scholarly journals Accessibility of introduced cysteines in chemoreceptor transmembrane helices reveals boundaries interior to bracketing charged residues

2004 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1466-1475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Boldog ◽  
Gerald L. Hazelbauer
Keyword(s):  
Transmembrane Helices ◽  
Charged Residues

scholarly journals Relative transmembrane segment rearrangements during BK channel activation resolved by structurally assigned fluorophore–quencher pairing

2012 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonios Pantazis ◽  
Riccardo Olcese
Keyword(s):  
Electric Field ◽  
Transmembrane Helix ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Bk Channels ◽  
Bk Channel ◽  
Transmembrane Helices ◽  
Voltage Sensing ◽  
Charged Residues ◽  
Voltage Dependent ◽  
Sense And Respond

Voltage-activated proteins can sense, and respond to, changes in the electric field pervading the cell membrane by virtue of a transmembrane helix bundle, the voltage-sensing domain (VSD). Canonical VSDs consist of four transmembrane helices (S1–S4) of which S4 is considered a principal component because it possesses charged residues immersed in the electric field. Membrane depolarization compels the charges, and by extension S4, to rearrange with respect to the field. The VSD of large-conductance voltage- and Ca-activated K+ (BK) channels exhibits two salient inconsistencies from the canonical VSD model: (1) the BK channel VSD possesses an additional nonconserved transmembrane helix (S0); and (2) it exhibits a “decentralized” distribution of voltage-sensing charges, in helices S2 and S3, in addition to S4. Considering these unique features, the voltage-dependent rearrangements of the BK VSD could differ significantly from the standard model of VSD operation. To understand the mode of operation of this unique VSD, we have optically tracked the relative motions of the BK VSD transmembrane helices during activation, by manipulating the quenching environment of site-directed fluorescent labels with native and introduced Trp residues. Having previously reported that S0 and S4 diverge during activation, in this work we demonstrate that S4 also diverges from S1 and S2, whereas S2, compelled by its voltage-sensing charged residues, moves closer to S1. This information contributes spatial constraints for understanding the BK channel voltage-sensing process, revealing the structural rearrangements in a non-canonical VSD.

scholarly journals The positive inside rule is stronger when followed by a transmembrane helix.

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minttu T Virkki ◽  
Christoph Peters ◽  
Daniel Nilsson ◽  
Therese Sörensen ◽  
Susana Cristobal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Proteins ◽  
Transmembrane Helix ◽  
Specific Interactions ◽  
Transmembrane Helices ◽  
Terminal Part ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Charged Residues ◽  
Hydrophobic Helices ◽  
Hydrophobic Helix ◽  
Positively Charged

The translocon recognizes transmembrane helices with sufficient level of hydrophobicity and inserts them into the membrane. However, sometimes less hydrophobic helices are also recognized. Positive inside rule, orientational preferences of and specific interactions with neighboring helices have been shown to aid in the recognition of these helices, at least in artificial systems. To better understand how the translocon inserts marginally hydrophobic helices, we studied three \red{naturally occurring marginally hydrophobic} helices, which were previously shown to require the subsequent helix for efficient translocon recognition. We find no evidence for specific interactions when we scan all residues in the subsequent helices. Instead, we identify arginines located at the N-terminal part of the subsequent helices that are crucial for the recognition of the marginally hydrophobic transmembrane helices, indicating that the positive inside rule is important. However, in two of the constructs these arginines do not aid in the recognition without the rest of the subsequent helix, i.e. the positive inside rule alone is not sufficient. Instead, the improved recognition of marginally hydrophobic helices can here be explained as follows; the positive inside rule provides an orientational preference of the subsequent helix, which in turn allows the marginally hydrophobic helix to be inserted, i.e. the effect of the positive inside rule is stronger if positively charged residues are followed by a transmembrane helix. Such a mechanism can obviously not aid C-terminal helices and consequently we find that the terminal helices in multi-spanning membrane proteins are more hydrophobic than internal helices.

scholarly journals Color-tuning of natural variants of heliorhodopsin

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Se-Hwan Kim ◽  
Kimleng Chuon ◽  
Shin-Gyu Cho ◽  
Ahreum Choi ◽  
Seanghun Meas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
3D Structure ◽  
Site Directed Mutagenesis ◽  
Type I ◽  
Transmembrane Helices ◽  
Color Tuning ◽  
Tuning Mechanism ◽  
Spectral Changes ◽  
His Tag ◽  
Natural Variants ◽  
Retinal Chromophore

AbstractMicrobial rhodopsins are distributed through many microorganisms. Heliorhodopsins are newly discovered but have an unclear function. They have seven transmembrane helices similar to type-I and type-II rhodopsins, but they are different in that the N-terminal region of heliorhodopsin is cytoplasmic. We chose 13 representative heliorhodopsins from various microorganisms, expressed and purified with an N-terminal His tag, and measured the absorption spectra. The 13 natural variants had an absorption maximum (λmax) in the range 530–556 nm similar to proteorhodopsin (λmax = 490–525 nm). We selected several candidate residues that influence rhodopsin color-tuning based on sequence alignment and constructed mutants via site-directed mutagenesis to confirm the spectral changes. We found two important residues located near retinal chromophore that influence λmax. We also predict the 3D structure via homology-modeling of Thermoplasmatales heliorhodopsin. The results indicate that the color-tuning mechanism of type-I rhodopsin can be applied to understand the color-tuning of heliorhodopsin.

scholarly journals Interhelical H-Bonds Modulate the Activity of a Polytopic Transmembrane Kinase

Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 938
Author(s):  
Juan Cruz Almada ◽  
Ana Bortolotti ◽  
Jean Marie Ruysschaert ◽  
Diego de Mendoza ◽  
María Eugenia Inda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Histidine Kinase ◽  
Adaptive Response ◽  
Catalytic Domain ◽  
Membrane Lipids ◽  
Signal Transmission ◽  
Expression System ◽  
Lipid Homeostasis ◽  
Transmembrane Helices ◽  
Transmembrane Region

DesK is a Histidine Kinase that allows Bacillus subtilis to maintain lipid homeostasis in response to changes in the environment. It is located in the membrane, and has five transmembrane helices and a cytoplasmic catalytic domain. The transmembrane region triggers the phosphorylation of the catalytic domain as soon as the membrane lipids rigidify. In this research, we study how transmembrane inter-helical interactions contribute to signal transmission; we designed a co-expression system that allows studying in vivo interactions between transmembrane helices. By Alanine-replacements, we identified a group of polar uncharged residues, whose side chains contain hydrogen-bond donors or acceptors, which are required for the interaction with other DesK transmembrane helices; a particular array of H-bond- residues plays a key role in signaling, transmitting information detected at the membrane level into the cell to finally trigger an adaptive response.

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