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Molecular-crowding effects on single-molecule RNA folding/unfolding thermodynamics and kinetics.

ABSTRACT: The effects of "molecular crowding" on elementary biochemical processes due to high solute concentrations are poorly understood and yet clearly essential to the folding of nucleic acids and proteins into correct, native structures. The present work presents, to our knowledge, first results on the single-molecule kinetics of solute molecular crowding, specifically focusing on GAAA tetraloop-receptor folding to isolate a single RNA tertiary interaction using time-correlated single-photon counting and confocal single-molecule FRET microscopy. The impact of crowding by high-molecular-weight polyethylene glycol on the RNA folding thermodynamics is dramatic, with up to ??G° ? -2.5 kcal/mol changes in free energy and thus >60-fold increase in the folding equilibrium constant (Keq) for excluded volume fractions of 15%. Most importantly, time-correlated single-molecule methods permit crowding effects on the kinetics of RNA folding/unfolding to be explored for the first time (to our knowledge), which reveal that this large jump in Keq is dominated by a 35-fold increase in tetraloop-receptor folding rate, with only a modest decrease in the corresponding unfolding rate. This is further explored with temperature-dependent single-molecule RNA folding measurements, which identify that crowding effects are dominated by entropic rather than enthalpic contributions to the overall free energy change. Finally, a simple "hard-sphere" treatment of the solute excluded volume is invoked to model the observed kinetic trends, and which predict ??G° ? -5 kcal/mol free-energy stabilization at excluded volume fractions of 30%.

SUBMITTER: Dupuis NF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4060727 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Molecular-crowding effects on single-molecule RNA folding/unfolding thermodynamics and kinetics.

Dupuis Nicholas F NF Holmstrom Erik D ED Nesbitt David J DJ

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20140521 23

The effects of "molecular crowding" on elementary biochemical processes due to high solute concentrations are poorly understood and yet clearly essential to the folding of nucleic acids and proteins into correct, native structures. The present work presents, to our knowledge, first results on the single-molecule kinetics of solute molecular crowding, specifically focusing on GAAA tetraloop-receptor folding to isolate a single RNA tertiary interaction using time-correlated single-photon counting ...[more]

PMID: 24850865

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Project description:Asparagine glycosylation is one of the most common and important post-translational modifications of proteins in eukaryotic cells. N-glycosylation occurs when a triantennary glycan precursor is transferred en bloc to a nascent polypeptide (harboring the N-X-T/S sequon) as the peptide is cotranslationally translocated into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In addition to facilitating binding interactions with components of the ER proteostasis network, N-glycans can also have intrinsic effects on protein folding by directly altering the folding energy landscape. Previous work from our laboratories (Hanson et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2009, 109, 3131-3136; Shental-Bechor, D.; Levy, Y. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2008, 105, 8256-8261) suggested that the three sugar residues closest to the protein are sufficient for accelerating protein folding and stabilizing the resulting structure in vitro; even a monosaccharide can have a dramatic effect. The highly conserved nature of these three proximal sugars in N-glycans led us to speculate that introducing an N-glycosylation site into a protein that is not normally glycosylated would stabilize the protein and increase its folding rate in a manner that does not depend on the presence of specific stabilizing protein-saccharide interactions. Here, we test this hypothesis experimentally and computationally by incorporating an N-linked GlcNAc residue at various positions within the Pin WW domain, a small ?-sheet-rich protein. The results show that an increased folding rate and enhanced thermodynamic stability are not general, context-independent consequences of N-glycosylation. Comparison between computational predictions and experimental observations suggests that generic glycan-based excluded volume effects are responsible for the destabilizing effect of glycosylation at highly structured positions. However, this reasoning does not adequately explain the observed destabilizing effect of glycosylation within flexible loops. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that specific, evolved protein-glycan contacts must also play an important role in mediating the beneficial energetic effects on protein folding that glycosylation can confer.

Dataset Information

Molecular-crowding effects on single-molecule RNA folding/unfolding thermodynamics and kinetics.

Publications

Molecular-crowding effects on single-molecule RNA folding/unfolding thermodynamics and kinetics.

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