Maintaining and breaking symmetry in homomeric coiled-coil assemblies

Rhys, Guto G., Wood, Christopher W., Lang, Eric J. M., Mulholland, Adrian J., Brady, R. Leo, Thomson, Andrew R. and Woolfson, Derek N. 2018. Maintaining and breaking symmetry in homomeric coiled-coil assemblies. Nature Communications 9 (1) , 4132. 10.1038/s41467-018-06391-y

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Abstract

In coiled-coil (CC) protein structures α-helices wrap around one another to form rope-like assemblies. Most natural and designed CCs have two–four helices and cyclic (Cn) or dihedral (Dn) symmetry. Increasingly, CCs with five or more helices are being reported. A subset of these higher-order CCs is of interest as they have accessible central channels that can be functionalised; they are α-helical barrels. These extended cavities are surprising given the drive to maximise buried hydrophobic surfaces during protein folding and assembly in water. Here, we show that α-helical barrels can be maintained by the strategic placement of β-branched aliphatic residues lining the lumen. Otherwise, the structures collapse or adjust to give more-complex multi-helix assemblies without Cn or Dn symmetry. Nonetheless, the structural hallmark of CCs—namely, knobs-into-holes packing of side chains between helices—is maintained leading to classes of CCs hitherto unobserved in nature or accessed by design.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Schools:	Schools > Chemistry
Publisher:	Nature Research
ISSN:	2041-1723
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	3 November 2022
Last Modified:	23 May 2023 14:26
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/153746

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