Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Chromodomains read the arginine code of post-translational targeting

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 19, pages 260–263 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Chromodomains typically recruit protein complexes to chromatin and read the epigenetic histone code by recognizing lysine methylation in histone tails. We report the crystal structure of the chloroplast signal recognition particle (cpSRP) core from Arabidopsis thaliana, with the cpSRP54 tail comprising an arginine-rich motif bound to the second chromodomain of cpSRP43. A twinned aromatic cage reads out two neighboring nonmethylated arginines and adapts chromodomains to a non-nuclear function in post-translational targeting.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Structure of cpSRP43 in complex with the cpSRP54 tail.
Figure 2: Specific readout of the RRKR motif by a twinned cage in cpSRP43.
Figure 3: Substrate recognition by chromodomains.

Similar content being viewed by others

Accession codes

Primary accessions

Protein Data Bank

Referenced accessions

Protein Data Bank

References

  1. Brehm, A., Tufteland, K.R., Aasland, R. & Becker, P.B. Bioessays 26, 133–140 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Paro, R. & Hogness, D.S. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88, 263–267 (1991).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Taverna, S.D., Li, H., Ruthenburg, A.J., Allis, C.D. & Patel, D.J. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 14, 1025–1040 (2007).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Bannister, A.J. et al. Nature 410, 120–124 (2001).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Andersen, C.B. et al. Nature 443, 663–668 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Richter, C.V., Bals, T. & Schunemann, D. Eur. J. Cell Biol. 89, 965–973 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Klimyuk, V.I. et al. Plant Cell 11, 87–99 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Stengel, K.F. et al. Science 321, 253–256 (2008).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Grudnik, P., Bange, G. & Sinning, I. Biol. Chem. 390, 775–782 (2009).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Schuenemann, D. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 10312–10316 (1998).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Falk, S. & Sinning, I. J. Biol. Chem. 285, 21655–21661 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Goforth, R.L. et al. J. Biol. Chem. 279, 43077–43084 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Falk, S., Ravaud, S., Koch, J. & Sinning, I. J. Biol. Chem. 285, 5954–5962 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Funke, S., Knechten, T., Ollesch, J. & Schunemann, D. J. Biol. Chem. 280, 8912–8917 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Jacobs, S.A. & Khorasanizadeh, S. Science 295, 2080–2083 (2002).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Fischle, W. et al. Genes Dev. 17, 1870–1881 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Hughes, R.M., Wiggins, K.R., Khorasanizadeh, S. & Waters, M.L. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 11184–11188 (2007).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Sivaraja, V. et al. J. Biol. Chem. 280, 41465–41471 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Gorinsek, B., Gubensek, F. & Kordis, D. Cytogenet. Genome Res. 110, 543–552 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Rosenblad, M.A., Larsen, N., Samuelsson, T. & Zwieb, C. RNA Biol. 6, 508–516 (2009).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) SFB638 and the Graduiertenkolleg GRK1188 (to I.S.). We thank J. Kopp and C. Siegmann from the crystallization platform of the Biochemiezentrum der Universität Heidelberg (BZH)/Cluster of Excellence:CellNetworks for support in protein crystallization, R. Lindner for support in evolutionary analysis, and S. Falk, G. Bange and D. Schünemann for stimulating discussions. We acknowledge the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility for providing synchrotron radiation and for assistance in using beamlines ID14eh2 and ID14eh3. M.S. and H.M. acknowledge support from the Cluster of Excellence, Center for integrated Protein Science, Munich (CiPSM). I.S. is an investigator of the Cluster of Excellence:CellNetworks.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center, Heidelberg, Germany

    Iris Holdermann, Klemens Wild & Irmgard Sinning

  2. Institute of Structural Biology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany

    N Helge Meyer & Michael Sattler

  3. Department Chemie, Munich Center for Integrated Protein Science and Chair of Biomolecular NMR, Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany

    N Helge Meyer & Michael Sattler

  4. European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Grenoble Outstation, Grenoble, France

    Adam Round

Authors
  1. Iris Holdermann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. N Helge Meyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Adam Round
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Klemens Wild
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Michael Sattler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Irmgard Sinning
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

I.H., K.W. and I.S. designed experiments and analyzed the data. I.H. conducted experiments. N.H.M. and M.S. provided NMR spectroscopy data and analysis. A.R. processed and analyzed SAXS data. I.H., K.W. and I.S. wrote the manuscript. All authors commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Irmgard Sinning.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–7, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 10415 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Holdermann, I., Meyer, N., Round, A. et al. Chromodomains read the arginine code of post-translational targeting. Nat Struct Mol Biol 19, 260–263 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2196

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.2196

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing