway-oriented approach is based on both the significance level of an affected pathway and its topological relationship with its neighbor pathways. Using the mutual information based on the shared genes, the identified protein subnetworks and the affected pathways of each dataset were compared. While, most of the identified pathways recapitulate the pathophysiology of T2D, our results show that incorporating SNP functional properties, protein-protein interaction networks into GWAS can dissect leading molecular pathways, which cannot be picked up using traditional analyses. We hope to bridge the knowledge gap from sequence to consequence.


Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 370 (6521) ◽  
pp. eabe9403 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. Gordon ◽  
Joseph Hiatt ◽  
Mehdi Bouhaddou ◽  
Veronica V. Rezelj ◽  
Svenja Ulferts ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a grave threat to public health and the global economy. SARS-CoV-2 is closely related to the more lethal but less transmissible coronaviruses SARS-CoV-1 and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Here, we have carried out comparative viral-human protein-protein interaction and viral protein localization analyses for all three viruses. Subsequent functional genetic screening identified host factors that functionally impinge on coronavirus proliferation, including Tom70, a mitochondrial chaperone protein that interacts with both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 ORF9b, an interaction we structurally characterized using cryo–electron microscopy. Combining genetically validated host factors with both COVID-19 patient genetic data and medical billing records identified molecular mechanisms and potential drug treatments that merit further molecular and clinical study.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingqing Li ◽  
Zhihao Yang ◽  
Zhehuan Zhao ◽  
Ling Luo ◽  
Zhiheng Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Protein–protein interaction (PPI) information extraction from biomedical literature helps unveil the molecular mechanisms of biological processes. Especially, the PPIs associated with human malignant neoplasms can unveil the biology behind these neoplasms. However, such PPI database is not currently available. Results In this work, a database of protein–protein interactions associated with 171 kinds of human malignant neoplasms named HMNPPID is constructed. In addition, a visualization program, named VisualPPI, is provided to facilitate the analysis of the PPI network for a specific neoplasm. Conclusions HMNPPID can hopefully become an important resource for the research on PPIs of human malignant neoplasms since it provides readily available data for healthcare professionals. Thus, they do not need to dig into a large amount of biomedical literatures any more, which may accelerate the researches on the PPIs of malignant neoplasms.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarmila Nahálková

The protein-protein interaction network of seven pleiotropic proteins (PIN7) contains proteins with multiple functions in the aging and age-related diseases (TPPII, CDK2, MYBBP1A, p53, SIRT6, SIRT7, and BSG). At the present work, the pathway enrichment, the gene function prediction and the protein node prioritization analysis were applied for the examination of main molecular mechanisms driving PIN7 and the extended network. Seven proteins of PIN7 were used as an input for the analysis by GeneMania, a Cytoscape application, which constructs the protein interaction network. The software also extends it using the interactions retrieved from databases of experimental and predicted protein-protein and genetic interactions. The analysis identified the p53 signaling pathway as the most dominant mediator of PIN7. The extended PIN7 was also analyzed by Cytohubba application, which showed that the top-ranked protein nodes belong to the group of histone acetyltransferases and histone deacetylases. These enzymes are involved in the reverse epigenetic regulation mechanisms linked to the regulation of PTK2, NFκB, and p53 signaling interaction subnetworks of the extended PIN7. The analysis emphasized the role of PTK2 signaling, which functions upstream of the p53 signaling pathway and its interaction network includes all members of the sirtuin family. Further, the analysis suggested the involvement of molecular mechanisms related to metastatic cancer (prostate cancer, small cell lung cancer), hemostasis, the regulation of the thyroid hormones and the cell cycle G1/S checkpoint. The additional data-mining analysis showed that the small protein interaction network MYBBP1A-p53-TPPII-SIRT6-CD147 controls Warburg effect and MYBBP1A-p53-TPPII-SIRT7-BSG influences mTOR signaling and autophagy. Further investigations of the detail mechanisms of these interaction networks would be beneficial for the development of novel treatments for aging and age-related diseases.


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