Folded Alpha Helical Putative New Proteins from Apilactobacillus kunkeei

The emergence of new proteins is a central question in biology. Most tertiary protein folds known to date appear to have an ancient origin, but it is clear from bioinformatic analyses that new proteins continuously emerge in all organismal groups. However, there is a paucity of experimental data on new proteins regarding their structure and biophysical properties. We performed a detailed phylogenetic analysis and identified 48 putative open reading frames in the honeybee-associated bacterium Apilactobacillus kunkeei for which no or few homologs could be identified in closely-related species, suggesting that they could be relatively new on an evolutionary time scale and represent recently evolved proteins. Using circular dichroism-, fluorescence- and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy we investigated six of these proteins and show that they are not intrinsically disordered, but populate alpha-helical dominated folded states with relatively low thermodynamic stability (0-3 kcal/mol). The NMR and biophysical data demonstrate that small new proteins readily adopt simple folded conformations suggesting that more complex tertiary structures can be continuously re-invented during evolution by fusion of such simple secondary structure elements. These findings have implications for the general view on protein evolution, where de novo emergence of folded proteins may be a common event.

Gustavson syndrome is caused by an in-frame deletion in RBMX associated with potentially disturbed SH3 domain interactions

RNA binding motif protein X-linked (RBMX) encodes the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein G (hnRNP G) that regulates splicing, sister chromatid cohesion and genome stability. RBMX knock down experiments in various model organisms highlight the gene's importance for brain development. Deletion of the RGG/RG motif in hnRNP G has previously been associated with Shashi syndrome, however involvement of other hnRNP G domains in intellectual disability remain unknown. In the current study, we present the underlying genetic and molecular cause of Gustavson syndrome. Gustavson syndrome was first reported in 1993 in a large Swedish five-generation family presented with profound X-linked intellectual disability and an early death. Extensive genomic analyses of the family revealed hemizygosity for a novel in-frame deletion in RBMX in affected individuals (NM_002139.4; c.484_486del, p.(Pro162del)). Carrier females were asymptomatic and presented with skewed X-chromosome inactivation, indicating silencing of the pathogenic allele. Affected individuals presented minor phenotypic overlap with Shashi syndrome, indicating a different disease-causing mechanism. Investigation of the variant effect in a neuronal cell line (SH-SY5Y) revealed differentially expressed genes enriched for transcription factors involved in RNA polymerase II transcription. Prediction tools and a fluorescence polarization assay imply a novel SH3-binding motif of hnRNP G, and potentially a reduced affinity to SH3 domains caused by the deletion. In conclusion, we present a novel in-frame deletion in RBMX segregating with Gustavson syndrome, leading to disturbed RNA polymerase II transcription, and potentially reduced SH3 binding. The results indicate that disruption of different protein domains affects the severity of RBMX-associated intellectual disabilities.

Conservation of Affinity Rather Than Sequence Underlies a Dynamic Evolution of the Motif-Mediated p53/MDM2 Interaction in Ray-Finned Fishes

The transcription factor and cell cycle regulator p53 is marked for degradation by the ubiquitin ligase MDM2. The interaction between these 2 proteins is mediated by a conserved binding motif in the disordered p53 transactivation domain (p53TAD) and the folded SWIB domain in MDM2. The conserved motif in p53TAD from zebrafish displays a 20-fold weaker interaction with MDM2, compared to the interaction in human and chicken. To investigate this apparent difference, we tracked the molecular evolution of the p53TAD/MDM2 interaction among ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii), the largest vertebrate clade. Intriguingly, phylogenetic analyses, ancestral sequence reconstructions, and binding experiments showed that different loss-of-affinity changes in the canonical binding motif within p53TAD have occurred repeatedly and convergently in different fish lineages, resulting in relatively low extant affinities (KD = 0.5 to 5 μM). However, for 11 different fish p53TAD/MDM2 interactions, nonconserved regions flanking the canonical motif increased the affinity 4- to 73-fold to be on par with the human interaction. Our findings suggest that compensating changes at conserved and nonconserved positions within the motif, as well as in flanking regions of low conservation, underlie a stabilizing selection of "functional affinity" in the p53TAD/MDM2 interaction. Such interplay complicates bioinformatic prediction of binding and calls for experimental validation. Motif-mediated protein-protein interactions involving short binding motifs and folded interaction domains are very common across multicellular life. It is likely that the evolution of affinity in motif-mediated interactions often involves an interplay between specific interactions made by conserved motif residues and nonspecific interactions by nonconserved disordered regions.

Intrinsically Disordered Flanking Regions Increase the Affinity of a Transcriptional Coactivator Interaction across Vertebrates

Interactions between two proteins are often mediated by a disordered region in one protein binding to a groove in a folded interaction domain in the other one. While the main determinants of a certain interaction are typically found within a well-defined binding interface involving the groove, recent studies show that nonspecific contacts by flanking regions may increase the affinity. One example is the coupled binding and folding underlying the interaction between the two transcriptional coactivators NCOA3 (ACTR) and CBP, where the flanking regions of an intrinsically disordered region in human NCOA3 increases the affinity for CBP. However, it is not clear whether this flanking region-mediated effect is a peculiarity of this single protein interaction or if it is of functional relevance in a broader context. To further assess the role of flanking regions in the interaction between NCOA3 and CBP, we analyzed the interaction across orthologs and paralogs (NCOA1, 2, and 3) in human, zebra fish, and ghost shark. We found that flanking regions increased the affinity 2- to 9-fold in the six interactions tested. Conservation of the amino acid sequence is a strong indicator of function. Analogously, the observed conservation of increased affinity provided by flanking regions, accompanied by moderate sequence conservation, suggests that flanking regions may be under selection to promote the affinity between NCOA transcriptional coregulators and CBP.

