Discovery of novel methionine adenosyltransferase 2A (MAT2A) allosteric inhibitors by structure-based virtual screening.

Methionine adenosyltransferase 2A (MAT2A) has been indicated as a drug target for oncology indications. Clinical trials with MAT2A inhibitors are currently on-going. Here, a structure-based virtual screening campaign was performed on the commercially available chemical space which yielded two novel MAT2A-inhibitor chemical series. The binding modes of the compounds were confirmed with X-ray crystallography. Both series have acceptable physicochemical properties and show nanomolar activity in the biochemical MAT2A inhibition assay and single-digit micromolar activity in the proliferation assay (MTAP -/- cell line). The identified compounds and the relating structural data could be helpful in related drug discovery projects.

Improved recombinant expression and purification of functional plant Rubisco.

Improving the performance of the key photosynthetic enzyme Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) by protein engineering is a critical strategy for increasing crop yields. The extensive chaperone requirement of plant Rubisco for folding and assembly has long been an impediment to this goal. Production of plant Rubisco in Escherichia coli requires the coexpression of the chloroplast chaperonin and four assembly factors. Here, we demonstrate that simultaneous expression of Rubisco and chaperones from a T7 promotor produces high levels of functional enzyme. Expressing the small subunit of Rubisco with a C-terminal hexahistidine-tag further improved assembly, resulting in a ~ 12-fold higher yield than the previously published procedure. The expression system described here provides a platform for the efficient production and engineering of plant Rubisco.

Mechanism of Enzyme Repair by the AAA+ Chaperone Rubisco Activase.

How AAA+ chaperones conformationally remodel specific target proteins in an ATP-dependent manner is not well understood. Here, we investigated the mechanism of the AAA+ protein Rubisco activase (Rca) in metabolic repair of the photosynthetic enzyme Rubisco, a complex of eight large (RbcL) and eight small (RbcS) subunits containing eight catalytic sites. Rubisco is prone to inhibition by tight-binding sugar phosphates, whose removal is catalyzed by Rca. We engineered a stable Rca hexamer ring and analyzed its functional interaction with Rubisco. Hydrogen/deuterium exchange and chemical crosslinking showed that Rca structurally destabilizes elements of the Rubisco active site with remarkable selectivity. Cryo-electron microscopy revealed that Rca docks onto Rubisco over one active site at a time, positioning the C-terminal strand of RbcL, which stabilizes the catalytic center, for access to the Rca hexamer pore. The pulling force of Rca is fine-tuned to avoid global destabilization and allow for precise enzyme repair.

Rubisco Activases: AAA+ Chaperones Adapted to Enzyme Repair.

Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco), the key enzyme of the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle of photosynthesis, requires conformational repair by Rubisco activase for efficient function. Rubisco mediates the fixation of atmospheric CO2 by catalyzing the carboxylation of the five-carbon sugar ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP). It is a remarkably inefficient enzyme, and efforts to increase crop yields by bioengineering Rubisco remain unsuccessful. This is due in part to the complex cellular machinery required for Rubisco biogenesis and metabolic maintenance. To function, Rubisco must undergo an activation process that involves carboxylation of an active site lysine by a non-substrate CO2 molecule and binding of a Mg2+ ion. Premature binding of the substrate RuBP results in an inactive enzyme. Moreover, Rubisco can also be inhibited by a range of sugar phosphates, some of which are "misfire" products of its multistep catalytic reaction. The release of the inhibitory sugar molecule is mediated by the AAA+ protein Rubisco activase (Rca), which couples hydrolysis of ATP to the structural remodeling of Rubisco. Rca enzymes are found in the vast majority of photosynthetic organisms, from bacteria to higher plants. They share a canonical AAA+ domain architecture and form six-membered ring complexes but are diverse in sequence and mechanism, suggesting their convergent evolution. In this review, we discuss recent advances in understanding the structure and function of this important group of client-specific AAA+ proteins.

The intriguing CP12-like tail of adenylate kinase 3 from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

UNLABELLED: Adenylate kinases (ADK) are key enzymes that maintain the energetic balance in cellular compartments by catalyzing the reaction: AMP + ATP↔2 ADP. Here, we analyzed the chloroplast ADK 3 from the green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii for the first time. This enzyme bears a C-terminal extension that is highly similar to the C-terminal end of the intrinsically disordered protein CP12 that plays a major role in the redox regulation of key enzymes of the Calvin-Benson cycle like glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and phosphoribulokinase. The only other known example of a CP12-like extension is found in the GapB isoform of GAPDH, where it is responsible for the autonomous redox regulation of the higher plant A2 B2 GAPDH. In this study, we show that the CP12-like tail is not involved in the redox regulation of ADK 3, but contributes greatly to its stability, and is essential for the post-translational modification of the Cys221 residue by glutathione. This report highlights the fact that the C-terminal part of the CP12 protein can act as a moonlighting, intrinsically disordered module conferring additional capabilities to the proteins to which it is added. ENZYMES: Adenylate kinase (ADK, EC 2.7.4.3) and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH, EC 1.2.1.13).

Fairy "tails": flexibility and function of intrinsically disordered extensions in the photosynthetic world.

Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDPs), or protein fragments also called Intrinsically Disordered Regions (IDRs), display high flexibility as the result of their amino acid composition. They can adopt multiple roles. In globular proteins, IDRs are usually found as loops and linkers between secondary structure elements. However, not all disordered fragments are loops: some proteins bear an intrinsically disordered extension at their C- or N-terminus, and this flexibility can affect the protein as a whole. In this review, we focus on the disordered N- and C-terminal extensions of globular proteins from photosynthetic organisms. Using the examples of the A2B2-GAPDH and the α Rubisco activase isoform, we show that intrinsically disordered extensions can help regulate their "host" protein in response to changes in light, thereby participating in photosynthesis regulation. As IDPs are famous for their large number of protein partners, we used the examples of the NAC, bZIP, TCP, and GRAS transcription factor families to illustrate the fact that intrinsically disordered extremities can allow a protein to have an increased number of partners, which directly affects its regulation. Finally, for proteins from the cryptochrome light receptor family, we describe how a new role for the photolyase proteins may emerge by the addition of an intrinsically disordered extension, while still allowing the protein to absorb blue light. This review has highlighted the diverse repercussions of the disordered extension on the regulation and function of their host protein and outlined possible future research avenues.

FRET analysis of CP12 structural interplay by GAPDH and PRK.

CP12 is an intrinsically disordered protein playing a key role in the regulation of the Benson-Calvin cycle. Due to the high intrinsic flexibility of CP12, it is essential to consider its structural modulation induced upon binding to the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and phosphoribulokinase (PRK) enzymes. Here, we report for the first time detailed structural modulation about the wild-type CP12 and its site-specific N-terminal and C-terminal disulfide bridge mutants upon interaction with GAPDH and PRK by Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). Our results indicate an increase in CP12 compactness when the complex is formed with GAPDH or PRK. In addition, the distributions in FRET histograms show the elasticity and conformational flexibility of CP12 in all supra molecular complexes. Contrarily to previous beliefs, our FRET results importantly reveal that both N-terminal and C-terminal site-specific CP12 mutants are able to form the monomeric (GAPDH-CP12-PRK) complex.

Phosphoribulokinase from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: a Benson-Calvin cycle enzyme enslaved to its cysteine residues.

Phosphoribulokinase (PRK) in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a finely regulated and well-studied enzyme of the Benson-Calvin cycle. PRK can form a complex with glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and the small chloroplast protein CP12. This study aimed to determine the molecular determinants on PRK involved in the complex and the mechanism of action of a recently described novel regulation of PRK that involves glutathionylation. A combination of mass spectrometry, mutagenesis and activity analyses showed that Cys16, besides its role as the binding site of ATP, was also the site for S-glutathionylation. Previous kinetic analysis of the C55S mutant showed that in the oxidized inactive form of PRK, this residue formed a disulfide bridge with the Cys16 residue. This is the only bridge reported for PRK in the literature. Our data show for the first time that a disulfide bridge between Cys243 and Cys249 on PRK is required to form the PRK-GAPDH-CP12 complex. These results uncover a new mechanism for the PRK-GAPDH-CP12 formation involving a thiol disulfide exchange reaction with CP12 and identify Cys16 of PRK as a target of glutathionylation acting against oxidative stress. Although Cys16 is the key residue involved in binding ATP and acting as a defense against oxidative damage, the formation of the algal ternary complex requires the formation of another disulfide bridge on PRK involving Cys243 and Cys249.

Conformational modulation and hydrodynamic radii of CP12 protein and its complexes probed by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy.

Light/dark regulation of the Calvin cycle in oxygenic photosynthetic organisms involves the formation and dissociation of supramolecular complexes between CP12, a nuclear-encoded chloroplast protein, and the two enzymes glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) (EC 1.2.1.13) and phosphoribulokinase (PRK) (EC 2.7.1.19). Despite the high importance of understanding the structural basis of the interaction of CP12 with GAPDH and PRK to investigate the regulation of the Calvin cycle, information is still lacking about the structural remodulation of CP12 and its complex formation. Here, we characterize the diffusion dynamics and hydrodynamic radii of CP12 from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii upon binding to GAPDH and PRK using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy experiments. We quantify a hydrodynamic radius of 3.4 ± 0.2 nm for the CP12 protein with an increase up to 5.2 ± 0.3 nm upon complex formation with GAPDH and PRK. In addition, unfolding experiments reveal a 1.6- and 2.0-fold increase respectively of the hydrodynamic radii for the N-terminal and C-terminal cysteine CP12 mutant proteins compared with their native folded structures. The different behavior of the CP12 mutant proteins during hydrophobic collapse transition is a direct clue to different structural orientations of the CP12 mutant proteins. These different structures are expected to facilitate the binding of either GAPDH or PRK during binary complex and ternary complex formation.

CP12-mediated protection of Calvin-Benson cycle enzymes from oxidative stress.

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and phosphoribulokinase (PRK) are two energy-consuming enzymes of the Calvin-Benson cycle, whose regulation is crucial for the global balance of the photosynthetic process under different environmental conditions. In oxygen phototrophs, GAPDH and PRK regulation involves the redox-sensitive protein CP12. In the dark, oxidized chloroplast thioredoxins trigger the formation of a GAPDH/CP12/PRK complex in which both enzyme activities are down-regulated. In this report, we show that free GAPDH (A4-isoform) and PRK are also inhibited by oxidants like H2O2, GSSG and GSNO. Both in the land plant Arabidopsis thaliana and in the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, both enzymes can be glutathionylated as shown by biotinylated-GSSG assay and MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry. CP12 is not glutathionylated but homodisulfides are formed upon oxidant treatments. In Arabidopsis but not in Chlamydomonas, the interaction between oxidized CP12 and GAPDH provides full protection from oxidative damage. In both organisms, preformed GAPDH/CP12/PRK complexes are protected from GSSG or GSNO oxidation, and in Arabidopsis also from H2O2 treatment. Overall, the results suggest that the role of CP12 in oxygen phototrophs needs to be extended beyond light/dark regulation, and include protection of enzymes belonging to Calvin-Benson cycle from oxidative stress.