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The mechanism by which Hsp40 and other molecular chaperones recognize and interact with non-native polypeptides is a fundamental question, as is how Hsp40 co-operates with Hsp70 to facilitate protein folding. Years of structural studies of Hsp40 from yeast and other species, conducted using X-ray protein crystallography, NMR and small-angle X-ray scattering, have shed light on the mechanisms how Hsp40 functions as a molecular chaperone and how Hsp40- Hsp70 pair promotes protein folding, protein transport and degradation. This review provides a discussion of recent structural studies of Hsp40s and their functional implications.

Heat shock protein (Hsp) 40 facilitates the critical role of Hsp70 in a number of cellular processes such as protein folding, assembly, degradation and translocation in vivo. Hsp40 and Hsp70 stay in close contact to achieve these diverse functions. The conserved C-terminal EEVD motif in Hsp70 has been shown to regulate Hsp40–Hsp70 interaction by an unknown mechanism. Here, we provide a structural basis for this regulation by determining the crystal structure of yeast Hsp40 Sis1 peptide-binding fragment complexed with the Hsp70 Ssa1 C-terminal. The Ssa1 extreme C-terminal eight residues, G634PTVEEVD641, form a β-strand with the domain I of Sis1 peptide-binding fragment. Surprisingly, the Ssa1 C-terminal binds Sis1 at the site where Sis1 interacts with the non-native polypeptides. The negatively charged residues within the EEVD motif in Ssa1 C-terminal form extensive charge–charge interactions with the positively charged residues in Sis1. The structure-based mutagenesis data support the structural observations.

Heat-shock protein 40 (Hsp40) enables Hsp70 to play critical roles in a number of cellular processes, such as protein folding, assembly, degradation and translocation in vivo. Hsp40 recognizes and binds non-native polypeptides and delivers them to Hsp70. Then Hsp40 stimulates the ATPase activity of Hsp70 to fold the polypeptides. By using yeast Hsp40 Sis1 and yeast Hsp70 Ssa1 as our model proteins, we found that the Sis1 peptide-binding fragment interacts directly with the full-length Ssa1 in vitro. Further studies showed that the C-terminal lid domain of Ssa1 could interact with Sis1 peptide-binding domain physically in vitro. The Sis1 peptide-binding fragment forms a stable complex with the Ssa1 C-terminal lid domain in solution. The interactions between these two proteins appear to be charge–charge interactions because high-ionic-strength buffer can dissociate the complex. Further mapping studies showed that the Sis1 peptide-binding fragment binds the extreme C-terminal 15 amino acid residues of Ssa1. A flexible glycine-rich region is followed by these 15 residues in the Ssa1 primary sequence. Atomic force microscopy of the Sis1–Ssa1 complex showed that only one end of the Ssa1 lid domain binds the Sis1 peptide-binding-fragment dimer at the upper level of the huge groove within the Sis1 dimer. Based on the data, we propose an ‘anchoring and docking’ model to illustrate the mechanisms by which Hsp40 interacts with Hsp70 and delivers the non-native polypeptide to Hsp70.