Journal of Molecular Biology最新文献

{"title":"GpsB Coordinates StkP Signaling as a PASTA Kinase Adaptor in Streptococcus pneumoniae Cell Division","authors":"Václava Stauberová ,&nbsp;Bohumil Kubeša ,&nbsp;Merrin Joseph ,&nbsp;Mattia Benedet ,&nbsp;Berenice Furlan ,&nbsp;Karolína Buriánková ,&nbsp;Aleš Ulrych ,&nbsp;Rudolf Kupčík ,&nbsp;Tomáš Vomastek ,&nbsp;Orietta Massidda ,&nbsp;Ho-Ching T. Tsui ,&nbsp;Malcolm E. Winkler ,&nbsp;Pavel Branny ,&nbsp;Linda Doubravová","doi":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168797","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168797","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>StkP, the Ser/Thr protein kinase of the major human pathogen <em>Streptococcus pneumoniae</em>, monitors cell wall signals and regulates growth and division in response. <em>In vivo</em>, StkP interacts with GpsB, a cell division protein required for septal ring formation and closure, that affects StkP-dependent phosphorylation. Here, we report that although StkP has basal intrinsic kinase activity, GpsB promotes efficient autophosphorylation of StkP and phosphorylation of StkP substrates. Phosphoproteomic analyzes showed that GpsB is phosphorylated at several Ser and Thr residues. We confirmed that StkP directly phosphorylates GpsB <em>in vitro</em> and <em>in vivo</em>, with T79 and T83 being the major phosphorylation sites. <em>In vitro</em>, phosphoablative GpsB substitutions had a lower potential to stimulate StkP activity, whereas phosphomimetic substitutions were functional in terms of StkP activation. <em>In vivo</em>, substitutions of GpsB phosphoacceptor residues, either phosphoablative or mimetic, had a negative effect on GpsB function, resulting in reduced StkP-dependent phosphorylation and impaired cell division. The bacterial two-hybrid assay and co-immunoprecipitation of GpsB from cells with differentially active StkP indicated that increased phosphorylation of GpsB resulted in a more efficient interaction of GpsB with StkP. Our data suggest that GpsB acts as an adaptor that directly promotes StkP activity by mediating interactions within the StkP signaling hub, ensuring StkP recruitment into the complex and substrate specificity. We present a model that interaction of StkP with GpsB and its phosphorylation and dephosphorylation dynamically modulate kinase activity during exponential growth and under cell wall stress of <em>S. pneumoniae</em>, ensuring the proper functioning of the StkP signaling pathway.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":369,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Molecular Biology","volume":"436 22","pages":"Article 168797"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142278212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Shigella Senses the Environmental Cue Leucine to Promote its Virulence Gene Expression in the Colon","authors":"Huiying Li ,&nbsp;Yongyao Lv ,&nbsp;Zhiqi Teng ,&nbsp;Rui Guo ,&nbsp;Lingyan Jiang","doi":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168798","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168798","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><em>Shigella</em> is a foodborne enteropathogenic bacteria that causes severe bacillary dysentery in humans. <em>Shigella</em> primarily colonizes the human colon and causes disease via invasion of colon epithelial cells. However, the signal regulatory mechanisms associated with its colonization and pathogenesis in the colon remain poorly defined. Here, we report a leucine-mediated regulatory mechanism that promotes <em>Shigella</em> virulence gene expression and invasion of colon epithelial cells. <em>Shigella</em> in response to leucine, which is highly abundant in the colon, via the leucine-responsive regulator Lrp and the binding of Lrp with leucine induces the expression of a newly identified small RNA SsrV. SsrV then activates the expression of <em>virF</em> and downstream invasion-related virulence genes by increasing the protein level of the LysR-type transcription regulator LrhA, therefore enabling <em>Shigella</em> invasion of colon epithelial cells. <em>Shigella</em> lacking <em>ssrV</em> displays impaired invasion ability. Collectively, these findings suggest that <em>Shigella</em> employs a leucine-responsive environmental activation mechanism to establish colonization and pathogenicity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":369,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Molecular Biology","volume":"436 22","pages":"Article 168798"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142278214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ligand Recognition and Activation Mechanism of the Alicarboxylic Acid Receptors","authors":"Yanru Liu ,&nbsp;Ziwei Zhou ,&nbsp;Fenghui Guan ,&nbsp;Zhen Han ,&nbsp;Cheng Zhu ,&nbsp;Sheng Ye ,&nbsp;Xuekui Yu ,&nbsp;Anna Qiao","doi":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168795","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168795","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Endogenous ligands for alicarboxylic acid receptors are important metabolic intermediates that play a significant role in regulating body energy and maintaining homeostasis. However, the molecular mechanism of alicarboxylate ligand-mediated counterpart receptors is currently unclear. We resolve the active state structure of HCA2-niacin, and the structural analysis explains the mechanism of niacin selectivity in the alicarboxylic acid receptors family. Homology modeling, molecular dynamics simulation and mutagenesis experiments reveal different ligand recognition modes and activation mechanisms of the alicarboxylic acid receptors, analyze the flexibility of the binding pocket and elucidate the important role of disulfide bonds on receptor activation and ligand binding. These more detailed molecular mechanisms further elucidate the relevant mechanisms of human metabolism and provide key clues for subsequent drug development of alicarboxylic acid receptors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":369,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Molecular Biology","volume":"436 22","pages":"Article 168795"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142278213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Inventing Novel Protein Folds","authors":"Nobuyasu Koga ,&nbsp;Rie Tatsumi-Koga","doi":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168791","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168791","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The vastness of unexplored protein fold universe remains a significant question. Through systematic de novo design of proteins with novel αβ-folds, we demonstrated that nature has only explored a tiny portion of the possible folds. Numerous possible protein folds are still untouched by nature. This review outlines this study and discusses the prospects for design of functional proteins with novel folds.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":369,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Molecular Biology","volume":"436 21","pages":"Article 168791"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142255875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Insights into Ligand-Mediated Activation of an Oligomeric Ring-Shaped Gene-Regulatory Protein from Solution- and Solid-State NMR","authors":"Rodrigo Muzquiz ,&nbsp;Cameron Jamshidi ,&nbsp;Daniel W. Conroy ,&nbsp;Christopher P. Jaroniec ,&nbsp;Mark P. Foster","doi":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168792","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168792","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The 91 kDa oligomeric ring-shaped ligand binding protein TRAP (<em>trp</em> RNA binding attenuation protein) regulates the expression of a series of genes involved in tryptophan (Trp) biosynthesis in bacilli. When cellular Trp levels rise, the free amino acid binds to sites buried in the interfaces between each of the 11 (or 12, depending on the species) protomers in the ring. Crystal structures of Trp-bound TRAP show the Trp ligands are sequestered from solvent by a pair of loops from adjacent protomers that bury the bound ligand via polar contacts to several threonine residues. Binding of the Trp ligands occurs cooperatively, such that successive binding events occur with higher apparent affinity but the structural basis for this cooperativity is poorly understood. We used solution methyl-TROSY NMR relaxation experiments focused on threonine and isoleucine sidechains, as well as magic angle spinning solid-state NMR ¹³C–¹³C and ¹⁵N-¹³C chemical shift correlation spectra on uniformly labeled samples recorded at 800 and 1200 MHz, to characterize the structure and dynamics of the protein. Methyl ¹³C relaxation dispersion experiments on ligand-free apo TRAP revealed concerted exchange dynamics on the µs-ms time scale, consistent with transient sampling of conformations that could allow ligand binding. Cross-correlated relaxation experiments revealed widespread disorder on fast timescales. Chemical shifts for methyl-bearing side chains in apo- and Trp-bound TRAP revealed subtle changes in the distribution of sampled sidechain rotameric states. These observations reveal a pathway and mechanism for induced conformational changes to generate homotropic Trp-Trp binding cooperativity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":369,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Molecular Biology","volume":"436 22","pages":"Article 168792"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142255876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Species-specific model based on sequence and structural information for ubiquitination sites prediction","authors":"Weimin Li ,&nbsp;Nan Chen ,&nbsp;Jie Wang ,&nbsp;Yin Luo ,&nbsp;Huazhong Liu ,&nbsp;Jihong Ding ,&nbsp;Qun Jin","doi":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168781","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168781","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Ubiquitination is a common post-translational modification of proteins in eukaryotic cells, and it is also a significant method of regulating protein biological function. Computational methods for predicting ubiquitination sites can serve as a cost-effective and time-saving alternative to experimental methods. Existing computational methods often build classifiers based on protein sequence information, physical and chemical properties of amino acids, evolutionary information, and structural parameters. However, structural information about most proteins cannot be found in existing databases directly. The features of proteins differ among species, and some species have small amounts of ubiquitinated proteins. Therefore, it is necessary to develop species-specific models that can be applied to datasets with small sample sizes. To solve these problems, we propose a species-specific model (SSUbi) based on a capsule network, which integrates proteins’ sequence and structural information. In this model, the feature extraction module is composed of two sub-modules that extract multi-dimensional features from sequence and structural information respectively. In the submodule, the convolution operation is used to extract encoding dimension features, and the channel attention mechanism is used to extract feature map dimension features. After integrating the multi-dimensional features from both types of information, the species-specific capsule network further converts the features into capsule vectors and classifies species-specific ubiquitination sites. The experimental results show that SSUbi can effectively improve the prediction performance of species with small sample sizes and outperform other models.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":369,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Molecular Biology","volume":"436 22","pages":"Article 168781"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142152892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Structural Basis of Main Proteases of Coronavirus Bound to Bofutrelvir","authors":"Wei-wei Wang ,&nbsp;Pei Zeng ,&nbsp;Tongchao Liu ,&nbsp;Xue-lan Zhou ,&nbsp;Cheng Lin ,&nbsp;Li Guo ,&nbsp;Qi-sheng Wang ,&nbsp;Jian Li","doi":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168784","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168784","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Globally, the continuous spread and evolution of SARS-CoV-2, along with its variants, profoundly impact human well-being, health, security, and the growth of socio-economic. In the field of development of drugs against COVID-19, the main protease (M^pro) is a critical target as it plays a core role in the lifecycle of SARS-CoV-2. Bofutrelvir acts as a potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 M^pro, demonstrating high efficacy and broad-spectrum antiviral activity. Compared to therapies that require pharmacokinetic boosters, such as ritonavir, the monotherapy approach of Bofutrelvir reduces the risk of potential drug interactions, making it suitable for a wider patient population. However, further studies on the potency and mechanism of inhibition of Bofutrelvir against the M^pro of COVID-19 and its variants, together with other coronaviruses, are needed to prepare for the possibility of a possible re-emerging threat from an analogous virus in the future. Here, we reveal the effective inhibition of Bofutrelvir against the M^pro of SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and HCoV-229E through FRET and crystallographic analysis. Furthermore, the inhibitory mechanisms of Bofutrelvir against two SARS-CoV-2 M^pro mutants (G15S and K90R) were also elucidated through FRET and crystallographic studies. Through detailed analysis and comparison of these crystal structures, we identified crucial structural determinants of inhibition and elucidated the binding mode of Bofutrelvir to M^pros from different coronaviruses. These findings are hopeful to accelerate the development of safer and more potent inhibitors against the M^pro of coronavirus, and to provide important references for the prevention and treatment of similar viruses that may emerge in the future.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":369,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Molecular Biology","volume":"436 22","pages":"Article 168784"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142152893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Accurate Identification of Periplasmic Urea-binding Proteins by Structure- and Genome Context-assisted Functional Analysis","authors":"Malin J. Allert ,&nbsp;Shivesh Kumar ,&nbsp;You Wang ,&nbsp;Lorena S. Beese ,&nbsp;Homme W. Hellinga","doi":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168780","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168780","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>ABC transporters are ancient and ubiquitous nutrient transport systems in bacteria and