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The lipid-binding domain of wild type and mutant alpha-synuclein: compactness and interconversion between the broken and extended helix forms.

ABSTRACT: Alpha-synuclein (alphaS) is linked to Parkinson disease through its deposition in an amyloid fibril form within Lewy Body deposits, and by the existence of three alphaS point mutations that lead to early onset autosomal dominant Parkinsonism. The normal function of alphaS is thought to be linked to the ability of the protein to bind to the surface of synaptic vesicles. Upon binding to vesicles, alphaS undergoes a structural reorganization from a dynamic and disordered ensemble to a conformation consisting of a long extended helix. In the presence of small spheroidal detergent micelles, however, this extended helix conformation can convert into a broken helix state, in which a region near the middle of the helix unwinds to form a linker between the two resulting separated helices. Membrane-bound conformations of alphaS likely mediate the function of the protein, but may also play a role in the aggregation and toxicity of the protein. Here we have undertaken a study of the effects of the three known PD-linked mutations on the detergent- and membrane-bound conformations of alphaS, as well as factors that govern the transition of the protein between the extended helix and broken helix states. Using pulsed dipolar ESR measurements of distances up to 8.7 nm, we show that all three PD-linked alphaS mutants retain the ability to transition from the broken helix to the extended helix conformation. In addition, we find that the ratio of protein to detergent, rather than just the absolute detergent concentration, determines whether the protein adopts the broken or extended helix conformation.

SUBMITTER: Georgieva ER

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2934691 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The lipid-binding domain of wild type and mutant alpha-synuclein: compactness and interconversion between the broken and extended helix forms.

Georgieva Elka R ER Ramlall Trudy F TF Borbat Peter P PP Freed Jack H JH Eliezer David D

The Journal of biological chemistry 20100630 36

Alpha-synuclein (alphaS) is linked to Parkinson disease through its deposition in an amyloid fibril form within Lewy Body deposits, and by the existence of three alphaS point mutations that lead to early onset autosomal dominant Parkinsonism. The normal function of alphaS is thought to be linked to the ability of the protein to bind to the surface of synaptic vesicles. Upon binding to vesicles, alphaS undergoes a structural reorganization from a dynamic and disordered ensemble to a conformation ...[more]

PMID: 20592036

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Project description:The E46K genetic missense mutation of the wild-type ?-synuclein protein was recently identified in a family of Spanish origin with hereditary Parkinson's disease. Detailed understanding of the structures of the monomeric E46K mutant-type ?-synuclein protein as well as the impact of the E46K missense mutation on the conformations and free energy landscapes of the wild-type ?-synuclein are required for gaining insights into the pathogenic mechanism of Parkinson's disease. In this study, we use extensive parallel tempering molecular dynamics simulations along with thermodynamic calculations to assess the secondary and tertiary structural properties as well as the conformational preferences of the monomeric wild-type and E46K mutant-type ?-synuclein proteins in an aqueous solution environment. We also present the residual secondary structure component conversion stabilities with dynamics using a theoretical strategy, which we most recently developed. To the best of our knowledge, this study presents the first detailed comparison of the structural and thermodynamic properties of the wild-type and E46K mutant-type ?-synuclein proteins in an aqueous solution environment at the atomic level with dynamics. We find that the E46K mutation results not only in local but also in long-range changes in the structural properties of the wild-type ?-synuclein protein. The mutation site shows a significant decrease in helical content as well as a large increase in ?-sheet structure formation upon E46K mutation. In addition, the ?-sheet content of the C-terminal region increases significantly in the E46K mutant-type ?S in comparison to the wild-type ?S. Our theoretical strategy developed to assess the thermodynamic preference of secondary structure transitions indicates that this shift in secondary structure is the result of a decrease in the thermodynamic preference of turn to helix conversions while the coil to ?-sheet preference increases for these residues. Long-range intramolecular protein interactions of the C-terminal with the N-terminal and NAC regions increase upon E46K mutation, resulting in more compact structures for the E46K mutant-type rather than wild-type ?S. However, the E46K mutant-type ?S structures are less stable than the wild-type ?S. Overall, our results show that the E46K mutant-type ?S has a higher propensity to aggregate than the wild-type ?S and that the N-terminal and C-terminal regions are reactive toward fibrillization and aggregation upon E46K mutation and we explain the associated reasons based on the structural properties herein. Small molecules or drugs that can block the specific residues forming abundant ?-sheet structure, which we report here, might help to reduce the reactivity of these intrinsically disordered fibrillogenic proteins toward aggregation and their toxicity.

Dataset Information

The lipid-binding domain of wild type and mutant alpha-synuclein: compactness and interconversion between the broken and extended helix forms.

Publications

The lipid-binding domain of wild type and mutant alpha-synuclein: compactness and interconversion between the broken and extended helix forms.

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