Biology subjects

Clifton, B. E.

Publications and source records attributed to Clifton, B. E..

10 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Functional importance of a structurally encoded succinimide modification in a high-affinity solute-binding protein

Post-translational modifications usually occur under enzymatic control as a mechanism for regulation of protein activity or localization, but can also occur spontaneously during protein aging and degradation. In contrast, there are few examples of spontaneous post-translational modifications with a significant role in the stability or biochemical function of a bacterial protein. Here we show that a spontaneous post-translational modification is structurally encoded and functionally important in a bacterial solute-binding protein. We show that the solute-binding protein SAR11_0655 from the abundant SAR11 marine bacterium Pelagibacter ubiqueversans contains an unusually stable succinimide residue important for its function in high-affinity binding of the amino acid derivative 5-oxoproline. Spontaneous cyclization of Asn269 to form a succinimide residue was inferred from high-resolution X-ray crystallography and confirmed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Loss of the succinimide modification via the substitution N269A resulted in a >20 {degrees}C decrease in thermostability and a 15 to 50-fold decrease in binding affinity for 5-oxoproline. Analysis of sequence conservation indicated that both Asn269 and Asp269 are common among SAR11_0655 homologs, and the N269D variant of SAR11_0655 also showed partial formation of succinimide. These results reveal a previously unrecognized mechanism by which proteins exploit spontaneous post-translational chemistry as a design feature to enhance stability and function, and provides a potential basis for identification and design of structurally encoded succinimide residues for engineering of protein thermostability.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2025

Minimal Perturbation of Activation Loop Dynamics Rewires KinaseSignaling

Enzymes are central to life, with their catalytic activity often shaped by the dynamic conformations of regulatory loops. In hub enzymes such as tyrosine kinases, the activation loop critically controls substrate specificity, catalytic efficiency, and downstream signaling, shaping cellular fate. Yet, the molecular mechanisms by which loop dynamics encode these functions remain incompletely understood. Here, we used SRC kinase as a model to dissect how minimal perturbations of the activation loop reprogram kinase behavior. By generating and characterizing multiple variants, we identified a triple-deletion mutant with altered loop dynamics. Structural and biochemical analyses revealed that this variant explores distinct loop conformations and exhibits a subtle shift in substrate preference toward more acidic motifs. These fine-tuned conformational changes translated into specific cellular signaling outcomes, as demonstrated by phosphoproteomic profiling. Comparative analysis across species further showed that nature exploits similar loop remodeling strategies to modulate kinase function. Together, our findings provide a blueprint for rationally tuning kinase activity and offer a generalizable framework for rewiring signaling pathways in diverse cellular contexts.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2023

SUPREM: an engineered non-site-specific m6A RNA methyltransferase with highly improved efficiency

m6A RNA methylation plays a key role in RNA processing and translational regulation, influencing both normal physiological and pathological processes. Yet, current techniques for studying RNA methylation struggle to isolate the effects of individual m6A modifications. Engineering of RNA methyltransferases (RNA MTases) could enable development of improved synthetic biology tools to manipulate RNA methylation, but it is challenging due to limited understanding of structure-function relationships in RNA MTases. Herein, using ancestral sequence reconstruction we explore the sequence space of the bacterial DNA methyltransferase EcoGII (M.EcoGII), a promising target for protein engineering due to its lack of sequence specificity and its residual activity on RNA. We thereby created an efficient non-specific RNA MTase termed SUPREM, which exhibits 8-fold higher expression levels, 7 {degrees}C higher thermostability, and 12-fold greater m6A RNA methylation activity compared with M.EcoGII. Immunofluorescent staining and quantitative LC/MS-MS analysis confirmed SUPREMs higher RNA methylation activity compared with M.EcoGII in mammalian cells. Additionally, Nanopore direct RNA sequencing highlighted that SUPREM is capable of methylating a larger number of RNA methylation sites than M.EcoGII. Through phylogenetic and mutational analysis, we identified a critical residue for the enhanced RNA methylation activity of SUPREM. Collectively, our findings indicate that SUPREM holds promise as a versatile tool for in vivo RNA methylation and labeling.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2023

Ultrahigh-affinity transport proteins from ubiquitous marine bacteria reveal mechanisms and global patterns of nutrient uptake

SAR11 bacteria are the most abundant members of the global ocean microbiome and have a broad impact on ocean ecosystems. To thrive in their competitive oligotrophic environments, these bacteria rely on solute-binding proteins (SBPs) that facilitate nutrient uptake through ABC transporters. Nonetheless, previous studies have been unable to access the molecular mechanisms and functions of these transporters because they rely heavily on homology-based predictions. These mechanisms and functions are essential to understand biogeochemical cycling in the ocean, including assimilation of dissolved organic matter (DOM). Here, by doing a biochemical study of the collective behavior of all SBPs in a SAR11 bacterium, we discover that these transporters have unprecedented binding affinity (Kd [≥]30 pM) and unexpectedly high binding specificity, revealing molecular mechanisms for oligotrophic adaptation. Our study uncovers new carbon sources for the SAR11 bacteria and provides an accurate biogeographical map of nutrient uptake in the ocean. Our results show how functional adaptation at the molecular level in ubiquitous marine bacteria impacts global patterns of DOM assimilation and provides insight into the contribution of different compounds to oceanic nutrient cycles.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2022

The role of evolutionarily metastable oligomeric states in the optimization of catalytic activity

The emergence of oligomers is common during the evolution and diversification of protein families, yet the selective advantage of oligomerization is often cryptic or unclear. Oligomerization can involve the formation of isologous head-to-head interfaces (e.g., in symmetrical dimers) or heterologous head-to-tail interfaces (e.g., in cyclic complexes), the latter of which is less well studied and understood. In this work, we retrace the emergence of the trimeric form of cyclohexadienyl dehydratase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PaCDT) by introducing residues that form the PaCDT trimer-interface into AncCDT-5 (a monomeric reconstructed ancestor of PaCDT). We find that single interface mutations can switch the oligomeric state of the variants (implying evolutionarily metastable oligomeric states) and that trimerization corresponds with a reduction in the KM value of the enzyme from a promiscuous level to the physiologically relevant range. We show that this can be rationalized at the structural and dynamic level by reduced sampling of a non-catalytic conformational substate, and that trimerization was likely followed by a C-terminal extension that further refined the conformational sampling and kinetic properties of the enzyme. This work provides insight into how neutral sampling of metastable oligomeric states along an evolutionary trajectory can facilitate the evolution and optimization of enzyme function. Importance & Impact StatementUnderstanding how and why structural complexity (including homo-oligomerization and sequence insertions) emerges during the evolution and diversification of natural enzymes is a key goal in the study and design of protein function. We show that cyclic homo-oligomeric states can emerge via a small number of substitutions, and that trimerization and a C-terminal extension contributed to the tuning of catalytic properties during the evolution of cyclohexadienyl dehydratase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2021

Evolutionary repair reveals an unexpected role of the tRNA modification m1G37 in aminoacylation

The tRNA modification m1G37, which is introduced by the tRNA methyltransferase TrmD, is thought to be essential for growth in bacteria due to its role in suppressing translational frameshift errors at proline codons. However, because bacteria can tolerate high levels of mistranslation, it is unclear why loss of m1G37 is not tolerated. Here, we addressed this question by performing experimental evolution of trmD mutant strains of E. coli. Surprisingly, trmD mutant strains were viable even if the m1G37 modification was completely abolished, and showed rapid recovery of growth rate, mainly via tandem duplication or coding mutations in the proline-tRNA ligase gene proS. Growth assays and in vitro aminoacylation assays showed that G37-unmodified tRNAPro is aminoacylated less efficiently than m1G37-modified tRNAPro, and that growth of trmD mutant strains can be largely restored by single mutations in proS that restore aminoacylation of G37-unmodified tRNAPro. These results show that inefficient aminoacylation of tRNAPro is the main reason for growth defects observed in trmD mutant strains and that the ProRS enzyme may act as a gatekeeper of translational accuracy, preventing the use of error-prone unmodified tRNAPro in protein translation. Our work shows the utility of experimental evolution for uncovering the hidden functions of essential genes and has implications for the development of antibiotics targeting TrmD.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2020

Altered conformational sampling along an evolutionary trajectory changes the catalytic activity of an enzyme

