scholarly journals Liquid condensation of reprogramming factor KLF4 with DNA provides a mechanism for chromatin organization

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajesh Sharma ◽  
Kyoung-Jae Choi ◽  
My Diem Quan ◽  
Sonum Sharma ◽  
Banumathi Sankaran ◽  
...  

AbstractExpression of a few master transcription factors can reprogram the epigenetic landscape and three-dimensional chromatin topology of differentiated cells and achieve pluripotency. During reprogramming, thousands of long-range chromatin contacts are altered, and changes in promoter association with enhancers dramatically influence transcription. Molecular participants at these sites have been identified, but how this re-organization might be orchestrated is not known. Biomolecular condensation is implicated in subcellular organization, including the recruitment of RNA polymerase in transcriptional activation. Here, we show that reprogramming factor KLF4 undergoes biomolecular condensation even in the absence of its intrinsically disordered region. Liquid–liquid condensation of the isolated KLF4 DNA binding domain with a DNA fragment from the NANOG proximal promoter is enhanced by CpG methylation of a KLF4 cognate binding site. We propose KLF4-mediated condensation as one mechanism for selectively organizing and re-organizing the genome based on the local sequence and epigenetic state.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duy Phuoc Tran ◽  
Akio Kitao

<p>We investigate association and dissociation mechanisms of a typical intrinsically disordered region (IDR), transcriptional activation subdomain of tumor repressor protein p53 (TAD-p53) with murine double-minute clone 2 protein (MDM2). Using the combination of cycles of association and dissociation parallel cascade molecular dynamics, multiple standard MD, and Markov state model, we are successful in obtaining the lowest free energy structure of MDM2/TAD-p53 complex as the structure very close to that in crystal without prior knowledge. This method also reproduces the experimentally measured standard binding free energy, and association and dissociation rate constants solely with the accumulated MD simulation cost of 11.675 μs, in spite of the fact that actual dissociation occurs in the order of a second. Although there exist a few complex intermediates with similar free energies, TAD-p53 first binds MDM2 as the second lowest free energy intermediate dominantly (> 90% in flux), taking a form similar to one of the intermediate structures in its monomeric state. The mechanism of this step has a feature of conformational selection. In the second step, dehydration of the interface, formation of π-π stackings of the side-chains, and main-chain relaxation/hydrogen bond formation to complete α-helix take place, showing features of induced fit. In addition, dehydration (dewetting) is a key process for the final relaxation around the complex interface. These results demonstrate a more fine-grained view of the IDR association/dissociation beyond classical views of protein conformational change upon binding.</p>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duy Phuoc Tran ◽  
Akio Kitao

<p>We investigate association and dissociation mechanisms of a typical intrinsically disordered region (IDR), transcriptional activation subdomain of tumor repressor protein p53 (TAD-p53) with murine double-minute clone 2 protein (MDM2). Using the combination of cycles of association and dissociation parallel cascade molecular dynamics, multiple standard MD, and Markov state model, we are successful in obtaining the lowest free energy structure of MDM2/TAD-p53 complex as the structure very close to that in crystal without prior knowledge. This method also reproduces the experimentally measured standard binding free energy, and association and dissociation rate constants solely with the accumulated MD simulation cost of 11.675 μs, in spite of the fact that actual dissociation occurs in the order of a second. Although there exist a few complex intermediates with similar free energies, TAD-p53 first binds MDM2 as the second lowest free energy intermediate dominantly (> 90% in flux), taking a form similar to one of the intermediate structures in its monomeric state. The mechanism of this step has a feature of conformational selection. In the second step, dehydration of the interface, formation of π-π stackings of the side-chains, and main-chain relaxation/hydrogen bond formation to complete α-helix take place, showing features of induced fit. In addition, dehydration (dewetting) is a key process for the final relaxation around the complex interface. These results demonstrate a more fine-grained view of the IDR association/dissociation beyond classical views of protein conformational change upon binding.</p>


