Molecular dynamics of the neuronal EF-hand Ca2+-sensor Caldendrin

PLoS One. 2014 Jul 24;9(7):e103186. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0103186. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Caldendrin, L- and S-CaBP1 are CaM-like Ca2+-sensors with different N-termini that arise from alternative splicing of the Caldendrin/CaBP1 gene and that appear to play an important role in neuronal Ca2+-signaling. In this paper we show that Caldendrin is abundantly present in brain while the shorter splice isoforms L- and S-CaBP1 are not detectable at the protein level. Caldendrin binds both Ca2+ and Mg2+ with a global Kd in the low µM range. Interestingly, the Mg2+-binding affinity is clearly higher than in S-CaBP1, suggesting that the extended N-terminus might influence Mg2+-binding of the first EF-hand. Further evidence for intra- and intermolecular interactions of Caldendrin came from gel-filtration, surface plasmon resonance, dynamic light scattering and FRET assays. Surprisingly, Caldendrin exhibits very little change in surface hydrophobicity and secondary as well as tertiary structure upon Ca2+-binding to Mg2+-saturated protein. Complex inter- and intramolecular interactions that are regulated by Ca2+-binding, high Mg2+- and low Ca2+-binding affinity, a rigid first EF-hand domain and little conformational change upon titration with Ca2+ of Mg2+-liganted protein suggest different modes of binding to target interactions as compared to classical neuronal Ca2+-sensors.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Calcium / metabolism
  • Calcium-Binding Proteins / chemistry*
  • Calcium-Binding Proteins / genetics
  • Calcium-Binding Proteins / metabolism*
  • Cells, Cultured
  • EF Hand Motifs* / genetics
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Magnesium / metabolism
  • Mice
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation*
  • Neurons / metabolism*
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protein Folding
  • Protein Isoforms / chemistry
  • Protein Isoforms / genetics
  • Protein Isoforms / metabolism
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary / genetics
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Substances

  • Calcium-Binding Proteins
  • Protein Isoforms
  • Ca2+-binding protein-1
  • Magnesium
  • Calcium

Grants and funding

This was supported by grants from the German Research Foundation (SFB 779/TPB8; DFG Kr1879/3-1); the Leibniz Foundation (Pakt f. Forschung), DIP grant, and EU FP7 MC-ITN NPlast. VR was supported by a senior research fellowhip from Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi. MM is recipient of a European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Long-Term Fellowship (EMBO ALTF 884-2011) co-funded by the European Commission (EMBOCOFUND2010, GA-2010-267146) and Marie Curie Actions. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.