Distinct mechanism of Tb and Eu binding to NCS1.

Lanthanides have been frequently used as biomimetic compounds for NMR and fluorescence studies of Ca binding proteins due to having similar physical properties and coordination geometry to Ca ions. Here we report that a member of the neuronal calcium sensor family, neuronal calcium sensor 1, complexes with two lanthanide ions Tb and Eu. The affinity for Tb is nearly 50 times higher than that for Ca ( = 0.002 ± 0.0001 μM and = 91 nM) whereas Eu binding is notably weaker, = 26 ± 1 μM. Interestingly, despite having identical charge and similar ionic radii, Tb and Eu ions exhibit a distinct binding stoichiometry for NCS1 with one Eu and two Tb ions bound per NCS1 monomer, as demonstrated in fluorescence titration and mass spectrometry studies. These results suggest that the lanthanides' affinity for the individual EF hands is fine-tuned by a small variation in the ion charge density as well as EF hand binding loop amino acid sequence. As observed previously for other lanthanide:protein complexes, the emission intensity of Ln is enhanced upon complexation with the protein, likely due to the displacement of water molecules by oxygen atoms from the coordinating amino acid residues. The overall shape of the TbNCS1 and EuNCS1 monomer shows high levels of similarity compared to the Ca bound protein based on their collision cross section. However, the distinct occupation of EF hands impacts NCS1 oligomerization and affinity for the D2R peptide that mimics the NCS1 binding site on the D2R receptor. Specifically, the TbNCS1 complex populates the dimer and has comparable affinity for the D2R peptide, whereas Eu bound NCS1 remains in the monomeric form with a negligible affinity for the D2R peptide.