scholarly journals WT and A53T α-synuclein systems: Melting Diagram and its new interpretation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Bokor ◽  
Á. Tantos ◽  
P. Tompa ◽  
K.-H. Han ◽  
K. Tompa

AbstractParkinson’s disease is connected with abnormal α-synuclein (αS) aggregation. Energetics of potential barriers governing motions of hydration water is examined. Information about the distributions and heights of potential barriers is gained by a thermodynamical approach. The ratios of the heterogeneous water-binding interfaces measure proteins’ structural disorder. All αS forms possess secondary structural elements though they are intrinsically disordered. Monomers are functional at the lowest potential barriers, where mobile hydration water exists, with monolayer coverage of mobile hydration. The αS monomer contains 33% secondary structure and is more compact than a random coil. A53T αS monomer has a more open structure than the wild type. Monomers realize all possible hydrogen bonds. Half of the mobile hydration water amount for monomers is missing in αS oligomers and αS amyloids. Oligomers are ordered by 66%. Mobile water molecules in the first hydration shell of amyloids are the weakest bound compared to other forms. Wild type and A53T amyloids show identical, low-level hydration, and are considered as disordered to 75%.Statement of SignificanceAggregation of α-synuclein into oligomers, amyloid fibrils is a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. A thermodynamic approach provides information on the heterogeneity of protein-water bonds in the wild type and A53T mutant monomers, oligomers, amyloids. This information can be related to ratios of heterogeneous water-binding interfaces, which measure the proteins’ structural disorder. Both α-synuclein monomers are intrinsically disordered. The monomers nevertheless have 33% secondary structure. They are functional as long as mobile water molecules surround them. They realize every possible H-bonds with water. Oligomers are like globular proteins with 66% ordered structure. Amyloids are disordered to 75% and are poorly hydrated with loosely bound water. Their hydration is identical. Oligomers, amyloids have only half as much hydrating mobile water as monomers.

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 3997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónika Bokor ◽  
Ágnes Tantos ◽  
Péter Tompa ◽  
Kyou-Hoon Han ◽  
Kálmán Tompa

The potential barriers governing the motions of α-synuclein (αS) variants’ hydration water, especially energetics of them, is in the focus of the work. The thermodynamical approach yielded essential information about distributions and heights of the potential barriers. The proteins’ structural disorder was measured by ratios of heterogeneous water-binding interfaces. They showed the αS monomers, oligomers and amyloids to possess secondary structural elements, although monomers are intrinsically disordered. Despite their disordered nature, monomers have 33% secondary structure, and therefore they are more compact than a random coil. At the lowest potential barriers with mobile hydration water, monomers are already functional, a monolayer of mobile hydration water is surrounding them. Monomers realize all possible hydrogen bonds with the solvent water. αS oligomers and amyloids have half of the mobile hydration water amount than monomers because aggregation involves less mobile hydration. The solvent-accessible surface of the oligomers is ordered or homogenous in its interactions with water to 66%. As a contrast, αS amyloids are disordered or heterogeneous to 75% of their solvent accessible surface and both wild type and A53T amyloids show identical, low-level hydration. Mobile water molecules in the first hydration shell of amyloids are the weakest bound compared to other forms.


Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 757
Author(s):  
Mónika Bokor ◽  
Ágnes Tantos

The amount of bonds between constituting parts of a protein aggregate were determined in wild type (WT) and A53T α-synuclein (αS) oligomers, amyloids and in the complex of thymosin-β4–cytoplasmic domain of stabilin-2 (Tβ4-stabilin CTD). A53T αS aggregates have more extensive βsheet contents reflected by constant regions at low potential barriers in difference (to monomers) melting diagrams (MDs). Energies of the intermolecular interactions and of secondary structures bonds, formed during polymerization, fall into the 5.41 kJ mol−1 ≤ Ea ≤ 5.77 kJ mol−1 range for αS aggregates. Monomers lose more mobile hydration water while forming amyloids than oligomers. Part of the strong mobile hydration water–protein bonds break off and these bonding sites of the protein form intermolecular bonds in the aggregates. The new bonds connect the constituting proteins into aggregates. Amyloid–oligomer difference MD showed an overall more homogeneous solvent accessible surface of A53T αS amyloids. From the comparison of the nominal sum of the MDs of the constituting proteins to the measured MD of the Tβ4-stabilin CTD complex, the number of intermolecular bonds connecting constituent proteins into complex is 20(1) H2O/complex. The energies of these bonds are in the 5.40(3) kJ mol−1 ≤ Ea ≤ 5.70(5) kJ mol−1 range.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruchi Lohia ◽  
Reza Salari ◽  
Grace Brannigan

