| 1. |
- Friedman, Ran, et al.
(författare)
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Surfactant Effects on Amyloid Aggregation Kinetics
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 414, s. 303-312
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is strong experimental evidence of the influence of surfactants (e.g., fatty acids) on the kinetics of amyloid fibril formation. However, the structures of mixed assemblies and interactions between surfactants and fibril-forming peptides are still not clear. Here, coarse-grained simulations are employed to study the aggregation kinetics of amyloidogenic peptides in the presence of amphiphilic lipids. The simulations show that the lower the fibril formation propensity of the peptides, the higher the influence of the surfactants on the peptide self-assembly kinetics. In particular, the lag phase of weakly aggregating peptides increases because of the formation of mixed oligomers, which are promoted by hydrophobic interactions and favorable entropy of mixing. A transient peak in the number of surfactants attached to the growing fibril is observed before reaching the mature fibril in some of the simulations. This peak originates from transient fibrillar defects consisting of exposed hydrophobic patches on the fibril surface, which provide a possible explanation for the temporary maximum of fluorescence observed sometimes in kinetic traces of the binding of small-molecule dyes to amyloid fibrils.
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| 2. |
- Nachin, Laurence, 1971, et al.
(författare)
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Heterodimer formation within universal stress protein classes revealed by an in silico and experimental approach.
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of molecular biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1089-8638 .- 0022-2836. ; 380:2, s. 340-50
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Universal stress proteins (Usps) are found in all kingdoms of life and can be divided into four classes by phylogenic analysis. According to available structures, Usps exist as homodimers, and genetic studies show that their cellular assignments are extensive, including functions relating to stress resistance, carbon metabolism, cellular adhesion, motility, and bacterial virulence. We approached the question of how Usps can achieve such a variety of functions in a cell by using a new procedure for statistical analysis of multiple sequence alignments, based on physicochemically related values for each amino acid residue of Usp dimer interfaces. The results predicted that Usp proteins within a class may, in addition to forming homodimers, be able to form heterodimers. Using Escherichia coli Usps as model proteins, we confirmed the existence of such interactions. We especially focused on class I UspA and UspC and demonstrated that they are able to form homo- and heterodimers in vitro and in vivo. We suggest that this ability to form both homo- and heterodimers may allow for an expansion of the functional repertoire of Usps and explains why organisms usually contain multiple usp paralogues.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Danielsson, Jens, et al.
(författare)
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The Pierced Lasso Topology Leptin has a Bolt on Dynamic Domain Composed by the Disordered Loops I and III
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 432:9, s. 3050-3063
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Leptin is an important signaling hormone, mostly known for its role in energy expenditure and satiety. Furthermore, leptin plays a major role in other proteinopathies, such as cancer, marked hyperphagia, impaired immune function, and inflammation. In spite of its biological relevance in human health, there are no NMR resonance assignments of the human protein available, obscuring high-resolution characterization of the soluble protein and/or its conformational dynamics, suggested as being important for receptor interaction and biological activity. Here, we report the nearly complete backbone resonance assignments of human leptin. Chemical shift-based secondary structure prediction confirms that in solution leptin forms a four-helix bundle including a pierced lasso topology. The conformational dynamics, determined on several timescales, show that leptin is monomeric, has a rigid four-helix scaffold, and a dynamic domain, including a transiently formed helix. The dynamic domain is anchored to the helical scaffold by a secondary hydrophobic core, pinning down the long loops of leptin to the protein body, inducing motional restriction without a well-defined secondary or tertiary hydrogen bond stabilized structure. This dynamic region is well suited for and may be involved in functional allosteric dynamics upon receptor binding.
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| 5. |
- Elmlund, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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A new cryo-EM single-particle Ab initio reconstruction method visualizes secondary structure elements in an ATP-Fueled AAA+ motor
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1089-8638 .- 0022-2836. ; 375:4, s. 934-947
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The generation of ab initio three-dimensional (3D) models is a bottleneck in the studies of large macromolecular assemblies by single-particle cryo-electron microscopy. We describe here a novel method, in which established methods for two-dimensional image processing are combined with newly developed programs for joint rotational 3D alignment of a large number of class averages (RAD) and calculation of 3D volumes from aligned projections (VolRec). We demonstrate the power of the method by reconstructing an 660-kDa ATP-fueled AAA+ motor to 7.5 Å resolution, with secondary structure elements identified throughout the structure. We propose the method as a generally applicable automated strategy to obtain 3D reconstructions from unstained single particles imaged in vitreous ice.
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| 6. |
- Ståhl, Annelie, et al.
