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Experimentally exploring the conformational space sampled by domain reorientation in calmodulin

Authors :
Giacomo Parigi
Ioannis Gelis
Maria Antonietta Zoroddu
Cristina Del Bianco
Ivano Bertini
Claudio Luchinat
Nikolaus Katsaros
Alessandro Provenzani
Massimiliano Francesco Peana
Publication Year :
2004
Publisher :
The National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 2004.

Abstract

The conformational space sampled by the two-domain protein calmodulin has been explored by an approach based on four sets of NMR observables obtained on Tb 3+ - and Tm 3+ -substituted proteins. The observables are the pseudocontact shifts and residual dipolar couplings of the C-terminal domain when lanthanide substitution is at the N-terminal domain. Each set of observables provides independent information on the conformations experienced by the molecule. It is found that not all sterically allowed conformations are equally populated. Taking the N-terminal domain as the reference, the C-terminal domain preferentially resides in a region of space inscribed in a wide elliptical cone. The axis of the cone is tilted by ≈30° with respect to the direction of the N-terminal part of the interdomain helix, which is known to have a flexible central part in solution. The C-terminal domain also undergoes rotation about the axis defined by the C-terminal part of the interdomain helix. Neither the extended helix conformation initially observed in the solid state for free calcium calmodulin nor the closed conformation(s) adopted by calcium calmodulin either alone or in its adduct(s) with target peptide(s) is among the most preferred ones. These findings are unique, both in terms of structural information obtained on a biomolecule that samples multiple conformations and in terms of the approach developed to achieve the results. The same approach is in principle applicable to other multidomain proteins, as well as to multiple interaction modes between two macromolecular partners.

Details

Language :
English
Database :
OpenAIRE
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....e786b9b2219bf1d6f7159cb6a66457e2