scholarly journals Molecular and structural mechanisms of ZZ domain-mediated cargo recognition by autophagy receptor Nbr1

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying-Ying Wang ◽  
Jianxiu Zhang ◽  
Xiao-Man Liu ◽  
Meng-Qiu Dong ◽  
Keqiong Ye ◽  
...  

AbstractIn selective autophagy, cargo selectivity is determined by autophagy receptors. However, it remains scarcely understood how autophagy receptors recognize specific protein cargos. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, a selective autophagy pathway termed Nbr1-mediated vacuolar targeting (NVT) employs Nbr1, an autophagy receptor conserved across eukaryotes including humans, to target cytosolic hydrolases into the vacuole. Here, we identify two new NVT cargos, the mannosidase Ams1 and the aminopeptidase Ape4, that bind competitively to the first ZZ domain of Nbr1 (Nbr1-ZZ1). High-resolution cryo-EM analyses reveal how a single ZZ domain recognizes two distinct protein cargos. Nbr1-ZZ1 not only recognizes the N-termini of cargos via a conserved acidic pocket, similar to other characterized ZZ domains, but also engages additional parts of cargos in a cargo-specific manner. Our findings unveil a single-domain bispecific mechanism of autophagy cargo recognition, elucidate its underlying structural basis, and expand the understanding of ZZ domain-mediated protein-protein interactions.

2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (31) ◽  
pp. 10624-10637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen L. Watkins ◽  
Brian J. Kempf ◽  
Stéphanie Beaucourt ◽  
David J. Barton ◽  
Olve B. Peersen

Picornaviral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRPs) have low replication fidelity that is essential for viral fitness and evolution. Their global fold consists of the classical “cupped right hand” structure with palm, fingers, and thumb domains, and these RdRPs also possess a unique contact between the fingers and thumb domains. This interaction restricts movements of the fingers, and RdRPs use a subtle conformational change within the palm domain to close their active sites for catalysis. We have previously shown that this core RdRP structure and mechanism provide a platform for polymerases to fine-tune replication rates and fidelity to optimize virus fitness. Here, we further elucidated the structural basis for differences in replication rates and fidelity among different viruses by generating chimeric RdRPs from poliovirus and coxsackievirus B3. We designed these chimeric polymerases by exchanging the fingers, pinky finger, or thumb domains. The results of biochemical, rapid-quench, and stopped-flow assays revealed that differences in biochemical activity map to individual modular domains of this polymerase. We found that the pinky finger subdomain is a major regulator of initiation and that the palm domain is the major determinant of catalytic rate and nucleotide discrimination. We further noted that thumb domain interactions with product RNA regulate translocation and that the palm and thumb domains coordinately control elongation complex stability. Several RdRP chimeras supported the growth of infectious poliovirus, providing insights into enterovirus species–specific protein–protein interactions required for virus replication.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ylenia Cau ◽  
Daniela Valensin ◽  
Mattia Mori ◽  
Sara Draghi ◽  
Maurizio Botta

14-3-3 is a class of proteins able to interact with a multitude of targets by establishing protein-protein interactions (PPIs). They are usually found in all eukaryotes with a conserved secondary structure and high sequence homology among species. 14-3-3 proteins are involved in many physiological and pathological cellular processes either by triggering or interfering with the activity of specific protein partners. In the last years, the scientific community has collected many evidences on the role played by seven human 14-3-3 isoforms in cancer or neurodegenerative diseases. Indeed, these proteins regulate the molecular mechanisms associated to these diseases by interacting with (i) oncogenic and (ii) pro-apoptotic proteins and (iii) with proteins involved in Parkinson and Alzheimer diseases. The discovery of small molecule modulators of 14-3-3 PPIs could facilitate complete understanding of the physiological role of these proteins, and might offer valuable therapeutic approaches for these critical pathological states.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhong-Qiu Yu ◽  
Xiao-Man Liu ◽  
Dan Zhao ◽  
Dan-Dan Xu ◽  
Li-Lin Du

Protein-protein interactions are vital for executing nearly all cellular processes. To facilitate the detection of protein-protein interactions in living cells of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, here we present an efficient and convenient method termed the Pil1 co-tethering assay. In its basic form, we tether a bait protein to mCherry-tagged Pil1, which forms cortical filamentary structures, and examine whether a GFP-tagged prey protein colocalizes with the bait. We demonstrate that this assay is capable of detecting pairwise protein-protein interactions of cytosolic proteins and nuclear proteins. Furthermore, we show that this assay can be used for detecting not only binary protein-protein interactions, but also ternary and quaternary protein-protein interactions. Using this assay, we systematically characterized the protein-protein interactions in the Atg1 complex and in the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PtdIns3K) complexes and found that Atg38 is incorporated into the PtdIns3K complex I via an Atg38-Vps34 interaction. Our data show that this assay is a useful and versatile tool and should be added to the routine toolbox of fission yeast researchers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 1593-1603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenkang Zheng ◽  
Patricia C. Dos Santos

