Andrea Giachetti

CASD-NMR: Critical Assessment of Automated Structure Determination by NMR

We report the completion of the first comparison of automated NMR protein structure calculation methods and announce its continuation in the form of an ongoing, community-wide experiment: CASD-NMR (Critical Assessment of Automated Structure Determination of Proteins by NMR). CASD-NMR is open for any laboratory to participate and/or to submit targets. NMR spectroscopy is the only technique for the determination of the solution structure of biological macromolecules. This typically requires both the assignment of resonances and a labor-intensive analysis of multidimensional NOESY spectra, where peaks are matched to assigned resonances. Software tools for the full automation of the NOESY assignment and the structure calculation steps have the potential to boost the efficiency, reproducibility and reliability of NMR structures. Within the e-NMR project (www.e-nmr.eu), which is funded by the European Commission (Project number 213010), we are developing an approach to assess whether such automated methods can indeed produce structures that closely match those manually refined using the same experimental data (the “reference structures”). The concept closely resembles that of other community-wide experiments, such as CASP, the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction1, and CAPRI, the Critical Assessment of Prediction of Interactions2. At variance with both CASP and CAPRI, CASD-NMR is entirely based on experimental data, presenting special issues in assembling, organizing, and distributing these data among participants. We provided seven research teams in the field with ten experimental data sets for various protein systems of known structure and two sets for protein structures not yet publicly available (“blind tests”), courtesy of the NorthEast Structural Genomics consortium (NESG). We then met in Florence, Italy on May 4–6, 2009 to analyze the structures generated (Fig. 1), by comparison to the reference structures and by using software tools for structure validation. This first experiment indicated that while most submissions had correct overall folds, on certain targets some programs failed to calculate accurate packing and length of secondary structure elements. The root mean square deviations (RMSDs) of the backbone coordinates from the manually-solved structures were typically in the 1–2 A range, but reached values as high as 9 A in some cases. Figure 1 Performance of various automated structure calculation methods

A Grid-enabled web portal for NMR structure refinement with AMBER

MOTIVATION The typical workflow for NMR structure determination involves collecting thousands of conformational restraints, calculating a bundle of 20-40 conformers in agreement with them and refining the energetics of these conformers. The structure calculation step employs simulated annealing based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with very simplified force fields. The value of refining the calculated conformers using restrained MD (rMD) simulations with state-of-art force fields is documented. This refinement however presents various subtleties, from the proper formatting of conformational restraints to the definition of suitable protocols. RESULTS We describe a web interface to set up and run calculations with the AMBER package, which we called AMPS-NMR (AMBER-based Portal Server for NMR structures). The interface allows the refinement of NMR structures through rMD. Some predefined protocols are provided for this purpose, which can be personalized; it is also possible to create an entirely new protocol. AMPS-NMR can handle various restraint types. Standard rMD refinement in explicit water of the structures of three different proteins are shown as examples. AMPS-NMR additionally includes a workspace for the user to store different calculations. As an ancillary service, a web interface to AnteChamber is available, enabling the calculation of force field parameters for organic molecules such as ligands in protein-ligand adducts. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION AMPS-NMR is embedded within the NMR services of the WeNMR project and is available at http://py-enmr.cerm.unifi.it/access/index/amps-nmr; its use requires registration with a digital certificate. CONTACT ivanobertini@cerm.unifi.it SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Long-Range Correlated Dynamics in Intrinsically Disordered Proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are involved in a wide variety of physiological and pathological processes and are best described by ensembles of rapidly interconverting conformers. Using fast field cycling relaxation measurements we here show that the IDP α-synuclein as well as a variety of other IDPs undergoes slow reorientations at time scales comparable to folded proteins. The slow motions are not perturbed by mutations in α-synuclein, which are related to genetic forms of Parkinsons disease, and do not depend on secondary and tertiary structural propensities. Ensemble-based hydrodynamic calculations suggest that the time scale of the underlying correlated motion is largely determined by hydrodynamic coupling between locally rigid segments. Our study indicates that long-range correlated dynamics are an intrinsic property of IDPs and offers a general physical mechanism of correlated motions in highly flexible biomolecular systems.

