GroEL and GroES form a chaperonin nano-cage for proteins up to approximately 60 kDa to fold in isolation. Here we explored the structural features of the chaperonin cage critical for rapid folding of encapsulated substrates. Modulating the volume of the GroEL central cavity affected folding speed in accordance with confinement theory. Small proteins (approximately 30 kDa) folded more rapidly as the size of the cage was gradually reduced to a point where restriction in space slowed folding dramatically. For larger proteins (approximately 40-50 kDa), either expanding or reducing cage volume decelerated folding. Additionally, interactions with the C-terminal, mildly hydrophobic Gly-Gly-Met repeat sequences of GroEL protruding into the cavity, and repulsion effects from the negatively charged cavity wall were required for rapid folding of some proteins. We suggest that by combining these features, the chaperonin cage provides a physical environment optimized to catalyze the structural annealing of proteins with kinetically complex folding pathways.

BackgroundIn a motile polarized cell the actin system is differentiated to allow protrusion at the front and retraction at the tail. This differentiation is linked to the phosphoinositide pattern in the plasma membrane. In the highly motile Dictyostelium cells studied here, the front is dominated by PI3-kinases producing PI(3,4,5)tris-phosphate (PIP3), the tail by the PI3-phosphatase PTEN that hydrolyses PIP3 to PI(4,5)bis-phosphate. To study de-novo cell polarization, we first depolymerized actin and subsequently recorded the spontaneous reorganization of actin patterns in relation to PTEN.ResultsIn a transient stage of recovery from depolymerization, symmetric actin patterns alternate periodically with asymmetric ones. The switches to asymmetry coincide with the unilateral membrane-binding of PTEN. The modes of state transitions in the actin and PTEN systems differ. Transitions in the actin system propagate as waves that are initiated at single sites by the amplification of spontaneous fluctuations. In PTEN-null cells, these waves still propagate with normal speed but loose their regular periodicity. Membrane-binding of PTEN is induced at the border of a coherent PTEN-rich area in the form of expanding and regressing gradients.ConclusionsThe state transitions in actin organization and the reversible transition from cytoplasmic to membrane-bound PTEN are synchronized but their patterns differ. The transitions in actin organization are independent of PTEN, but when PTEN is present, they are coupled to periodic changes in the membrane-binding of this PIP3-degrading phosphatase. The PTEN oscillations are related to motility patterns of chemotaxing cells.