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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Subcellular membraneless assemblies are a reinvigorated area of study in biology, with spirited scientific discussions on the forces between the low-complexity protein domains within these assemblies. To illuminate these forces, we determined the atomic structures of five segments from protein low-complexity domains associated with membraneless assemblies. Their common structural feature is the stacking of segments into kinked beta sheets that pair into protofilaments. Unlike steric zippers of amyloid fibrils, the kinked sheets interact weakly through polar atoms and aromatic side chains. By computationally threading the human proteome on our kinked structures, we identified hundreds of low-complexity segments potentially capable of forming such interactions. These segments are found in proteins as diverse as RNA binders, nuclear pore proteins, and keratins, which are known to form networks and localize to membraneless assemblies.

Atomic structures of low-complexity protein segments reveal kinked beta sheets that assemble networks.,Hughes MP, Sawaya MR, Boyer DR, Goldschmidt L, Rodriguez JA, Cascio D, Chong L, Gonen T, Eisenberg DS Science. 2018 Feb 9;359(6376):698-701. doi: 10.1126/science.aan6398. PMID:29439243^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.