Affiliation:
1. Department of Molecular Biology University of Wyoming Laramie Wyoming USA
2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry University of California, Merced Merced California USA
3. Quantitative Systems Biology Program University of California Merced Merced California USA
4. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis Missouri USA
5. Center for Biomolecular Condensates Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis Missouri USA
Abstract
AbstractTo survive extreme drying (anhydrobiosis), many organisms, spanning every kingdom of life, accumulate intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). For decades, the ability of anhydrobiosis‐related IDPs to form transient amphipathic helices has been suggested to be important for promoting desiccation tolerance. However, evidence empirically supporting the necessity and/or sufficiency of helicity in mediating anhydrobiosis is lacking. Here, we demonstrate that the linker region of CAHS D, a desiccation‐related IDP from the tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris, that contains significant helical structure, is the protective portion of this protein. Perturbing the sequence composition and grammar of the linker region of CAHS D, through the insertion of helix‐breaking prolines, modulating the identity of charged residues, or replacement of hydrophobic amino acids with serine or glycine residues results in variants with different degrees of helical structure. Importantly, correlation of protective capacity and helical content in variants generated through different helix perturbing modalities does not show as strong a trend, suggesting that while helicity is important, it is not the only property that makes a protein protective during desiccation. These results provide direct evidence for the decades‐old theory that helicity of desiccation‐related IDPs is linked to their anhydrobiotic capacity.
Funder
National Science Foundation
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Subject
Molecular Biology,Biochemistry
Cited by
2 articles.
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