Malleable machines take shape in eukaryotic transcriptional regulation

Comprehensive review of methods for prediction of intrinsic disorder and its molecular functions

Computational prediction of intrinsic disorder in protein sequences dates back to late 1970 and has flourished in the last two decades. We provide a brief historical overview, and we review over 30 recent predictors of disorder. We are the first to also cover predictors of molecular functions of disorder, including 13 methods that focus on disordered linkers and disordered protein-protein, protein-RNA, and protein-DNA binding regions. We overview their predictive models, usability, and predictive performance. We highlight newest methods and predictors that offer strong predictive performance measured based on recent comparative assessments. We conclude that the modern predictors are relatively accurate, enjoy widespread use, and many of them are fast. Their predictions are conveniently accessible to the end users, via web servers and databases that store pre-computed predictions for millions of proteins. However, research into methods that predict many not yet addressed functions of intrinsic disorder remains an outstanding challenge.

Structural disorder in plant proteins: where plasticity meets sessility

Plants are sessile organisms. This intriguing nature provokes the question of how they survive despite the continual perturbations caused by their constantly changing environment. The large amount of knowledge accumulated to date demonstrates the fascinating dynamic and plastic mechanisms, which underpin the diverse strategies selected in plants in response to the fluctuating environment. This phenotypic plasticity requires an efficient integration of external cues to their growth and developmental programs that can only be achieved through the dynamic and interactive coordination of various signaling networks. Given the versatility of intrinsic structural disorder within proteins, this feature appears as one of the leading characters of such complex functional circuits, critical for plant adaptation and survival in their wild habitats. In this review, we present information of those intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) from plants for which their high level of predicted structural disorder has been correlated with a particular function, or where there is experimental evidence linking this structural feature with its protein function. Using examples of plant IDPs involved in the control of cell cycle, metabolism, hormonal signaling and regulation of gene expression, development and responses to stress, we demonstrate the critical importance of IDPs throughout the life of the plant.

Dissecting physical structure of calreticulin, an intrinsically disordered Ca2+-buffering chaperone from endoplasmic reticulum

Calreticulin (CALR) is a Ca²⁺ binding multifunctional protein that mostly resides in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and plays a number of important roles in various physiological and pathological processes. Although the major functions ascribed to CALR are controlling the Ca²⁺ homeostasis in ER and acting as a lectin-like ER chaperon for many glycoproteins, this moonlighting protein can be found in various cellular compartments where it has many non-ER functions. To shed more light on the mechanisms underlying polyfunctionality of this moonlighting protein that can be found in different cellular compartments and that possesses a wide spectrum of unrelated biological activities, being able to interact with Ca²⁺ (and potentially other metal ions), RNA, oligosaccharides, and numerous proteins, we used a set of experimental and computational tools to evaluate the intrinsic disorder status of CALR and the role of calcium binding on structural properties and conformational stability of the full-length CALR and its isolated P- and C-domains.

Application of NMR to studies of intrinsically disordered proteins

The prevalence of intrinsically disordered protein regions, particularly in eukaryotic proteins, and their clear functional advantages for signaling and gene regulation have created an imperative for high-resolution structural and mechanistic studies. NMR spectroscopy has played a central role in enhancing not only our understanding of the intrinsically disordered native state, but also how that state contributes to biological function. While pathological functions associated with protein aggregation are well established, it has recently become clear that disordered regions also mediate functionally advantageous assembly into high-order structures that promote the formation of membrane-less sub-cellular compartments and even hydrogels. Across the range of functional assembly states accessed by disordered regions, post-translational modifications and regulatory macromolecular interactions, which can also be investigated by NMR spectroscopy, feature prominently. Here we will explore the many ways in which NMR has advanced our understanding of the physical-chemical phase space occupied by disordered protein regions and provide prospectus for the future role of NMR in this emerging and exciting field.

From Fuzzy to Function: The New Frontier of Protein-Protein Interactions

Conformationally heterogenous or "fuzzy" proteins have often been described as lacking specificity in binding and in function. The activation domains, for example, of transcriptional activators were labeled as negative noodles, with little structure or specificity. However, emerging data illustrates that the opposite is true: conformational heterogeneity enables context-specific function to emerge in response to changing cellular conditions and, furthermore, allows a single structural motif to be used in multiple settings. A further benefit is that conformational heterogeneity can be harnessed for the discovery of allosteric drug-like modulators, targeting critical pathways in protein homeostasis and transcription.

Evolving Notch polyQ tracts reveal possible solenoid interference elements

Polyglutamine (polyQ) tracts in regulatory proteins are extremely polymorphic. As functional elements under selection for length, triplet repeats are prone to DNA replication slippage and indel mutations. Many polyQ tracts are also embedded within intrinsically disordered domains, which are less constrained, fast evolving, and difficult to characterize. To identify structural principles underlying polyQ tracts in disordered regulatory domains, here I analyze deep evolution of metazoan Notch polyQ tracts, which can generate alleles causing developmental and neurogenic defects. I show that Notch features polyQ tract turnover that is restricted to a discrete number of conserved “polyQ insertion slots”. Notch polyQ insertion slots are: (i) identifiable by an amphipathic “slot leader” motif; (ii) conserved as an intact C-terminal array in a 1-to-1 relationship with the N-terminal solenoid-forming ankyrin repeats (ARs); and (iii) enriched in carboxamide residues (Q/N), whose sidechains feature dual hydrogen bond donor and acceptor atoms. Correspondingly, the terminal loop and β-strand of each AR feature conserved carboxamide residues, which would be susceptible to folding interference by hydrogen bonding with residues outside the ARs. I thus suggest that Notch polyQ insertion slots constitute an array of AR interference elements (ARIEs). Notch ARIEs would dynamically compete with the delicate serial folding induced by adjacent ARs. Huntingtin, which harbors solenoid-forming HEAT repeats, also possesses a similar number of polyQ insertion slots. These results suggest that intrinsically disordered interference arrays featuring carboxamide and polyQ enrichment may constitute coupled proteodynamic modulators of solenoids.