Molecular view of an electron transfer process essential for iron–sulfur protein biogenesis

Biogenesis of iron–sulfur cluster proteins is a highly regulated process that requires complex protein machineries. In the cytosolic iron–sulfur protein assembly machinery, two human key proteins—NADPH-dependent diflavin oxidoreductase 1 (Ndor1) and anamorsin—form a stable complex in vivo that was proposed to provide electrons for assembling cytosolic iron–sulfur cluster proteins. The Ndor1–anamorsin interaction was also suggested to be implicated in the regulation of cell survival/death mechanisms. In the present work we unravel the molecular basis of recognition between Ndor1 and anamorsin and of the electron transfer process. This is based on the structural characterization of the two partner proteins, the investigation of the electron transfer process, and the identification of those protein regions involved in complex formation and those involved in electron transfer. We found that an unstructured region of anamorsin is essential for the formation of a specific and stable protein complex with Ndor1, whereas the C-terminal region of anamorsin, containing the [2Fe-2S] redox center, transiently interacts through complementary charged residues with the FMN-binding site region of Ndor1 to perform electron transfer. Our results propose a molecular model of the electron transfer process that is crucial for understanding the functional role of this interaction in human cells.

G-triplex structure and formation propensity

The occurrence of a G-triplex folding intermediate of thrombin binding aptamer (TBA) has been recently predicted by metadynamics calculations, and experimentally supported by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Circular Dichroism (CD) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) data collected on a 3′ end TBA-truncated 11-mer oligonucleotide (11-mer-3′-t-TBA). Here we present the solution structure of 11-mer-3′-t-TBA in the presence of potassium ions. This structure is the first experimental example of a G-triplex folding, where a network of Hoogsteen-like hydrogen bonds stabilizes six guanines to form two G:G:G triad planes. The G-triplex folding of 11-mer-3′-t-TBA is stabilized by the potassium ion and destabilized by increasing the temperature. The superimposition of the experimental structure with that predicted by metadynamics shows a great similarity, with only significant differences involving two loops. These new structural data show that 11-mer-3′-t-TBA assumes a G-triplex DNA conformation as its stable form, reinforcing the idea that G-triplex folding intermediates may occur in vivo in human guanine-rich sequences. NMR and CD screening of eight different constructs obtained by removing from one to four bases at either the 3′ and the 5′ ends show that only the 11-mer-3′-t-TBA yields a relatively stable G-triplex.

Structural insights into the molecular function of human [2Fe-2S] BOLA1-GRX5 and [2Fe-2S] BOLA3-GRX5 complexes

Members of the monothiol glutaredoxin family and members of the BolA-like protein family have recently emerged as specific interacting partners involved in iron-sulfur protein maturation and redox regulation pathways. It is known that human mitochondrial BOLA1 and BOLA3 form [2Fe-2S] cluster-bridged dimeric heterocomplexes with the monothiol glutaredoxin GRX5. The structure and cluster coordination of the two [2Fe-2S] heterocomplexes as well as their molecular function are, however, not defined yet. Experimentally-driven structural models of the two [2Fe-2S] cluster-bridged dimeric heterocomplexes, the relative stability of the two complexes and the redox properties of the [2Fe-2S] cluster bound to these complexes are here presented on the basis of UV/vis, CD, EPR and NMR spectroscopies and computational protein-protein docking. While the BOLA1-GRX5 complex coordinates a reduced, Rieske-type [2Fe-2S]1+ cluster, an oxidized, ferredoxin-like [2Fe-2S]2+ cluster is present in the BOLA3-GRX5 complex. The [2Fe-2S] BOLA1-GRX5 complex is preferentially formed over the [2Fe-2S] BOLA3-GRX5 complex, as a result of a higher cluster binding affinity. All these observed differences provide the first indications discriminating the molecular function of the two [2Fe-2S] heterocomplexes.

Does a fast nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy- and X-ray crystallography hybrid approach provide reliable structural information of ligand-protein complexes? A case study of metalloproteinases.

A human matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) hydroxamic acid inhibitor (CGS27023A) was cross-docked into 15 MMP-12, MMP-13, MMP-9, and MMP-1 cocrystal structures. The aim was to validate a fast protocol for ligand binding conformation elucidation and to probe the feasibility of using inhibitor-protein NMR contacts to dock an inhibitor into related MMP crystal structures. Such an approach avoids full NMR structure elucidation, saving both spectrometer- and analysis time. We report here that for the studied MMPs, one can obtain docking results well within 1 A compared to the corresponding reference X-ray structure, using backbone amide contacts only. From the perspective of the pharmaceutical industry, these results are relevant for the binding studies of inhibitor series to a common target and have the potential advantage of obtaining information on protein-inhibitor complexes that are difficult to crystallize.

Investigation of the Iron(II) Release Mechanism of Human H-Ferritin as a Function of pH

We investigated the kinetics of the release of iron(II) ions from the internal cavity of human H-ferritin as a function of pH. Extensive molecular dynamics simulations of the entire 24-mer ferritin provided atomic-level information on the release mechanism. Double protonation of His residues at pH 4 facilitates the removal of the iron ligands within the C3 channel through the formation of salt bridges, resulting in a significantly lower release energy barrier than pH 9.