@article{13095, abstract = {Disulfide bond formation is fundamentally important for protein structure and constitutes a key mechanism by which cells regulate the intracellular oxidation state. Peroxiredoxins (PRDXs) eliminate reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide through a catalytic cycle of Cys oxidation and reduction. Additionally, upon Cys oxidation PRDXs undergo extensive conformational rearrangements that may underlie their presently structurally poorly defined functions as molecular chaperones. Rearrangements include high molecular-weight oligomerization, the dynamics of which are, however, poorly understood, as is the impact of disulfide bond formation on these properties. Here we show that formation of disulfide bonds along the catalytic cycle induces extensive μs time scale dynamics, as monitored by magic-angle spinning NMR of the 216 kDa-large Tsa1 decameric assembly and solution-NMR of a designed dimeric mutant. We ascribe the conformational dynamics to structural frustration, resulting from conflicts between the disulfide-constrained reduction of mobility and the desire to fulfill other favorable contacts.}, author = {Troussicot, Laura and Vallet, Alicia and Molin, Mikael and Burmann, Björn M. and Schanda, Paul}, issn = {1520-5126}, journal = {Journal of the American Chemical Society}, number = {19}, pages = {10700–10711}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{Disulfide-bond-induced structural frustration and dynamic disorder in a peroxiredoxin from MAS NMR}}, doi = {10.1021/jacs.3c01200}, volume = {145}, year = {2023}, } @article{12114, abstract = {Probing the dynamics of aromatic side chains provides important insights into the behavior of a protein because flips of aromatic rings in a protein’s hydrophobic core report on breathing motion involving a large part of the protein. Inherently invisible to crystallography, aromatic motions have been primarily studied by solution NMR. The question how packing of proteins in crystals affects ring flips has, thus, remained largely unexplored. Here we apply magic-angle spinning NMR, advanced phenylalanine 1H-13C/2H isotope labeling and MD simulation to a protein in three different crystal packing environments to shed light onto possible impact of packing on ring flips. The flips of the two Phe residues in ubiquitin, both surface exposed, appear remarkably conserved in the different crystal forms, even though the intermolecular packing is quite different: Phe4 flips on a ca. 10–20 ns time scale, and Phe45 are broadened in all crystals, presumably due to µs motion. Our findings suggest that intramolecular influences are more important for ring flips than intermolecular (packing) effects.}, author = {Gauto, Diego F. and Lebedenko, Olga O. and Becker, Lea Marie and Ayala, Isabel and Lichtenecker, Roman and Skrynnikov, Nikolai R. and Schanda, Paul}, issn = {2590-1524}, journal = {Journal of Structural Biology: X}, keywords = {Structural Biology}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Aromatic ring flips in differently packed ubiquitin protein crystals from MAS NMR and MD}}, doi = {10.1016/j.yjsbx.2022.100079}, volume = {7}, year = {2023}, } @article{13096, abstract = {Eukaryotic cells can undergo different forms of programmed cell death, many of which culminate in plasma membrane rupture as the defining terminal event1,2,3,4,5,6,7. Plasma membrane rupture was long thought to be driven by osmotic pressure, but it has recently been shown to be in many cases an active process, mediated by the protein ninjurin-18 (NINJ1). Here we resolve the structure of NINJ1 and the mechanism by which it ruptures membranes. Super-resolution microscopy reveals that NINJ1 clusters into structurally diverse assemblies in the membranes of dying cells, in particular large, filamentous assemblies with branched morphology. A cryo-electron microscopy structure of NINJ1 filaments shows a tightly packed fence-like array of transmembrane α-helices. Filament directionality and stability is defined by two amphipathic α-helices that interlink adjacent filament subunits. The NINJ1 filament features a hydrophilic side and a hydrophobic side, and molecular dynamics simulations show that it can stably cap membrane edges. The function of the resulting supramolecular arrangement was validated by site-directed mutagenesis. Our data thus suggest that, during lytic cell death, the extracellular α-helices of NINJ1 insert into the plasma membrane to polymerize NINJ1 monomers into amphipathic filaments that rupture the plasma membrane. The membrane protein NINJ1 is therefore an interactive component of the eukaryotic cell membrane that functions as an in-built breaking point in response to activation of cell death.