<div>The role of electrostatic interactions and mutations that change charge states in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) is well-established, but many disease-associated mutations in IDPs are charge-neutral. The Val66Met single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) encodes a hydrophobic-to-hydrophobic mutation at the midpoint of the prodomain of precursor brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), one of the earliest SNPs to be associated with neuropsychiatric disorders, for which the underlying molecular mechanism is unknown. Here we report on over 250 μs of fully-atomistic, explicit solvent, temperature replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations of the 91 residue BDNF prodomain, for both the V66 and M66 sequence.</div><div>The simulations were able to correctly reproduce the location of both local and non-local secondary changes due to the Val66Met mutation when compared with NMR spectroscopy. We find that the local structure change is mediated via entropic and sequence specific effects. We show that the highly disordered prodomain can be meaningfully divided into domains based on sequence alone. Monte Carlo simulations of a self-excluding heterogeneous polymer, with monomers representing each domain, suggest the sequence would be effectively segmented by the long, highly disordered polyampholyte near the sequence midpoint. This is qualitatively consistent with observed interdomain contacts within the BDNF prodomain, although contacts between the two segments are enriched relative to the self-excluding polymer. The Val66Met mutation increases interactions across the boundary between the two segments, due in part to a specific Met-Met interaction with a Methionine in the other segment. This effect propagates to cause the non-local change in secondary structure around the second methionine, previously observed in NMR. The effect is not mediated simply via changes in inter-domain contacts but is also dependent on secondary structure formation around residue 66, indicating a mechanism for secondary structure coupling in disordered proteins. </div>


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 399
Author(s):  
Ambuj Srivastava ◽  
Dhanusha Yesudhas ◽  
Shandar Ahmad ◽  
M. Michael Gromiha

tRNA methyltransferase 5 (Trm5) enzyme is an S-adenosyl methionine (AdoMet)-dependent methyltransferase which methylates the G37 nucleotide at the N1 atom of the tRNA. The free form of Trm5 enzyme has three intrinsically disordered regions, which are highly flexible and lack stable three-dimensional structures. These regions gain ordered structures upon the complex formation with tRNA, also called disorder-to-order transition (DOT) regions. In this study, we performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of archaeal Trm5 in free and complex forms and observed that the DOT residues are highly flexible in free proteins and become stable in complex structures. The energetic contributions show that DOT residues are important for stabilising the complex. The DOT1 and DOT2 are mainly observed to be important for stabilising the complex, while DOT3 is present near the active site to coordinate the interactions between methyl-donating ligands and G37 nucleotides. In addition, mutational studies on the Trm5 complex showed that the wild type is more stable than the G37A tRNA mutant complex. The loss of productive interactions upon G37A mutation drives the AdoMet ligand away from the 37th nucleotide, and Arg145 in DOT3 plays a crucial role in stabilising the ligand, as well as the G37 nucleotide, in the wild-type complex. Further, the overall energetic contribution calculated using MMPBSA corroborates that the wild-type complex has a better affinity between Trm5 and tRNA. Overall, our study reveals that targeting DOT regions for binding could improve the inhibition of Trm5.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marley L. Samways ◽  
Richard D. Taylor ◽  
Hannah E. Bruce Macdonald ◽  
Jonathan W. Essex

In this review we examine computational approaches to explore the structure and thermodynamics of water binding in protein–drug complexes


2010 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 791-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luna N. Rahman ◽  
Lin Chen ◽  
Sumaiya Nazim ◽  
Vladimir V. Bamm ◽  
Mahmoud W. Yaish ◽  
...  

Dehydrins are intrinsically disordered (unstructured) proteins that are expressed in plants experiencing stressful conditions such as drought or low temperature. Dehydrins are typically found in the cytosol and nucleus, but also associate with chloroplasts, mitochondria, and the plasma membrane. Although their role is not completely understood, it has been suggested that they stabilize proteins or membrane structures during environmental stress, the latter association mediated by formation of amphipathic α-helices by conserved regions called the K-segments. Thellungiella salsuginea is a crucifer that thrives in the Canadian sub-Arctic (Yukon Territory) where it grows on saline-rich soils and experiences periods of both extreme cold and drought. We have cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli two dehydrins from this plant, denoted TsDHN-1 (acidic) and TsDHN-2 (basic). Here, we show using transmission-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy that ordered secondary structure is induced and stabilized in these proteins by association with large unilamellar vesicles emulating the lipid compositions of plant plasma and organellar membranes. Moreover, this induced folding is enhanced at low temperatures, lending credence to the hypothesis that dehydrins stabilize plant outer and organellar membranes in conditions of cold.


