Coiled-coil formation of the membrane-fusion K/E peptides viewed by electron paramagnetic resonance

PLoS One. 2018 Jan 19;13(1):e0191197. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0191197. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

The interaction of the complementary K (Ac-(KIAALKE)3-GW-NH2) and E (Ac-(EIAALEK)3-GY-NH2) peptides, components of the zipper of an artificial membrane fusion system (Robson Marsden H. et al. Angew Chemie Int Ed. 2009) is investigated by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). By frozen solution continuous-wave EPR and double electron-electron resonance (DEER), the distance between spin labels attached to the K- and to the E-peptide is measured. Three constructs of spin-labelled K- and E-peptides are used in five combinations for low temperature investigations. The K/E heterodimers are found to be parallel, in agreement with previous studies. Also, K homodimers in parallel orientation were observed, a finding that was not reported before. Comparison to room-temperature, solution EPR shows that the latter method is less specific to detect this peptide-peptide interaction. Combining frozen solution cw-EPR for short distances (1.8 nm to 2.0 nm) and DEER for longer distances thus proves versatile to detect the zipper interaction in membrane fusion. As the methodology can be applied to membrane samples, the approach presented suggests itself for in-situ studies of the complete membrane fusion process, opening up new avenues for the study of membrane fusion.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Computer Simulation
  • Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Membrane Fusion / physiology
  • Membrane Fusion Proteins / chemistry*
  • Membrane Fusion Proteins / physiology
  • Models, Molecular
  • Oligopeptides / chemistry
  • Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs
  • Protein Structure, Quaternary
  • Protein Structure, Secondary
  • Spin Labels
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Membrane Fusion Proteins
  • Oligopeptides
  • Spin Labels

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter, which is part of the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), grant 10SMPA04 (https://www.nwo.nl/) to PK and the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), ECHO Grant 700.58.014 (https://www.nwo.nl/) to MH. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.