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'Disordered' amino acids may really be there to provide wiggle room for signaling protein
Date:5/26/2009

Sections of proteins previously thought to be disordered may in fact have an unexpected biological role providing certain proteins room to move -- according to a study published by researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in this month's issue of the journal Structure (Cell Press).

The researchers published the first comprehensive structural study of the protein NHERF1, which serves as a means of bringing together molecular signals between the outer membrane of a cell and the proteins found in the structures that form the cell's cytoskeleton. NHERF1 is representative of a large class of proteins with an array of biological roles, including signaling pathways implicated in diseases such as cystic fibrosis and breast cancer.

"Here we have a molecule that serves an important role in how cells function and survive, but it contains these puzzling 'junk' sequences that don't seem to have any apparent purpose," says the paper's lead author Heinrich Roder, Ph.D., a structural biologist and senior member of the Fox Chase Cancer Center faculty. "Our work suggests that this disorder is really a way of creating flexibility, allowing the protein to function as a molecular switch, a process that is thought to go wrong in certain diseases."

The NHERF1 proved particularly puzzling to researchers as it contains both known structures and large disordered regions. The structured sections of the protein are comprised of two so-called PDZ domains components well known to scientists as anchors that can help the protein connect to other proteins and cellular structures and an ezrin-binding motif, a sequence of amino acids that connects NHREF1 to cellular proteins such as ezrin. Together these structures allow NHERF1 to serve as a signaling adaptor, an important link between different proteins in a pathway. Oddly, researchers have noted that the ezrin-binding motif conveniently fits into a cleft on the surface of the PDZ domains, but assumes a heli
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Contact: Greg Lester
gregory.lester@fccc.edu
215-728-2753
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Source:Eurekalert

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