Intrinsic Disorder and Semi-disorder Prediction by SPINE-D

Over the past decade, it has become evident that a large proportion of proteins contain intrinsically disordered regions, which play important roles in pivotal cellular functions. Many computational tools have been developed with the aim of identifying the level and location of disorder within a protein. In this chapter, we describe a neural network based technique called SPINE-D that employs a unique three-state design and can accurately capture disordered residues in both short and long disordered regions. SPINE-D was trained on a large database of 4229 non-redundant proteins, and yielded an AUC of 0.86 on a cross-validation test and 0.89 on an independent test. SPINE-D can also detect a semi-disordered state that is associated with induced folders and aggregation-prone regions in disordered proteins and weakly stable or locally unfolded regions in structured proteins. We implement an online web service and an offline stand-alone program for SPINE-D, they are freely available at http://sparks-lab.org/SPINE-D/ . We then walk you through how to use the online and offline SPINE-D in making disorder predictions, and examine the disorder and semi-disorder prediction in a case study on the p53 protein.

Sampling conformational space of intrinsically disordered proteins in explicit solvent: Comparison between well-tempered ensemble approach and solute tempering method

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are a class of proteins that expected to be largely unstructured under physiological conditions. Due to their heterogeneous nature, experimental characterization of IDP is challenging. Temperature replica exchange molecular dynamics (T-REMD) is a widely used enhanced sampling method to probe structural characteristics of these proteins. However, its application has been hindered due to its tremendous computational cost, especially when simulating large systems in explicit solvent. Two methods, parallel tempering well-tempered ensemble (PT-WTE) and replica exchange with solute tempering (REST), have been proposed to alleviate the computational expense of T-REMD. In this work, we select three different IDP systems to compare the sampling characteristics and efficiencies of the two methods Both the two methods could efficiently sample the conformational space of IDP and yield highly consistent results for all the three IDPs. The efficiencies of the two methods: are compatible, with about 5-6 times better than the plain T-REMD. Besides, the advantages and disadvantages of each method are also discussed. Specially, the PT-WTE method could provide temperature dependent data of the system which could not be achieved by REST, while the REST method could readily be used to a part of the system, which is quite efficient to simulate some biological processes.

Simulation of coupled folding and binding of an intrinsically disordered protein in explicit solvent with metadynamics

The C-terminal domain of measles virus nucleoprotein is an intrinsically disordered protein that could bind to the X domain (XD) of phosphoprotein P to exert its physiological function. Experiments reveal that the minimal binding unit is a 21-residue α-helical molecular recognition element (α-MoRE-MeV), which adopts a fully helical conformation upon binding to XD. Due to currently limited computing power, direct simulation of this coupled folding and binding process with atomic force field in explicit solvent cannot be achieved. In this work, two advanced sampling methods, metadynamics and parallel tempering, are combined to characterize the free energy surface of this process and investigate the underlying mechanism. Starting from an unbound and partially folded state of α-MoRE-MeV, multiple folding and binding events are observed during the simulation and the energy landscape was well estimated. The results demonstrate that the isolated α-MoRE-MeV resembles a molten globule and rapidly interconverts between random coil and multiple partially helical states in solution. The coupled folding and binding process occurs through the induced fit mechanism, with the residual helical conformations providing the initial binding sites. Upon binding, α-MoRE-MeV can easily fold into helical conformation without obvious energy barriers. Two mechanisms, namely, the system tending to adopt the structure in which the free energy of isolated α-MoRE-MeV is the minimum, and the binding energy of α-MoRE-MeV to its partner protein XD tending to the minimum, jointly dominate the coupled folding and binding process. With the advanced sampling approach, more IDP systems could be simulated and common mechanisms concerning the coupled folding and binding process could be investigated in the future.

Binding of Disordered Peptides to Kelch: Insights from Enhanced Sampling Simulations

Keap1 protein plays an essential role in regulating cellular oxidative stress response and is a crucial binding hub for multiple proteins, several of which are intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP). Among Kelch's IDP binding partners, NRF2 and PTMA are the two most interesting cases. They share a highly similar binding motif; however, NRF2 binds to Kelch with a binding affinity of approximately 100-fold higher than that of PTMA. In this study, we perform an exhaustive sampling composed of 6 μs well-tempered metadynamics and 2 μs unbiased molecular dynamics (MD) simulations aiming at characterizing the binding mechanisms and structural properties of these two peptides. Our results agree with previous experimental observations that PTMA is remarkably more disordered than NRF2 in both the free and bound states. This explains PTMA's lower binding affinity. Our extensive sampling also provides valuable insights into the vast conformational ensembles of both NRF2 and PTMA, supports the hypothesis of coupled folding-binding, and confirms the essential role of linear motifs in IDP binding.