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 399
Author(s):  
Ambuj Srivastava ◽  
Dhanusha Yesudhas ◽  
Shandar Ahmad ◽  
M. Michael Gromiha

tRNA methyltransferase 5 (Trm5) enzyme is an S-adenosyl methionine (AdoMet)-dependent methyltransferase which methylates the G37 nucleotide at the N1 atom of the tRNA. The free form of Trm5 enzyme has three intrinsically disordered regions, which are highly flexible and lack stable three-dimensional structures. These regions gain ordered structures upon the complex formation with tRNA, also called disorder-to-order transition (DOT) regions. In this study, we performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of archaeal Trm5 in free and complex forms and observed that the DOT residues are highly flexible in free proteins and become stable in complex structures. The energetic contributions show that DOT residues are important for stabilising the complex. The DOT1 and DOT2 are mainly observed to be important for stabilising the complex, while DOT3 is present near the active site to coordinate the interactions between methyl-donating ligands and G37 nucleotides. In addition, mutational studies on the Trm5 complex showed that the wild type is more stable than the G37A tRNA mutant complex. The loss of productive interactions upon G37A mutation drives the AdoMet ligand away from the 37th nucleotide, and Arg145 in DOT3 plays a crucial role in stabilising the ligand, as well as the G37 nucleotide, in the wild-type complex. Further, the overall energetic contribution calculated using MMPBSA corroborates that the wild-type complex has a better affinity between Trm5 and tRNA. Overall, our study reveals that targeting DOT regions for binding could improve the inhibition of Trm5.


Author(s):  
Lasse Staby ◽  
Katherine R. Kemplen ◽  
Amelie Stein ◽  
Michael Ploug ◽  
Jane Clarke ◽  
...  

Abstract Understanding the interplay between sequence, structure and function of proteins has been complicated in recent years by the discovery of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), which perform biological functions in the absence of a well-defined three-dimensional fold. Disordered protein sequences account for roughly 30% of the human proteome and in many proteins, disordered and ordered domains coexist. However, few studies have assessed how either feature affects the properties of the other. In this study, we examine the role of a disordered tail in the overall properties of the two-domain, calcium-sensing protein neuronal calcium sensor 1 (NCS-1). We show that loss of just six of the 190 residues at the flexible C-terminus is sufficient to severely affect stability, dynamics, and folding behavior of both ordered domains. We identify specific hydrophobic contacts mediated by the disordered tail that may be responsible for stabilizing the distal N-terminal domain. Moreover, sequence analyses indicate the presence of an LSL-motif in the tail that acts as a mimic of native ligands critical to the observed order–disorder communication. Removing the disordered tail leads to a shorter life-time of the ligand-bound complex likely originating from the observed destabilization. This close relationship between order and disorder may have important implications for how investigations into mixed systems are designed and opens up a novel avenue of drug targeting exploiting this type of behavior.


2003 ◽  
Vol 284 (2) ◽  
pp. G248-G254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Song Lu ◽  
Ying Yao ◽  
Heng Wang ◽  
Songmei Meng ◽  
Xiangying Cheng ◽  
...  

Dietary lipid acutely upregulates apolipoprotein (apo) A-IV expression by sevenfold at the pretranslational level in neonatal swine jejunum. To determine the mechanism of this regulation, two-day-old female swine received intraduodenal infusions of low- and high-triacylglycerol (TG) isocaloric diets for 24 h. Nuclear runoff assay confirmed apo A-IV gene transcriptional regulation by the high-TG diet. Footprinting analysis using the swine apo A-IV proximal promoter sequence (+14 to −246 bp) demonstrated three regions protected by the low-TG extracts. Of these three motifs, only ACCTTC showed 100% homology to the human sequence and was further studied. EMSA was performed using probes containing wild-type (WT) and mutant (M) motifs. A shift was noted with the low-TG nuclear extracts with the WT probe but not with the M probe. Excess unlabeled free WT probe competed out the shift, whereas the M probe did not. No significant shift occurred with either probe using high-TG extracts. These results suggest that a repressor protein binds to the ACCTTC motif and becomes unbound during lipid absorption, allowing transcriptional activation of the apo A-IV gene in newborn swine small intestine.


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