Display Settings:

Format

Send to:

Choose Destination
We are sorry, but NCBI web applications do not support your browser and may not function properly. More information
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Dec 14;107(50):21459-64. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1008616107. Epub 2010 Nov 22.

    Dry amyloid fibril assembly in a yeast prion peptide is mediated by long-lived structures containing water wires.

    Source

    Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, Biophysics Program, Institute for Physical Science and Technology, College Park, MD 20742, USA.

    Abstract

    Amyloid-like fibrils from a number of small peptides that are unrelated by sequence adopt a cross-β-spine in which the two sheets fully interdigitate to create a dry interface. Formation of such a dry interface is usually associated with self-assembly of extended hydrophobic surfaces. Here we investigate how a dry interface is created in the process of protofilament formation in vastly different sequences using two amyloidogenic peptides, one a polar sequence from the N terminus of the yeast prion Sup35 and the other a predominantly hydrophobic sequence from the C terminus of Aβ-peptide. Using molecular dynamics simulations with three force fields we show that spontaneous formation of two ordered one-dimensional water wires in the pore between the two sheets of the Sup35 protofilaments results in long-lived structures, which are stabilized by a network of hydrogen bonds between the water molecules in the wires and the polar side chains in the β-sheet. Upon decreasing the stability of the metastable structures, water molecules are expelled resulting in a helically twisted protofilament in which side chains from a pair of β-strands in each sheet pack perfectly resulting in a dry interface. Although drying in hydrophobically dominated interfaces is abrupt, resembling a liquid to vapor transition, we find that discrete transitions between the liquid to one-dimensional ordered water in the nanopore enclosed by the two β-sheets to dry interface formation characterizes protofilament assembly in the yeast prions. Indeed, as the two sheets of the hydrophobic Aβ-sequence approach each other, fibril formation and expulsion of water molecules occur rapidly and nearly simultaneously.

    PMID:
    21098298
    [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
    PMCID:
    PMC3003024
    Free PMC Article

    Images from this publication.See all images (5)Free text

    Fig. 1.
    Fig. 2.
    Fig. 3.
    Fig. 4.
    Fig. 5.

      Supplemental Content

      Icon for HighWire Icon for PubMed Central

      Save items

      Recent activity

      Your browsing activity is empty.

      Activity recording is turned off.

      Turn recording back on

      See more...
      Write to the Help Desk