Protein disorder reduced in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to survive heat shock

Recent experiments established that a culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast) survives sudden high temperatures by specifically duplicating the entire chromosome III and two chromosomal fragments (from IV and XII). Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are not significantly over-abundant in the duplication. In contrast, we suggest a simple algorithm to “ postdict” the experimental results: Find a small enough chromosome with minimal protein disorder and duplicate this region. This algorithm largely explains all observed duplications. In particular, all regions duplicated in the experiment reduced the overall content of protein disorder. The differential analysis of the functional makeup of the duplication remained inconclusive. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment suggested over-representation in processes related to reproduction and nutrient uptake. Analyzing the protein-protein interaction network (PPI) revealed that few network-central proteins were duplicated. The predictive hypothesis hinges upon the concept of reducing proteins with long regions of disorder in order to become less sensitive to heat shock attack.

Motif co-regulation and co-operativity are common mechanisms in transcriptional, post-transcriptional and post-translational regulation

A substantial portion of the regulatory interactions in the higher eukaryotic cell are mediated by simple sequence motifs in the regulatory segments of genes and (pre-)mRNAs, and in the intrinsically disordered regions of proteins. Although these regulatory modules are physicochemically distinct, they share an evolutionary plasticity that has facilitated a rapid growth of their use and resulted in their ubiquity in complex organisms. The ease of motif acquisition simplifies access to basal housekeeping functions, facilitates the co-regulation of multiple biomolecules allowing them to respond in a coordinated manner to changes in the cell state, and supports the integration of multiple signals for combinatorial decision-making. Consequently, motifs are indispensable for temporal, spatial, conditional and basal regulation at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional and post-translational level. In this review, we highlight that many of the key regulatory pathways of the cell are recruited by motifs and that the ease of motif acquisition has resulted in large networks of co-regulated biomolecules. We discuss how co-operativity allows simple static motifs to perform the conditional regulation that underlies decision-making in higher eukaryotic biological systems. We observe that each gene and its products have a unique set of DNA, RNA or protein motifs that encode a regulatory program to define the logical circuitry that guides the life cycle of these biomolecules, from transcription to degradation. Finally, we contrast the regulatory properties of protein motifs and the regulatory elements of DNA and (pre-)mRNAs, advocating that co-regulation, co-operativity, and motif-driven regulatory programs are common mechanisms that emerge from the use of simple, evolutionarily plastic regulatory modules.

Direct and Propagated Effects of Small Molecules on Protein-Protein Interaction Networks

Networks of protein–protein interactions (PPIs) link all aspects of cellular biology. Dysfunction in the assembly or dynamics of PPI networks is a hallmark of human disease, and as such, there is growing interest in the discovery of small molecules that either promote or inhibit PPIs. PPIs were once considered undruggable because of their relatively large buried surface areas and difficult topologies. Despite these challenges, recent advances in chemical screening methodologies, combined with improvements in structural and computational biology have made some of these targets more tractable. In this review, we highlight developments that have opened the door to potent chemical modulators. We focus on how allostery is being used to produce surprisingly robust changes in PPIs, even for the most challenging targets. We also discuss how interfering with one PPI can propagate changes through the broader web of interactions. Through this analysis, it is becoming clear that a combination of direct and propagated effects on PPI networks is ultimately how small molecules re-shape biology.

Environmental Pressure May Change the Composition Protein Disorder in Prokaryotes

Many prokaryotic organisms have adapted to incredibly extreme habitats. The genomes of such extremophiles differ from their non-extremophile relatives. For example, some proteins in thermophiles sustain high temperatures by being more compact than homologs in non-extremophiles. Conversely, some proteins have increased volumes to compensate for freezing effects in psychrophiles that survive in the cold. Here, we revealed that some differences in organisms surviving in extreme habitats correlate with a simple single feature, namely the fraction of proteins predicted to have long disordered regions. We predicted disorder with different methods for 46 completely sequenced organisms from diverse habitats and found a correlation between protein disorder and the extremity of the environment. More specifically, the overall percentage of proteins with long disordered regions tended to be more similar between organisms of similar habitats than between organisms of similar taxonomy. For example, predictions tended to detect substantially more proteins with long disordered regions in prokaryotic halophiles (survive high salt) than in their taxonomic neighbors. Another peculiar environment is that of high radiation survived, e.g. by Deinococcus radiodurans. The relatively high fraction of disorder predicted in this extremophile might provide a shield against mutations. Although our analysis fails to establish causation, the observed correlation between such a simplistic, coarse-grained, microscopic molecular feature (disorder content) and a macroscopic variable (habitat) remains stunning.

Fuzzy complexes: Specific binding without complete folding

Specific molecular recognition is assumed to require a well-defined set of contacts and devoid of conformational and interaction ambiguities. Growing experimental evidence demonstrates however, that structural multiplicity or dynamic disorder can be retained in protein complexes, termed as fuzziness. Fuzzy regions establish alternative contacts between specific partners usually via transient interactions. Nature often tailors the dynamic properties of these segments via post-translational modifications or alternative splicing to fine-tune affinity. Most experimentally characterized fuzzy complexes are involved in regulation of gene-expression, signal transduction and cell-cycle regulation. Fuzziness is also characteristic to viral protein complexes, cytoskeleton structure, and surprisingly in a few metabolic enzymes. A plausible role of fuzzy complexes in increasing half-life of intrinsically disordered proteins is also discussed.

