Polyelectrolyte interactions enable rapid association and dissociation in high-affinity disordered protein complexes

Nat Commun. 2020 Nov 12;11(1):5736. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18859-x.

Abstract

Highly charged intrinsically disordered proteins can form complexes with very high affinity in which both binding partners fully retain their disorder and dynamics, exemplified by the positively charged linker histone H1.0 and its chaperone, the negatively charged prothymosin α. Their interaction exhibits another surprising feature: The association/dissociation kinetics switch from slow two-state-like exchange at low protein concentrations to fast exchange at higher, physiologically relevant concentrations. Here we show that this change in mechanism can be explained by the formation of transient ternary complexes favored at high protein concentrations that accelerate the exchange between bound and unbound populations by orders of magnitude. Molecular simulations show how the extreme disorder in such polyelectrolyte complexes facilitates (i) diffusion-limited binding, (ii) transient ternary complex formation, and (iii) fast exchange of monomers by competitive substitution, which together enable rapid kinetics. Biological polyelectrolytes thus have the potential to keep regulatory networks highly responsive even for interactions with extremely high affinities.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Intrinsically Disordered Proteins / chemistry*
  • Kinetics
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Molecular Chaperones / chemistry
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Polyelectrolytes / chemistry*
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs
  • Protein Precursors / chemistry
  • Staining and Labeling
  • Thymosin / analogs & derivatives

Substances

  • Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
  • Molecular Chaperones
  • Polyelectrolytes
  • Protein Precursors
  • prothymosin alpha
  • Thymosin