(författare)
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Two Novel Targeting Peptide Degrading Proteases, PrePs, in Mitochondria and Chloroplasts, so Similar and Still Different
- 2005
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 349:4, s. 847-860
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Two novel metalloproteases from Arabidopsis thaliana, termed AtPrePI and AtPrePII, were recently identified and shown to degrade targeting peptides in mitochondria and chloroplasts using an ambiguous targeting peptide. AtPrePI and AtPrePII are classified as dually targeted proteins as they are targeted to both mitochondria and chloroplasts. Both proteases harbour an inverted metal binding motif and belong to the pitrilysin subfamily A. Here we have investigated the subsite specificity of AtPrePI and AtPrePII by studying their proteolytic activity against the mitochondrial F1β pre-sequence, peptides derived from the F1β pre-sequence as well as non-mitochondrial peptides and proteins. The degradation products were analysed, identified by MALDI-TOF spectrometry and superimposed on the 3D structure of the F1β pre-sequence. AtPrePI and AtPrePII cleaved peptides that are in the range of 10 to 65 amino acid residues, whereas folded or longer unfolded peptides and small proteins were not degraded. Both proteases showed preference for basic amino acids in the P1 position and small, uncharged amino acids or serine residues in the P′1P′1position. Interestingly, both AtPrePI and AtPrePII cleaved almost exclusively towards the ends of the α-helical elements of the F1β pre-sequence. However, AtPrePI showed a preference for the N-terminal amphiphilic α-helix and positively charged amino acid residues and degraded the F1β pre-sequence into 10–16 amino acid fragments, whereas AtPrePII did not show any positional preference and degraded the F1β pre-sequence into 10–23 amino acid fragments. In conclusion, despite the high sequence identity between AtPrePI and AtPrePII and similarities in cleavage specificities, cleavage site recognition differs for both proteases and is context and structure dependent.
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| 7. |
- Zaccai, Nathan R., et al.
(författare)
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Crystallographic and in silico analysis of the sialoside-binding characteristics of the Siglec sialoadhesin
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 365:5, s. 1469-1479
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Siglec family of receptors mediates cell-surface interactions through recognition of sialylated glycoconjugates. Previously reported structures of the N-terminal domain of the Siglec sialoadhesin (SnD1) in complex with various sialic acid analogs revealed the structural template for sialic acid binding. To characterize further the carbohydrate-binding properties, we have determined the crystal structures of SnD1 in the absence of ligand, and in complex with 2-benzyl-Neu5NPro and 2-benzyl-Neu5NAc. These structures reveal that SnD1 undergoes very few structural changes on ligand binding and detail how two novel classes of sialic acid analogs bind, one of which unexpectedly can induce Siglec dimerization. In conjunction with in silico analysis, this set of structures informs us about the design of putative ligands with enhanced binding affinities and specificities to different Siglecs, and provides data with which to test the effectiveness of different computational drug design protocols.
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| 8. |
- Di Yu, Xiao, et al.
(författare)
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Large Is Fast, Small Is Tight : Determinants of Speed and Affinity in Subunit Capture by a Periplasmic Chaperone
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 417:4, s. 294-308
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The chaperone/usher pathway assembles surface virulence organelles of Gram-negative bacteria, consisting of fibers of linearly polymerized protein subunits. Fiber subunits are connected through 'donor strand complementation': each subunit completes the immunoglobulin (Ig)-like fold of the neighboring subunit by donating the seventh beta-strand in trans. Whereas the folding of Ig domains is a fast first-order process, folding of Ig modules into the fiber conformation is a slow second-order process. Periplasmic chaperones separate this process in two parts by forming transient complexes with subunits. Interactions between chaperones and subunits are also based on the principle of donor strand complementation. In this study, we have performed mutagenesis of the binding motifs of the Caf1M chaperone and Caf1 capsular subunit from Yersinia pestis and analyzed the effect of the mutations on the structure, stability, and kinetics of Caf1M-Caf1 and Caf1-Caf1 interactions. The results suggest that a large hydrophobic effect combined with extensive main-chain hydrogen bonding enables Caf1M to rapidly bind an early folding intermediate of Caf1 and direct its partial folding. The switch from the Caf1M-Caf1 contact to the less hydrophobic, but considerably tighter and less dynamic Caf1-Caf1 contact occurs via the zip-out-zip-in donor strand exchange pathway with pocket 5 acting as the initiation site. Based on these findings, Caf1M was engineered to bind Caf1 faster, tighter, or both faster and tighter. To our knowledge, this is the first successful attempt to rationally design an assembly chaperone with improved chaperone function.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Schreiber, Fabian, et al.
(författare)
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Hieranoid : Hierarchical Orthology Inference
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Molecular Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-2836 .- 1089-8638. ; 425:11, s. 2072-2081
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An accurate inference of orthologs is essential in many research fields such as comparative genomics, molecular evolution, and genome annotation. Existing methods for genome-scale orthology inference are mostly based on all-versus-all similarity searches that scale quadratically with the number of species. This limits their application to the increasing number of available large-scale datasets. Here, we present Hieranoid, a new orthology inference method using a hierarchical approach. Hieranoid performs pairwise orthology analysis using In Paranoid at each node in a guide tree as it progresses from its leaves to the root. This concept reduces the total runtime complexity from a quadratic to a linear function of the number of species. The tree hierarchy provides a natural structure in multi-species ortholog groups, and the aggregation of multiple sequences allows for multiple alignment similarity searching techniques, which can yield more accurate ortholog groups. Using the recently published orthobench benchmark, Hieranoid showed the overall best performance. Our progressive approach presents a new way to infer orthologs that combines efficient graph-based methodology with aspects of compute-intensive tree-based methods. The linear scaling with the number of species is a major advantage for large-scale applications and makes Hieranoid well suited to cope with vast amounts of sequenced genomes in the future. Hieranoid is an open source and can be downloaded at Hieranoid.sbc.su.se. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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