}, author = {Degen, Morris and Santos, José Carlos and Pluhackova, Kristyna and Cebrero, Gonzalo and Ramos, Saray and Jankevicius, Gytis and Hartenian, Ella and Guillerm, Undina and Mari, Stefania A. and Kohl, Bastian and Müller, Daniel J. and Schanda, Paul and Maier, Timm and Perez, Camilo and Sieben, Christian and Broz, Petr and Hiller, Sebastian}, issn = {1476-4687}, journal = {Nature}, pages = {1065--1071}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Structural basis of NINJ1-mediated plasma membrane rupture in cell death}}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-023-05991-z}, volume = {618}, year = {2023}, } @misc{14861, abstract = {Cover Page}, author = {Becker, Lea Marie and Berbon, Mélanie and Vallet, Alicia and Grelard, Axelle and Morvan, Estelle and Bardiaux, Benjamin and Lichtenecker, Roman and Ernst, Matthias and Loquet, Antoine and Schanda, Paul}, booktitle = {Angewandte Chemie International Edition}, issn = {1521-3773}, keywords = {General Chemistry, Catalysis}, number = {19}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Cover Picture: The rigid core and flexible surface of amyloid fibrils probed by Magic‐Angle‐Spinning NMR spectroscopy of aromatic residues}}, doi = {10.1002/anie.202304138}, volume = {62}, year = {2023}, } @article{14835, abstract = {Aromatische Seitenketten sind wichtige Indikatoren für die Plastizität von Proteinen und bilden oft entscheidende Kontakte bei Protein‐Protein‐Wechselwirkungen. Wir untersuchten aromatische Reste in den beiden strukturell homologen cross‐β Amyloidfibrillen HET‐s und HELLF mit Hilfe eines spezifischen Ansatzes zur Isotopenmarkierung und Festkörper NMR mit Drehung am magischen Winkel. Das dynamische Verhalten der aromatischen Reste Phe und Tyr deutet darauf hin, dass der hydrophobe Amyloidkern starr ist und keine Anzeichen von “atmenden Bewegungen” auf einer Zeitskala von Hunderten von Millisekunden zeigt. Aromatische Reste, die exponiert an der Fibrillenoberfläche sitzen, haben zwar eine starre Ringachse, weisen aber Ringflips auf verschiedenen Zeitskalen von Nanosekunden bis Mikrosekunden auf. Unser Ansatz bietet einen direkten Einblick in die Bewegungen des hydrophoben Kerns und ermöglicht eine bessere Bewertung der Konformationsheterogenität, die aus einem NMR‐Strukturensemble einer solchen Cross‐β‐Amyloidstruktur hervorgeht.}, author = {Becker, Lea Marie and Berbon, Mélanie and Vallet, Alicia and Grelard, Axelle and Morvan, Estelle and Bardiaux, Benjamin and Lichtenecker, Roman and Ernst, Matthias and Loquet, Antoine and Schanda, Paul}, issn = {1521-3757}, journal = {Angewandte Chemie}, keywords = {General Medicine}, number = {19}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Der starre Kern und die flexible Oberfläche von Amyloidfibrillen – Magic‐Angle‐Spinning NMR Spektroskopie von aromatischen Resten}}, doi = {10.1002/ange.202219314}, volume = {135}, year = {2023}, } @inbook{14847, abstract = {Understanding the mechanisms of chaperones at the atomic level generally requires producing chaperone–client complexes in vitro. This task comes with significant challenges, because one needs to find conditions in which the client protein is presented to the chaperone in a state that binds and at the same time avoid the pitfalls of protein aggregation that are often inherent to such states. The strategy differs significantly for different client proteins and chaperones, but there are common underlying principles. Here, we discuss these principles and deduce the strategies that can be successfully applied for different chaperone–client complexes. We review successful biochemical strategies applied to making the client protein “binding competent” and illustrate the different strategies with examples of recent biophysical and biochemical studies.}, author = {Sučec, I. and Schanda, Paul}, booktitle = {Biophysics of Molecular Chaperones}, editor = {Hiller, Sebastian and Liu, Maili and He, Lichun}, isbn = {9781839162824}, pages = {136--161}, publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry}, title = {{Preparing Chaperone–Client Protein Complexes for Biophysical and Structural Studies}}, doi = {10.1039/bk9781839165986-00136}, volume = {29}, year = {2023}, } @article{14036, abstract = {Magic-angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is establishing itself as a powerful method for the characterization of protein dynamics at the atomic scale. We discuss here how R1ρ MAS relaxation dispersion NMR can explore microsecond-to-millisecond motions. Progress in instrumentation, isotope labeling, and pulse sequence design has paved the way for quantitative analyses of even rare structural fluctuations. In addition to isotropic chemical-shift fluctuations exploited in solution-state NMR relaxation dispersion experiments, MAS NMR has a wider arsenal of observables, allowing to see motions even if the exchanging states do not differ in their chemical shifts. We demonstrate the potential of the technique for probing motions in challenging large enzymes, membrane proteins, and protein assemblies.