A solved puzzle: The structure of the seven‐transmembrane‐helix proton pump proteorhodopsin obtained by solution NMR spectroscopy is based on NOE data combined with distance restraints derived from paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (see picture). Restraints from residual dipolar couplings improved the structural accuracy.

The γ-secretase complex has a decisive role in the development of Alzheimer's disease, in that it cleaves a precursor to create the amyloid β peptide whose aggregates form the senile plaques encountered in the brains of patients. Γ-secretase is a member of the intramembrane-cleaving proteases which process their transmembrane substrates within the bilayer. Many of the mutations encountered in early onset familial Alzheimer's disease are linked to presenilin 1, the catalytic component of γ-secretase, whose active form requires its endoproteolytic cleavage into N-terminal and C-terminal fragments. Although there is general agreement regarding the topology of the N-terminal fragment, studies of the C-terminal fragment have yielded ambiguous and contradictory results that may be difficult to reconcile in the absence of structural information. Here we present the first structure of the C-terminal fragment of human presenilin 1, as obtained from NMR studies in SDS micelles. The structure reveals a topology where the membrane is likely traversed three times in accordance with the more generally accepted nine transmembrane domain model of presenilin 1, but contains unique structural features adapted to accommodate the unusual intramembrane catalysis. These include a putative half-membrane-spanning helix N-terminally harboring the catalytic aspartate, a severely kinked helical structure toward the C terminus as well as a soluble helix in the assumed-to-be unstructured N-terminal loop.cell-free protein expression | gamma secretase | intramembrane proteolysis | membrane protein structure A lzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia and affects more than 25 million people worldwide. The most characteristic histological feature of Alzheimer's disease is the presence of long, insoluble amyloid fibrils composed of amyloid β (Aβ) peptide which, either alone or as reservoirs for soluble Aβ oligomers (1, 2), appear to be the primary species responsible for the massive neuronal injury presented in patients. Aβ generation is categorized under an unusual physiological phenomenon termed regulated intramembrane proteolysis. Here, the amyloid precursor protein first sheds its ectodomain mediated by β-secretase. The remaining membrane-bound C-terminal fragment is subsequently processed at a γ-cleavage site by the γ-secretase complex, a multisubunit protease whose minimal essential components include presenilin 1 (PS1) or presenilin-2 (PS2), anterior pharynx-defective, nicastrin, and presenilin enhancer 2 (3). The pathological relevance of this final step lies in the observation that γ-cleavage is variable and can occur after three distinct positions, 38, 40, and 42, whose selection influences the self-aggregating potential of the secreted Aβ peptide. Aβ42, although the minor species, appears to show the strongest potency for oligomerization and represents the majority of Aβ in amyloid plaques (4). Over 150 familial Alzheimer's disease associated mutations (www.molgen.ua.ac.be/ADMutations) have been linked to PS1, the catalyt...

Polyketide synthases (PKSs) and non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are large multidomain proteins present in microorganisms that produce bioactive compounds. Curacin A is such a bioactive compound with potent anti-proliferative activity. During its biosynthesis the growing substrate is bound covalently to an acyl carrier protein (ACP) that is able to access catalytic sites of neighboring domains for chain elongation and modification. While ACP domains usually occur as monomers, the curacin A cluster codes for a triplet ACP (ACPI-ACPII-ACPIII) within the CurA PKS module. We have determined the structure of the isolated holo-ACPI and show that the ACPs are independent of each other within this tridomain system. In addition, we have determined the structure of the 3-hydroxyl-3-methylglutaryl-loaded holo-ACPI, which is the substrate for the unique halogenase (Hal) domain embedded within the CurA module. We have identified the interaction surface of both proteins using mutagenesis and MALDI-based identification of product formation. Amino acids affecting product formation are located on helices II and III of ACPI and form a contiguous surface. Since the CurA Hal accepts substrate only when presented by one of the ACPs within the ACPI-ACPII-ACPIII tridomain, our data provide insight into the specificity of the chlorination reaction.

