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F M Hughson

Publications and source records attributed to F M Hughson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Structural analysis of the neuronal SNARE protein syntaxin-1A.

Intracellular trafficking depends on the docking and fusion of transport vesicles with cellular membranes. Central to docking and fusion is the pairing of SNARE proteins (soluble NSF attachment protein receptors) associated with the vesicle and target membranes (v- and t-SNAREs, respectively). Here, the X-ray structure of an N-terminal conserved domain of the neuronal t-SNARE syntaxin-1A was determined to a resolution of 1.9 A using multiwavelength anomalous diffraction. This X-ray structure, which is in general agreement with an NMR structure of a similar fragment, provides new insight into the interaction surface between the N-terminal domain and the remainder of the protein. In vitro characterization of the intact cytoplasmic domain of syntaxin revealed that it forms dimers, and probably tetramers, at low micromolar concentrations, with concomitant structural changes that can be detected by limited proteolysis. These observations suggest that the promiscuity characteristic of pairing between v-SNAREs and t-SNAREs extends to the formation of homo-oligomeric t-SNARE complexes as well. They also suggest a potential role for the neuronal Sec1 protein (nSec1) in preventing the formation of syntaxin multimers.

Antigens, Surface↗
PubMed2000

Membrane tethering and fusion in the secretory and endocytic pathways.

Studies of intracellular trafficking over the past decade or so have led to striking advances in our understanding of the molecular processes by which transport intermediates dock and fuse. SNARE proteins play a central role, assembling into complexes that bridge membranes and may catalyze membrane fusion directly. In general, different SNARE proteins operate in different intracellular trafficking pathways, so recent reports that SNARE assembly in vitro is promiscuous have come as something of a surprise. We propose a model in which proper SNARE assembly is under kinetic control, orchestrated by members of the Sec1 protein family, small GTP-binding Rab proteins, and a diverse assortment of tethering proteins.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Interactions within the yeast t-SNARE Sso1p that control SNARE complex assembly.

In the eukaryotic secretory and endocytic pathways, transport vesicles shuttle cargo among intracellular organelles and to and from the plasma membrane. Cargo delivery entails fusion of the transport vesicle with its target, a process thought to be mediated by membrane bridging SNARE protein complexes. Temporal and spatial control of intracellular trafficking depends in part on regulating the assembly of these complexes. In vitro, SNARE assembly is inhibited by the closed conformation adopted by the syntaxin family of SNAREs. To visualize this closed conformation directly, the X-ray crystal structure of a yeast syntaxin, Sso1p, has been determined and refined to 2.1 A resolution. Mutants designed to destabilize the closed conformation exhibit accelerated rates of SNARE assembly. Our results provide insight into the mechanism of SNARE assembly and its intramolecular and intermolecular regulation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1999

Sec1p binds to SNARE complexes and concentrates at sites of secretion.

Proteins of the Sec1 family have been shown to interact with target-membrane t-SNAREs that are homologous to the neuronal protein syntaxin. We demonstrate that yeast Sec1p coprecipitates not only the syntaxin homologue Ssop, but also the other two exocytic SNAREs (Sec9p and Sncp) in amounts and in proportions characteristic of SNARE complexes in yeast lysates. The interaction between Sec1p and Ssop is limited by the abundance of SNARE complexes present in sec mutants that are defective in either SNARE complex assembly or disassembly. Furthermore, the localization of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged Sec1p coincides with sites of vesicle docking and fusion where SNARE complexes are believed to assemble and function. The proposal that SNARE complexes act as receptors for Sec1p is supported by the mislocalization of GFP-Sec1p in a mutant defective for SNARE complex assembly and by the robust localization of GFP-Sec1p in a mutant that fails to disassemble SNARE complexes. The results presented here place yeast Sec1p at the core of the exocytic fusion machinery, bound to SNARE complexes and localized to sites of secretion.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗
PubMed1999

Membrane fusion: structure snared at last.

The structure of the core of the neuronal 'SNARE complex', involved in neurotransmitter release, has been determined recently. Its topological similarity to viral fusion proteins suggests how the SNARE complex might facilitate membrane fusion.

Membrane Fusion↗
PubMed1998

Regulation of SNARE complex assembly by an N-terminal domain of the t-SNARE Sso1p.

