Structural principles of SNARE complex recognition by the AAA+ protein NSF

  1. K Ian White
  2. Minglei Zhao
  3. Ucheor B Choi
  4. Richard A Pfuetzner
  5. Axel T Brunger  Is a corresponding author
  1. Stanford University, United States
  2. University of Chicago, United States

Abstract

The recycling of SNARE proteins following complex formation and membrane fusion is an essential process in eukaryotic trafficking. A highly conserved AAA+ protein, NSF (N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor) and an adaptor protein, SNAP (soluble NSF attachment protein), disassembles the SNARE complex. We report electron-cryomicroscopy structures of the complex of NSF, αSNAP, and the full-length soluble neuronal SNARE complex (composed of syntaxin-1A, synaptobrevin-2, SNAP-25A) in the presence of ATP under non-hydrolyzing conditions at ~3.9 Å resolution. These structures reveal electrostatic interactions by which two αSNAP molecules interface with a specific surface of the SNARE complex. This interaction positions the SNAREs such that the 15 N-terminal residues of SNAP-25A are loaded into the D1 ring pore of NSF via a spiral pattern of interactions between a conserved tyrosine NSF residue and SNAP-25A backbone atoms. This loading process likely precedes ATP hydrolysis. Subsequent ATP hydrolysis then drives complete disassembly.

Data availability

The coordinates and corresponding EM density maps have been deposited in the PDB and EMDB, respectively.

The following data sets were generated
    1. Axel T Brunger
    (2018) The 20S supercomplex engaging the SNAP-25 N-terminus (class 1)
    Publicly available at the EMBL-EBI Protein Data Bank (accession no: EMD-9100).
    1. Axel T Brunger
    (2018) The 20S supercomplex engaging the SNAP-25 N-terminus (class 2)
    Publicly available at the EMBL-EBI Protein Data Bank (accession no: EMD-9101).

Article and author information

Author details

  1. K Ian White

    Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  2. Minglei Zhao

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  3. Ucheor B Choi

    Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  4. Richard A Pfuetzner

    Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    Competing interests
    No competing interests declared.
  5. Axel T Brunger

    Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University, Stanford, United States
    For correspondence
    brunger@stanford.edu
    Competing interests
    Axel T Brunger, Reviewing editor, eLife.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5121-2036

Funding

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

  • Axel T Brunger

National Institutes of Health

  • Axel T Brunger

Helen Hay Whitney Foundation

  • K Ian White

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

Copyright

© 2018, White 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

  • 3,899
    views
  • 673
    downloads
  • 72
    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. K Ian White
  2. Minglei Zhao
  3. Ucheor B Choi
  4. Richard A Pfuetzner
  5. Axel T Brunger
(2018)
Structural principles of SNARE complex recognition by the AAA+ protein NSF
eLife 7:e38888.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38888

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38888

Further reading

    1. Neuroscience
    Barbora Rehak Buckova, Charlotte Fraza ... Jaroslav Hlinka
    Tools and Resources

    Longitudinal neuroimaging studies offer valuable insight into brain development, ageing, and disease progression over time. However, prevailing analytical approaches rooted in our understanding of population variation are primarily tailored for cross-sectional studies. To fully leverage the potential of longitudinal neuroimaging, we need methodologies that account for the complex interplay between population variation and individual dynamics. We extend the normative modelling framework, which evaluates an individual’s position relative to population standards, to assess an individual’s longitudinal change compared to the population’s standard dynamics. Using normative models pre-trained on over 58,000 individuals, we introduce a quantitative metric termed ‘z-diff’ score, which quantifies a temporal change in individuals compared to a population standard. This approach offers advantages in flexibility in dataset size and ease of implementation. We applied this framework to a longitudinal dataset of 98 patients with early-stage schizophrenia who underwent MRI examinations shortly after diagnosis and 1 year later. Compared to cross-sectional analyses, showing global thinning of grey matter at the first visit, our method revealed a significant normalisation of grey matter thickness in the frontal lobe over time—an effect undetected by traditional longitudinal methods. Overall, our framework presents a flexible and effective methodology for analysing longitudinal neuroimaging data, providing insights into the progression of a disease that would otherwise be missed when using more traditional approaches.

    1. Neuroscience
    Lenia Amaral, Xiaosha Wang ... Ella Striem-Amit
    Research Article

    Research on brain plasticity, particularly in the context of deafness, consistently emphasizes the reorganization of the auditory cortex. But to what extent do all individuals with deafness show the same level of reorganization? To address this question, we examined the individual differences in functional connectivity (FC) from the deprived auditory cortex. Our findings demonstrate remarkable differentiation between individuals deriving from the absence of shared auditory experiences, resulting in heightened FC variability among deaf individuals, compared to more consistent FC in the hearing group. Notably, connectivity to language regions becomes more diverse across individuals with deafness. This does not stem from delayed language acquisition; it is found in deaf native signers, who are exposed to natural language since birth. However, comparing FC diversity between deaf native signers and deaf delayed signers, who were deprived of language in early development, we show that language experience also impacts individual differences, although to a more moderate extent. Overall, our research points out the intricate interplay between brain plasticity and individual differences, shedding light on the diverse ways reorganization manifests among individuals. It joins findings of increased connectivity diversity in blindness and highlights the importance of considering individual differences in personalized rehabilitation for sensory loss.