DispHred: A Server to Predict pH-Dependent Order–Disorder Transitions in Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

The natively unfolded nature of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) relies on several physicochemical principles, of which the balance between a low sequence hydrophobicity and a high net charge appears to be critical. Under this premise, it is well-known that disordered proteins populate a defined region of the charge–hydropathy (C–H) space and that a linear boundary condition is sufficient to distinguish between folded and disordered proteins, an approach widely applied for the prediction of protein disorder. Nevertheless, it is evident that the C–H relation of a protein is not unalterable but can be modulated by factors extrinsic to its sequence. Here, we applied a C–H-based analysis to develop a computational approach that evaluates sequence disorder as a function of pH, assuming that both protein net charge and hydrophobicity are dependent on pH solution. On that basis, we developed DispHred, the first pH-dependent predictor of protein disorder. Despite its simplicity, DispHred displays very high accuracy in identifying pH-induced order/disorder protein transitions. DispHred might be useful for diverse applications, from the analysis of conditionally disordered segments to the synthetic design of disorder tags for biotechnological applications. Importantly, since many disorder predictors use hydrophobicity as an input, the here developed framework can be implemented in other state-of-the-art algorithms.

The Properties of α-Synuclein Secondary Nuclei are Dominated by the Solution Conditions Rather than the Seed Fibril Strain

α-synuclein (α-syn) is a natively unfolded protein predominantly localized in the presynaptic terminals of neurons. It has been shown that α-syn fibrils are the major component of abnormal neuronal aggregates known as Lewy bodies, the characteristic hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. Amyloid fibrils arise through primary nucleation from monomers, which in the case of α-syn is accelerated by suitable surfaces with an affinity for the protein, followed by the elongation of the nuclei by monomer addition. Secondary nucleation, on the other hand, corresponds to the formation of new fibrils when it is facilitated by pre-existing fibrils. While<br>α-synuclein (α-syn) is a natively unfolded protein predominantly localized in the presynaptic terminals of neurons. It has been shown that α-syn fibrils are the major component of abnormal neuronal aggregates known as Lewy bodies, the characteristic hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. Amyloid fibrils arise through primary nucleation from monomers, which in the case of α-syn is accelerated by suitable surfaces with an affinity for the protein, followed by the elongation of the nuclei by monomer addition. Secondary nucleation, on the other hand, corresponds to the formation of new fibrils when it is facilitated by pre-existing fibrils. While it is well-established that the newly added monomer in the process of fibril elongation adopts the conformation of the monomers in the seed, often called templating, it is still unclear under which conditions fibrils formed through secondary nucleation of monomers on the surface of fibrils copy the structure of the parent. Here we show by biochemical and microscopical methods that the secondary nucleation of α-syn, enabled at mildly acidic pH, leads to fibrils that structurally resemble more closely those formed de novo under the same conditions, rather than the seeds if these are formed under different solution condition. This result has important implications for the mechanistic understanding of the secondary nucleation of amyloid fibrils and its role in the propagation of aggregate pathology in protein misfolding diseases.<br>

The Properties of α-Synuclein Secondary Nuclei are Dominated by the Solution Conditions Rather than the Seed Fibril Strain

α-synuclein (α-syn) is a natively unfolded protein predominantly localized in the presynaptic terminals of neurons. It has been shown that α-syn fibrils are the major component of abnormal neuronal aggregates known as Lewy bodies, the characteristic hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. Amyloid fibrils arise through primary nucleation from monomers, which in the case of α-syn is accelerated by suitable surfaces with an affinity for the protein, followed by the elongation of the nuclei by monomer addition. Secondary nucleation, on the other hand, corresponds to the formation of new fibrils when it is facilitated by pre-existing fibrils. While<br>α-synuclein (α-syn) is a natively unfolded protein predominantly localized in the presynaptic terminals of neurons. It has been shown that α-syn fibrils are the major component of abnormal neuronal aggregates known as Lewy bodies, the characteristic hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. Amyloid fibrils arise through primary nucleation from monomers, which in the case of α-syn is accelerated by suitable surfaces with an affinity for the protein, followed by the elongation of the nuclei by monomer addition. Secondary nucleation, on the other hand, corresponds to the formation of new fibrils when it is facilitated by pre-existing fibrils. While it is well-established that the newly added monomer in the process of fibril elongation adopts the conformation of the monomers in the seed, often called templating, it is still unclear under which conditions fibrils formed through secondary nucleation of monomers on the surface of fibrils copy the structure of the parent. Here we show by biochemical and microscopical methods that the secondary nucleation of α-syn, enabled at mildly acidic pH, leads to fibrils that structurally resemble more closely those formed de novo under the same conditions, rather than the seeds if these are formed under different solution condition. This result has important implications for the mechanistic understanding of the secondary nucleation of amyloid fibrils and its role in the propagation of aggregate pathology in protein misfolding diseases.<br>

Investigating molecular crowding within nuclear pores using polarization-PALM

The key component of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) controlling permeability, selectivity, and the speed of nucleocytoplasmic transport is an assembly of natively unfolded polypeptides, which contain phenylalanine-glycine (FG) binding sites for nuclear transport receptors. The architecture and dynamics of the FG-network have been refractory to characterization due to the paucity of experimental methods able to probe the mobility and density of the FG-polypeptides and embedded macromolecules within intact NPCs. Combining fluorescence polarization, super-resolution microscopy, and mathematical analyses, we examined the rotational mobility of fluorescent probes at various locations within the FG-network under different conditions. We demonstrate that polarization PALM (p-PALM) provides a rich source of information about low rotational mobilities that are inaccessible with bulk fluorescence anisotropy approaches, and anticipate that p-PALM is well-suited to explore numerous crowded cellular environments. In total, our findings indicate that the NPC’s internal organization consists of multiple dynamic environments with different local properties.

Drug and dye binding induced folding of the intrinsically disordered antimicrobial peptide CM15

Drug binding induces the disorder-to-order conformational transition of the natively unfolded antimicrobial peptide CM15.