Identification of motif-based interactions between SARS-CoV-2 protein domains and human peptide ligands pinpoint antiviral targets

The virus life cycle depends on host-virus protein-protein interactions, which often involve a disordered protein region binding to a folded protein domain. Here, we used proteomic peptide phage display (ProP-PD) to identify peptides from the intrinsically disordered regions of the human proteome that bind to folded protein domains encoded by the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Eleven folded domains of SARS-CoV-2 proteins were found to bind 281 peptides from human proteins, and affinities of 31 interactions involving eight SARS-CoV-2 protein domains were determined (KD ∼ 7-300 μM). Key specificity residues of the peptides were established for six of the interactions. Two of the peptides, binding Nsp9 and Nsp16, respectively, inhibited viral replication. Our findings demonstrate how high-throughput peptide binding screens simultaneously identify potential host-virus interactions and peptides with antiviral properties. Furthermore, the high number of low-affinity interactions suggest that overexpression of viral proteins during infection may perturb multiple cellular pathways.

Evolution of affinity between p53 transactivation domain and MDM2 across the animal kingdom demonstrates high plasticity of motif-mediated interactions

The interaction between the transcription factor p53 and the ubiquitin ligase MDM2 results in degradation of p53 and is well studied in cancer biology and drug development. Available sequence data suggest that both p53 and MDM2-family proteins are present across the animal kingdom. However, the interacting regions are missing in some animal groups, and it is not clear whether MDM2 interacts with, and regulates p53 in all species. We used phylogenetic analyses and biophysical measurements to examine the evolution of affinity between the interacting protein regions: a conserved 12-residue intrinsically disordered binding motif in the p53 transactivation domain (TAD) and the folded SWIB domain of MDM2. The affinity varied significantly across the animal kingdom. The p53TAD/MDM2 interaction among jawed vertebrates displayed high affinity, in particular for chicken and human proteins (K_D around 0.1 μM). The affinity of the bay mussel p53TAD/MDM2 complex was lower (K_D = 15 μM) and those from a placozoan, an arthropod and a jawless vertebrate were very low or non-detectable (K_D > 100 μM). Binding experiments with reconstructed ancestral p53TAD/MDM2 variants suggested that a micromolar affinity interaction was present in the ancestral bilaterian animal and was later enhanced in tetrapods while lost in other linages. The different evolutionary trajectories of p53TAD/MDM2 affinity during speciation demonstrate high plasticity of motif-mediated interactions and the potential for rapid adaptation of p53 regulation during times of change. Neutral drift in unconstrained disordered regions may underlie the plasticity and explain the observed low sequence conservation in transactivation domains such as p53TAD. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Large-scale phage-based screening reveals extensive pan-viral mimicry of host short linear motifs

Viruses mimic host short linear motifs (SLiMs) to hijack and deregulate cellular functions. Studies of motif-mediated interactions therefore provide insight into virus-host dependencies, and reveal targets for therapeutic intervention. Here, we describe the pan-viral discovery of 1712 SLiM-based virus-host interactions using a phage peptidome tiling the intrinsically disordered protein regions of 229 RNA viruses. We find mimicry of host SLiMs to be a ubiquitous viral strategy, reveal novel host proteins hijacked by viruses, and identify cellular pathways frequently deregulated by viral motif mimicry. Using structural and biophysical analyses, we show that viral mimicry-based interactions have similar binding strength and bound conformations as endogenous interactions. Finally, we establish polyadenylate-binding protein 1 as a potential target for broad-spectrum antiviral agent development. Our platform enables rapid discovery of mechanisms of viral interference and the identification of potential therapeutic targets which can aid in combating future epidemics and pandemics.

Rescue of Escherichia coli auxotrophy by de novo small proteins

Increasing numbers of small proteins with diverse physiological roles are being identified and characterized in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems, but the origins and evolution of these proteins remain unclear. Recent genomic sequence analyses in several organisms suggest that new functions encoded by small open reading frames (sORFs) may emerge de novo from noncoding sequences. However, experimental data demonstrating if and how randomly generated sORFs can confer beneficial effects to cells are limited. Here we show that by up-regulating hisB expression, de novo small proteins (≤ 50 amino acids in length) selected from random sequence libraries can rescue Escherichia coli cells that lack the conditionally essential SerB enzyme. The recovered small proteins are hydrophobic and confer their rescue effect by binding to the 5' end regulatory region of the his operon mRNA, suggesting that protein binding promotes structural rearrangements of the RNA that allow increased hisB expression. This study adds RNA regulatory elements as another interacting partner for de novo proteins isolated from random sequence libraries, and provides further experimental evidence that small proteins with selective benefits can originate from the expression of nonfunctional sequences.

Allostery Frustrates the Experimentalist

Proteins interact with other proteins, with nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates and various small molecules in the living cell. These interactions have been quantified and structurally characterized in numerous studies such that we today have a comprehensive picture of protein structure and function. However, proteins are dynamic and even folded proteins are likely more heterogeneous than they appear in most descriptions. One property of proteins that relies on dynamics and heterogeneity is allostery, the ability of a protein to change structure and function upon ligand binding to an allosteric site. Over the last decades the concept of allostery was broadened to embrace all types of long-range interactions across a protein including purely entropic changes without a conformational change in single protein domains. But with this re-definition came a problem: How do we measure allostery? In this opinion, we discuss some caveats arising from the quantitative description of single-domain allostery from an experimental perspective and how the limitations cannot be separated from the definition of allostery per se. Furthermore, we attempt to tie together allostery with the concept of frustration in an effort to investigate the links between these two complex, and yet general, properties of proteins. We arrive at the conclusion that the sensitivity to perturbation of allosteric networks in single protein domains is too large for the networks to be of significant biological relevance.

Determinants of affinity, specificity, and phase separation in a supramodule from Post-synaptic density protein 95

The post-synaptic density (PSD) is a phase-separated membraneless compartment of proteins including PSD-95 that undergoes morphological alteration in response to synaptic activity. Here, we investigated the interactome of a three-domain supramodule, PDZ3-SH3-GK (PSG) from PSD-95 using bioinformatics to identify potential binding partners, and biophysical methods to characterize the interaction with peptides from these proteins. PSG and the single PDZ3 domain bound similar peptides, but with different specificity. Furthermore, we found that the protein ADGRB1 formed liquid droplets with the PSG supramodule, extending the model for PSD formation. Moreover, certain mutations, introduced outside of the binding pocket in PDZ3, increased the affinity and specificity of the interaction and the size of liquid droplets. Other mutations within the ligand binding pocket lead to a new binding motif specificity. Our results show how the context in terms of supertertiary structure modulates affinity, specificity, and phase separation, and how these properties can evolve by point mutation.