Characterization of ERM transactivation domain binding to the ACID/PTOV domain of the Mediator subunit MED25

The N-terminal acidic transactivation domain (TAD) of ERM/ETV5 (ERM_38–68), a PEA3 group member of Ets-related transcription factors, directly interacts with the ACID/PTOV domain of the Mediator complex subunit MED25. Molecular details of this interaction were investigated using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The TAD is disordered in solution but has a propensity to adopt local transient secondary structure. We show that it folds upon binding to MED25 and that the resulting ERM–MED25 complex displays characteristics of a fuzzy complex. Mutational analysis further reveals that two aromatic residues in the ERM TAD (F47 and W57) are involved in the binding to MED25 and participate in the ability of ERM TAD to activate transcription. Mutation of a key residue Q451 in the VP16 H1 binding pocket of MED25 affects the binding of ERM. Furthermore, competition experiments show that ERM and VP16 H1 share a common binding interface on MED25. NMR data confirms the occupancy of this binding pocket by ERM TAD. Based on these experimental data, a structural model of a functional interaction is proposed. This study provides mechanistic insights into the Mediator–transactivator interactions.

Cryptochrome 1 regulates the circadian clock through dynamic interactions with the BMAL1 C terminus

The molecular circadian clock in mammals is generated from transcriptional activation by the bHLH-PAS transcription factor CLOCK-BMAL1 and subsequent repression by PERIOD and CRYPTOCHROME (CRY). The mechanism by which CRYs repress CLOCK-BMAL1 to close the negative feedback loop and generate 24-h timing is not known. Here we show that, in mouse fibroblasts, CRY1 competes for binding with coactivators to the intrinsically unstructured C-terminal transactivation domain (TAD) of BMAL1 to establish a functional switch between activation and repression of CLOCK-BMAL1. TAD mutations that alter affinities for co-regulators affect the balance of repression and activation to consequently change the intrinsic circadian period or eliminate cycling altogether. Our results suggest that CRY1 fulfills its role as an essential circadian repressor by sequestering the TAD from coactivators, and they highlight regulation of the BMAL1 TAD as a critical mechanism for establishing circadian timing.

Quantitative biophysical characterization of intrinsically disordered proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are broadly defined as protein regions that do not cooperatively fold into a spatially or temporally stable structure. Recent research strongly supports the hypothesis that a conserved functional role for structural disorder renders IDPs uniquely capable of functioning in biological processes such as cellular signaling and transcription. Recently, the frequency of application of rigorous mechanistic biochemistry and quantitative biophysics to disordered systems has increased dramatically. For example, the launch of the Protein Ensemble Database (pE-DB) demonstrates that the potential now exists to refine models for the native state structure of IDPs using experimental data. However, rigorous assessment of which observables place the strongest and least biased constraints on those ensembles is now needed. Most importantly, the past few years have seen strong growth in the number of biochemical and biophysical studies attempting to connect structural disorder with function. From the perspective of equilibrium thermodynamics, there is a clear need to assess the relative significance of hydrophobic versus electrostatic forces in IDP interactions, if it is possible to generalize at all. Finally, kinetic mechanisms that invoke conformational selection and/or induced fit are often used to characterize coupled IDP folding and binding, although application of these models is typically built upon thermodynamic observations. Recently, the reaction rates and kinetic mechanisms of more intrinsically disordered systems have been tested through rigorous kinetic experiments. Motivated by these exciting advances, here we provide a review and prospectus for the quantitative study of IDP structure, thermodynamics, and kinetics.

Pharmacokinetic modeling optimizes inhibition of the 'undruggable' EWS-FLI1 transcription factor in Ewing Sarcoma

Transcription factors have long been deemed ‘undruggable’ targets for therapeutics. Enhanced recognition of protein biochemistry as well as the need to have more targeted approaches to treat cancer has rendered transcription factors approachable for therapeutic development. Since transcription factors lack enzymatic domains, the specific targeting of these proteins has unique challenges. One challenge is the hydrophobic microenvironment that affects small molecules gaining access to block protein interactions. The most attractive transcription factors to target are those formed from tumor specific chromosomal translocations that are validated oncogenic driver proteins. EWS-FLI1 is a fusion protein that results from the pathognomonic translocation of Ewing sarcoma (ES). Our past work created the small molecule YK-4-279 that blocks EWS-FLI1 from interacting with RNA Helicase A (RHA). To fulfill long-standing promise in the field by creating a clinically useful drug, steps are required to allow for in vivo administration. These investigations identify the need for continuous presence of the small molecule protein-protein inhibitor for a period of days. We describe the pharmacokinetics of YK-4-279 and its individual enantiomers. In vivo studies confirm prior in vitro experiments showing (S)-YK-4-279 as the EWS-FLI1 specific enantiomer demonstrating both induction of apoptosis and reduction of EWS-FLI1 regulated caveolin-1 protein. We have created the first rat xenograft model of ES, treated with (S)-YK-4-279 dosing based upon PK modeling leading to a sustained complete response in 2 of 6 ES tumors. Combining laboratory studies, pharmacokinetic measurements, and modeling has allowed us to create a paradigm that can be optimized for in vivo systems using both in vitro data and pharmacokinetic simulations. Thus, (S)-YK-4-279 as a small molecule drug is ready for continued development towards a first-in-human, first-in-class, clinical trial.