play a central role in defining lifestyles. Periplasmic solute-binding proteins (SBPs) are components that deliver ligands to their translocation machinery. SBPs have diversified to bind a wide range of ligands with high specificity and affinity. However, accurate assignment of cognate ligands remains a challenging problem in SBPs. Urea metabolism plays an important role in the nitrogen cycle; anthropogenic sources account for more than half of global nitrogen fertilizer. We report identification of urea-binding proteins within a large SBP sequence family that encodes diverse functions. By combining genetic linkage between SBPs, ABC transporter components, enzymes or transcription factors, we accurately identified cognate ligands, as we verified experimentally by biophysical characterization of ligand binding and crystallographic determination of the urea complex of a thermostable urea-binding homolog. Using three-dimensional structure information, these functional assignments were extrapolated to other members in the sequence family lacking genetic linkage information, which revealed that only a fraction bind urea. Using the same combined approaches, we also inferred that other family members bind various short-chain amides, aliphatic amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, valine), γ-aminobutyrate, and as yet unknown ligands. Comparative structural analysis revealed structural adaptations that encode diversification in these SBPs. Systematic assignment of ligands to SBP sequence families is key to understanding bacterial lifestyles, and also provides a rich source of biosensors for clinical and environmental analysis, such as the thermostable urea-binding protein identified here.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":369,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Molecular Biology","volume":"436 22","pages":"Article 168780"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022283624004005/pdfft?md5=356797fb37fbbeef8d8ff761fcd53192&pid=1-s2.0-S0022283624004005-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142144764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"RiboVision2: A Web Server for Advanced Visualization of Ribosomal RNAs","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168556","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168556","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>RiboVision2 is a web server designed to visualize phylogenetic, structural, and evolutionary properties of ribosomal RNAs simultaneously at the levels of primary, secondary, and three-dimensional structure and in the context of full ribosomal complexes. RiboVision2 instantly computes and displays a broad variety of data; it has no login requirements, is open-source, free for all users, and available at <span><span>https://ribovision2.chemistry.gatech.edu</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":369,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Molecular Biology","volume":"436 17","pages":"Article 168556"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022283624001517/pdfft?md5=eaed610c16e004c533de0cd31d3a3792&pid=1-s2.0-S0022283624001517-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140398867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"ModFOLD9: A Web Server for Independent Estimates of 3D Protein Model Quality","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168531","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmb.2024.168531","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Accurate models of protein tertiary structures are now available from numerous advanced prediction methods, although the accuracy of each method often varies depending on the specific protein target. Additionally, many models may still contain significant local errors. Therefore, reliable, independent model quality estimates are essential both for identifying errors and selecting the very best models for further biological investigations. ModFOLD9 is a leading independent server for detecting the local errors in models produced by any method, and it can accurately discriminate between high-quality models from multiple alternative approaches. ModFOLD9 incorporates several new scores from deep learning-based approaches, leading to greatly improved prediction accuracy compared with earlier versions of the server. ModFOLD9 is continuously independently benchmarked, and it is shown to be highly competitive with other public servers. ModFOLD9 is freely available at <span><span>https://www.reading.ac.uk/bioinf/ModFOLD/</span><svg><path></path></svg></span>.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":369,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Molecular Biology","volume":"436 17","pages":"Article 168531"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022283624001189/pdfft?md5=9949e23171833ce240958abd18778192&pid=1-s2.0-S0022283624001189-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140152741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}