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Identification of potential binding partners for PSD-95 in the post-synaptic density

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ADGRB1 and PSD-95 undergo liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS)

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Single domain PDZ3 cannot induce LLPS and binds weakly to ADGRB1 and SynGap

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Supertertiary structure alters the affinity, specificity, and phase separation

A Syntenin Inhibitor Blocks Endosomal Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and a Panel of RNA Viruses

Viruses are dependent on host factors in order to efficiently establish an infection and replicate. Targeting the interactions of such host factors provides an attractive strategy to develop novel antivirals. Syntenin is a protein known to regulate the architecture of cellular membranes by its involvement in protein trafficking and has previously been shown to be important for human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. Here, we show that a highly potent and metabolically stable peptide inhibitor that binds to the PDZ1 domain of syntenin inhibits severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection by blocking the endosomal entry of the virus. Furthermore, we found that the inhibitor also hampered chikungunya infection and strongly reduced flavivirus infection, which is completely dependent on receptor-mediated endocytosis for their entry. In conclusion, we have identified a novel broad spectrum antiviral inhibitor that efficiently targets a broad range of RNA viruses.

Development of Monoclonal Antibodies to Detect for SARS-CoV-2 Proteins

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection has impacted the world economy and healthcare infrastructure. Key reagents with high specificity to SARS-CoV-2 proteins are currently lacking, which limits our ability to understand the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 infections. To address this need, we initiated a series of studies to generate and develop highly specific antibodies against proteins from SARS-CoV-2 using an antibody engineering platform. These efforts resulted in 18 monoclonal antibodies against nine SARS-CoV-2 proteins. Here we report the characterization of several antibodies, including those that recognize Nsp1, Nsp8, Nsp12, and Orf3b viral proteins. Our validation studies included evaluation for use of antibodies in ELISA, western blots, and immunofluorescence assays (IFA). We expect that availability of these antibodies will enhance our ability to further characterize host-viral interactions, including specific roles played by viral proteins during infection, to acquire a better understanding of the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 infections.

The dynamic properties of a nuclear coactivator binding domain are evolutionarily conserved

Evolution of proteins is constrained by their structure and function. While there is a consensus that the plasticity of intrinsically disordered proteins relaxes the structural constraints on evolution there is a paucity of data on the molecular details of these processes. The Nuclear Coactivator Binding Domain (NCBD) from CREB-binding protein is a protein interaction domain, which contains a hydrophobic core but is not behaving as a typical globular domain, and has been described as 'molten-globule like'. The highly dynamic properties of NCBD makes it an interesting model system for evolutionary structure-function investigation of intrinsically disordered proteins. We have here compared the structure and biophysical properties of an ancient version of NCBD present in a bilaterian animal ancestor living around 600 million years ago with extant human NCBD. Using a combination of NMR spectroscopy, circular dichroism and kinetics we show that although NCBD has increased its thermodynamic stability, it has retained its dynamic biophysical properties in the ligand-free state in the evolutionary lineage leading from the last common bilaterian ancestor to humans. Our findings suggest that the dynamic properties of NCBD have been maintained by purifying selection and thus are important for its function, which includes mediating several distinct protein-protein interactions.

Proteome-scale mapping of binding sites in the unstructured regions of the human proteome

Specific protein-protein interactions are central to all processes that underlie cell physiology. Numerous studies have together identified hundreds of thousands of human protein-protein interactions. However, many interactions remain to be discovered, and low affinity, conditional, and cell type-specific interactions are likely to be disproportionately underrepresented. Here, we describe an optimized proteomic peptide-phage display library that tiles all disordered regions of the human proteome and allows the screening of ~ 1,000,000 overlapping peptides in a single binding assay. We define guidelines for processing, filtering, and ranking the results and provide PepTools, a toolkit to annotate the identified hits. We uncovered >2,000 interaction pairs for 35 known short linear motif (SLiM)-binding domains and confirmed the quality of the produced data by complementary biophysical or cell-based assays. Finally, we show how the amino acid resolution-binding site information can be used to pinpoint functionally important disease mutations and phosphorylation events in intrinsically disordered regions of the proteome. The optimized human disorderome library paired with PepTools represents a powerful pipeline for unbiased proteome-wide discovery of SLiM-based interactions.

Large scale discovery of coronavirus-host factor protein interaction motifs reveals SARS-CoV-2 specific mechanisms and vulnerabilities

Viral proteins make extensive use of short peptide interaction motifs to hijack cellular host factors. However, most current large-scale methods do not identify this important class of protein-protein interactions. Uncovering peptide mediated interactions provides both a molecular understanding of viral interactions with their host and the foundation for developing novel antiviral reagents. Here we describe a viral peptide discovery approach covering 23 coronavirus strains that provides high resolution information on direct virus-host interactions. We identify 269 peptide-based interactions for 18 coronaviruses including a specific interaction between the human G3BP1/2 proteins and an ΦxFG peptide motif in the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein. This interaction supports viral replication and through its ΦxFG motif N rewires the G3BP1/2 interactome to disrupt stress granules. A peptide-based inhibitor disrupting the G3BP1/2-N interaction dampened SARS-CoV-2 infection showing that our results can be directly translated into novel specific antiviral reagents.

CRISPR/Cas9-based inactivation of human papillomavirus oncogenes E6 or E7 induces senescence in cervical cancer cells

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) such as HPV16 and HPV18 can cause cancers of the cervix, anogenital and oropharyngeal sites. Continuous expression of the HPV oncoproteins E6 and E7 are essential for transformation and maintenance of cancer cells. Therefore, therapeutic targeting of E6 or E7 genes can potentially treat HPV-related cancers. Here we report that CRISPR/Cas9-based knockout of E6 or E7 can trigger cellular senescence in HPV18 immortalized HeLa cells. Specifically, E6 or E7-inactivated HeLa cells exhibited characteristic senescence markers like enlarged cell surface area, increased β-galactosidase expression and loss of lamin B1. Since E6 and E7 are bicistronic transcripts, inactivation of HPV18 E6 resulted in knockout of both E6 and E7 and increasing levels of p53/p21 and pRb/p21, respectively. Knockout of HPV18 E7 resulted in decreased E6 expression with activation of pRb/p21 pathway. Taken together, our study demonstrates cellular senescence as an alternative outcome of HPV oncogene inactivation by CRISPR/Cas9.

