Abstract
Important for the understanding of the functional properties of the iron-sulfur scaffold IscU is knowledge of the structure and dynamics of this protein class. Structural characterization of Thermotoga maritima IscU by CD (Mansy, S. S., Wu, G., Surerus, K. K., and Cowan, J. A. (2002) J. Biol. Chem. 277, 21397-21404) and high resolution NMR (Bertini, I., Cowan, J. A., Del Bianco, C., Luchinat, C., and Mansy, S. S. (2003) J. Mol. Biol. 331, 907-924) yielded data indicating a high degree of secondary structure. However, the latter also revealed IscU to exist in a dynamic equilibrium between two or more distinct conformations, possibly existing in a molten globule state. Herein, we further characterize the molten globule characteristics of T. maritima IscU by near-ultraviolet circular dichroism, 1-anilino-8-naphthalenesulfonic acid binding, free energy of unfolding, hydrodynamic radius measurements, and limited tryptic digestion. The data suggest unusual dynamic behavior that is not fully consistent with typical protein states such as fully folded, fully unfolded, or molten globule. For instance, the existence of a stable tertiary fold is supported by near-UV CD spectra and hydrodynamic radius measurements, whereas other data are less clearly interpretable and may be viewed as consistent with either a molten globule or fully folded state. However, all of the data are consistent with our previous hypothesis of a protein sampling multiple discrete tertiary conformations in which these structural transitions occur on a "slow" time scale. To describe such proteins, we introduce the term multiple discrete conformers.
Highlights
Important for the understanding of the functional properties of the iron-sulfur scaffold IscU is knowledge of the structure and dynamics of this protein class
All of the data are consistent with our previous hypothesis of a protein sampling multiple discrete tertiary conformations in which these structural transitions occur on a “slow” time scale
Molten globule proteins display a variety of biochemical characteristics that are often used to identify new members of this protein class. These characteristics include ANS binding [27, 35], far-UV CD reflective of a significant degree of secondary structure without near-UV CD signals [36], an expanded hydrodynamic radius that is compact in comparison with fully unfolded proteins [37], decreased stability as reflected by ⌬GD(H2O) measurements [38], and increased susceptibility to protease digestion [39, 40]
Summary
Thermotoga maritima; ANS, 1-anilino-8-naphthalenesulfonic acid; GdnHCl, guanidine hydrochloride; WT, wild-type. We sought to characterize Tm apo-IscU by methods typically employed to identify molten globules These methods include near-UV CD, 1-anilino-8-naphthalenesulfonic acid (ANS) binding, free energy of unfolding, hydrodynamic radius measurements, and limited tryptic digestion. All of the data are consistent with our previous hypothesis of a protein sampling multiple discrete tertiary conformations in which these structural transitions occur on a “slow” (microsecond-millisecond) time scale. The significance of such dynamics and how they may be affected by partner protein interactions are discussed
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