The U-turn is a classical three-dimensional RNA folding motif first identified in the anticodon and T-loops of tRNAs. It also occurs frequently as a building block in other functional RNA structures in many different sequence and structural contexts. U-turns induce sharp changes in the direction of the RNA backbone and often conform to the 3-nt consensus sequence 5 ′ -UNR-3 ′ (N = any nucleotide, R = purine). The canonical U-turn motif is stabilized by a hydrogen bond between the N3 imino group of the U residue and the 3 ′ phosphate group of the R residue as well as a hydrogen bond between the 2 ′ -hydroxyl group of the uridine and the N7 nitrogen of the R residue. Here, we demonstrate that a protonated cytidine can functionally and structurally replace the uridine at the first position of the canonical U-turn motif in the apical loop of the neomycin riboswitch. Using NMR spectroscopy, we directly show that the N3 imino group of the protonated cytidine forms a hydrogen bond with the backbone phosphate 3′ from the third nucleotide of the U-turn analogously to the imino group of the uridine in the canonical motif. In addition, we compare the stability of the hydrogen bonds in the mutant U-turn motif to the wild type and describe the NMR signature of the C+-phosphate interaction. Our results have implications for the prediction of RNA structural motifs and suggest simple approaches for the experimental identification of hydrogen bonds between protonated C-imino groups and the phosphate backbone.

Background:The periplasmic lipoprotein SpaI protects the subtilin-producing Bacillus subtilis against its own lantibiotic by an unknown mechanism. Results: The first structure of a lantibiotic immunity protein, SpaI, reveals a novel fold and its membrane-interacting regions. Conclusion:The membrane interaction is important for SpaI-mediated immunity. Significance: The SpaI structure will help to understand the immunity of B. subtilis against subtilin on a structural level.

Ein gelöstes Rätsel: Die mit Lösungs‐NMR‐Spektroskopie bestimmte Struktur der aus sieben transmembranären Helices gebildeten Protonenpumpe Proteorhodopsin wurde durch Kombination von Daten aus NOE‐Experimenten und verstärkter paramagnetischer Relaxation erhalten (siehe Bild). Die Genauigkeit, mit der die Struktur aufgeklärt wurde, konnte durch dipolare Restkopplungen verbessert werden.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) structure calculations of the α-helical integral membrane proteins DsbB, GlpG, and halorhodopsin show that distance restraints from paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) can provide sufficient structural information to determine their structure with an accuracy of about 1.5 Å in the absence of other long-range conformational restraints. Our systematic study with simulated NMR data shows that about one spin label per transmembrane helix is necessary for obtaining enough PRE distance restraints to exclude wrong topologies, such as pseudo mirror images, if only limited other NMR restraints are available. Consequently, an experimentally realistic amount of PRE data enables α-helical membrane protein structure determinations that would not be feasible with the very limited amount of conventional NOESY data normally available for these systems. These findings are in line with our recent first de novo NMR structure determination of a heptahelical integral membrane protein, proteorhodopsin, that relied extensively on PRE data.

A method is introduced to represent an ensemble of conformers of a protein by a single structure in torsion angle space that lies closest to the averaged Cartesian coordinates while maintaining perfect covalent geometry and on average equal steric quality and an equally good fit to the experimental (e.g. NMR) data as the individual conformers of the ensemble. The single representative 'regmean structure' is obtained by simulated annealing in torsion angle space with the program CYANA using as input data the experimental restraints, restraints for the atom positions relative to the average Cartesian coordinates, and restraints for the torsion angles relative to the corresponding principal cluster average values of the ensemble. The method was applied to 11 proteins for which NMR structure ensembles are available, and compared to alternative, commonly used simple approaches for selecting a single representative structure, e.g. the structure from the ensemble that best fulfills the experimental and steric restraints, or the structure from the ensemble that has the lowest RMSD value to the average Cartesian coordinates. In all cases our method found a structure in torsion angle space that is significantly closer to the mean coordinates than the alternatives while maintaining the same quality as individual conformers. The method is thus suitable to generate representative single structure representations of protein structure ensembles in torsion angle space. Since in the case of NMR structure calculations with CYANA the single structure is calculated in the same way as the individual conformers except that weak positional and torsion angle restraints are added, we propose to represent new NMR structures by a 'regmean bundle' consisting of the single representative structure as the first conformer and all but one original individual conformers (the original conformer with the highest target function value is discarded in order to keep the number of conformers in the bundle constant). In this way, analyses that require a single structure can be carried out in the most meaningful way using the first model, while at the same time the additional information contained in the ensemble remains available.