Closed loop folding units from structural alignments: Experimental foldons revisited

βαβ Super-Secondary Motifs: Sequence, Structural Overview, and Pursuit of Potential Autonomously Folding βαβ Sequences from (β/α)8/TIM Barrels

βαβ super-secondary structures constitute the basic building blocks of (β/α)₈ class of proteins. Despite the success in designing super-secondary structures, till date, there is not a single example of a natural βαβ sequence known to fold in isolation. In this chapter, to address the finding the "needles" in the haystack scenario, we have combined the sequence preferences and structural features of independent βαβ motifs, dictated by natural selection, with rationally derived parameters from a designed βαβ motif adopting stable fold in solution. Guided by this approach, a set of potential βαβ sequences from (β/α)₈/TIM barrels are proposed as likely candidates for autonomously folding based on the assessment of their foldability.

Correlating topology and thermodynamics to predict protein structure sensitivity to point mutations

The relation between distribution of hydrophobic amino acids along with protein chains and their structure is far from being completely understood. No reliable method allowsab initioprediction of the folded structure from this distribution of physicochemical properties, even when they are highly degenerated by considering only two classes: hydrophobic and polar. Establishment of long-range hydrophobic three dimension (3D) contacts is essential for the formation of the nucleus, a key process in the early steps of protein folding. Thus, a large number of 3D simulation studies were developed to challenge this issue. They are nowadays evaluated in a specific chapter of the molecular modeling competition, Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction. We present here a simulation of the early steps of the folding process for 850 proteins, performed in a discrete 3D space, which results in peaks in the predicted distribution of intra-chain noncovalent contacts. The residues located at these peak positions tend to be buried in the core of the protein and are expected to correspond to critical positions in the sequence, important both for folding and structural (or similarly, energetic in the thermodynamic hypothesis) stability. The degree of stabilization or destabilization due to a point mutation at the critical positions involved in numerous contacts is estimated from the calculated folding free energy difference between mutated and native structures. The results show that these critical positions are not tolerant towards mutation. This simulation of the noncovalent contacts only needs a sequence as input, and this paper proposes a validation of the method by comparison with the prediction of stability by well-established programs.

Basic units of protein structure, folding, and function

Study of the hierarchy of domain structure with alternative sets of domains and analysis of discontinuous domains, consisting of remote segments of the polypeptide chain, raised a question about the minimal structural unit of the protein domain. The hypothesis on the decisive role of the polypeptide backbone in determining the elementary units of globular proteins have led to the discovery of closed loops. It is reviewed here how closed loops form the loop-n-lock structure of proteins, providing the foundation for stability and designability of protein folds/domain and underlying their co-translational folding. Simplified protein sequences are considered here with the aim to explore the basic principles that presumably dominated the folding and stability of proteins in the early stages of structural evolution. Elementary functional loops (EFLs), closed loops with one or few catalytic residues, are, in turn, units of the protein function. They are apparent descendants of the prebiotic ring-like peptides, which gave rise to the first functional folds/domains being fused in the beginning of the evolution of protein structure. It is also shown how evolutionary relations between protein functional superfamilies and folds delineated with the help of EFLs can contribute to establishing the rules for design of desired enzymatic functions. Generalized descriptors of the elementary functions are proposed to be used as basic units in the future computational design.

Fast closure of long loops at the initiation of the folding transition of globular proteins studied by time-resolved FRET-based methods

The protein folding problem would be considered “solved” when it will be possible to “read genes”, i.e., to predict the native fold of proteins, their dynamics, and the mechanism of fast folding based solely on sequence data. The long-term goal should be the creation of an algorithm that would simulate the stepwise mechanism of folding, which constrains the conformational space and in which random search for stable interactions is possible. Here, we focus attention on the initial phases of the folding transition starting with the compact disordered collapsed ensemble, in search of the initial sub-domain structural biases that direct the otherwise stochastic dynamics of the backbone. Our studies are designed to test the “loop hypothesis”, which suggests that fast closure of long loop structures by non-local interactions between clusters of mainly non-polar residues is an essential conformational step at the initiation of the folding transition of globular proteins. We developed and applied experimental methods based on time-resolved resonance excitation energy transfer (trFRET) measurements combined with fast mixing methods and studied the initial phases of the folding of

Assessing the effect of dynamics on the closed-loop protein-folding hypothesis

The closed-loop (loop-n-lock) hypothesis of protein folding suggests that loops of about 25 residues, closed through interactions between the loop ends (locks), play an important role in protein structure. Coarse-grain elastic network simulations, and examination of loop lengths in a diverse set of proteins, each supports a bias towards loops of close to 25 residues in length between residues of high stability. Previous studies have established a correlation between total contact distance (TCD), a metric of sequence distances between contacting residues (cf. contact order), and the log-folding rate of a protein. In a set of 43 proteins, we identify an improved correlation (r² = 0.76), when the metric is restricted to residues contacting the locks, compared to the equivalent result when all residues are considered (r² = 0.65). This provides qualified support for the hypothesis, albeit with an increased emphasis upon the importance of a much larger set of residues surrounding the locks. Evidence of a similar-sized protein core/extended nucleus (with significant overlap) was obtained from TCD calculations in which residues were successively eliminated according to their hydrophobicity and connectivity, and from molecular dynamics simulations. Our results suggest that while folding is determined by a subset of residues that can be predicted by application of the closed-loop hypothesis, the original hypothesis is too simplistic; efficient protein folding is dependent on a considerably larger subset of residues than those involved in lock formation.

