Background: Dimerization regulates activation of PDGF receptor in signal transduction. Results: The transmembrane segment of PDGFR forms a left-handed helical dimer, which becomes more tilted and less stable in model membranes with decreasing lipid acyl chain lengths. Conclusion:The membrane thickness controls the ability of the transmembrane segments to dimerize. Significance: Receptor dimerization and activation in vivo may require relocation to thick lipid rafts.

Porins, like outer membrane protein G (OmpG) of Escherichia coli, are ideal templates among ion channels for protein and chemical engineering because of their robustness and simple architecture. OmpG shows fast transitions between open and closed states, which were attributed to loop 6 (L6). As flickering limits single-channel-based applications, we pruned L6 by either 8 or 12 amino acids. While the open probabilities of both L6 variants resemble that of native OmpG, their gating frequencies were reduced by 63 and 81%, respectively. Using the 3.2 Å structure of the shorter L6 variant in the open state, we engineered a minimal porin (220 amino acids), where all remaining extramembranous loops were truncated. Unexpectedly, this minimized porin still exhibited gating, but it was 5-fold less frequent than in OmpG. The residual gating of the minimal pore is hence independent of L6 rearrangements and involves narrowing of the ion conductance pathway most probably driven by global stretching-flexing deformations of the membrane-embedded β-barrel.

The E5 oncoprotein is the major transforming protein of bovine papillomavirus type 1. This 44-residue transmembrane protein can interact with the platelet-derived growth factor receptor β, leading to ligand-independent activation and cell transformation. For productive interaction, E5 needs to dimerize via a C-terminal pair of cysteines, though a recent study suggested that its truncated transmembrane segment can dimerize on its own. To analyze the structure of the full protein in a membrane environment and elucidate the role of the Cys-Ser-Cys motif, we produced recombinantly the wild-type protein and four cysteine mutants. Comparison by circular dichroism in detergent micelles and lipid vesicular dispersion and by NMR in trifluoroethanol demonstrates that the absence of one or both cysteines does not influence the highly α-helical secondary structure, nor does it impair the ability of E5 to dimerize, observations that are further supported by sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. We also observed assemblies of higher order. Oriented circular dichroism in lipid bilayers shows that E5 is aligned as a transmembrane helix with a slight tilt angle, and that this membrane alignment is also independent of any cysteines. We conclude that the Cys-containing motif represents a disordered region of the protein that serves as an extra covalent connection for stabilization.

UV-CD12 at ANKA and its current end-station are described, with a standard module for vacuum-UV synchrotron radiation circular dichroism of bio-macromolecules in the liquid state, and a unique module for macroscopically oriented lipid membranes (oriented circular dichroism).

E5 is the major transforming oncoprotein of bovine papillomavirus, which activates the platelet-derived growth factor receptor β in a highly specific manner. The short transmembrane protein E5 with only 44 residues interacts directly with the transmembrane segments of the receptor, but structural details are not available. Biophysical investigations are challenging, because the hydrophobic E5 protein tends to aggregate and get cross-linked non-specifically via two Cys residues near its C-terminus. Here, we demonstrate that a truncation by 10 amino acids creates a more manageable protein that can be conveniently used for structure analysis. Synchrotron radiation circular dichroism and solid-state (15)N- and (31)P-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy show that this E5 variant serves as a representative model for the wild-type protein. The helical conformation of the transmembrane segment, its orientation in the lipid bilayer, and the ability to form homodimers in the membrane are not affected by the C-terminal truncation.