| 1. |
- Woitowich, N. C., et al.
(författare)
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Structural basis for light control of cell development revealed by crystal structures of a myxobacterial phytochrome
- 2018
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Ingår i: Iucrj. - : International Union of Crystallography (IUCr). - 2052-2525. ; 5:Part 5, s. 619-634
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Phytochromes are red-light photoreceptors that were first characterized in plants, with homologs in photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic bacteria known as bacteriophytochromes (BphPs). Upon absorption of light, BphPs interconvert between two states denoted Pr and Pfr with distinct absorption spectra in the red and far-red. They have recently been engineered as enzymatic photoswitches for fluorescent-marker applications in non-invasive tissue imaging of mammals. This article presents cryo- and room-temperature crystal structures of the unusual phytochrome from the non-photosynthetic myxobacterium Stigmatella aurantiaca (SaBphP1) and reveals its role in the fruitingbody formation of this photomorphogenic bacterium. SaBphP1 lacks a conserved histidine (His) in the chromophore-binding domain that stabilizes the Pr state in the classical BphPs. Instead it contains a threonine (Thr), a feature that is restricted to several myxobacterial phytochromes and is not evolutionarily understood. SaBphP1 structures of the chromophore binding domain (CBD) and the complete photosensory core module (PCM) in wild-type and Thr-to-His mutant forms reveal details of the molecular mechanism of the Pr/Pfr transition associated with the physiological response of this myxobacterium to red light. Specifically, key structural differences in the CBD and PCM between the wild-type and the Thr-to-His mutant involve essential chromophore contacts with proximal amino acids, and point to how the photosignal is transduced through the rest of the protein, impacting the essential enzymatic activity in the photomorphogenic response of this myxobacterium.
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| 2. |
- Edlund, Petra, et al.
(författare)
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The room temperature crystal structure of a bacterial phytochrome determined by serial femtosecond crystallography
- 2016
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Phytochromes are a family of photoreceptors that control light responses of plants, fungi and bacteria. A sequence of structural changes, which is not yet fully understood, leads to activation of an output domain. Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) can potentially shine light on these conformational changes. Here we report the room temperature crystal structure of the chromophore-binding domains of the Deinococcus radiodurans phytochrome at 2.1 angstrom resolution. The structure was obtained by serial femtosecond X-ray crystallography from microcrystals at an X-ray free electron laser. We find overall good agreement compared to a crystal structure at 1.35 angstrom resolution derived from conventional crystallography at cryogenic temperatures, which we also report here. The thioether linkage between chromophore and protein is subject to positional ambiguity at the synchrotron, but is fully resolved with SFX. The study paves the way for time-resolved structural investigations of the phytochrome photocycle with time-resolved SFX.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Herukka, S. K., et al.
(författare)
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Amyloid-beta and Tau Dynamics in Human Brain Interstitial Fluid in Patients with Suspected Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Alzheimers Disease. - : IOS Press. - 1387-2877 .- 1875-8908. ; 46:1, s. 261-269
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Amyloid-beta (A beta(1-42)), total tau (T-tau), and phosphorylated tau (P-tau(181)) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are the most promising biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Still, little is known about the dynamics of these molecules in the living brain. In a transgenic mouse brain, soluble A beta decreases with increasing age and advanced A beta pathology as seen similarly in CSF. Objective: To assess the relationship between AD-related pathological changes in human brain tissue, ventricular and lumbar CSF, and brain interstitial fluid (ISF). Methods: Altogether 11 patients with suspected idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus underwent frontal cortical brain biopsy, 24-h intraventricular pressure monitoring, and a microdialysis procedure. AD-related biomarkers were analyzed from brain tissue, CSF, and ISF. Results: ISF T-tau levels decreased strongly within the first 12 h, then plateauing until the end of the experiment. A beta(1-42) and P-tau(181) remained stable during the experiment (n = 3). T-tau and P-tau were higher in the ISF than in ventricular or lumbar CSF, while A beta(1-42) levels were within similar range in both CSF and ISF samples. ISF P-tau correlated with the ventricular CSF T-tau (r = 0.70, p = 0.017) and P-tau(181) (r = 0.64, p = 0.034). Five patients with amyloid pathology in the brain biopsy tended to reveal lower ISF A beta(1-42) levels than those six without amyloid pathology. Conclusions: This is the first study to report ISF A beta and tau levels in the human brain without significant brain injury. The set-up used enables sampling from the brain ISF for at least 24 h without causing adverse effects due to the microdialysis procedure to follow the dynamics of the key molecules in AD pathogenesis in the living brain at various stages of the disease.
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| 5. |
- Berntsson, Oskar, 1989, et al.
(författare)
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Sequential conformational transitions and alpha-helical supercoiling regulate a sensor histidine kinase
- 2017
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Ingår i: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sensor histidine kinases are central to sensing in bacteria and in plants. They usually contain sensor, linker, and kinase modules and the structure of many of these components is known. However, it is unclear how the kinase module is structurally regulated. Here, we use nano- to millisecond time-resolved X-ray scattering to visualize the solution structural changes that occur when the light-sensitive model histidine kinase YF1 is activated by blue light. We find that the coiled coil linker and the attached histidine kinase domains undergo a left handed rotation within microseconds. In a much slower second step, the kinase domains rearrange internally. This structural mechanism presents a template for signal transduction in sensor histidine kinases.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Berntsson, Oskar, 1989, et al.
(författare)
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Photoactivation of Drosophila melanogaster cryptochrome through sequential conformational transitions
- 2019
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Ingår i: Science Advances. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 2375-2548. ; 5:7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cryptochromes are blue-light photoreceptor proteins, which provide input to circadian clocks. The cryptochrome from Drosophila melanogaster (DmCry) modulates the degradation of Timeless and itself. It is unclear how light absorption by the chromophore and the subsequent redox reactions trigger these events. Here, we use nano- to millisecond time-resolved x-ray solution scattering to reveal the light-activated conformational changes in DmCry and the related (6-4) photolyase. DmCry undergoes a series of structural changes, culminating in the release of the carboxyl-terminal tail (CTT). The photolyase has a simpler structural response. We find that the CTT release in DmCry depends on pH. Mutation of a conserved histidine, important for the biochemical activity of DmCry, does not affect transduction of the structural signal to the CTT. Instead, molecular dynamics simulations suggest that it stabilizes the CTT in the resting-state conformation. Our structural photocycle unravels the first molecular events of signal transduction in an animal cryptochrome.
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| 10. |
- Björling, Alexander, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Structural photoactivation of a full-length bacterial phytochrome
- 2016
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Ingår i: Science Advances. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 2375-2548. ; 2:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Phytochromes are light sensor proteins found in plants, bacteria, and fungi. They function by converting a photon absorption event into a conformational signal that propagates from the chromophore through the entire protein. However, the structure of the photoactivated state and the conformational changes that lead to it are not known. We report time-resolved x-ray scattering of the full-length phytochrome from Deinococcus radiodurans on micro-and millisecond time scales. We identify a twist of the histidine kinase output domains with respect to the chromophore-binding domains as the dominant change between the photoactivated and resting states. The time-resolved data further show that the structural changes up to the microsecond time scales are small and localized in the chromophore-binding domains. The global structural change occurs within a few milliseconds, coinciding with the formation of the spectroscopic meta-Rc state. Our findings establish key elements of the signaling mechanism of full-length bacterial phytochromes.
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