Project Details
Projekt Print View

Structural investigation of Ca2+ signaling and transport across biological membranes

Subject Area Structural Biology
Term from 2013 to 2021
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 237764578
 
Final Report Year 2022

Final Report Abstract

Plasma-membrane Ca2+-ATPases expel Ca2+ from the cytoplasm and are key regulators of Ca2+ homeostasis in eukaryotes. They are autoinhibited under low Ca2+ concentrations. Calmodulin (CaM)- binding to a unique regulatory domain releases the autoinhibition and activates the pump. However, the structural basis for this activation, including the overall structure of this calcium pump and its complex with calmodulin, is unknown. We previously determined the high-resolution structure of calmodulin in complex with the regulatory domain of the plasma-membrane Ca2+-ATPase ACA8 and revealed a bimodular mechanism of calcium control in eukaryotes. During this Emmy Noether project, we showed that activation of ACA8 by CaM involves large conformational changes. Combining advanced modeling of neutron scattering data acquired from stealth nanodiscs and native mass spectrometry with detailed dissection of binding constants, we developed a structural model for the full-length ACA8 Ca2+ pump in its calmodulin-activated state illustrating a displacement of the regulatory domain from the core enzyme. In addition, we identified novel calmodulin-binding regions within the P2X7 ballast domain and found that binding of Ca2+-calmodulin (Ca2+-CaM) and GDP to P2X7 ballast domain are mutually exclusive and have opposite effects on the stability of the ballast domain. SAXS experiments indicate that CaM- binding disrupts the trimeric state of P2X7 ballast domain. Our results provide a possible framework for the regulation of the P2X7 receptor.

Publications

 
 

Additional Information

Textvergrößerung und Kontrastanpassung