Emerging models for the molecular basis of mammalian circadian timing

Mammalian circadian timekeeping arises from a transcription-based feedback loop driven by a set of dedicated clock proteins. At its core, the heterodimeric transcription factor CLOCK:BMAL1 activates expression of Period, Cryptochrome, and Rev-Erb genes, which feed back to repress transcription and create oscillations in gene expression that confer circadian timing cues to cellular processes. The formation of different clock protein complexes throughout this transcriptional cycle helps to establish the intrinsic ∼24 h periodicity of the clock; however, current models of circadian timekeeping lack the explanatory power to fully describe this process. Recent studies confirm the presence of at least three distinct regulatory complexes: a transcriptionally active state comprising the CLOCK:BMAL1 heterodimer with its coactivator CBP/p300, an early repressive state containing PER:CRY complexes, and a late repressive state marked by a poised but inactive, DNA-bound CLOCK:BMAL1:CRY1 complex. In this review, we analyze high-resolution structures of core circadian transcriptional regulators and integrate biochemical data to suggest how remodeling of clock protein complexes may be achieved throughout the 24 h cycle. Defining these detailed mechanisms will provide a foundation for understanding the molecular basis of circadian timing and help to establish new platforms for the discovery of therapeutics to manipulate the clock.

Forced folding of a disordered protein accesses an alternative folding landscape

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are involved in diverse cellular functions. Many IDPs can interact with multiple binding partners, resulting in their folding into alternative ligand-specific functional structures. For such multi-structural IDPs, a key question is whether these multiple structures are fully encoded in the protein sequence, as is the case in many globular proteins. To answer this question, here we employed a combination of single-molecule and ensemble techniques to compare ligand-induced and osmolyte-forced folding of α-synuclein. Our results reveal context-dependent modulation of the protein's folding landscape, suggesting that the codes for the protein's native folds are partially encoded in its primary sequence, and are completed only upon interaction with binding partners. Our findings suggest a critical role for cellular interactions in expanding the repertoire of folds and functions available to disordered proteins.

Specificity and affinity quantification of flexible recognition from underlying energy landscape topography

Flexibility in biomolecular recognition is essential and critical for many cellular activities. Flexible recognition often leads to moderate affinity but high specificity, in contradiction with the conventional wisdom that high affinity and high specificity are coupled. Furthermore, quantitative understanding of the role of flexibility in biomolecular recognition is still challenging. Here, we meet the challenge by quantifying the intrinsic biomolecular recognition energy landscapes with and without flexibility through the underlying density of states. We quantified the thermodynamic intrinsic specificity by the topography of the intrinsic binding energy landscape and the kinetic specificity by association rate. We found that the thermodynamic and kinetic specificity are strongly correlated. Furthermore, we found that flexibility decreases binding affinity on one hand, but increases binding specificity on the other hand, and the decreasing or increasing proportion of affinity and specificity are strongly correlated with the degree of flexibility. This shows more (less) flexibility leads to weaker (stronger) coupling between affinity and specificity. Our work provides a theoretical foundation and quantitative explanation of the previous qualitative studies on the relationship among flexibility, affinity and specificity. In addition, we found that the folding energy landscapes are more funneled with binding, indicating that binding helps folding during the recognition. Finally, we demonstrated that the whole binding-folding energy landscapes can be integrated by the rigid binding and isolated folding energy landscapes under weak flexibility. Our results provide a novel way to quantify the affinity and specificity in flexible biomolecular recognition.

Flexibility in biomolecular recognition is crucial for the function. Flexibility often leads to moderate binding affinity but high binding specificity, challenging the conventional wisdom that high specificity is guaranteed by high affinity. Currently, understanding of the relationship between affinity and specificity in flexible biomolecular recognition is still obscure, even in a qualitative way. By exploring the intrinsic biomolecular recognition energy landscapes, we provided a novel way to quantify the thermodynamic intrinsic specificity by energy landscape topography and kinetic specificity by association rate. We show quantitatively that flexibility decreases binding affinity while increases binding specificity, and the relative changes in affinity and specificity are strongly correlated with the degree of flexibility. Our results show that more (less) flexibility leads to weaker (stronger) coupling between affinity and specificity. Importantly, we demonstrated that flexibility modulates affinity and specificity through the underlying energy landscape. Our study establishes the quantitative relationship among flexibility, affinity and specificity, bridging the gap between theory and experiments.

