Low-resolution structure of the full-length barley (Hordeum vulgare) SGT1 protein in solution, obtained using small-angle X-ray scattering

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 8;9(4):e93313. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093313. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

SGT1 is an evolutionarily conserved eukaryotic protein involved in many important cellular processes. In plants, SGT1 is involved in resistance to disease. In a low ionic strength environment, the SGT1 protein tends to form dimers. The protein consists of three structurally independent domains (the tetratricopeptide repeats domain (TPR), the CHORD- and SGT1-containing domain (CS), and the SGT1-specific domain (SGS)), and two less conserved variable regions (VR1 and VR2). In the present study, we provide the low-resolution structure of the barley (Hordeum vulgare) SGT1 protein in solution and its dimer/monomer equilibrium using small-angle scattering of synchrotron radiation, ab-initio modeling and circular dichroism spectroscopy. The multivariate curve resolution least-square method (MCR-ALS) was applied to separate the scattering data of the monomeric and dimeric species from a complex mixture. The models of the barley SGT1 dimer and monomer were formulated using rigid body modeling with ab-initio structure prediction. Both oligomeric forms of barley SGT1 have elongated shapes with unfolded inter-domain regions. Circular dichroism spectroscopy confirmed that the barley SGT1 protein had a modular architecture, with an α-helical TPR domain, a β-sheet sandwich CS domain, and a disordered SGS domain separated by VR1 and VR2 regions. Using molecular docking and ab-initio protein structure prediction, a model of dimerization of the TPR domains was proposed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Hordeum / chemistry*
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Plant Proteins / chemistry*
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protein Multimerization
  • Scattering, Small Angle
  • Sequence Alignment
  • X-Ray Diffraction

Substances

  • Plant Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by grant N N202 127237 (MK) from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The work was also supported by the grant (2012/05/N/ST3/03087) from National Science Centre (MT) and by POLAPGEN-BD (UDA POIG.01.03.01-00-101/08) grant (AJ). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.