Contribution of protein phosphorylation to binding-induced folding of the SLBP-histone mRNA complex probed by phosphorus-31 NMR

Roopa Thapar

doi:10.1016/j.fob.2014.10.002

Contribution of protein phosphorylation to binding-induced folding of the SLBP-histone mRNA complex probed by phosphorus-31 NMR

FEBS Open Bio. 2014 Oct 16:4:853-7. doi: 10.1016/j.fob.2014.10.002. eCollection 2014.

Author

Roopa Thapar¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Program in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.

Abstract

Phosphorus-31 ((31)P) NMR can be used to characterize the structure and dynamics of phosphorylated proteins. Here, I use (31)P NMR to report on the chemical nature of a phosphothreonine that lies in the RNA binding domain of SLBP (stem-loop binding protein). SLBP is an intrinsically disordered protein and phosphorylation at this threonine promotes the assembly of the SLBP-RNA complex. The data show that the (31)P chemical shift can be a good spectroscopic probe for phosphate-coupled folding and binding processes in intrinsically disordered proteins, particularly where the phosphate exhibits torsional strain and is involved in a network of hydrogen-bonding interactions.

Keywords: Histone mRNA; IDP, intrinsically disordered protein; Intrinsically disordered protein (IDP); NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance; Phosphorus-31 NMR; Phosphorylation; RBD, RNA-binding domain; RNA-binding domain (RBD); SLBP, stem-loop binding protein; Stem-loop binding protein (SLBP).

Grants and funding

R01 GM076660/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States