PCS-based structure determination of protein-protein complexes

J Biomol NMR. 2010 Apr;46(4):271-80. doi: 10.1007/s10858-010-9401-4. Epub 2010 Mar 19.

Abstract

A simple and fast nuclear magnetic resonance method for docking proteins using pseudo-contact shift (PCS) and (1)H(N)/(15)N chemical shift perturbation is presented. PCS is induced by a paramagnetic lanthanide ion that is attached to a target protein using a lanthanide binding peptide tag anchored at two points. PCS provides long-range (approximately 40 A) distance and angular restraints between the lanthanide ion and the observed nuclei, while the (1)H(N)/(15)N chemical shift perturbation data provide loose contact-surface information. The usefulness of this method was demonstrated through the structure determination of the p62 PB1-PB1 complex, which forms a front-to-back 20 kDa homo-oligomer. As p62 PB1 does not intrinsically bind metal ions, the lanthanide binding peptide tag was attached to one subunit of the dimer at two anchoring points. Each monomer was treated as a rigid body and was docked based on the backbone PCS and backbone chemical shift perturbation data. Unlike NOE-based structural determination, this method only requires resonance assignments of the backbone (1)H(N)/(15)N signals and the PCS data obtained from several sets of two-dimensional (15)N-heteronuclear single quantum coherence spectra, thus facilitating rapid structure determination of the protein-protein complex.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Autophagy
  • Lanthanoid Series Elements / chemistry
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / methods*
  • Molecular Weight
  • Multiprotein Complexes / chemistry*
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Multimerization
  • Protein Structure, Quaternary*
  • Rats
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Transcription Factors, TFII / chemistry

Substances

  • Lanthanoid Series Elements
  • Multiprotein Complexes
  • Transcription Factors, TFII