The rho termination factor of Clostridium botulinum contains a prion-like domain with a highly amyloidogenic core
Pallarès i Goitiz, Irantzu (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Bioquímica i de Biologia Molecular)
Iglesias, Valentin (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Biotecnologia i de Biomedicina "Vicent Villar Palasí")
Ventura, Salvador (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Bioquímica i de Biologia Molecular)

Date:	2016
Abstract:	Prion-like proteins can switch between a soluble intrinsically disordered conformation and a highly ordered amyloid assembly. This conformational promiscuity is encoded in specific sequence regions, known as prion domains (PrDs). Prions are best known as the causative factors of neurological diseases in mammals. However, bioinformatics analyses reveal that proteins bearing PrDs are present in all kingdoms of life, including bacteria, thus supporting the idea that they serve conserved beneficial cellular functions. Despite the proportion of predicted prion-like proteins in bacterial proteomes is generally low, pathogenic species seem to have a higher prionic load, suggesting that these malleable proteins may favor pathogenic traits. In the present work, we performed a stringent computational analysis of the Clostridium botulinum pathogen proteome in the search for prion-like proteins. A total of 54 candidates were predicted for this anaerobic bacterium, including the transcription termination Rho factor. This RNA-binding protein has been shown to play a crucial role in bacterial adaptation to changing environments. We show here that the predicted disordered PrD domain of this RNA-binding protein contains an inner, highly polar, asparagine-rich short sequence able to spontaneously self-assemble into amyloid-like structures, bearing thus the potential to induce a Rho factor conformational switch that might rewire gene expression in response to environmental conditions.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2013-44763-P
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Clostridium ; Amyloid ; Bacteria ; Prion ; Protein aggregation
Published in:	Frontiers in microbiology, Vol. 6 (Jan. 2016) , art. 1516, ISSN 1664-302X

DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2015.01516
PMID: 26779170

12 p, 1.6 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Health sciences and biosciences > Institut de Biotecnologia i de Biomedicina (IBB)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles