Aggregation of a-synuclein (aS) is involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD) and a variety of related neurodegenerative disorders. The physiological function of aS is largely unknown. We demonstrate with in vitro vesicle fusion experiments that aS has an inhibitory function on membrane fusion. Upon increased expression in cultured cells and in Caenorhabditis elegans, aS binds to mitochondria and leads to mitochondrial fragmentation. In C. elegans age-dependent fragmentation of mitochondria is enhanced and shifted to an earlier time point upon expression of exogenous aS. In contrast, siRNA-mediated downregulation of aS results in elongated mitochondria in cell culture. aS can act independently of mitochondrial fusion and fission proteins in shifting the dynamic morphologic equilibrium of mitochondria towards reduced fusion. Upon cellular fusion, aS prevents fusion of differently labelled mitochondrial populations. Thus, aS inhibits fusion due to its unique membrane interaction. Finally, mitochondrial fragmentation induced by expression of aS is rescued by coexpression of PINK1, parkin or DJ-1 but not the PD-associated mutations PINK1 G309D and parkin D1-79 or by DJ-1 C106A.

A number of neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy, are characterized by the intracellular deposition of fibrillar aggregates that contain a high proportion of ␣-synuclein (␣S). The interaction with the membrane-water interface strongly modulates folding and aggregation of the protein. The present study investigates the lipid binding and the coil-helix transition of ␣S, using titration calorimetry, differential scanning calorimetry, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Titration of the protein with small unilamellar vesicles composed of zwitterionic phospholipids below the chain melting temperature of the lipids yielded exceptionally large exothermic heat values. The sigmoidal titration curves were evaluated in terms of a simple model that assumes saturable binding sites at the vesicle surface. The cumulative heat release and the ellipticity were linearly correlated as a result of simultaneous binding and helix folding. There was no heat release and folding of ␣S in the presence of large unilamellar vesicles, indicating that a small radius of curvature is necessary for the ␣S-membrane interaction. The heat release and the negative heat capacity of the proteinvesicle interaction could not be attributed to the coilhelix transition of the protein alone. We speculate that binding and helix folding of ␣S depends on the presence of defect structures in the membrane-water interface, which in turn results in lipid ordering in the highly curved vesicular membranes. This will be discussed with regard to a possible role of the protein for the stabilization of synaptic vesicle membranes. ␣-Synuclein (␣S)1 is a protein of 140 amino acids that has been identified as a major component of the intracytoplasmic fibrillar deposits (Lewy bodies) associated with idiopathic and inherited forms of Parkinson's disease (1). The majority of cases are idiopathic, whereas mutations in the ␣S gene are known to be responsible for rare inherited, early onset variants of Parkinson's disease (2-4). Although the molecular mode of action of ␣S and of its homologs is as yet unknown, it was assumed that the protein modulates the dopamine neurotransmission by regulating synaptic vesicle (SV) mobilization from the presynaptic reserve pool (5, 6) or directly regulating the dopamine metabolism (7-9). However, attempts to identify a specific SV-binding protein, e.g. by protein cross-linking, have been unsuccessful so far.At a certain threshold concentration, ␣S tends to aggregate into amyloid fibrils (10), whereas the homolog ␤S, which lacks a stretch of amino acids within the central portion of ␣S, has a much lower fibrillization propensity (11, 12) and may even inhibit ␣S fibrillization (13-15), indicating that the hydrophobic central part of ␣S is essential for its fibrillar aggregation (16). A recent study on the structure of mature fibrillar aggregates, using site-directed spin labeling, indicates that the N terminus of ␣S is less ordered than the central portion and that t...

Alpha-synuclein (aS) is a 140-amino-acid protein that is involved in a number of neurodegenerative diseases. In Parkinson's disease, the protein is typically encountered in intracellular, high-molecular-weight aggregates. Although aS is abundant in the presynaptic terminals of the central nervous system, its physiological function is still unknown. There is strong evidence for the membrane affinity of the protein. One hypothesis is that lipid-induced binding and helix folding may modulate the fusion of synaptic vesicles with the presynaptic membrane and the ensuing transmitter release. Here we show that membrane recognition of the N-terminus is essential for the cooperative formation of helical domains in the protein. We used circular dichroism spectroscopy and isothermal titration calorimetry to investigate synthetic peptide fragments from different domains of the full-length aS protein. Site-specific truncation and partial cleavage of the full-length protein were employed to further characterize the structural motifs responsible for helix formation and lipid-protein interaction. Unilamellar vesicles of varying net charge and lipid compositions undergoing lateral phase separation or chain melting phase transitions in the vicinity of physiological temperatures served as model membranes. The results suggest that the membrane-induced helical folding of the first 25 residues may be driven simultaneously by electrostatic attraction and by a change in lipid ordering. Our findings highlight the significance of the aS N-terminus for folding nucleation, and provide a framework for elucidating the role of lipid-induced conformational transitions of the protein within its intracellular milieu.

An unusual binding of cardiolipin to the ADP/ATP carrier has been found, which is distinguished by the relatively large amount and by the tightness of binding. High-resolution 31P NMR studies on the detergent-solubilized ADP/ATP carrier from beef heart mitochondria revealed narrow signals from phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine and a broadened signal of 30-40-Hz line width, suggestive of cardiolipin. Line broadening of this magnitude is to be expected when tumbling of the whole protein-detergent micelle is the only source of phosphorus spin-spin relaxation. Thus a strong immobilization of the protein-bound cardiolipin is inferred. By sucrose density gradient centrifugation phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine were removed, while approximately six +/- one molecules of cardiolipin remained tightly bound in the dimeric protein molecule. The cardiolipin binding was stable against treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate although release of the inhibitor carboxyatractyloside revealed at least partial protein denaturation. Ca2+ ions did not readily interact either with the bound cardiolipin. Complete detachment of the bound phospholipid was achieved by a short heat pulse in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. Denaturation of the carrier protein by guanidinium chloride or NaClO4 also led to release of the bound phospholipid. Thus different stages of protein denaturation must be envisaged.