Ca2+ binding induced sequential allosteric activation of sortase A: An example for ion-triggered conformational selection

PLoS One. 2018 Oct 15;13(10):e0205057. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205057. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

The allosteric activation of the intrinsically disordered enzyme Staphylococcus aureus sortase A is initiated via binding of a Ca2+ ion. Although Ca2+ binding was shown to initiate structural changes inducing disorder-to-order transitions, the details of the allosteric activation mechanism remain elusive. We performed long-term molecular dynamics simulations of sortase A without (3 simulations of 1.6 μs) and with bound Ca2+ (simulations of 1.6 μs, 1.8 μs, and 2.5 μs). Our results show that Ca2+ binding causes not only ordering of the disordered β6/β7 loop of the protein, but also modulates hinge motions in the dynamic β7/β8 loop, which is important for the catalytic activity of the enzyme. Cation binding triggers signal transmission from the Ca2+ binding site to the dynamic β7/β8 loop via the repetitive folding/unfolding of short helical stretches of the disordered β6/β7 loop. These correlated structural rearrangements lead to several distinct conformational states of the binding groove, which show optimal binding features for the sorting signal motif and feature binding energies up to 20 kcal/mol more favorable than observed for the sortase A without Ca2+. The presented results indicate a highly correlated, conformational selection-based activation mechanism of the enzyme triggered by cation binding. They also demonstrate the importance of the dynamics of intrinsically disordered regions for allosteric regulation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Allosteric Regulation
  • Aminoacyltransferases / chemistry
  • Aminoacyltransferases / genetics
  • Aminoacyltransferases / metabolism*
  • Bacterial Proteins / chemistry
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism*
  • Binding Sites
  • Calcium / chemistry
  • Calcium / metabolism*
  • Calorimetry, Differential Scanning
  • Cysteine Endopeptidases / chemistry
  • Cysteine Endopeptidases / genetics
  • Cysteine Endopeptidases / metabolism*
  • Ions / chemistry
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Recombinant Proteins / biosynthesis
  • Recombinant Proteins / chemistry
  • Recombinant Proteins / isolation & purification
  • Staphylococcus aureus / enzymology
  • Thermodynamics

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Ions
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Aminoacyltransferases
  • sortase A
  • Cysteine Endopeptidases
  • Calcium

Grants and funding

Financial support was provided in the form of salaries for IU, MG, and AM by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 1035, project A10; SFB749, project C08; and CIPSM). Roche GmbH provided support in the form of salaries for MS and MBD. The funders did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.