Iron–sulfur (Fe–S) clusters are ubiquitous cofactors present in all domains of life. The chemistries catalyzed by these inorganic cofactors are diverse and their associated enzymes are involved in many cellular processes. Despite the wide range of structures reported for Fe–S clusters inserted into proteins, the biological synthesis of all Fe–S clusters starts with the assembly of simple units of 2Fe–2S and 4Fe–4S clusters. Several systems have been associated with the formation of Fe–S clusters in bacteria with varying phylogenetic origins and number of biosynthetic and regulatory components. All systems, however, construct Fe–S clusters through a similar biosynthetic scheme involving three main steps: (1) sulfur activation by a cysteine desulfurase, (2) cluster assembly by a scaffold protein, and (3) guided delivery of Fe–S units to either final acceptors or biosynthetic enzymes involved in the formation of complex metalloclusters. Another unifying feature on the biological formation of Fe–S clusters in bacteria is that these systems are tightly regulated by a network of protein interactions. Thus, the formation of transient protein complexes among biosynthetic components allows for the direct transfer of reactive sulfur and Fe–S intermediates preventing oxygen damage and reactions with non-physiological targets. Recent studies revealed the importance of reciprocal signature sequence motifs that enable specific protein–protein interactions and consequently guide the transactions between physiological donors and acceptors. Such findings provide insights into strategies used by bacteria to regulate the flow of reactive intermediates and provide protein barcodes to uncover yet-unidentified cellular components involved in Fe–S metabolism.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaj Riis Christensen ◽  
Christian Parsbæk Pedersen ◽  
Vita Sereikaite ◽  
Jannik Nedergaard Pedersen ◽  
Maria Vistrup-Parry ◽  
...  

SUMMARYThe organization of the postsynaptic density (PSD), a protein-dense semi-membraneless organelle, is mediated by numerous specific protein-protein interactions (PPIs) which constitute a functional post-synapse. Postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD-95) interacts with a manifold of proteins, including the C-terminal of transmembrane AMPA receptor (AMAPR) regulatory proteins (TARPs). Here, we uncover the minimal essential peptide responsible for the stargazin (TARP-γ2) mediated liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) formation of PSD-95 and other key protein constituents of the PSD. Furthermore, we find that pharmacological inhibitors of PSD-95 can facilitate formation of LLPS. We found that in some cases LLPS formation is dependent on multivalent interactions while in other cases short peptides carrying a high charge are sufficient to promote LLPS in complex systems. This study offers a new perspective on PSD-95 interactions and their role in LLPS formation, while also considering the role of affinity over multivalency in LLPS systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (19) ◽  
pp. 4846-4853 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Wang ◽  
Miguel Correa Marrero ◽  
Marnix H Medema ◽  
Aalt D J van Dijk

Abstract Motivation Polyketide synthases (PKSs) are enzymes that generate diverse molecules of great pharmaceutical importance, including a range of clinically used antimicrobials and antitumor agents. Many polyketides are synthesized by cis-AT modular PKSs, which are organized in assembly lines, in which multiple enzymes line up in a specific order. This order is defined by specific protein–protein interactions (PPIs). The unique modular structure and catalyzing mechanism of these assembly lines makes their products predictable and also spurred combinatorial biosynthesis studies to produce novel polyketides using synthetic biology. However, predicting the interactions of PKSs, and thereby inferring the order of their assembly line, is still challenging, especially for cases in which this order is not reflected by the ordering of the PKS-encoding genes in the genome. Results Here, we introduce PKSpop, which uses a coevolution-based PPI algorithm to infer protein order in PKS assembly lines. Our method accurately predicts protein orders (93% accuracy). Additionally, we identify new residue pairs that are key in determining interaction specificity, and show that coevolution of N- and C-terminal docking domains of PKSs is significantly more predictive for PPIs than coevolution between ketosynthase and acyl carrier protein domains. Availability and implementation The code is available on http://www.bif.wur.nl/ (under ‘Software’). Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (11) ◽  
pp. 1241-1257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Velasco-García ◽  
Rocío Vargas-Martínez

Many of the functions fulfilled by proteins in the cell require specific protein–protein interactions (PPI). During the last decade, the use of high-throughput experimental technologies, primarily based on the yeast 2-hybrid system, generated extensive data currently located in public databases. This information has been used to build interaction networks for different species. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the yeast 2-hybrid system, these databases contain many false positives and negatives, thus they require purging. A method for confirming these PPI is to test them using a technique that operates in vivo and detects binary PPI. This article comprises an overview of the study of PPI and describes the main techniques that have been used to identify bacterial PPI, prioritizing those that can be used for their verification, and it also mentions a number of PPI that have been identified or confirmed using these methods.


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