X-ray crystal structure of a designed rigidified imaging scaffold in the ligand-free conformation.

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Source:

Acta Crystallogr F Struct Biol Commun, Volume 80, Issue Pt 5, p.107-115 (2024)

Keywords:

Ankyrin Repeat, Cryoelectron Microscopy, Crystallography, X-Ray, Gene Expression, Ligands, Models, Molecular, Protein Binding, Protein Conformation

Abstract:

<p>Imaging scaffolds composed of designed protein cages fused to designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins) have enabled the structure determination of small proteins by cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). One particularly well characterized scaffold type is a symmetric tetrahedral assembly composed of 24 subunits, 12 A and 12 B, which has three cargo-binding DARPins positioned on each vertex. Here, the X-ray crystal structure of a representative tetrahedral scaffold in the apo state is reported at 3.8 Å resolution. The X-ray crystal structure complements recent cryo-EM findings on a closely related scaffold, while also suggesting potential utility for crystallographic investigations. As observed in this crystal structure, one of the three DARPins, which serve as modular adaptors for binding diverse `cargo&#39; proteins, present on each of the vertices is oriented towards a large solvent channel. The crystal lattice is unusually porous, suggesting that it may be possible to soak crystals of the scaffold with small (&le;30 kDa) protein cargo ligands and subsequently determine cage-cargo structures via X-ray crystallography. The results suggest the possibility that cryo-EM scaffolds may be repurposed for structure determination by X-ray crystallography, thus extending the utility of electron-microscopy scaffold designs for alternative structural biology applications.</p>

PDB: 
8UF0, 8UI2, 8UJA, 8UKM, 8UMP, 8UMR, 8UN1
Detector: 
EIGER2
Beamline: 
24-ID-C