Molecular Details of a Coupled Binding and Folding Reaction between the Amyloid Precursor Protein and a Folded Domain

Intrinsically disordered regions in proteins often function as binding motifs in protein–protein interactions. The mechanistic aspects and molecular details of such coupled binding and folding reactions, which involve formation of multiple noncovalent bonds, have been broadly studied theoretically, but experimental data are scarce. Here, using a combination of protein semisynthesis to incorporate phosphorylated amino acids, backbone amide-to-ester modifications, side chain substitutions, and binding kinetics, we examined the interaction between the intrinsically disordered motif of amyloid precursor protein (APP) and the phosphotyrosine binding (PTB) domain of Mint2. We show that the interaction is regulated by a self-inhibitory segment of the PTB domain previously termed ARM. The helical ARM linker decreases the association rate constant 30-fold through a fast pre-equilibrium between an open and a closed state. Extensive side chain substitutions combined with kinetic experiments demonstrate that the rate-limiting transition state for the binding reaction is governed by native and non-native hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds. Hydrophobic interactions were found to be particularly important during crossing of the transition state barrier. Furthermore, linear free energy relationships show that the overall coupled binding and folding reaction involves cooperative formation of interactions with roughly 30% native contacts formed at the transition state. Our data support an emerging picture of coupled binding and folding reactions following overall chemical principles similar to those of folding of globular protein domains but with greater malleability of ground and transition states.

Dissecting Inter-domain Cooperativity in the Folding of a Multi Domain Protein

Correct protein folding underlies all cellular functions. While there are detailed descriptions and a good understanding of protein folding pathways for single globular domains there is a paucity of quantitative data regarding folding of multidomain proteins. We have here investigated the folding of a three-domain supramodule from the protein PSD-95, consisting of one PDZ domain, one SH3 domain and one guanylate kinase-like (GK) domain. This supramodule has previously been shown to work as one functional unit with regard to ligand binding. We used equilibrium and kinetic folding experiments to demonstrate that the PDZ domain folds faster and independently from the SH3-GK tandem, which folds as one cooperative unit. However, concurrent folding of the PDZ domain slows down folding of SH3-GK by non-native interactions, resulting in an off-pathway folding intermediate. Our data contribute to an emerging description of multidomain protein folding in which individual domains cannot a priori be viewed as separate folding units.

Divergent Evolution of a Protein-Protein Interaction Revealed through Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction and Resurrection

The postsynaptic density extends across the postsynaptic dendritic spine with discs large (DLG) as the most abundant scaffolding protein. DLG dynamically alters the structure of the postsynaptic density, thus controlling the function and distribution of specific receptors at the synapse. DLG contains three PDZ domains and one important interaction governing postsynaptic architecture is that between the PDZ3 domain from DLG and a protein called cysteine-rich interactor of PDZ3 (CRIPT). However, little is known regarding functional evolution of the PDZ3:CRIPT interaction. Here, we subjected PDZ3 and CRIPT to ancestral sequence reconstruction, resurrection, and biophysical experiments. We show that the PDZ3:CRIPT interaction is an ancient interaction, which was likely present in the last common ancestor of Eukaryotes, and that high affinity is maintained in most extant animal phyla. However, affinity is low in nematodes and insects, raising questions about the physiological function of the interaction in species from these animal groups. Our findings demonstrate how an apparently established protein–protein interaction involved in cellular scaffolding in bilaterians can suddenly be subject to dynamic evolution including possible loss of function.

Mapping the transition state for a binding reaction between ancient intrinsically disordered proteins

Intrinsically disordered protein domains often have multiple binding partners. It is plausible that the strength of pairing with specific partners evolves from an initial low affinity to a higher affinity. However, little is known about the molecular changes in the binding mechanism that would facilitate such a transition. We previously showed that the interaction between two intrinsically disordered domains, NCBD and CID, likely emerged in an ancestral deuterostome organism as a low-affinity interaction that subsequently evolved into a higher-affinity interaction before the radiation of modern vertebrate groups. Here we map native contacts in the transition states of the low-affinity ancestral and high-affinity human NCBD/CID interactions. We show that the coupled binding and folding mechanism is overall similar but with a higher degree of native hydrophobic contact formation in the transition state of the ancestral complex and more heterogeneous transient interactions, including electrostatic pairings, and an increased disorder for the human complex. Adaptation to new binding partners may be facilitated by this ability to exploit multiple alternative transient interactions while retaining the overall binding and folding pathway.

Fuzziness and Frustration in the Energy Landscape of Protein Folding, Function, and Assembly

Are all protein interactions fully optimized? Do suboptimal interactions compromise specificity? What is the functional impact of frustration? Why does evolution not optimize some contacts? Proteins and their complexes are best described as ensembles of states populating an energy landscape. These ensembles vary in breadth from narrow ensembles clustered around a single average X-ray structure to broader ensembles encompassing a few different functional "taxonomic" states on to near continua of rapidly interconverting conformations, which are called "fuzzy" or even "intrinsically disordered". Here we aim to provide a comprehensive framework for confronting the structural and dynamical continuum of protein assemblies by combining the concepts of energetic frustration and interaction fuzziness. The diversity of the protein structural ensemble arises from the frustrated conflicts between the interactions that create the energy landscape. When frustration is minimal after folding, it results in a narrow ensemble, but residual frustrated interactions result in fuzzy ensembles, and this fuzziness allows a versatile repertoire of biological interactions. Here we discuss how fuzziness and frustration play off each other as proteins fold and assemble, viewing their significance from energetic, functional, and evolutionary perspectives.We demonstrate, in particular, that the common physical origin of both concepts is related to the ruggedness of the energy landscapes, intramolecular in the case of frustration and intermolecular in the case of fuzziness. Within this framework, we show that alternative sets of suboptimal contacts may encode specificity without achieving a single structural optimum. Thus, we demonstrate that structured complexes may not be optimized, and energetic frustration is realized via different sets of contacts leading to multiplicity of specific complexes. Furthermore, we propose that these suboptimal, frustrated, or fuzzy interactions are under evolutionary selection and expand the biological repertoire by providing a multiplicity of biological activities. In accord, we show that non-native interactions in folding or interaction landscapes can cooperate to generate diverse functional states, which are essential to facilitate adaptation to different cellular conditions. Thus, we propose that not fully optimized structures may actually be beneficial for biological activities of proteins via an alternative set of suboptimal interactions. The importance of such variability has not been recognized across different areas of biology.This account provides a modern view on folding, function, and assembly across the protein universe. The physical framework presented here is applicable to the structure and dynamics continuum of proteins and opens up new perspectives for drug design involving not fully structured, highly dynamic protein assemblies.

