Ribosome surface properties may impose limits on the nature of the cytoplasmic proteome

  1. Paul E Schavemaker
  2. Wojciech M Śmigiel
  3. Bert Poolman  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of Groningen, Netherlands

Abstract

Much of the molecular motion in the cytoplasm is diffusive, which possibly limits the tempo of processes. We studied the dependence of protein mobility on protein surface properties and ionic strength. We used surface-modified fluorescent proteins (FPs) and determined their translational diffusion coefficients (D) in the cytoplasm of Escherichia coli, Lactococcus lactis and Haloferax volcanii. We find that in E. coli D depends on the net charge and its distribution over the protein, with positive proteins diffusing up to 100-fold slower than negative ones. This effect is weaker in L. lactis and Hfx. volcanii due to electrostatic screening. The decrease in mobility is probably caused by interaction of positive FPs with ribosomes as shown in in vivo diffusion measurements and confirmed in vitro with purified ribosomes. Ribosome surface properties may thus limit the composition of the cytoplasmic proteome. This finding lays bare a paradox in the functioning of prokaryotic (endo)symbionts.

Data availability

The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Paul E Schavemaker

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Wojciech M Śmigiel

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Bert Poolman

    Department of Biochemistry, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
    For correspondence
    b.poolman@rug.nl
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1455-531X

Funding

Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TOP-PUNT.13.006)

  • Bert Poolman

H2020 European Research Council (Advanced Grant (ABC Volume))

  • Wojciech M Śmigiel

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2017, Schavemaker et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 4,730
    views
  • 750
    downloads
  • 89
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Paul E Schavemaker
  2. Wojciech M Śmigiel
  3. Bert Poolman
(2017)
Ribosome surface properties may impose limits on the nature of the cytoplasmic proteome
eLife 6:e30084.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.30084

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.30084

Further reading

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    Jie Luo, Jeff Ranish
    Tools and Resources

    Dynamic conformational and structural changes in proteins and protein complexes play a central and ubiquitous role in the regulation of protein function, yet it is very challenging to study these changes, especially for large protein complexes, under physiological conditions. Here, we introduce a novel isobaric crosslinker, Qlinker, for studying conformational and structural changes in proteins and protein complexes using quantitative crosslinking mass spectrometry. Qlinkers are small and simple, amine-reactive molecules with an optimal extended distance of ~10 Å, which use MS2 reporter ions for relative quantification of Qlinker-modified peptides derived from different samples. We synthesized the 2-plex Q2linker and showed that the Q2linker can provide quantitative crosslinking data that pinpoints key conformational and structural changes in biosensors, binary and ternary complexes composed of the general transcription factors TBP, TFIIA, and TFIIB, and RNA polymerase II complexes.

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
    Alejandro J Brenes, Eva Griesser ... Angus I Lamond
    Research Article

    Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have great potential to be used as alternatives to embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in regenerative medicine and disease modelling. In this study, we characterise the proteomes of multiple hiPSC and hESC lines derived from independent donors and find that while they express a near-identical set of proteins, they show consistent quantitative differences in the abundance of a subset of proteins. hiPSCs have increased total protein content, while maintaining a comparable cell cycle profile to hESCs, with increased abundance of cytoplasmic and mitochondrial proteins required to sustain high growth rates, including nutrient transporters and metabolic proteins. Prominent changes detected in proteins involved in mitochondrial metabolism correlated with enhanced mitochondrial potential, shown using high-resolution respirometry. hiPSCs also produced higher levels of secreted proteins, including growth factors and proteins involved in the inhibition of the immune system. The data indicate that reprogramming of fibroblasts to hiPSCs produces important differences in cytoplasmic and mitochondrial proteins compared to hESCs, with consequences affecting growth and metabolism. This study improves our understanding of the molecular differences between hiPSCs and hESCs, with implications for potential risks and benefits for their use in future disease modelling and therapeutic applications.