Integrative dynamic structural biology unveils conformers essential for the oligomerization of a large GTPase
Abstract
Guanylate binding proteins (GBPs) are soluble dynamin-like proteins. They undergo a conformational transition for GTP-controlled oligomerization and disrupt membranes of intra-cellular parasites to exert their function as part of the innate immune system of mammalian cells. We apply neutron spin echo, X-ray scattering, fluorescence, and EPR spectroscopy as techniques for integrative dynamic structural biology to study the structural basis and mechanism conformational transitions in the human GBP1 (hGBP1). We mapped hGBP1’s essential dynamics from nanoseconds to milliseconds by motional spectra of sub-domains. We find a GTP-independent flexibility of the C-terminal effector domain in the μs-regime and resolve structures of two distinct conformers essential for an opening of hGBP1 like a pocketknife and oligomerization. Our results show that an intrinsic flexibility, a GTP-triggered association of the GTPase-domains, and the assembly-dependent GTP-hydrolysis are functional design principles that control hGBP1’s reversible oligomerization.
Data availability
Data availabilityThe following material is available at Zenodo in two locations: Experimental data (doi 10.5281/zenodo.6534557): (i) fluorescence decays recorded by eTCSPC used to compute the distance restraints in Supp. Tab. 3A, (ii) single-molecule multiparameter fluorescence data: all raw data, burst selection and calibration measurements, fFCS (filters and generated correlation curves) (iii) double electron-electron resonance (DEER) EPR data used for structural modeling, (iv) neutron spin-echo data and SAXS structure factor of hGBP1. Scripts for structural modeling of conformational ensembles through integrative/hybrid methods using FRET, DEER and SAXS together with the initial and selected structural ensembles (10.5281/zenodo.6565895). The experimental SAXS data and the ab initio analysis thereof are available in the SASBDB (ID SASDDD6). Structure models of hGBP1 based on experimental restraints were deposited to PDB-Dev (PDB-Dev ID: PDBDEV_00000088) using the FLR-dictionary extension (developed by PDB and the Seidel group) available on the IHM working group GitHub site (https://github.com/ihmwg/FLR-dictionary). Further data sets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.Code availabilityMost general custom-made software is directly available from http://www.mpc.hhu.de/en/software. General algorithms and source code are published under https://github.com/Fluorescence-Tools. Additional computer code custom-made for this publication is available upon request from the corresponding authors.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EXC 2033 - 390677874 - RESOLV)
- Christian Herrmann
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (HE 2679/6-1)
- Christian Herrmann
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SE 1195/17-1)
- Claus AM Seidel
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (STA 1325/2-1)
- Andreas M Stadler
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (KL2077/1-2)
- Johann P Klare
European Research Council (Advanced Grant 2014 hybridFRET (671208))
- Claus AM Seidel
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (project no. 267205415 / CRC 1208,subproject A03)
- Holger Gohlke
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf (Zentrum für Informations- und Medientechnologie (ZIM)")
- Holger Gohlke
Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Forschungszentrum Jülich (user ID: HKF7,VSK33)
- Holger Gohlke
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2023, Peulen 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
-
- 870
- views
-
- 117
- downloads
-
- 7
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
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)
Further reading
-
- Chromosomes and Gene Expression
- Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Type II nuclear receptors (T2NRs) require heterodimerization with a common partner, the retinoid X receptor (RXR), to bind cognate DNA recognition sites in chromatin. Based on previous biochemical and overexpression studies, binding of T2NRs to chromatin is proposed to be regulated by competition for a limiting pool of the core RXR subunit. However, this mechanism has not yet been tested for endogenous proteins in live cells. Using single-molecule tracking (SMT) and proximity-assisted photoactivation (PAPA), we monitored interactions between endogenously tagged RXR and retinoic acid receptor (RAR) in live cells. Unexpectedly, we find that higher expression of RAR, but not RXR, increases heterodimerization and chromatin binding in U2OS cells. This surprising finding indicates the limiting factor is not RXR but likely its cadre of obligate dimer binding partners. SMT and PAPA thus provide a direct way to probe which components are functionally limiting within a complex TF interaction network providing new insights into mechanisms of gene regulation in vivo with implications for drug development targeting nuclear receptors.
-
- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
The SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro or Nsp5) is critical for production of viral proteins during infection and, like many viral proteases, also targets host proteins to subvert their cellular functions. Here, we show that the human tRNA methyltransferase TRMT1 is recognized and cleaved by SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. TRMT1 installs the N2,N2-dimethylguanosine (m2,2G) modification on mammalian tRNAs, which promotes cellular protein synthesis and redox homeostasis. We find that Mpro can cleave endogenous TRMT1 in human cell lysate, resulting in removal of the TRMT1 zinc finger domain. Evolutionary analysis shows the TRMT1 cleavage site is highly conserved in mammals, except in Muroidea, where TRMT1 is likely resistant to cleavage. TRMT1 proteolysis results in reduced tRNA binding and elimination of tRNA methyltransferase activity. We also determined the structure of an Mpro-TRMT1 peptide complex that shows how TRMT1 engages the Mpro active site in an uncommon substrate binding conformation. Finally, enzymology and molecular dynamics simulations indicate that kinetic discrimination occurs during a later step of Mpro-mediated proteolysis following substrate binding. Together, these data provide new insights into substrate recognition by SARS-CoV-2 Mpro that could help guide future antiviral therapeutic development and show how proteolysis of TRMT1 during SARS-CoV-2 infection impairs both TRMT1 tRNA binding and tRNA modification activity to disrupt host translation and potentially impact COVID-19 pathogenesis or phenotypes.