Biology subjects

Varikoti, R. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Varikoti, R. A..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2022

Microtubule severing enzymes oligomerization and allostery: a tale of two domains

Severing proteins are nanomachines from the AAA+ (ATPases associated with various cellular activities) superfamily whose function is to remodel the largest cellular filaments, microtubules. The standard AAA+ machines adopt hexameric ring structures for functional reasons, while being primarily monomeric in the absence of the nucleotide. Both major severing proteins, katanin and spastin, are believed to follow this trend. However, studies proposed that they populate lower-order oligomers in the presence of co-factors, which are functionally relevant. Our simulations show that the preferred oligomeric assembly is dependent on the binding partners, and on the type of severing protein. Essential dynamics analysis predicts that the stability of an oligomer is dependent on the strength of the interface between the helical bundle domain (HBD) of a monomer and the convex face of the nucleotide binding domain (NBD) of a neighboring monomer. Hot spots analysis found that the region consisting of the HBD tip and the C-terminal (CT) helix is the only common element between the allosteric networks responding to nucleotide, substrate, and inter-monomer binding. Clustering analysis indicates the existence of multiple pathways for the transition between the secondary structure of the HBD tip in monomers and the structure(s) it adopts in oligomers.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2022

Exploring the effect of mechanical anisotropy of protein structures in the unfoldase mechanism of AAA+ molecular machines

Essential cellular processes of microtubule disassembly and protein degradation, which span lengths from tens of m to nm, are mediated by specialized molecular machines with similar hexameric structure and function. Our molecular simulations at atomistic and coarse-grained scales show that both the microtubule severing protein spastin and the caseinolytic protease ClpY, accomplish spectacular unfolding of their diverse substrates, a microtubule lattice and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), by taking advantage of mechanical anisotropy in these proteins. By considering wild-type and variants of DHFR, we found that optimal ClpY-mediated action probes favorable orientations of the substrate relative to the machine. Unfolding of wild-type DHFR involves strong mechanical interfaces near each terminal and occurs along branched pathways, whereas unfolding of DHFR variants involves softer mechanical interfaces and occurs through single pathways, but translocation hindrance can arise from internal mechanical resistance. For spastin, optimum severing action initiated by pulling on a tubulin subunit is achieved through the orientation of the machine versus the substrate (microtubule lattice). Moreover, changes in the strength of the interactions between spastin and a microtubule filament, which can be driven by the tubulin code, lead to drastically different outcomes for the integrity of the hexameric structure of the machine.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2020

Factors Underlying Asymmetric Dynamics of Disaggregase and Microtubule Severing AAA+ Machines

Disaggregation and microtubule-severing nanomachines from the AAA+ (ATPases associated with various cellular activities) superfamily assemble into ring-shaped hexamers that enable protein remodeling by coupling large-scale conformational changes with application of mechanical forces within a central pore by loops protruding within the pore. We probed these motions and intra-ring interactions that support them by performing extensive explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations of single-ring severing proteins and the double-ring disaggregase ClpB. Simulations reveal that dynamic stability of hexamers of severing proteins and of the nucleotide binding domain 1 (NBD1) ring of ClpB, which belong to the same clade, involves a network of salt bridges that connect conserved motifs of central PL1 loops of the hexamer. Clustering analysis of ClpB highlights correlated motions of domains of neighboring protomers supporting strong inter-protomer collaboration. Severing proteins have weaker inter-protomer coupling and stronger intra-protomer stabilization through salt bridges formed between PL2 and PL3 loops. Distinct mechanisms are identified in the NBD2 ring of ClpB involving weaker inter-protomer coupling through salt bridges formed by non-canonical loops and stronger intra-protomer coupling. Pore width fluctuations associated with the PL1 constriction in the spiral states, in the presence of a substrate peptide, highlight stark differences between narrowing of channels of severing proteins and widening of the NBD1 ring of ClpB. This indicates divergent substrate processing mechanisms of remodeling and translocation by ClpB and substrate tail-end gripping and possible wedging on microtubule lattice by severing enzymes. Relaxation dynamics of the distance between the PL1 loops and the centers of mass of protomers reveals observation-time-dependent dynamics, leading to predicted relaxation times of tens of microseconds on millisecond experimental timescales. For ClpB the predicted relaxation time is in excellent agreement with the extracted time from smFRET experiments.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2019

Molecular Investigations into the Unfoldase Action of Severing Enzymes on Microtubules

Microtubules associated proteins regulate the dynamic behavior of microtubules during cellular processes. Microtubule severing enzymes are the associated proteins which destabilize microtubules by removing subunits from the lattice. One model for how severing enzymes remove tubulin dimers from the microtubule lattice is by unfolding its subunits through pulling on the carboxy-terminal tails of tubulin dimers. This model stems from the fact that severing enzymes are AAA+ unfoldases. To test this mechanism, we apply pulling forces on the carboxy-terminal regions of microtubule subunits using coarse grained molecular simulations. In our simulations we used different microtubule lattices and concentrations of severing enzymes. We compare our simulation results with data from in-vitro severing assays and find that the experimental data is best fit by a model of cooperative removal of protofilament fragments by severing enzymes which depends on the severing enzyme concentration and placement on the microtubule lattice.

biophysics↗