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Conserved tertiary couplings stabilize elements in the PDZ fold, leading to characteristic patterns of domain conformational flexibility.

ABSTRACT: Single-domain allostery has been postulated to occur through intramolecular pathways of signaling within a protein structure. We had previously investigated these pathways by introducing a local thermal perturbation and analyzed the anisotropic propagation of structural changes throughout the protein. Here, we develop an improved approach, the Rotamerically Induced Perturbation (RIP), that identifies strong couplings between residues by analyzing the pathways of heat-flow resulting from thermal excitation of rotameric rotations at individual residues. To explore the nature of these couplings, we calculate the complete coupling maps of 5 different PDZ domains. Although the PDZ domain is a well conserved structural fold that serves as a scaffold in many protein-protein complexes, different PDZ domains display unique patterns of conformational flexibility in response to ligand binding: some show a significant shift in a set of alpha-helices, while others do not. Analysis of the coupling maps suggests a simple relationship between the computed couplings and observed conformational flexibility. In domains where the alpha-helices are rigid, we find couplings of the alpha-helices to the body of the protein, whereas in domains having ligand-responsive alpha-helices, no couplings are found. This leads to a model where the alpha-helices are intrinsically dynamic but can be damped if sidechains interact at key tertiary contacts. These tertiary contacts correlate to high covariation contacts as identified by the statistical coupling analysis method. As these dynamic modules are exploited by various allosteric mechanisms, these tertiary contacts have been conserved by evolution.

SUBMITTER: Ho BK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2866267 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Conserved tertiary couplings stabilize elements in the PDZ fold, leading to characteristic patterns of domain conformational flexibility.

Ho Bosco K BK Agard David A DA

Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society 20100301 3

Single-domain allostery has been postulated to occur through intramolecular pathways of signaling within a protein structure. We had previously investigated these pathways by introducing a local thermal perturbation and analyzed the anisotropic propagation of structural changes throughout the protein. Here, we develop an improved approach, the Rotamerically Induced Perturbation (RIP), that identifies strong couplings between residues by analyzing the pathways of heat-flow resulting from thermal ...[more]

PMID: 20052683

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Project description:Proteins are intrinsically flexible molecules. The role of internal motions in a protein's designated function is widely debated. The role of protein structure in enzyme catalysis is well established, and conservation of structural features provides vital clues to their role in function. Recently, it has been proposed that the protein function may involve multiple conformations: the observed deviations are not random thermodynamic fluctuations; rather, flexibility may be closely linked to protein function, including enzyme catalysis. We hypothesize that the argument of conservation of important structural features can also be extended to identification of protein flexibility in interconnection with enzyme function. Three classes of enzymes (prolyl-peptidyl isomerase, oxidoreductase, and nuclease) that catalyze diverse chemical reactions have been examined using detailed computational modeling. For each class, the identification and characterization of the internal protein motions coupled to the chemical step in enzyme mechanisms in multiple species show identical enzyme conformational fluctuations. In addition to the active-site residues, motions of protein surface loop regions (>10 Å away) are observed to be identical across species, and networks of conserved interactions/residues connect these highly flexible surface regions to the active-site residues that make direct contact with substrates. More interestingly, examination of reaction-coupled motions in non-homologous enzyme systems (with no structural or sequence similarity) that catalyze the same biochemical reaction shows motions that induce remarkably similar changes in the enzyme-substrate interactions during catalysis. The results indicate that the reaction-coupled flexibility is a conserved aspect of the enzyme molecular architecture. Protein motions in distal areas of homologous and non-homologous enzyme systems mediate similar changes in the active-site enzyme-substrate interactions, thereby impacting the mechanism of catalyzed chemistry. These results have implications for understanding the mechanism of allostery, and for protein engineering and drug design.

Dataset Information

Conserved tertiary couplings stabilize elements in the PDZ fold, leading to characteristic patterns of domain conformational flexibility.

Publications

Conserved tertiary couplings stabilize elements in the PDZ fold, leading to characteristic patterns of domain conformational flexibility.

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