2018 ◽  
Vol 92 (22) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomofumi Mochizuki ◽  
Rie Ohara ◽  
Marilyn J. Roossinck

ABSTRACTThe effect of large-scale synonymous substitutions in a small icosahedral, single-stranded RNA viral genome on virulence, viral titer, and protein evolution were analyzed. The coat protein (CP) gene of the Fny stain of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) was modified. We created four CP mutants in which all the codons of nine amino acids in the 5′ or 3′ half of the CP gene were replaced by either the most frequently or the least frequently used synonymous codons in monocot plants. When the dicot host (Nicotiana benthamiana) was inoculated with these four CP mutants, viral RNA titers in uninoculated symptomatic leaves decreased, while all mutants eventually showed mosaic symptoms similar to those for the wild type. The codon adaptation index of these four CP mutants against dicot genes was similar to those of the wild-type CP gene, indicating that the reduction of viral RNA titer was due to deleterious changes of the secondary structure of RNAs 3 and 4. When two 5′ mutants were serially passaged inN. benthamiana, viral RNA titers were rapidly restored but competitive fitness remained decreased. Although no nucleic acid changes were observed in the passaged wild-type CMV, one to three amino acid changes were observed in the synonymously mutated CP of each passaged virus, which were involved in recovery of viral RNA titer of 5′ mutants. Thus, we demonstrated that deleterious effects of the large-scale synonymous substitutions in the RNA viral genome facilitated the rapid amino acid mutation(s) in the CP to restore the viral RNA titer.IMPORTANCERecently, it has been known that synonymous substitutions in RNA virus genes affect viral pathogenicity and competitive fitness by alteration of global or local RNA secondary structure of the viral genome. We confirmed that large-scale synonymous substitutions in the CP gene of CMV resulted in decreased viral RNA titer. Importantly, when viral evolution was stimulated by serial-passage inoculation, viral RNA titer was rapidly restored, concurrent with a few amino acid changes in the CP. This novel finding indicates that the deleterious effects of large-scale nucleic acid mutations on viral RNA secondary structure are readily tolerated by structural changes in the CP, demonstrating a novel part of the adaptive evolution of an RNA viral genome. In addition, our experimental system for serial inoculation of large-scale synonymous mutants could uncover a role for new amino acid residues in the viral protein that have not been observed in the wild-type virus strains.


2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (30) ◽  
pp. 8424-8429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yangzhong Qin ◽  
Lijuan Wang ◽  
Dongping Zhong

Protein hydration is essential to its structure, dynamics, and function, but water–protein interactions have not been directly observed in real time at physiological temperature to our awareness. By using a tryptophan scan with femtosecond spectroscopy, we simultaneously measured the hydration water dynamics and protein side-chain motions with temperature dependence. We observed the heterogeneous hydration dynamics around the global protein surface with two types of coupled motions, collective water/side-chain reorientation in a few picoseconds and cooperative water/side-chain restructuring in tens of picoseconds. The ultrafast dynamics in hundreds of femtoseconds is from the outer-layer, bulk-type mobile water molecules in the hydration shell. We also found that the hydration water dynamics are always faster than protein side-chain relaxations but with the same energy barriers, indicating hydration shell fluctuations driving protein side-chain motions on the picosecond time scales and thus elucidating their ultimate relationship.


1969 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. 1502-1511
Author(s):  
Karl Heinzinger

Abstract There are two kinds of water in CuSO4·5H2O differing by their binding in the crystal. The oxygen of four water molecules is bonded to the copper ion, that of the fifth molecule is hydrogen bonded. It is shown that the D/H ratios of these two kinds of water differ by 5.7%, the light isotope being enriched in the water molecules coordinated with the copper ion. The results show that there is no exchange of the hydrogen isotopes during the time needed for dehydration at room temperature which takes several days. The assumption has been confirmed that the water coordinated with the copper ion leaves the crystal first on dehydration at temperatures below 50 °C. Additional measurements of the separation factor for the hydrogen isotopes between water vapor and copper sulfate solutions allow conclusions on the fractionation of the hydrogen isotopes between bulk water and hydration water in aqueous solutions.


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