Study conformational dynamics of intrinsically disordered protein by PET-FCS (Conference Presentation)

Abstract

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) form a large and functionally important class of proteins that lack an ordered three-dimensional structure. IDPs play an important role in cell signaling, transcription, or chromatin remodeling. The discovery of IDPs has challenged the traditional paradigm of protein structure which states that protein function depends on a well-defined three-dimensional structure. Due to their high conformational flexibility and the lack of ordered secondary structure, it is challenging to study the flexible structure, dynamics and energetics of these proteins with conventional methods. In our work, we employ photoinduced electron transfer (PET) combined with fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) for studying the conformational dynamics of one specific class of IDPs: phenylalanine-glycine rich protein domains (FG repeats) which are dominant building blocks within the pore of nuclear pore complexes. Nuclear pore complexes are large protein assemblies that cross the nuclear envelope and form selective barrier, which regulate bidirectional exchange between nucleus and cytoplasm.