The fusion of intracellular transport vesicles with their target membranes requires the assembly of SNARE proteins anchored in the apposed membranes. Here we use recombinant cytoplasmic domains of the yeast SNAREs involved in Golgi to plasma membrane trafficking to examine this assembly process in vitro. Binary complexes form between the target membrane SNAREs Sso1p and Sec9p; these binary complexes can subsequently bind to the vesicle SNARE Snc2p to form ternary complexes. Binary and ternary complex assembly are accompanied by large increases in alpha-helical structure, indicating that folding and complex formation are linked. Surprisingly, we find that binary complex formation is extremely slow, with a second-order rate constant of approximately 3 M(-1) s(-1). An N-terminal regulatory domain of Sso1p accounts for slow assembly, since in its absence complexes assemble 2,000-fold more rapidly. Once binary complexes form, ternary complex formation is rapid and is not affected by the presence of the regulatory domain. Our results imply that proteins that accelerate SNARE assembly in vivo act by relieving inhibition by this regulatory domain.

Circular Dichroism↗
PubMed1997

Enveloped viruses: a common mode of membrane fusion?.

Viruses use elaborate stratagems to enter cells. The HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein, which mediates both attachment and membrane fusion, has grudgingly begun to yield high-resolution structural information that suggests mechanistic similarities with the hemagglutinin protein of influenza virus.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

A soluble domain of the membrane-anchoring chain of influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA2) folds in Escherichia coli into the low-pH-induced conformation.

The extensive refolding of the membrane-anchoring chain of hemagglutinin (HA) of influenza virus (termed HA2) in cellular endosomes, which initiates viral entry by membrane fusion, suggests that viral HA is meta-stable. HA2 polypeptide residues 38-175 expressed in Escherichia coli are reported here to fold in vivo into a soluble trimer. The structure appears to be the same as the low-pH-induced conformation of viral HA2 by alpha-helical content, thermodynamic stability, protease dissection, electron microscopy, and antibody binding. These results provide evidence that the structure of the low-pH-induced fold of viral HA2 (TBHA2) observed crystallographically is the lowest-energy-state fold of the HA2 polypeptide. They indicate that the HA2 conformation in viral HA before low pH activation of its fusion potential is metastable and suggest that removal of the receptor-binding chain (HA1) is enough to allow HA2 to adopt the stable state. Further, they provide direct evidence that low pH is not required to form the membrane-fusion conformation but acts to make this state kinetically accessible in viral HA.

Binding Sites↗
PubMed1995

Structural characterization of viral fusion proteins.

Infection by enveloped viruses is initiated by the fusion of viral and cellular membranes. In many cases, the viral membrane proteins that mediate fusion must undergo conformational changes to become active. Influenza hemagglutinin, for example, is activated by a dramatic conformational rearrangement, triggered by the low pH of the intracellular compartment in which fusion occurs. Structural characterization of this rearrangement has led to a reconsideration of how hemagglutinin mediates membrane fusion.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Molecular mechanisms of protein-mediated membrane fusion.

Two recent X-ray structures shed new light on the molecular mechanisms by which viral proteins mediate membrane fusion. In both cases it is clear that the fusion proteins are capable of dramatic conformational rearrangements. Studies of the intracellular fusion machinery used in vesicular transport have also advanced rapidly, although high-resolution structural information is not yet available.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Structure of influenza haemagglutinin at the pH of membrane fusion.

Low pH induces a conformational change in the influenza virus haemagglutinin, which then mediates fusion of the viral and host cell membranes. The three-dimensional structure of a fragment of the haemagglutinin in this conformation reveals a major refolding of the secondary and tertiary structure of the molecule. The apolar fusion peptide moves at least 100 A to one tip of the molecule. At the other end a helical segment unfolds, a subdomain relocates reversing the chain direction, and part of the structure becomes disordered.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1994

Molecular mechanisms of acid denaturation. The role of histidine residues in the partial unfolding of apomyoglobin.