The loop hypothesis: contribution of early formed specific non-local interactions to the determination of protein folding pathways

The extremely fast and efficient folding transition (in seconds) of globular proteins led to the search for some unifying principles embedded in the physics of the folding polypeptides. Most of the proposed mechanisms highlight the role of local interactions that stabilize secondary structure elements or a folding nucleus as the starting point of the folding pathways, i.e., a "bottom-up" mechanism. Non-local interactions were assumed either to stabilize the nucleus or lead to the later steps of coalescence of the secondary structure elements. An alternative mechanism was proposed, an "up-down" mechanism in which it was assumed that folding starts with the formation of very few non-local interactions which form closed long loops at the initiation of folding. The possible biological advantage of this mechanism, the "loop hypothesis", is that the hydrophobic collapse is associated with ordered compactization which reduces the chance for degradation and misfolding. In the present review the experiments, simulations and theoretical consideration that either directly or indirectly support this mechanism are summarized. It is argued that experiments monitoring the time-dependent development of the formation of specifically targeted early-formed sub-domain structural elements, either long loops or secondary structure elements, are necessary. This can be achieved by the time-resolved FRET-based "double kinetics" method in combination with mutational studies. Yet, attempts to improve the time resolution of the folding initiation should be extended down to the sub-microsecond time regime in order to design experiments that would resolve the classes of proteins which first fold by local or non-local interactions.

A modular perspective of protein structures: application to fragment based loop modeling

Proteins can be decomposed into supersecondary structure modules. We used a generic definition of supersecondary structure elements, so-called Smotifs, which are composed of two flanking regular secondary structures connected by a loop, to explore the evolution and current variety of structure building blocks. Here, we discuss recent observations about the saturation of Smotif geometries in protein structures and how it opens new avenues in protein structure modeling and design. As a first application of these observations we describe our loop conformation modeling algorithm, ArchPred that takes advantage of Smotifs classification. In this application, instead of focusing on specific loop properties the method narrows down possible template conformations in other, often not homologous structures, by identifying the most likely supersecondary structure environment that cradles the loop. Beyond identifying the correct starting supersecondary structure geometry, it takes into account information of fit of anchor residues, sterical clashes, match of predicted and observed dihedral angle preferences, and local sequence signal.

Towards functional repertoire of the earliest proteins

The conserved protein sequence motifs present in all prokaryotic proteomes, "omnipresent motifs," presumably, correspond to the earliest proteins of the Last Universal Cellular Ancestor, from which all the proteomes have descended. Fifteen proteomes, each representing one of the total 15 diverse phyla of 131 Eubacteria and Archea, from which the omnipresent elements have been originally derived, are exhaustively screened. All those proteins which harbor the omnipresent motifs are identified. Six "omnipresent" protein types are revealed which are located in all 15 proteomes: ABC cassettes, FtsH proteases, translation initiation factors, translation elongation factors, isoleucyl-tRNA synthases, and RNA polymerases β'. In addition to the omnipresent motifs, these proteins also contain other highly conserved motifs, standing for additional modules of the proteins. Remarkably, the identified tentative earliest proteins are responsible for only three basic functions: supply of monomers (ABC transporters and proteases), protein synthesis (initiation and elongation factors, aminoacyl-tRNA synthases), and RNA synthesis (polymerases). No enzymes involved in metabolic activities are present in the list of the earliest proteins derived by this approach. Some of the omnipresent sequence motifs are found, indeed, in the metabolic enzymes (e.g. NTP binding motifs), but these enzymes do not make a sequence matching collection of 15 sequences, i.e. they are not omnipresent. Future analysis of less conserved sequence motifs may reveal at what degree of conservation (stage of evolution) the metabolic enzymes could have entered the scene.

Exploring the evolution of protein function in Archaea

Background

Despite recent progress in studies of the evolution of protein function, the questions what were the first functional protein domains and what were their basic building blocks remain unresolved. Previously, we introduced the concept of elementary functional loops (EFLs), which are the functional units of enzymes that provide elementary reactions in biochemical transformations. They are presumably descendants of primordial catalytic peptides.

Results

We analyzed distant evolutionary connections between protein functions in Archaea based on the EFLs comprising them. We show examples of the involvement of EFLs in new functional domains, as well as reutilization of EFLs and functional domains in building multidomain structures and protein complexes.

Conclusions

Our analysis of the archaeal superkingdom yields the dominating mechanisms in different periods of protein evolution, which resulted in several levels of the organization of biochemical function. First, functional domains emerged as combinations of prebiotic peptides with the very basic functions, such as nucleotide/phosphate and metal cofactor binding. Second, domain recombination brought to the evolutionary scene the multidomain proteins and complexes. Later, reutilization and de novo design of functional domains and elementary functional loops complemented evolution of protein function.