Design of buried charged networks in artificial proteins

Mona Baumgart, Michael Röpke, Max E. Mühlbauer, Sam Asami, Sophie L. Mader, Kai Fredriksson, Michael Groll, Ana P. Gamiz-Hernandez and Ville R. I. Kaila ()
Additional contact information
Mona Baumgart: Technische Universität München
Michael Röpke: Technische Universität München
Max E. Mühlbauer: Technische Universität München
Sam Asami: Technische Universität München
Sophie L. Mader: Technische Universität München
Kai Fredriksson: Technische Universität München
Michael Groll: Technische Universität München
Ana P. Gamiz-Hernandez: Technische Universität München
Ville R. I. Kaila: Technische Universität München

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Soluble proteins are universally packed with a hydrophobic core and a polar surface that drive the protein folding process. Yet charged networks within the central protein core are often indispensable for the biological function. Here, we show that natural buried ion-pairs are stabilised by amphiphilic residues that electrostatically shield the charged motif from its surroundings to gain structural stability. To explore this effect, we build artificial proteins with buried ion-pairs by combining directed computational design and biophysical experiments. Our findings illustrate how perturbation in charged networks can introduce structural rearrangements to compensate for desolvation effects. We validate the physical principles by resolving high-resolution atomic structures of the artificial proteins that are resistant towards unfolding at extreme temperatures and harsh chemical conditions. Our findings provide a molecular understanding of functional charged networks and how point mutations may alter the protein’s conformational landscape.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21909-7 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-21909-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21909-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().