Double Mutant Cycles as a Tool to Address Folding, Binding, and Allostery

Quantitative measurement of intramolecular and intermolecular interactions in protein structure is an elusive task, not easy to address experimentally. The phenomenon denoted 'energetic coupling' describes short- and long-range interactions between two residues in a protein system. A powerful method to identify and quantitatively characterize long-range interactions and allosteric networks in proteins or protein-ligand complexes is called double-mutant cycles analysis. In this review we describe the thermodynamic principles and basic equations that underlie the double mutant cycle methodology, its fields of application and latest employments, and caveats and pitfalls that the experimentalists must consider. In particular, we show how double mutant cycles can be a powerful tool to investigate allosteric mechanisms in protein binding reactions as well as elusive states in protein folding pathways.

Structure and Characterization of Phosphoglucomutase 5 from Atlantic and Baltic Herring-An Inactive Enzyme with Intact Substrate Binding

Phosphoglucomutase 5 (PGM5) in humans is known as a structural muscle protein without enzymatic activity, but detailed understanding of its function is lacking. PGM5 belongs to the alpha-D-phosphohexomutase family and is closely related to the enzymatically active metabolic enzyme PGM1. In the Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus, PGM5 is one of the genes strongly associated with ecological adaptation to the brackish Baltic Sea. We here present the first crystal structures of PGM5, from the Atlantic and Baltic herring, differing by a single substitution Ala330Val. The structure of PGM5 is overall highly similar to structures of PGM1. The structure of the Baltic herring PGM5 in complex with the substrate glucose-1-phosphate shows conserved substrate binding and active site compared to human PGM1, but both PGM5 variants lack phosphoglucomutase activity under the tested conditions. Structure comparison and sequence analysis of PGM5 and PGM1 from fish and mammals suggest that the lacking enzymatic activity of PGM5 is related to differences in active-site loops that are important for flipping of the reaction intermediate. The Ala330Val substitution does not alter structure or biophysical properties of PGM5 but, due to its surface-exposed location, could affect interactions with protein-binding partners.

Affinity versus specificity in coupled binding and folding reactions

Intrinsically disordered protein regions may fold upon binding to an interaction partner. It is often argued that such coupled binding and folding enables the combination of high specificity with low affinity. The basic tenet is that an unfavorable folding equilibrium will make the overall binding weaker while maintaining the interaction interface. While theoretically solid, we argue that this concept may be misleading for intrinsically disordered proteins. In fact, experimental evidence suggests that interactions of disordered regions usually involve extended conformations. In such cases, the disordered region is exceptionally unlikely to fold into a bound conformation in the absence of its binding partner. Instead, these disordered regions can bind to their partners in multiple different conformations and then fold into the native bound complex, thus, if anything, increasing the affinity through folding. We concede that (de)stabilization of native structural elements such as helices will modulate affinity, but this could work both ways, decreasing or increasing the stability of the complex. Moreover, experimental data show that intrinsically disordered binding regions display a range of affinities and specificities dictated by the particular side chains and length of the disordered region and not necessarily by the fact that they are disordered. We find it more likely that intrinsically disordered regions are common in protein-protein interactions because they increase the repertoire of binding partners, providing an accessible route to evolve interactions rather than providing a stability-affinity trade-off.

High affinity between CREBBP/p300 and NCOA evolved in vertebrates

The interaction between the transcriptional coactivators CREBBP/p300 and NCOA is governed by two intrinsically disordered domains called NCBD and CID, respectively. The CID domain emerged within the NCOA protein in deuterostome animals (including vertebrates) after their split from the protostomes (molluscs, worms, and arthropods). However, it has not been clear at which point a high affinity interaction evolved within the deuterostome clade and whether all present‐day deuterostome animals have a high affinity NCBD:CID interaction. We have here expressed and measured affinity for NCBD and CID domains from animal species representing different evolutionary branches of the deuterostome tree. While all vertebrate species have high‐affinity NCBD:CID interactions we found that the interaction in the echinoderm purple sea urchin is of similar affinity as that of the proposed ancestral domains. Our findings demonstrate that the high‐affinity NCBD:CID interaction likely evolved in the vertebrate branch and question whether the interaction between CREBBP/p300 and NCOA is essential in nonvertebrate deuterostomes. The data provide an example of evolution of transcriptional regulation through protein‐domain based inventions.

An Early Association between the α-Helix of the TEAD Binding Domain of YAP and TEAD Drives the Formation of the YAP:TEAD Complex

The Hippo pathway is an evolutionarily conserved signaling pathway that is involved in the control of organ size and development. The TEAD transcription factors are the most downstream elements of the Hippo pathway, and their transcriptional activity is regulated via the interaction with different co-regulators such as YAP. The structure of the YAP:TEAD complex shows that YAP binds to TEAD via two distinct secondary structure elements, an α-helix and an Ω-loop, and site-directed mutagenesis experiments revealed that the Ω-loop is the "hot spot" of this interaction. While much is known about how YAP and TEAD interact with each other, little is known about the mechanism leading to the formation of a complex between these two proteins. Here we combine site-directed mutagenesis with pre-steady-state kinetic measurements to show that the association between these proteins follows an apparent one-step binding mechanism. Furthermore, linear free energy relationships and a Φ analysis suggest that binding-induced folding of the YAP α-helix to TEAD occurs independently of and before formation of the Ω-loop interface. Thus, the binding-induced folding of YAP appears not to conform to the concomitant formation of tertiary structure (nucleation-condensation) usually observed for coupled binding and folding reactions. Our findings demonstrate how a mechanism reminiscent of the classical framework (diffusion-collision) mechanism of protein folding may operate in disorder-to-order transitions involving intrinsically disordered proteins.

