Sekhar Ashok, Rumfeldt Jessica A O, Broom Helen R, Doyle Colleen M, Sobering Ryan E, Meiering Elizabeth M, Kay Lewis E
Department of Molecular Genetics, The University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 1A8.
Department of Biochemistry, The University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 1A8.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Nov 8;113(45):E6939-E6945. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1611418113. Epub 2016 Oct 24.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that, in some cases, has been linked with mutations to the antioxidant metalloenzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD1). Although the mature form of this enzyme is highly stable and resistant to aggregation, the most immature form, lacking metal and a stabilizing intrasubunit disulfide bond, apoSOD1, is dynamic and hypothesized to be a major cause of toxicity in vivo. Previous solution NMR studies of wild-type apoSOD1 have shown that the ground state interconverts with a series of sparsely populated and transiently formed conformers, some of which have aberrant nonnative structures. Here, we study seven disease mutants of apoSOD1 and characterize their free energy landscapes as a first step in understanding the initial stages of disease progression and, more generally, to evaluate the plasticity of low-lying protein conformational states. The mutations lead to little change in the structures and dynamics of the ground states of the mutant proteins. By contrast, the numbers of low-lying excited states that are accessible to each of the disease mutants can vary significantly, with additional conformers accessed in some cases. Our study suggests that the diversity of these structures can provide alternate interaction motifs for different mutants, establishing additional pathways for new and often aberrant intra- and intermolecular contacts. Further, it emphasizes the potential importance of conformationally excited states in directing both folding and misfolding processes.
肌萎缩侧索硬化症(ALS)是一种神经退行性疾病,在某些情况下,它与抗氧化金属酶超氧化物歧化酶(SOD1)的突变有关。尽管这种酶的成熟形式高度稳定且抗聚集,但最不成熟的形式,即缺乏金属和稳定的亚基内二硫键的脱辅基SOD1(apoSOD1),具有动态性,并被认为是体内毒性的主要原因。先前对野生型apoSOD1的溶液核磁共振研究表明,基态与一系列稀疏存在且短暂形成的构象异构体相互转化,其中一些具有异常的非天然结构。在这里,我们研究了apoSOD1的七个疾病突变体,并表征了它们的自由能景观,作为理解疾病进展初始阶段的第一步,更广泛地说,是为了评估低能蛋白质构象状态的可塑性。这些突变导致突变蛋白基态的结构和动力学变化不大。相比之下,每个疾病突变体可及的低能激发态数量可能有显著差异,在某些情况下会有额外的构象异构体。我们的研究表明,这些结构的多样性可以为不同的突变体提供交替的相互作用基序,为新的且常常异常的分子内和分子间接触建立额外的途径。此外,它强调了构象激发态在指导折叠和错误折叠过程中的潜在重要性。