Wrecked regulation of intrinsically disordered proteins in diseases: pathogenicity of deregulated regulators

Biologically active proteins without stable tertiary structure are common in all known proteomes. Functions of these intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are typically related to regulation, signaling, and control. Cellular levels of these important regulators are tightly regulated by a variety mechanisms ranging from firmly controlled expression to precisely targeted degradation. Functions of IDPs are controlled by binding to specific partners, alternative splicing, and posttranslational modifications among other means. In the norm, right amounts of precisely activated IDPs have to be present in right time at right places. Wrecked regulation brings havoc to the ordered world of disordered proteins, leading to protein misfolding, misidentification, and missignaling that give rise to numerous human diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and diabetes. Among factors inducing pathogenic transformations of IDPs are various cellular mechanisms, such as chromosomal translocations, damaged splicing, altered expression, frustrated posttranslational modifications, aberrant proteolytic degradation, and defective trafficking. This review presents some of the aspects of deregulated regulation of IDPs leading to human diseases.

Human DNA Glycosylase NEIL1's Interactions with Downstream Repair Proteins Is Critical for Efficient Repair of Oxidized DNA Base Damage and Enhanced Cell Survival

NEIL1 is unique among the oxidatively damaged base repair-initiating DNA glycosylases in the human genome due to its S phase-specific activation and ability to excise substrate base lesions from single-stranded DNA. We recently characterized NEIL1’s specific binding to downstream canonical repair and non-canonical accessory proteins, all of which involve NEIL1’s disordered C-terminal segment as the common interaction domain (CID). This domain is dispensable for NEIL1’s base excision and abasic (AP) lyase activities, but is required for its interactions with other repair proteins. Here, we show that truncated NEIL1 lacking the CID is markedly deficient in initiating in vitro repair of 5-hydroxyuracil (an oxidative deamination product of C) in a plasmid substrate compared to the wild-type NEIL1, thus suggesting a critical role of CID in the coordination of overall repair. Furthermore, while NEIL1 downregulation significantly sensitized human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells to reactive oxygen species (ROS), ectopic wild-type NEIL1, but not the truncated mutant, restored resistance to ROS. These results demonstrate that cell survival and NEIL1-dependent repair of oxidative DNA base damage require interactions among repair proteins, which could be explored as a cancer therapeutic target in order to increase the efficiency of chemo/radiation treatment.

Interaction studies of the human and Arabidopsis thaliana Med25-ACID proteins with the herpes simplex virus VP16- and plant-specific Dreb2a transcription factors

Mediator is an evolutionary conserved multi-protein complex present in all eukaryotes. It functions as a transcriptional co-regulator by conveying signals from activators and repressors to the RNA polymerase II transcription machinery. The Arabidopsis thaliana Med25 (aMed25) ACtivation Interaction Domain (ACID) interacts with the Dreb2a activator which is involved in plant stress response pathways, while Human Med25-ACID (hMed25) interacts with the herpes simplex virus VP16 activator. Despite low sequence similarity, hMed25-ACID also interacts with the plant-specific Dreb2a transcriptional activator protein. We have used GST pull-down-, surface plasmon resonance-, isothermal titration calorimetry and NMR chemical shift experiments to characterize interactions between Dreb2a and VP16, with the hMed25 and aMed25-ACIDs. We found that VP16 interacts with aMed25-ACID with similar affinity as with hMed25-ACID and that the binding surface on aMed25-ACID overlaps with the binding site for Dreb2a. We also show that the Dreb2a interaction region in hMed25-ACID overlaps with the earlier reported VP16 binding site. In addition, we show that hMed25-ACID/Dreb2a and aMed25-ACID/Dreb2a display similar binding affinities but different binding energetics. Our results therefore indicate that interaction between transcriptional regulators and their target proteins in Mediator are less dependent on the primary sequences in the interaction domains but that these domains fold into similar structures upon interaction.

Discriminating binding mechanisms of an intrinsically disordered protein via a multi-state coarse-grained model

Many proteins undergo a conformational transition upon binding to their cognate binding partner, with intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) providing an extreme example in which a folding transition occurs. However, it is often not clear whether this occurs via an "induced fit" or "conformational selection" mechanism, or via some intermediate scenario. In the first case, transient encounters with the binding partner favour transitions to the bound structure before the two proteins dissociate, while in the second the bound structure must be selected from a subset of unbound structures which are in the correct state for binding, because transient encounters of the incorrect conformation with the binding partner are most likely to result in dissociation. A particularly interesting situation involves those intrinsically disordered proteins which can bind to different binding partners in different conformations. We have devised a multi-state coarse-grained simulation model which is able to capture the binding of IDPs in alternate conformations, and by applying it to the binding of nuclear coactivator binding domain (NCBD) to either ACTR or IRF-3 we are able to determine the binding mechanism. By all measures, the binding of NCBD to either binding partner appears to occur via an induced fit mechanism. Nonetheless, we also show how a scenario closer to conformational selection could arise by choosing an alternative non-binding structure for NCBD.

