Structural properties of substrate proteins determine their proteolysis by the mitochondrial AAA+ protease Pim1

2005 ◽  
Vol 386 (12) ◽  
pp. 1307-1317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit von Janowsky ◽  
Karin Knapp ◽  
Tamara Major ◽  
Martin Krayl ◽  
Bernard Guiard ◽  
...  

Abstract The protease Pim1/LON, a member of the AAA+ family of homo-oligomeric ATP-dependent proteases, is responsible for the degradation of soluble proteins in the mitochondrial matrix. To establish the molecular parameters required for the specific recognition and proteolysis of substrate proteins by Pim1, we analyzed the in organello degradation of imported reporter proteins containing different structural properties. The amino acid composition at the amino-terminal end had no major effect on the proteolysis reaction. However, proteins with an amino-terminal extension of less than 60 amino acids in front of a stably folded reporter domain were completely resistant to proteolysis by Pim1. Substrate proteins with a longer amino-terminal extension showed incomplete proteolysis, resulting in the generation of a defined degradation fragment. We conclude that Pim1-mediated protein degradation is processive and is initiated from an unstructured amino-terminal segment. Resistance to degradation and fragment formation was abolished if the folding state of the reporter domain was destabilized, indicating that Pim1 is not able to unravel folded proteins for proteolysis. We propose that the requirement for an exposed, large, non-native protein segment, in combination with a limited unfolding capability, accounts for the selectivity of the protease Pim1 for damaged or misfolded polypeptides.

1987 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 294-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Pilgrim ◽  
E T Young

Alcohol dehydrogenase isoenzyme III (ADH III) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the product of the ADH3 gene, is located in the mitochondrial matrix. The ADH III protein was synthesized as a larger precursor in vitro when the gene was transcribed with the SP6 promoter and translated with a reticulocyte lysate. A precursor of the same size was detected when radioactively pulse-labeled proteins were immunoprecipitated with anti-ADH antibody. This precursor was rapidly processed to the mature form in vivo with a half-time of less than 3 min. The processing was blocked if the mitochondria were uncoupled with carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone. Mutant enzymes in which only the amino-terminal 14 or 16 amino acids of the presequence were retained were correctly targeted and imported into the matrix. A mutant enzyme that was missing the amino-terminal 17 amino acids of the presequence produced an active enzyme, but the majority of the enzyme activity remained in the cytoplasmic compartment on cellular fractionation. Random amino acid changes were produced in the wild-type presequence by bisulfite mutagenesis of the ADH3 gene. The resulting ADH III protein was targeted to the mitochondria and imported into the matrix in all of the mutants tested, as judged by enzyme activity. Mutants containing amino acid changes in the carboxyl-proximal half of the ADH3 presequence were imported and processed to the mature form at a slower rate than the wild type, as judged by pulse-chase studies in vivo. The unprocessed precursor appeared to be unstable in vivo. It was concluded that only a small portion of the presequence contains the necessary information for correct targeting and import. Furthermore, the information for correct proteolytic processing of the presequence appears to be distinct from the targeting information and may involve secondary structure information in the presequence.


1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-364
Author(s):  
T Keng ◽  
E Alani ◽  
L Guarente

delta-Aminolevulinate synthase, the first enzyme in the heme biosynthetic pathway, is encoded by the nuclear gene HEM1. The enzyme is synthesized as a precursor in the cytoplasm and imported into the matrix of the mitochondria, where it is processed to its mature form. Fusions of beta-galactosidase to various lengths of amino-terminal fragments of delta-aminolevulinate synthase were constructed and transformed into yeast cells. The subcellular location of the fusion proteins was determined by organelle fractionation. Fusion proteins were found to be associated with the mitochondria. Protease protection experiments involving the use of intact mitochondria or mitoplasts localized the fusion proteins to the mitochondrial matrix. This observation was confirmed by fractionation of the mitochondrial compartments and specific activity measurements of beta-galactosidase activity. The shortest fusion protein contains nine amino acid residues of delta-aminolevulinate synthase, indicating that nine amino-terminal residues are sufficient to localize beta-galactosidase to the mitochondrial matrix. The amino acid sequence deduced from the DNA sequence of HEM1 showed that the amino-terminal region of delta-aminolevulinate synthase was largely hydrophobic, with a few basic residues interspersed.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Dixon ◽  
Lee Ellen Brunson ◽  
Mary Margaret Roy ◽  
Dechelle Smothers ◽  
Michael G. Sehorn ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Ubiquitin ligases direct the transfer of ubiquitin onto substrate proteins and thus target the substrate for proteasome-dependent degradation. SCF complexes are a family of ubiquitin ligases composed of a common core of components and a variable component called an F-box protein that defines substrate specificity. Distinct SCF complexes, defined by a particular F-box protein, target different substrate proteins for degradation. Although a few have been identified to be involved in important biological pathways, such as the cell division cycle and coordinating cellular responses to changes in environmental conditions, the role of the overwhelming majority of F-box proteins is not clear. Creating inhibitors that will block the in vivo activities of specific SCF ubiquitin ligases may provide identification of substrates of these uncharacterized F-box proteins. Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system, we demonstrate that overproduction of polypeptides corresponding to the amino terminus of the F-box proteins Cdc4p and Met30p results in specific inhibition of their SCF complexes. Analyses of mutant amino-terminal alleles demonstrate that the interaction of these polypeptides with their full-length counterparts is an important step in the inhibitory process. These results suggest a common means to inhibit specific SCF complexes in vivo.


2004 ◽  
Vol 120 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 133-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Mouchantaf ◽  
H.L Watt ◽  
T Sulea ◽  
N.G Seidah ◽  
H Alturaihi ◽  
...  

1999 ◽  
Vol 55 (9) ◽  
pp. 1524-1532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi-Ping Yao ◽  
Zong-Hao Zeng ◽  
Hong-Min Li ◽  
Ying Zhang ◽  
You-Min Feng ◽  
...  

The structure of human insulin mutant B9 (Ser→Glu) was determined by an X-ray crystallographic method at 2.5 Å resolution with an R factor of 0.165 under non-crystallographic restraints. The crystals were grown at low pH (<3.8) and belong to the orthorhombic P212121 space group with unit-cell dimensions a = 44.54, b = 46.40, c = 51.85 Å and one dimer per asymmetric unit without further aggregation. The structure in this crystal form can be regarded as a model for a discrete insulin dimer and displays the following features compared with the structure of 2Zn insulin. (i) The overall dimer is expanded and more symmetric. The two A chains are about 2 Å more distant from each other, while the two B chains are about 0.8 Å further apart. Both monomers are more similar to molecule 1 than molecule 2 of the 2Zn insulin dimer. (ii) The dimer structure is stabilized by protonation and neutralization of the carboxyl groups at lower pH and, in addition, by formation of a hydrogen-bond network among the side chains of residues GluB9, HisB13 and HisB10 on the dimer-forming surface of both monomers, resulting from a structural rearrangement. (iii) The B-chain amino-terminal segment is in an open state (O state), i.e. a state different from the well known R and T states found in the insulin hexamer. In the O state, the B-chain N-terminal segment is in an extended conformation and is detached from the rest of the molecule. This conformational state has also been observed in the monomeric crystal structure of despentapeptide (B26–B30) and desheptapeptide (B24–B30) insulin, as well as in the solution structure of an engineered insulin monomer. It suggests that the O state may be the characteristic conformation of insulin in lower aggregation forms and may be relevant to the formation of insulin fibrils. In addition, based on the crystallization process, the smallest possible building blocks of insulin crystal are also discussed.


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