Templated folding of intrinsically disordered proteins

Much of our current knowledge of biological chemistry is founded in the structure-function relationship, whereby sequence determines structure that determines function. Thus, the discovery that a large fraction of the proteome is intrinsically disordered, while being functional, has revolutionized our understanding of proteins and raised new and interesting questions. Many intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) have been determined to undergo a disorder-to-order transition when recognizing their physiological partners, suggesting that their mechanisms of folding are intrinsically different from those observed in globular proteins. However, IDPs also follow some of the classic paradigms established for globular proteins, pointing to important similarities in their behavior. In this review, we compare and contrast the folding mechanisms of globular proteins with the emerging features of binding-induced folding of intrinsically disordered proteins. Specifically, whereas disorder-to-order transitions of intrinsically disordered proteins appear to follow rules of globular protein folding, such as the cooperative nature of the reaction, their folding pathways are remarkably more malleable, due to the heterogeneous nature of their folding nuclei, as probed by analysis of linear free-energy relationship plots. These insights have led to a new model for the disorder-to-order transition in IDPs termed "templated folding," whereby the binding partner dictates distinct structural transitions en route to product, while ensuring a cooperative folding.

Functional interplay between protein domains in a supramodular structure involving the postsynaptic density protein PSD-95

Cell scaffolding and signaling are governed by protein-protein interactions. Although a particular interaction is often defined by two specific domains binding to each other, this interaction often occurs in the context of other domains in multidomain proteins. How such adjacent domains form supertertiary structures and modulate protein-protein interactions has only recently been addressed and is incompletely understood. The postsynaptic density protein PSD-95 contains a three-domain supramodule, denoted PSG, which consists of PDZ, Src homology 3 (SH3), and guanylate kinase-like domains. The PDZ domain binds to the C terminus of its proposed natural ligand, CXXC repeat-containing interactor of PDZ3 domain (CRIPT), and results from previous experiments using only the isolated PDZ domain are consistent with the simplest scenario for a protein-protein interaction; namely, a two-state mechanism. Here we analyzed the binding kinetics of the PSG supramodule with CRIPT. We show that PSG binds CRIPT via a more complex mechanism involving two conformational states interconverting on the second timescale. Both conformational states bound a CRIPT peptide with similar affinities but with different rates, and the distribution of the two conformational states was slightly shifted upon CRIPT binding. Our results are consistent with recent structural findings of conformational changes in PSD-95 and demonstrate how conformational transitions in supertertiary structures can shape the ligand-binding energy landscape and modulate protein-protein interactions.

Coupled Binding and Helix Formation Monitored by Synchrotron-Radiation Circular Dichroism

Intrinsically disordered proteins organize interaction networks in the cell in many regulation and signaling processes. These proteins often gain structure upon binding to their target proteins in multistep reactions involving the formation of both secondary and tertiary structure. To understand the interactions of disordered proteins, we need to understand the mechanisms of these coupled folding and binding reactions. We studied helix formation in the binding of the molten globule-like nuclear coactivator binding domain and the disordered interaction domain from activator of thyroid hormone and retinoid receptors. We demonstrate that helix formation in a rapid binding reaction can be followed by stopped-flow synchrotron-radiation circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and describe the design of such a beamline. Fluorescence-monitored binding experiments of activator of thyroid hormone and retinoid receptors and nuclear coactivator binding domain display several kinetic phases, including one concentration-independent phase, which is consistent with an intermediate stabilized at high ionic strength. Time-resolved CD experiments show that almost all helicity is formed upon initial association of the proteins or separated from the encounter complex by only a small energy barrier. Through simulation of mechanistic models, we show that the intermediate observed at high ionic strength likely involves a structural rearrangement with minor overall changes in helicity. Our experiments provide a benchmark for simulations of coupled binding reactions and demonstrate the feasibility of using synchrotron-radiation CD for mechanistic studies of protein-protein interactions.

A structurally heterogeneous transition state underlies coupled binding and folding of disordered proteins

Many intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) attain a well-defined structure in a coupled folding and binding reaction with another protein. Such reactions may involve early to late formation of different native structural regions along the reaction pathway. To obtain insights into the transition state for a coupled binding and folding reaction, we performed restrained molecular dynamics simulations using previously determined experimental binding Φ_b values of the interaction between two IDP domains: the activation domain from the p160 transcriptional co-activator for thyroid hormone and retinoid receptors (ACTR) and the nuclear co-activator binding domain (NCBD) of CREB-binding protein, each forming three well-defined α-helices upon binding. These simulations revealed that both proteins are largely disordered in the transition state for complex formation, except for two helices, one from each domain, that display a native-like structure. The overall transition state structure was extended and largely dynamic with many weakly populated contacts. To test the transition state model, we combined site-directed mutagenesis with kinetic experiments, yielding results consistent with overall diffuse interactions and formation of native intramolecular interactions in the third NCBD helix during the binding reaction. Our findings support the view that the transition state and, by inference, any encounter complex in coupled binding and folding reactions are structurally heterogeneous and largely independent of specific interactions. Furthermore, experimental Φ_b values and Brønsted plots suggested that the transition state is globally robust with respect to most mutations but can display more native-like features for some highly destabilizing mutations, possibly because of Hammond behavior or ground-state effects.

Affinity and specificity of motif-based protein-protein interactions

It is becoming increasingly clear that eukaryotic cell physiology is largely controlled by protein-protein interactions involving disordered protein regions, which usually interact with globular domains in a coupled binding and folding reaction. Several protein recognition domains are part of large families where members can interact with similar peptide ligands. Because of this, much research has been devoted to understanding how specificity can be achieved. A combination of interface complementarity, interactions outside of the core binding site, avidity from multidomain architecture and spatial and temporal regulation of expression resolves the conundrum. Here, we review recent advances in molecular aspects of affinity and specificity in such protein-protein interactions.