Evolutionarily conserved and conformationally constrained short peptides might serve as DNA recognition elements in intrinsically disordered regions

Despite recent advances, it is yet not clear how intrinsically disordered regions in proteins recognize their targets without any defined structures. Short linear motifs had been proposed to mediate molecular recognition by disordered regions; however, the underlying structural prerequisite remains elusive. Moreover, the role of short linear motifs in DNA recognition has not been studied. We report a repertoire of short evolutionarily Conserved Recognition Elements (CoREs) in long intrinsically disordered regions, which have very distinct amino-acid propensities from those of known motifs, and exhibit a strong tendency to retain their three-dimensional conformations compared to adjacent regions. The majority of CoREs directly interact with the DNA in the available 3D structures, which is further supported by literature evidence, analyses of ΔΔG values of DNA-binding energies and threading-based prediction of DNA binding potential. CoREs were enriched in cancer-associated missense mutations, further strengthening their functional nature. Significant enrichment of glycines in CoREs and the preference of glycyl ϕ-Ψ values within the left-handed bridge range in the l-disallowed region of the Ramachandran plot suggest that Gly-to-nonGly mutations within CoREs might alter the backbone conformation and consequently the function, a hypothesis that we reconciled using available mutation data. We conclude that CoREs might serve as bait for DNA recognition by long disordered regions and that certain mutations in these peptides can disrupt their DNA binding potential and consequently the protein function. We further hypothesize that the preferred conformations of CoREs and of glycyl residues therein might play an important role in DNA binding. The highly ordered nature of CoREs hints at a therapeutic strategy to inhibit malicious molecular interactions using small molecules mimicking CoRE conformations.

The intrinsically disordered C-terminal region of Arabidopsis thaliana TCP8 transcription factor acts both as a transactivation and self-assembly domain

TCPs are plant specific transcription factors with non-canonical basic helix-loop-helix domains. While Arabidopsis thaliana has 24 TCPs involved in cell proliferation and differentiation, their mode of action has not been fully elucidated. Using bioinformatic tools, we demonstrate that TCP transcription factors belong to the intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) family and that disorder is higher in class I TCPs than in class II TCPs. In particular, using bioinformatic and biochemical approaches, we have characterized TCP8, a class I TCP. TCP8 exhibits three intrinsically disordered regions (IDR) made of more than 50 consecutive residues, in which phosphorylable Ser residues are mainly clustered. Phosphorylation of Ser-211 that belongs to the central IDR was confirmed by mass spectrometry. Yeast two-hybrid assays also showed that the C-terminal IDR corresponds to a transactivation domain. Moreover, biochemical experiments demonstrated that TCP8 tends to oligomerize in dimers, trimers and higher-order multimers. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) experiments carried out on a truncated form of TCP8 lacking the C-terminal IDR indicated that it is effectively required for the pronounced self-assembly of TCP8. These data were reinforced by the prediction of a coiled coil domain in this IDR. The C-terminal IDR acts thus as an oligomerization domain and also a transactivation domain. Moreover, many Molecular Recognition Features (MoRFs) were predicted, indicating that TCP8 could interact with several partners to fulfill a fine regulation of transcription in response to various stimuli.

Genetic code expansion as a tool to study regulatory processes of transcription

The expansion of the genetic code with non-canonical amino acids (ncAA) enables the chemical and biophysical properties of proteins to be tailored, inside cells, with a previously unattainable level of precision. A wide range of ncAA with functions not found in canonical amino acids have been genetically encoded in recent years and have delivered insights into biological processes that would be difficult to access with traditional approaches of molecular biology. A major field for the development and application of novel ncAA-functions has been transcription and its regulation. This is particularly attractive, since advanced DNA sequencing- and proteomics-techniques continue to deliver vast information on these processes on a global level, but complementing methodologies to study them on a detailed, molecular level and in living cells have been comparably scarce. In a growing number of studies, genetic code expansion has now been applied to precisely control the chemical properties of transcription factors, RNA polymerases and histones, and this has enabled new insights into their interactions, conformational changes, cellular localizations and the functional roles of posttranslational modifications.

Emerging roles of the nucleolus in regulating the DNA damage response: the noncanonical DNA repair enzyme APE1/Ref-1 as a paradigmatical example

SIGNIFICANCE

An emerging concept in DNA repair mechanisms is the evidence that some key enzymes, besides their role in the maintenance of genome stability, display also unexpected noncanonical functions associated with RNA metabolism in specific subcellular districts (e.g., nucleoli). During the evolution of these key enzymes, the acquisition of unfolded domains significantly amplified the possibility to interact with different partners and substrates, possibly explaining their phylogenetic gain of functions.

RECENT ADVANCES

After nucleolar stress or DNA damage, many DNA repair proteins can freely relocalize from nucleoli to the nucleoplasm. This process may represent a surveillance mechanism to monitor the synthesis and correct assembly of ribosomal units affecting cell cycle progression or inducing p53-mediated apoptosis or senescence.

CRITICAL ISSUES

A paradigm for this kind of regulation is represented by some enzymes of the DNA base excision repair (BER) pathway, such as apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1). In this review, the role of the nucleolus and the noncanonical functions of the APE1 protein are discussed in light of their possible implications in human pathologies.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

A productive cross-talk between DNA repair enzymes and proteins involved in RNA metabolism seems reasonable as the nucleolus is emerging as a dynamic functional hub that coordinates cell growth arrest and DNA repair mechanisms. These findings will drive further analyses on other BER proteins and might imply that nucleic acid processing enzymes are more versatile than originally thought having evolved DNA-targeted functions after a previous life in the early RNA world.

