Slippery sequences stall the 26S proteasome at multiple points along the translocation pathway.

In eukaryotes, the ubiquitin-proteasome system is responsible for intracellular protein degradation. Proteins tagged with ubiquitin are recognized by ubiquitin receptors on the 19S regulatory particle (RP) of the 26S proteasome, unfolded, routed through the translocation channel of the RP, and are then degraded in the 20S core particle (CP). Aromatic paddles on the pore-1 loops of the RP's Rpt subunits grip the substrate and pull folded domains into the channel, thereby unfolding them. The sequence that the aromatic paddles grip while unfolding a substrate is therefore expected to influence the extent of unfolding, and low complexity sequences have been shown to interfere with grip. However, the detailed spatial requirements for grip while unfolding proteins, particularly from the N-terminus, remain unknown. We determined how the location of glycine-rich tracts relative to a folded domain impairs unfolding. We find that, in contrast to a previous report, inserting glycine-rich sequences closer to the folded domain reduced unfolding ability more than positioning them further away. Locations that have the biggest effect on unfolding map onto the regions where the aromatic paddles are predicted to interact with the substrate. Effects on unfolding from locations up to 67 amino acids away from the folded domain suggest that there are additional interactions between the substrate and the proteasome beyond the aromatic paddles that facilitate translocation of the substrate. In sum, this study deepens understanding of the mechanical interactions within the substrate channel by mapping the spacing of interactions between the substrate and the proteasome during unfolding.

New Crystallographic Snapshots of Large Domain Movements in Bacterial 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl Coenzyme A Reductase.

The enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase (HMGR) catalyzes the first committed step of the mevalonate pathway, which is used across biology in the biosynthesis of countless metabolites. HMGR consumes 2 equiv of the cofactor NAD(P)H to perform the four-electron reduction of HMG-CoA to mevalonate toward the production of steroids and isoprenoids, the largest class of natural products. Recent structural data have shown that HMGR contains a highly mobile C-terminal domain (CTD) that is believed to adopt many different conformations to permit binding and dissociation of the substrate, cofactors, and products at specific points during the reaction cycle. Here, we have characterized the HMGR from Delftia acidovorans as an NADH-specific enzyme and determined crystal structures of the enzyme in unbound, mevalonate-bound, and NADH- and citrate-bound states. Together, these structures depict ligand binding in both the active site and the cofactor-binding site while illustrating how a conserved helical motif confers NAD(P)H cofactor specificity. Unexpectedly, the NADH-bound structure also reveals a new conformation of the CTD, in which the domain has "flipped" upside-down, while directly binding the cofactor. By capturing these structural snapshots, this work not only expands the known range of HMGR domain movement but also provides valuable insight into the catalytic mechanism of this biologically important enzyme.