}, author = {Napoli, Federico and Becker, Lea Marie and Schanda, Paul}, issn = {1879-033X}, journal = {Current Opinion in Structural Biology}, number = {10}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Protein dynamics detected by magic-angle spinning relaxation dispersion NMR}}, doi = {10.1016/j.sbi.2023.102660}, volume = {82}, year = {2023}, } @article{12675, abstract = {Aromatic side chains are important reporters of the plasticity of proteins, and often form important contacts in protein--protein interactions. By studying a pair of structurally homologous cross-β amyloid fibrils, HET-s and HELLF, with a specific isotope-labeling approach and magic-angle-spinning (MAS) NMR, we have characterized the dynamic behavior of Phe and Tyr aromatic rings to show that the hydrophobic amyloid core is rigid, without any sign of "breathing motions" over hundreds of milliseconds at least. Aromatic residues exposed at the fibril surface have a rigid ring axis but undergo ring flips, on a variety of time scales from ns to µs. Our approach provides direct insight into hydrophobic-core motions, enabling a better evaluation of the conformational heterogeneity generated from a NMR structural ensemble of such amyloid cross-β architecture.}, author = {Becker, Lea Marie and Berbon, Mélanie and Vallet, Alicia and Grelard, Axelle and Morvan, Estelle and Bardiaux, Benjamin and Lichtenecker, Roman and Ernst, Matthias and Loquet, Antoine and Schanda, Paul}, issn = {1521-3773}, journal = {Angewandte Chemie International Edition}, keywords = {General Chemistry, Catalysis}, number = {19}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{The rigid core and flexible surface of amyloid fibrils probed by Magic‐Angle Spinning NMR of aromatic residues}}, doi = {10.1002/anie.202219314}, volume = {62}, year = {2023}, } @article{11179, abstract = {Large oligomeric enzymes control a myriad of cellular processes, from protein synthesis and degradation to metabolism. The 0.5 MDa large TET2 aminopeptidase, a prototypical protease important for cellular homeostasis, degrades peptides within a ca. 60 Å wide tetrahedral chamber with four lateral openings. The mechanisms of substrate trafficking and processing remain debated. Here, we integrate magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR, mutagenesis, co-evolution analysis and molecular dynamics simulations and reveal that a loop in the catalytic chamber is a key element for enzymatic function. The loop is able to stabilize ligands in the active site and may additionally have a direct role in activating the catalytic water molecule whereby a conserved histidine plays a key role. Our data provide a strong case for the functional importance of highly dynamic - and often overlooked - parts of an enzyme, and the potential of MAS NMR to investigate their dynamics at atomic resolution.}, author = {Gauto, Diego F. and Macek, Pavel and Malinverni, Duccio and Fraga, Hugo and Paloni, Matteo and Sučec, Iva and Hessel, Audrey and Bustamante, Juan Pablo and Barducci, Alessandro and Schanda, Paul}, issn = {2041-1723}, journal = {Nature Communications}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Functional control of a 0.5 MDa TET aminopeptidase by a flexible loop revealed by MAS NMR}}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-022-29423-0}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, } @article{10323, abstract = {Molecular chaperones are central to cellular protein homeostasis. Dynamic disorder is a key feature of the complexes of molecular chaperones and their client proteins, and it facilitates the client release towards a folded state or the handover to downstream components. The dynamic nature also implies that a given chaperone can interact with many different client proteins, based on physico-chemical sequence properties rather than on structural complementarity of their (folded) 3D structure. Yet, the balance between this promiscuity and some degree of client specificity is poorly understood. Here, we review recent atomic-level descriptions of chaperones with client proteins, including chaperones in complex with intrinsically disordered proteins, with membrane-protein precursors, or partially folded client proteins. We focus hereby on chaperone-client interactions that are independent of ATP. The picture emerging from these studies highlights the importance of dynamics in these complexes, whereby several interaction types, not only hydrophobic ones, contribute to the complex formation. We discuss these features of chaperone-client complexes and possible factors that may contribute to this balance of promiscuity and specificity.}, author = {Sučec, Iva and Bersch, Beate and Schanda, Paul}, issn = {2296-889X}, journal = {Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences}, publisher = {Frontiers}, title = {{How do chaperones bind (partly) unfolded client proteins?}}, doi = {10.3389/fmolb.2021.762005}, volume = {8}, year = {2021}, }