Ligand clouds around protein clouds: a scenario of ligand binding with intrinsically disordered proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) were found to be widely associated with human diseases and may serve as potential drug design targets. However, drug design targeting IDPs is still in the very early stages. Progress in drug design is usually achieved using experimental screening; however, the structural disorder of IDPs makes it difficult to characterize their interaction with ligands using experiments alone. To better understand the structure of IDPs and their interactions with small molecule ligands, we performed extensive simulations on the c-Myc₃₇₀₋₄₀₉ peptide and its binding to a reported small molecule inhibitor, ligand 10074-A4. We found that the conformational space of the apo c-Myc₃₇₀₋₄₀₉ peptide was rather dispersed and that the conformations of the peptide were stabilized mainly by charge interactions and hydrogen bonds. Under the binding of the ligand, c-Myc₃₇₀₋₄₀₉ remained disordered. The ligand was found to bind to c-Myc₃₇₀₋₄₀₉ at different sites along the chain and behaved like a 'ligand cloud'. In contrast to ligand binding to more rigid target proteins that usually results in a dominant bound structure, ligand binding to IDPs may better be described as ligand clouds around protein clouds. Nevertheless, the binding of the ligand and a non-ligand to the c-Myc₃₇₀₋₄₀₉ target could be clearly distinguished. The present study provides insights that will help improve rational drug design that targets IDPs.

Insights into the Binding of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins from Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are a class of protein that, in the native state, possess no well-defined secondary or tertiary structure, existing instead as dynamic ensembles of conformations. They are biologically important, with approximately 20% of all eukaryotic proteins disordered, and found at the heart of many biochemical networks. To fulfil their biological roles, many IDPs need to bind to proteins and/or nucleic acids. And while unstructured in solution, IDPs typically fold into a well-defined three-dimensional structure upon interaction with a binding partner. The flexibility and structural diversity inherent to IDPs makes this coupled folding and binding difficult to study at atomic resolution by experiment alone, and computer simulation currently offers perhaps the best opportunity to understand this process. But simulation of coupled folding and binding is itself extremely challenging; these molecules are large and highly flexible, and their binding partners, such as DNA or cyclins, are also often large. Therefore, their study requires either or both simplified representations and advanced enhanced sampling schemes. It is not always clear that existing simulation techniques, optimized for studying folded proteins, are well-suited to IDPs. In this article, we examine the progress that has been made in the study of coupled folding and binding using molecular dynamics simulation. We summarise what has been learnt, and examine the state of the art in terms of both methodologies and models. We also consider the lessons to be learnt from advances in other areas of simulation and highlight the issues that remain of be addressed.

Ordered disorder of the astrocytic dystrophin-associated protein complex in the norm and pathology

The abundance and potential functional roles of intrinsically disordered regions in aquaporin-4, Kir4.1, a dystrophin isoforms Dp71, α-1 syntrophin, and α-dystrobrevin; i.e., proteins constituting the functional core of the astrocytic dystrophin-associated protein complex (DAPC), are analyzed by a wealth of computational tools. The correlation between protein intrinsic disorder, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and protein function is also studied together with the peculiarities of structural and functional conservation of these proteins. Our study revealed that the DAPC members are typical hybrid proteins that contain both ordered and intrinsically disordered regions. Both ordered and disordered regions are important for the stabilization of this complex. Many disordered binding regions of these five proteins are highly conserved among vertebrates. Conserved eukaryotic linear motifs and molecular recognition features found in the disordered regions of five protein constituting DAPC likely enhance protein-protein interactions that are required for the cellular functions of this complex. Curiously, the disorder-based binding regions are rarely affected by SNPs suggesting that these regions are crucial for the biological functions of their corresponding proteins.

Inherent relationships among different biophysical prediction methods for intrinsically disordered proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins do not have stable secondary and/or tertiary structures but still function. More than 50 prediction methods have been developed and inherent relationships may be expected to exist among them. To investigate this, we conducted molecular simulations and algorithmic analyses on a minimal coarse-grained polypeptide model and discovered a common basis for the charge-hydropathy plot and packing-density algorithms that was verified by correlation analysis. The correlation analysis approach was applied to realistic datasets, which revealed correlations among some physical-chemical properties (charge-hydropathy plot, packing density, pairwise energy). The correlations indicated that these biophysical methods find a projected direction to discriminate ordered and disordered proteins. The optimized projection was determined and the ultimate accuracy limit of the existing algorithms is discussed.

A decade and a half of protein intrinsic disorder: biology still waits for physics

The abundant existence of proteins and regions that possess specific functions without being uniquely folded into unique 3D structures has become accepted by a significant number of protein scientists. Sequences of these intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and IDP regions (IDPRs) are characterized by a number of specific features, such as low overall hydrophobicity and high net charge which makes these proteins predictable. IDPs/IDPRs possess large hydrodynamic volumes, low contents of ordered secondary structure, and are characterized by high structural heterogeneity. They are very flexible, but some may undergo disorder to order transitions in the presence of natural ligands. The degree of these structural rearrangements varies over a very wide range. IDPs/IDPRs are tightly controlled under the normal conditions and have numerous specific functions that complement functions of ordered proteins and domains. When lacking proper control, they have multiple roles in pathogenesis of various human diseases. Gaining structural and functional information about these proteins is a challenge, since they do not typically "freeze" while their "pictures are taken." However, despite or perhaps because of the experimental challenges, these fuzzy objects with fuzzy structures and fuzzy functions are among the most interesting targets for modern protein research. This review briefly summarizes some of the recent advances in this exciting field and considers some of the basic lessons learned from the analysis of physics, chemistry, and biology of IDPs.