Structural basis for protein antiaggregation activity of the trigger factor chaperone

Tomohide Saio, Xiao Guan, Paolo Rossi, Anastassios Economou, Charalampos G. Kalodimos

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

224 Scopus citations

Abstract

Molecular chaperones prevent aggregation and misfolding of proteins, but scarcity of structural data has impeded an understanding of the recognition and antiaggregation mechanisms. We report the solution structure, dynamics, and energetics of three trigger factor (TF) chaperone molecules in complex with alkaline phosphatase (PhoA) captured in the unfolded state. Our data show that TF uses multiple sites to bind to several regions of the PhoA substrate protein primarily through hydrophobic contacts. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation experiments show that TF interacts with PhoA in a highly dynamic fashion, but as the number and length of the PhoA regions engaged by TF increase, a more stable complex gradually emerges. Multivalent binding keeps the substrate protein in an extended, unfolded conformation. The results show how molecular chaperones recognize unfolded polypeptides and, by acting as unfoldases and holdases, prevent the aggregation and premature (mis)folding of unfolded proteins.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number1250494
JournalScience
Volume344
Issue number6184
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes

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