The large GTPase dynamin is the first protein shown to catalyze membrane fission. Dynamin and its related proteins are essential to many cell functions, from endocytosis to organelle division and fusion, and it plays a critical role in many physiological functions such as synaptic transmission and muscle contraction. Research of the past three decades has focused on understanding how dynamin works. In this review, we present the basis for an emerging consensus on how dynamin functions. Three properties of dynamin are strongly supported by experimental data: first, dynamin oligomerizes into a helical polymer; second, dynamin oligomer constricts in the presence of GTP; and third, dynamin catalyzes membrane fission upon GTP hydrolysis. We present the two current models for fission, essentially diverging in how GTP energy is spent. We further discuss how future research might solve the remaining open questions presently under discussion.
Bacterial type IV secretion (T4S) systems translocate virulence factors into eukaryotic cells 1,2 , distribute genetic material between bacteria, and have shown potential as a tool for the genetic modification of human cells 3 . Given the complex choreography of the substrate through the secretion apparatus 4 , the molecular mechanism of the T4S system has proven difficult to dissect in the absence of structural data for the entire machinery. Here we use electron microscopy (EM) to reconstruct the T4S system encoded by the Escherichia coli R388 conjugative plasmid. We show that eight proteins assemble in an intricate stoichiometric relationship to form a ~3 megadalton (MDa) nanomachine that spans the entire cell envelope. The structure comprises an outer membrane-associated core complex 1 connected by a central stalk to a substantial inner membrane complex that is dominated by a battery of twelve VirB4 ATPase subunits organised as side by side hexameric barrels. Our results show a secretion system with markedly different architecture, and consequently mechanism, to other known bacterial secretion systems 1,4-6 .The canonical T4S system comprises 12 proteins, VirB1-11 and VirD4, and forms a large macromolecular complex that spans the cell envelope of Gram-negative bacteria 2 . The hub protein VirB10 inserts into both the inner and outer membranes and spans the entire width of the periplasm. It is decorated by VirB7 and VirB9 in a 1:1:1 ratio to form a C14 symmetrised outer membrane pore termed the core complex 7 . The architecture and relative † Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to GW
Dynamins form a superfamily of large mechano-chemical GTPases that includes the classical dynamins and dynamin-like proteins (DLPs). They are found throughout the Eukarya, functioning in core cellular processes such as endocytosis and organelle division. Many bacteria are predicted by sequence to possess large GTPases with the same multidomain architecture that is found in DLPs. Mechanistic dissection of dynamin family members has been impeded by a lack of high-resolution structural data currently restricted to the GTPase and pleckstrin homology domains, and the dynamin-related human guanylate-binding protein. Here we present the crystal structure of a cyanobacterial DLP in both nucleotide-free and GDP-associated conformation. The bacterial DLP shows dynamin-like qualities, such as helical self-assembly and tubulation of a lipid bilayer. In vivo, it localizes to the membrane in a manner reminiscent of FZL, a chloroplast-specific dynamin-related protein with which it shares sequence similarity. Our results provide structural and mechanistic insight that may be relevant across the dynamin superfamily. Concurrently, we show compelling similarity between a cyanobacterial and chloroplast DLP that, given the endosymbiotic ancestry of chloroplasts, questions the evolutionary origins of dynamins.
SummaryProteins of the dynamin superfamily mediate membrane fission, fusion, and restructuring events by polymerizing upon lipid bilayers and forcing regions of high curvature. In this work, we show the electron cryomicroscopy reconstruction of a bacterial dynamin-like protein (BDLP) helical filament decorating a lipid tube at ∼11 Å resolution. We fitted the BDLP crystal structure and produced a molecular model for the entire filament. The BDLP GTPase domain dimerizes and forms the tube surface, the GTPase effector domain (GED) mediates self-assembly, and the paddle region contacts the lipids and promotes curvature. Association of BDLP with GMPPNP and lipid induces radical, large-scale conformational changes affecting polymerization. Nucleotide hydrolysis seems therefore to be coupled to polymer disassembly and dissociation from lipid, rather than membrane restructuring. Observed structural similarities with rat dynamin 1 suggest that our results have broad implication for other dynamin family members.
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