Paulette Sofía Romero-Pérez, Laura V Martínez-Castro, Alejandro Linares, Inti Arroyo-Mosso, Nuria Sánchez-Puig, Cesar L Cuevas-Velazquez, Shahar Sukenik, Adán Guerrero, Alejandra A Covarrubias
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
During seed maturation, plants may experience severe desiccation, leading to the accumulation of late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins. These intrinsically disordered proteins also accumulate in plant tissues under water deficit. Functional roles of LEA proteins have been proposed based on in vitro studies, where monomers are considered as the functional units. However, the potential formation of homo-oligomers has been little explored. In this work, we investigated the potential self-association of Arabidopsis thaliana group 4 LEA proteins (AtLEA4) using in vitro and in vivo approaches. LEA4 proteins represent a compelling case of study due to their high conservation throughout the plant kingdom. This protein family is characterized by a conserved N-terminal region, with a high alpha-helix propensity and invitro protective activity, as compared to the highly disordered and low-conserved C-terminal region. Our findings revealed that full-length AtLEA4 proteins oligomerize and that both terminal regions are sufficient for self-association in vitro. However, the ability of both amino and carboxy regions of AtLEA4-5 to self-associate invivo is significantly lower than that of the entire protein. Using high-resolution and quantitative fluorescence microscopy, we were able to disclose the unreported ability of LEA proteins to form high-order oligomers in planta. Additionally, we found that high-order complexes require the simultaneous engagement of both terminal regions, indicating that the entire protein is needed to attain such structural organization. This research provides valuable insights into the self-association of LEA proteins in plants and emphasizes the role of protein oligomer formation.
期刊介绍:
Protein Science, the flagship journal of The Protein Society, is a publication that focuses on advancing fundamental knowledge in the field of protein molecules. The journal welcomes original reports and review articles that contribute to our understanding of protein function, structure, folding, design, and evolution.
Additionally, Protein Science encourages papers that explore the applications of protein science in various areas such as therapeutics, protein-based biomaterials, bionanotechnology, synthetic biology, and bioelectronics.
The journal accepts manuscript submissions in any suitable format for review, with the requirement of converting the manuscript to journal-style format only upon acceptance for publication.
Protein Science is indexed and abstracted in numerous databases, including the Agricultural & Environmental Science Database (ProQuest), Biological Science Database (ProQuest), CAS: Chemical Abstracts Service (ACS), Embase (Elsevier), Health & Medical Collection (ProQuest), Health Research Premium Collection (ProQuest), Materials Science & Engineering Database (ProQuest), MEDLINE/PubMed (NLM), Natural Science Collection (ProQuest), and SciTech Premium Collection (ProQuest).