New progress in the research of protein structure and function under confinement domains

Recently, Li Conggang study group from Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences have made new progress in the research of protein structure and function under confinement domains. The results of the study are published in the journal Angew. Chem. Int. Ed, which also has other studies on recombinant rat proteins.

The confinement environment exists commonly in cells, such as molecular chaperone protein GroEL, ribosome peptide chain channel molecular machinery and a variety of organelle membrane gaps. It has been shown that confinement environments have an effect on the folding and stability of protein, but the effect of confinement conditions on the structure and function of multi-domain proteins is poorly understood.

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is the most powerful means to obtain high resolution structures and functions of protein in complex environments. Researchers have used NMR to study the structure and function of the important signal transduction protein, calmodulin in simulated confinement environments.

The results showed that: 1) The structure of calmodulin was significantly different from that in dilute solution, in which calmodulin mainly existed in stretched structure and compact spherical structure in confined environment; 2) Calmodulin can interact with MLCK peptide, AcN19 peptide and somatostatin peptide. While in calm environment, calmodulin can bind to MLCK and AcN19 peptide and hardly bind to somatostatin peptide. Further studies have shown that the reason for the difference in function between the two environments is the spatial volume effect, not the difference in affinity. This study analyzes the high-resolution structure of the double-domain proteins in the first confinement environment, providing a structural basis for understanding the environmental effects of protein functions. At the same time, the study suggests that cells may use the restricted environment to regulate the function of some biological macromolecules.

Assistant researcher Xu Guohua and Ph.D. candidate Cheng Kayi are the co-authors of this article, and researcher Li Conggang is the communication contact person. Cusabio provides you with high-quality recombinant proteins such as recombinant CDH11 at competitive prices.