Apomyoglobin adopts a partly folded intermediate conformation (I), sometimes referred to as a molten globule intermediate, near pH 4. To determine which histidine residues trigger this partial unfolding reaction, we made mutants in which nine of the twelve histidine residues in the protein are substituted individually. We then measured acid and urea-induced unfolding curves for these substituted proteins. Two acid unfolding transitions are observed: native (N) to intermediate (I), and I to unfolded (U). These data were fitted using a simple three-state model which has been shown to give an adequate description of acid and urea-induced unfolding of wild-type apomyoglobin. The aim is to quantify changes in the apparent standard Gibbs energy differences between N, I and U, as well as the unfolding mechanism, that result from these substitutions, and to test how well the model fits data for substituted proteins. In most cases, the model fits the data reasonably well, and significant changes in fitted unfolding parameters of various mutants are also clearly visible in the primary data. The following conclusions are drawn. (1) Histidines 24 and 119 synergistically stabilize native apomyoglobin (N) at pH 8, but together destabilize N as pH is decreased below seven. (2) Histidine 36 stabilizes N when it is protonated. (3) Histidine substitutions in the heme-binding pocket (residues 64, 93 and 97) have little effect on the stability of N, suggesting that the heme-binding pocket is open. (4) Histidine substitutions affect the N to I transition but have little effect on the I to U transition. (5) The simple model we use to describe the unfolding of apomyoglobin cannot account for all the data, particularly the effects of the H36Q mutation. The effect of protonated histidine 36 on stabilizing N is not included in the model. We suggest that breaking the hydrogen bond between histidines 24 and 119 by protonation when the pH is decreased from 6 to 4 is an important part of triggering the partial unfolding of N to I, and likewise that formation of the hydrogen bond between histidines 24 and 119 may be a rate-determining step in the kinetic process of forming N from I during refolding.

Apoproteins↗
PubMed1994

Crystals of a fragment of influenza haemagglutinin in the low pH induced conformation.

Fusion of the influenza viral membrane with the membrane of the host cell is preceded by a low pH induced conformation change in the viral haemagglutinin. A fragment, consisting of much of the stem domain of influenza haemagglutinin in the low pH induced conformation, has been crystallized by the vapour diffusion method. Several crystal forms have been obtained and the molecular packing in these crystals is discussed. Crystals suitable for the recording of high angle X-ray diffraction data grow in space group C222(1). Diffraction data have been recorded from crystals cooled to -170 degrees C in a cryoprotectant buffer.

Crystallization↗
PubMed1991

Probing the stability of a partly folded apomyoglobin intermediate by site-directed mutagenesis.

A partly folded form (I) of apomyoglobin has an alpha-helix content of about 35%; in an earlier study, hydrogen exchange revealed that the A, G, and H helices are folded, while much of the rest of the protein is not [Hughson, F. M., Wright, P. E., & Baldwin, R. L. (1990) Science 249, 1544-1548]. Because A, G, and H form a compact subdomain in native myoglobin, we proposed that nativelike packing interactions among the three helices might be retained in the I form of apomyoglobin. To test this proposal, disruptive mutations were introduced into the A.H and G.H helix packing sites. These mutations destabilize native apomyoglobin relative to I. In contrast, the stability of I is relatively insensitive to mutation; in particular, side-chain volume alone does not appear to be important. These results indicate that the I form is not stabilized by nativelike A.H and G.H packing interactions. In support of this we show that partly helical peptides derived from the G and H helix regions of myoglobin do not pair in solution. Since the isolated G and H peptides are at best only partly helical, some type of interaction must stabilize these helices in the I form. Small increases in the stability of I are seen when mutation introduces a side chain of increased nonpolar surface area. We suggest that I is stabilized by relatively nonspecific hydrophobic interactions that allow it to adapt easily to mutation. In this and other respects, I appears to conform to the "molten globule" model, with the caveat that only part of the polypeptide chain appears to participate in the globule.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1990

Structural characterization of a partly folded apomyoglobin intermediate.

To understand why proteins adopt particular three-dimensional structures, it is important to elucidate the hierarchy of interactions that stabilize the native state. Proteins in partly folded states can be used to dissect protein organizational hierarchies. A partly folded apomyoglobin intermediate has now been characterized structurally by trapping slowly exchanging peptide NH protons and analyzing them by two-dimensional 1H-NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance). Protons in the A, G, and H helix regions are protected from exchange, while protons in the B and E helix regions exchange freely. On the basis of these results and the three-dimensional structure of native myoglobin, a structural model is presented for the partly folded intermediate in which a compact subdomain retains structure while the remainder of the protein is essentially unfolded.

Amino Acid Sequence↗