Abstract

Signaling by the G protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) plays fundamental role in a vast number of essential physiological functions. Precise control of GPCR signaling requires action of Regulators of G protein Signaling (RGS) proteins that deactivate heterotrimeric G proteins. RGS proteins are elaborately regulated and comprise multiple domains and subunits, yet structural organization of these assemblies is poorly understood. Here we report a crystal structure and dynamics analyses of the multisubunit complex of RGS7, a major regulator of neuronal signaling with key roles in controlling a number of drug target GPCRs and links to neuropsychiatric disease, metabolism, and cancer. The crystal structure in combination with molecular dynamics and mass spectrometry analyses reveals unique organizational features of the complex and long-range conformational changes imposed by its constituent subunits during allosteric modulation. Notably, several intermolecular interfaces in the complex work in synergy to provide coordinated modulation of this key GPCR regulator.

Data availability

Coordinate and structure factor have been deposited in the protein data bank with accession codes 6N9G. Raw HDX data are deposited at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7316462.v2

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Dipak N Patil

    Department of Neuroscience, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Erumbi S Rangarajan

    Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Scott J Novick

    Department of Molecular Therapeutics, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Bruce D Pascal

    Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Douglas J Kojetin

    Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8058-6168
  6. Patrick R Griffin

    Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Tina Izard

    Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, United States
    For correspondence
    izard@scripps.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Kirill A Martemyanov

    Department of Neuroscience, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, United States
    For correspondence
    kirill@scripps.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9925-7599

Funding

National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA036596)

  • Kirill A Martemyanov

National Eye Institute (EY018139)

  • Kirill A Martemyanov

National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA042746)

  • Kirill A Martemyanov

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM114420)

  • Douglas J Kojetin

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (DK105825)

  • Patrick R Griffin

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

Copyright

© 2018, Patil 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

  • 2,346
    views
  • 361
    downloads
  • 18
    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. Dipak N Patil
  2. Erumbi S Rangarajan
  3. Scott J Novick
  4. Bruce D Pascal
  5. Douglas J Kojetin
  6. Patrick R Griffin
  7. Tina Izard
  8. Kirill A Martemyanov
(2018)
Structural organization of a major neuronal G protein regulator, the RGS7-Gβ5-R7BP complex
eLife 7:e42150.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.42150

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.42150

Further reading

    1. Medicine
    2. Neuroscience
    LeYuan Gu, WeiHui Shao ... HongHai Zhang
    Research Article

    The advent of midazolam holds profound implications for modern clinical practice. The hypnotic and sedative effects of midazolam afford it broad clinical applicability. However, the specific mechanisms underlying the modulation of altered consciousness by midazolam remain elusive. Herein, using pharmacology, optogenetics, chemogenetics, fiber photometry, and gene knockdown, this in vivo research revealed the role of locus coeruleus (LC)-ventrolateral preoptic nucleus noradrenergic neural circuit in regulating midazolam-induced altered consciousness. This effect was mediated by α1 adrenergic receptors. Moreover, gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor type A (GABAA-R) represents a mechanistically crucial binding site in the LC for midazolam. These findings will provide novel insights into the neural circuit mechanisms underlying the recovery of consciousness after midazolam administration and will help guide the timing of clinical dosing and propose effective intervention targets for timely recovery from midazolam-induced loss of consciousness.

    1. Neuroscience
    Ana Maria Ichim, Harald Barzan ... Raul Cristian Muresan
    Review Article

    Gamma oscillations in brain activity (30–150 Hz) have been studied for over 80 years. Although in the past three decades significant progress has been made to try to understand their functional role, a definitive answer regarding their causal implication in perception, cognition, and behavior still lies ahead of us. Here, we first review the basic neural mechanisms that give rise to gamma oscillations and then focus on two main pillars of exploration. The first pillar examines the major theories regarding their functional role in information processing in the brain, also highlighting critical viewpoints. The second pillar reviews a novel research direction that proposes a therapeutic role for gamma oscillations, namely the gamma entrainment using sensory stimulation (GENUS). We extensively discuss both the positive findings and the issues regarding reproducibility of GENUS. Going beyond the functional and therapeutic role of gamma, we propose a third pillar of exploration, where gamma, generated endogenously by cortical circuits, is essential for maintenance of healthy circuit function. We propose that four classes of interneurons, namely those expressing parvalbumin (PV), vasointestinal peptide (VIP), somatostatin (SST), and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) take advantage of endogenous gamma to perform active vasomotor control that maintains homeostasis in the neuronal tissue. According to this hypothesis, which we call GAMER (GAmma MEdiated ciRcuit maintenance), gamma oscillations act as a ‘servicing’ rhythm that enables efficient translation of neural activity into vascular responses that are essential for optimal neurometabolic processes. GAMER is an extension of GENUS, where endogenous rather than entrained gamma plays a fundamental role. Finally, we propose several critical experiments to test the GAMER hypothesis.