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Projekt Druckansicht

Structural insights into substrate binding to the ABC transport complex TAP

Fachliche Zuordnung Biochemie
Förderung Förderung von 2007 bis 2020
Projektkennung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 45749231
 
Erstellungsjahr 2019

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

The heterodimeric ABC transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) displays an essential factor in the adaptive immune response by transporting proteasomal degradation products from the cytosol into the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum for loading of MHC class I molecules. Peptide bound MHC class I are presented on the plasma membrane to cytotoxic T-cells for inspection to erase viral infected or malignant transformed cells. Several viruses have developed strategies to escape this surveillance by interfering with TAP function. Therefore, the objective of this project was to elucidate structural and mechanistic aspects of peptide binding and transport of TAP. A breakthrough in the beginning of the project was the establishment of the fermenter-based expression of TAP in Pichia pastoris, yielding 30 mg of TAP per liter cell culture, in combination with the functional purification and reconstitution, first in liposomes and later in nanodiscs. By a detailed cysteine-scanning and cross-linking approach, we illuminated the transmission interface between the transmembrane domains (TMDs) and nucleotide-binding domains (NBDs) of TAP1 and TAP2 and assigned different functions for peptide binding and transport to cytosolic loops in the interface. Additionally, we studied the communication between the two cytosolic NBDs, which dimerize during the transport cycle to hydrolyze ATP to power peptide transport. The core of the interface between both NBDs is formed by the highly conserved D-loop. Substitution of the aspartate by alanine of the D-loop in TAP1 interrupted ATPase activity of TAP and rendered the mutant in a nucleotide-gated peptide facilitator, which could no longer translocate the peptides against a gradient. Remarkably, peptide accumulation on the ER- lumenal side did not exceed 16 µM reflecting a trans-inhibition mechanism in which transported peptide is bound to the low affinity peptide binding side and inhibits ATP hydrolysis and therefore progression of the transport cycle. By fluorescence correlation spectroscopy we demonstrated that only one peptide binds to TAP. Interestingly, cysteine 213 of TAP2, distant from the peptide binding pocket, regulates substrate specificity since replacement of C213 changed peptide specificity. By continuous wave and pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, the conformation of the peptide in the peptide binding site was determined. Independent of the length of the peptide, the terminal residues are separated by 2.5 nm, which is in perfect agreement with the length specificity of TAP. Longer peptides engage a kinked conformation to fit in. By dynamic nuclear polarization enhanced magic angle spinning solidstate nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we could proof that the applied 9-mer peptide binds in an extended conformation to TAP. Docking the peptide structure into a structural model of human TAP derived from TAP-related heterodimeric ABC transport complex TmrAB allowed the prediction of the binding pocket, which is split in two halves for the N- and C-terminal residues. Finally, by single particle cryo-EM and by X-ray crystallography we solved the structure of the functional bacterial TAP homologue TmrAB in the apo state where the TMDs adopt an inward open conformation.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

 
 

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