Structure and dynamics conspire in the evolution of affinity between intrinsically disordered proteins

In every established species, protein-protein interactions have evolved such that they are fit for purpose. However, the molecular details of the evolution of new protein-protein interactions are poorly understood. We have used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to investigate the changes in structure and dynamics during the evolution of a protein-protein interaction involving the intrinsically disordered CREBBP (CREB-binding protein) interaction domain (CID) and nuclear coactivator binding domain (NCBD) from the transcriptional coregulators NCOA (nuclear receptor coactivator) and CREBBP/p300, respectively. The most ancient low-affinity "Cambrian-like" [540 to 600 million years (Ma) ago] CID/NCBD complex contained less secondary structure and was more dynamic than the complexes from an evolutionarily younger "Ordovician-Silurian" fish ancestor (ca. 440 Ma ago) and extant human. The most ancient Cambrian-like CID/NCBD complex lacked one helix and several interdomain interactions, resulting in a larger solvent-accessible surface area. Furthermore, the most ancient complex had a high degree of millisecond-to-microsecond dynamics distributed along the entire sequences of both CID and NCBD. These motions were reduced in the Ordovician-Silurian CID/NCBD complex and further redistributed in the extant human CID/NCBD complex. Isothermal calorimetry experiments show that complex formation is enthalpically favorable and that affinity is modulated by a largely unfavorable entropic contribution to binding. Our data demonstrate how changes in structure and motion conspire to shape affinity during the evolution of a protein-protein complex and provide direct evidence for the role of structural, dynamic, and frustrational plasticity in the evolution of interactions between intrinsically disordered proteins.

Probing Backbone Hydrogen Bonds in Proteins by Amide-to-Ester Mutations

All proteins contain characteristic backbones formed of consecutive amide bonds, which can engage in hydrogen bonds. However, the importance of these is not easily addressed by conventional technologies that only allow for side-chain substitutions. By contrast, technologies such as nonsense suppression mutagenesis and protein ligation allow for manipulation of the protein backbone. In particular, replacing the backbone amide groups with ester groups, that is, amide-to-ester mutations, is a powerful tool to examine backbone-mediated hydrogen bonds. In this minireview, we showcase examples of how amide-to-ester mutations can be used to uncover pivotal roles of backbone-mediated hydrogen bonds in protein recognition, folding, function, and structure.

Seeking allosteric networks in PDZ domains

Ever since Ranganathan and coworkers subjected the covariation of amino acid residues in the postsynaptic density-95/Discs large/Zonula occludens 1 (PDZ) domain family to a statistical correlation analysis, PDZ domains have represented a paradigmatic family to explore single domain protein allostery. Nevertheless, several theoretical and experimental studies in the past two decades have contributed contradicting results with regard to structural localization of the allosteric networks, or even questioned their actual existence in PDZ domains. In this review, we first describe theoretical and experimental approaches that were used to probe the energetic network(s) in PDZ domains. We then compare the proposed networks for two well-studied PDZ domains namely the third PDZ domain from PSD-95 and the second PDZ domain from PTP-BL. Our analysis highlights the contradiction between the different methods and calls for additional work to better understand these allosteric phenomena.

Evolution of the p53-MDM2 pathway

BACKGROUND

The p53 signalling pathway, which controls cell fate, has been extensively studied due to its prominent role in tumor development. The pathway includes the tumor supressor protein p53, its vertebrate paralogs p63 and p73, and their negative regulators MDM2 and MDM4. The p53/p63/p73-MDM system is ancient and can be traced in all extant animal phyla. Despite this, correct phylogenetic trees including both vertebrate and invertebrate species of the p53/p63/p73 and MDM families have not been published.

RESULTS

Here, we have examined the evolution of the p53/p63/p73 protein family with particular focus on the p53/p63/p73 transactivation domain (TAD) and its co-evolution with the p53/p63/p73-binding domain (p53/p63/p73BD) of MDM2. We found that the TAD and p53/p63/p73BD share a strong evolutionary connection. If one of the domains of the protein is lost in a phylum, then it seems very likely to be followed by loss of function by the other domain as well, and due to the loss of function it is likely to eventually disappear. By focusing our phylogenetic analysis to p53/p63/p73 and MDM proteins from phyla that retain the interaction domains TAD and p53/p63/p73BD, we built phylogenetic trees of p53/p63/p73 and MDM based on both vertebrate and invertebrate species. The trees follow species evolution and contain a total number of 183 and 98 species for p53/p63/p73 and MDM, respectively. We also demonstrate that the p53/p63/p73 and MDM families result from whole genome duplications.

CONCLUSIONS

The signaling pathway of the TAD and p53/p63/p73BD in p53/p63/p73 and MDM, respectively, dates back to early metazoan time and has since then tightly co-evolved, or disappeared in distinct lineages.

Emergence and evolution of an interaction between intrinsically disordered proteins

Protein-protein interactions involving intrinsically disordered proteins are important for cellular function and common in all organisms. However, it is not clear how such interactions emerge and evolve on a molecular level. We performed phylogenetic reconstruction, resurrection and biophysical characterization of two interacting disordered protein domains, CID and NCBD. CID appeared after the divergence of protostomes and deuterostomes 450-600 million years ago, while NCBD was present in the protostome/deuterostome ancestor. The most ancient CID/NCBD formed a relatively weak complex (Kd∼5 µM). At the time of the first vertebrate-specific whole genome duplication, the affinity had increased (Kd∼200 nM) and was maintained in further speciation. Experiments together with molecular modeling using NMR chemical shifts suggest that new interactions involving intrinsically disordered proteins may evolve via a low-affinity complex which is optimized by modulating direct interactions as well as dynamics, while tolerating several potentially disruptive mutations.

Single Molecule Protein Unfolding Using a Nanopore

A likely candidate for next-generation protein sensing is solid-state nanopores. The pores developed here are fabricated in a 50 nm thick silicon nitride membrane and a single nanopore is drilled using a focused ion beam or a focused electron beam. The detection method employed is largely based on resistive pulse sensing where analytes are electrokinetically transported through a pore and identified by their unique modulation of ionic current (i.e. an ionic blockade). Since the dimensions of the nanopore are on the same scale as the molecule being sensed, only a single molecule can enter the pore allowing individual protein kinetics to be probed. Traditionally proteins are detected by ensemble averaging which hides important kinetics and sub-populations of molecules that may be important to understanding protein misfolding. In this chapter, it was discovered that the voltage which drives the protein through the pore also has denaturing effects. The unfolding data supports a gradual unfolding mechanism rather than the cooperative transition observed by classical urea denaturation experiments. Lastly it is shown that the voltage-mediated unfolding is a function of the stability of the protein by comparing two mutationally destabilized variants of the protein.

Understanding the role of phosphorylation in the binding mechanism of a PDZ domain

The PDZ domain is one of the most common protein-protein interaction domains in mammalian species. While several studies have demonstrated the importance of phosphorylation in interactions involving PDZ domains, there is a paucity of detailed mechanistic data addressing how the PDZ interaction is affected by phosphorylation. Here, we address this question by equilibrium and kinetic binding experiments using PDZ2 from protein tyrosine phosphatase L1 and its interaction with a peptide from the natural ligand RIL. The results show that phosphorylation of a serine residue in the RIL peptide has dual and opposing effects: it increases both the association and dissociation rate constants, which leads to an overall weakening of binding. Furthermore, we performed binding experiments with a RIL peptide in which the serine was replaced by a glutamate, a commonly used method to mimic phosphorylation in proteins. Strikingly, both the affinity and the ionic strength dependence of the affinity differed markedly for the phosphoserine and glutamate peptides. These results show that, in this particular case, glutamate is a poor mimic of serine phosphorylation.

Improved affinity at the cost of decreased specificity: a recurring theme in PDZ-peptide interactions

The E6 protein from human papillomavirus (HPV) plays an important role during productive infection and is a potential drug target. We have previously designed a high affinity bivalent protein binder for the E6 protein, a fusion between a helix from the E6 associated protein and PDZØ9, an engineered variant (L391F/K392M) of the second PDZ domain from synapse associated protein 97 (SAP97 PDZ2). How the substitutions improve the affinity of SAP97 PDZ2 for HPV E6 is not clear and it is not known to what extent they affect the specificity for cellular targets. Here, we explore the specificity of wild type SAP97 PDZ2 and PDZØ9 through proteomic peptide phage display. In addition, we employ a double mutant cycle of SAP97 PDZ2 in which the binding kinetics for nine identified potential cellular peptide ligands are measured and compared with those for the C-terminal E6 peptide. The results demonstrate that PDZØ9 has an increased affinity for all peptides, but at the cost of specificity. Furthermore, there is a peptide dependent coupling free energy between the side chains at positions 391 and 392. This corroborates our previous allosteric model for PDZ domains, involving sampling of intramolecular energetic pathways.

Activation Barrier-Limited Folding and Conformational Sampling of a Dynamic Protein Domain

Folding reaction mechanisms of globular protein domains have been extensively studied by both experiment and simulation and found to be highly concerted chemical reactions in which numerous noncovalent bonds form in an apparent two-state fashion. However, less is known regarding intrinsically disordered proteins because their folding can usually be studied only in conjunction with binding to a ligand. We have investigated by kinetics the folding mechanism of such a disordered protein domain, the nuclear coactivator-binding domain (NCBD) from CREB-binding protein. While a previous computational study suggested that NCBD folds without an activation free energy barrier, our experimental data demonstrate that NCBD, despite its highly dynamic structure, displays relatively slow folding (∼10 ms at 277 K) consistent with a barrier-limited process. Furthermore, the folding kinetics corroborate previous nuclear magnetic resonance data showing that NCBD exists in two folded conformations and one more denatured conformation at equilibrium and, thus, that the folding mechanism is a three-state mechanism. The refolding kinetics is limited by unfolding of the less populated folded conformation, suggesting that the major route for interconversion between the two folded states is via the denatured state. Because the two folded conformations have been suggested to bind distinct ligands, our results have mechanistic implications for conformational sampling in protein-protein interactions.

Ligand binding to the PDZ domains of postsynaptic density protein 95

Cellular scaffolding and signalling is generally governed by multidomain proteins, where each domain has a particular function. Postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD-95) is involved in synapse formation and is a typical example of such a multidomain protein. Protein-protein interactions of PSD-95 are well studied and include the following three protein ligands: (i)N-methyl-d-aspartate-type ionotropic glutamate receptor subunit GluN2B, (ii) neuronal nitric oxide synthase and (iii) cysteine-rich protein (CRIPT), all of which bind to one or more of the three PDZ domains in PSD-95. While interactions for individual PDZ domains of PSD-95 have been well studied, less is known about the influence of neighbouring domains on the function of the respective individual domain. We therefore performed a systematic study on the ligand-binding kinetics of PSD-95 using constructs of different size for PSD-95 and its ligands. Regarding the canonical peptide-binding pocket and relatively short peptides (up to 15-mer), the PDZ domains in PSD-95 by and large work as individual binding modules. However, in agreement with previous studies, residues outside of the canonical binding pocket modulate the affinity of the ligands. In particular, the dissociation of the 101 amino acid CRIPT from PSD-95 is slowed down at least 10-fold for full-length PSD-95 when compared with the individual PDZ3 domain.

Probing backbone hydrogen bonding in PDZ/ligand interactions by protein amide-to-ester mutations

PDZ domains are scaffolding modules in protein-protein interactions that mediate numerous physiological functions by interacting canonically with the C-terminus or non-canonically with an internal motif of protein ligands. A conserved carboxylate-binding site in the PDZ domain facilitates binding via backbone hydrogen bonds; however, little is known about the role of these hydrogen bonds due to experimental challenges with backbone mutations. Here we address this interaction by generating semisynthetic PDZ domains containing backbone amide-to-ester mutations and evaluating the importance of individual hydrogen bonds for ligand binding. We observe substantial and differential effects upon amide-to-ester mutation in PDZ2 of postsynaptic density protein 95 and other PDZ domains, suggesting that hydrogen bonding at the carboxylate-binding site contributes to both affinity and selectivity. In particular, the hydrogen-bonding pattern is surprisingly different between the non-canonical and canonical interaction. Our data provide a detailed understanding of the role of hydrogen bonds in protein-protein interactions.