Several enzymes are known to have evolved from non-catalytic proteins such as solute-binding proteins (SBPs). Although attention has been focused on how a binding site can evolve to become catalytic, an equally important question is: how do the structural dynamics of a binding protein change as it becomes an efficient enzyme? Here we performed a variety of experiments, including double electron-electron resonance (DEER), on reconstructed evolutionary intermediates to determine how the conformational sampling of a protein changes along an evolutionary trajectory linking an arginine SBP to a cyclohexadienyl dehydratase (CDT). We observed that primitive dehydratases predominantly populate catalytically unproductive conformations that are vestiges of their ancestral SBP function. Non-productive conformational states are frozen out of the conformational landscape via remote mutations, eventually leading to extant CDT that exclusively samples catalytically relevant compact states. These results show that remote mutations can reshape the global conformational landscape of an enzyme as a mechanism for increasing catalytic activity.

biochemistry↗

bioRxiv2019

Darwinian properties and their trade-offs in autocatalytic RNA networks

Discovering autocatalytic chemistries that can evolve is a major goal in systems chemistry and a critical step towards understanding the origin of life. Autocatalytic networks have been discovered in various chemistries, but we lack a general understanding of how network topology controls the Darwinian properties of variation, differential reproduction, and heredity, which are mediated by the chemical composition. Using barcoded sequencing and droplet microfluidics, we establish a landscape of thousands of networks of RNAs that catalyze their own formation from fragments, and derive relationships between network topology and chemical composition. We find that strong variations arise from catalytic innovations perturbing weakly connected networks, and that reproduction increases with global connectivity. These rules imply trade-offs between reproduction and variation, and between compositional persistence and variation along trajectories of network complexification. Overall, connectivity in reaction networks provides a lever to balance variation (to explore chemical states) with reproduction and heredity (persistence being necessary for selection to act), as required for chemical evolution.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Phospho-tuning immunity through Denisovan, modern human, and mouse TNFAIP3 gene variants

Resisting or tolerating microbes are alternative strategies to survive infection, but little is known about the evolutionary mechanisms controlling this balance. Here, genomic analyses of anatomically modern humans, extinct Denisovan hominins, and mice revealed a series of missense variants in the immune response inhibitor A20 (encoded by TNFAIP3), substituting non-catalytic residues of the ubiquitin protease domain to diminish I{kappa}B-dependent phosphorylation and activation of A20. Two A20 variants with partial phosphorylation deficits appeared beneficial: one originating in Denisovans and introgressed in modern humans throughout Oceania, and another in a mouse strain resistant to Coxsackievirus. By contrast, a variant with 95% loss of phosphorylation caused spontaneous inflammatory disease in humans and mice. Analysis of the partial phosphorylation variant in mice revealed diminished tolerance of bacterial lipopolysaccharide or to poxvirus inoculation as trade-offs for enhanced immunity.\n\nOne Sentence SummaryModern and ancient variants reveal a genetically tunable element for balancing immunity and microbial tolerance.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2017

Evolution of an enzyme from a solute-binding protein

Much of the functional diversity observed in modern enzyme superfamilies originates from molecular tinkering with existing enzymes1. New enzymes frequently evolve from enzymes with latent, promiscuous activities2, and often inherit key features of the ancestral enzyme, retaining conserved catalytic groups and stabilizing analogous intermediates or transition states3. While experimental evolutionary biochemistry has yielded considerable insight into the evolution of new enzymes from existing enzymes4, the emergence of catalytic activity de novo remains poorly understood. Although certain enzymes are thought to have evolved from non-catalytic proteins5-7, the mechanisms underlying these complete evolutionary transitions have not been described. Here we show how the enzyme cyclohexadienyl dehydratase (CDT) evolved from a cationic amino acid-binding protein belonging to the solute-binding protein (SBP) superfamily. Analysis of the evolutionary trajectory between reconstructed ancestors and extant proteins showed that the emergence and optimization of catalytic activity involved several distinct processes. The emergence of CDT activity was potentiated by the incorporation of a desolvated general acid into the ancestral binding site, which provided an intrinsically reactive catalytic motif, and reshaping of the ancestral binding site, which facilitated enzyme-substrate complementarity. Catalytic activity was subsequently gained via the introduction of hydrogen-bonding networks that positioned the catalytic residue precisely and contributed to transition state stabilization. Finally, catalytic activity was enhanced by remote substitutions that refined the active site structure and reduced sampling of non-catalytic states. Our work shows that the evolutionary processes that underlie the emergence of enzymes by natural selection in the wild are mirrored by recent examples of computational design and directed evolution of enzymes in the laboratory.

biochemistry↗