Abstract
The AAA-ATPase VCP/p97/Cdc48 unfolds proteins by threading them through its central pore, but how substrates are recognized and inserted into the pore in diverse pathways has remained controversial. Here, we show that p97, with its adapter p37, binds an internal recognition site (IRS) within inhibitor-3 (I3) and then threads a peptide loop into its channel to strip I3 off protein phosphatase-1 (PP1). Of note, the IRS is adjacent to the prime interaction site of I3 to PP1, and IRS mutations block I3 processing both in vitro and in cells. In contrast, amino- and carboxy-terminal regions of I3 are not required, and even circularization of I3 does not prevent I3 processing. This was confirmed by an in vitro Förster resonance energy transfer assay that allowed kinetic analysis of the reaction. Thus, our data uncover how PP1 is released from its inhibitory partner for activation and demonstrate a remarkable plasticity in substrate threading by p97.
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Data availability
The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pride/archive/) with the dataset identifiers PXD026696 and PXD026692. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
The work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant Me1626/3-2 to H. Meyer, by SFB1093 projects B2, A2 and B5 to H. Meyer, M.K. and A.M., respectively, a GRK1739 project to H. Meyer and by INST 20876/322-1 FUGG to M.K.
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Contributions
J.v.d.B. and A.F.K. performed and analyzed all in vitro assays and protein purifications. B.K., H. Müschenborn and M.G. helped with cells and performed proliferation assays. D.P. and A.M. performed XL-MS and analyzed XL-MS data. F.K. and M.K. did the MS analysis on photo-crosslinks. H. Meyer conceived and supervised the project, and wrote the manuscript.
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Peer review information Nature Structural & Molecular Biology thanks Claudio Iacobucci and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available. Anke Sparmann and Florian Ullrich were the primary editors on this article and managed its editorial process and peer review in collaboration with the rest of the editorial team.
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Extended data
Extended Data Fig. 1 Effect of IRS mutation and p97 inhibition on I3 distribution (related to Fig. 2).
(a) Coomassie-stained SDS-gels of purified proteins used in the in vitro assays. Eos fusion proteins were UV-irradiated to convert from the green to the red Eos version leading to fragmentation as indicated. (b) Co-immunoprecipitation confirms interaction of I3 with PP1 and SDS22 in the SDS22–PP1–I3 (SPI) complex peak fractions. Myc-tagged I3WT or the PP1 binding-deficient I3RAXA mutant were transiently over-expressed in HEK293 cells. Lysates were separated by size exclusion chromatography and SPI complex peak fractions (corresponding to fractions 4 and 5 in Fig. 2d) subjected to anti-myc coimmunoprecipitation, followed by Western blot analysis as indicated. Asterisk indicates the light chain of the anti-myc antibody. (c) Size exclusion chromatography of lysates from HEK293 cells expressing myc-tagged I3WT treated with p97 inhibitor NMS-873 (10 µM) or DMSO for 2 h, followed by Western blot analysis as indicated. Note the shift in the distribution from free I3 to the PP1-bound form (SPI complex) upon NMS-873 treatment. (d) Quantification of signals for endogenous I3 in (c) as indicated.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Unfolding of DHFR fusions and effect of GroEL trapping mutant (related to Fig. 3).
(a) Unfolding reactions with Eos–DHFRI3 with or without methotrexate (Mtx). Reactions without the p37 adapter served as control as indicated. SDS22–PP1–Eos-DHFRI3 (35 nM) or variants thereof were mixed with p97 (175 nM hexamer) and p37 (500 nM), and the reaction started by addition of ATP (2 mM). Red Eos fluorescence was recorded. Mean ± SD, n=3 independent experiments. (b) Inhibition of DHFR activity in SDS22–PP1–Eos-DHFRI3 by Mtx. Conversion of dihydrofolate to tetrahydrofolate was followed spectrometrically by measuring the absorbance of NADPH at 340 nm, at indicated Mtx concentrations. Mean ± range, n=2 independent experiments. (c) Unfolding reactions of circular SPEosI3 with indicated concentrations of GroELD87K mutant that prevents refolding of green Eos. Green Eos fluorescence was recorded. Mean ± SD, n=3 independent experiments.
Extended Data Fig. 3 Controls and titrations of the FRET-based unfolding assay (related to Fig. 4).
(a) Coomassie-stained SDS-gel of purified Clover fusion protein complexes used in the in vitro assays. (b) Left panel: Coomassie gel of purified NIPP1 variants used in the in vitro assays. Note the shift to a higher molecular weight after TAMRA conjugation. Right panel: TAMRA fluorescence image of the same gel. (c) FRET time course measurements of disassembly reactions containing p97 (160 nM), p37 (480 nM), and NIPP1TAMRA (640 nM) after addition of ATP (2 mM) with indicated concentrations of SDS22–PP1Clover–I3. Shown is the normalized acceptor fluorescence (TAMRA). Δp37, p37 was omitted. (d) FRET time course measurements of disassembly reactions containing p97 (160 nM), SDS22–PP1Clover–I3 (160 nM), and NIPP1TAMRA (480 nM) at indicated time points after addition of ATP (2 mM) with indicated concentrations of p37. Shown are normalized ratios of acceptor and donor fluorescence. Δp37, p37 was omitted. (e) FRET time course measurements of disassembly reactions containing p97 (160 nM), p37 (480 nM), and SDS22–PP1Clover–I3 (160 nM) with indicated concentrations of NIPP1TAMRA. Shown is the normalized donor fluorescence (Clover). Δp37, p37 was omitted. (f) Co-IP analysis of the disassembly reaction under FRET assay conditions (160 nM p97, 160 nM SDS22–PP1Clover–I3, 480 nM NIPP1TAMRA and 480 nM p37). PP1Clover was immuno-isolated at indicated time points and associated proteins detected by Western blot analysis. Note association of NIPP1TAMRA over time. (g) Bayesian approach-based analysis of progress curves to determine kinetic parameters. Upper panel: FRET input data of SDS22–PP1Clover–I3 disassembly with low and high substrate concentrations for computation of kinetic parameters at 30 °C. p97 and SDS22–PP1Clover–I3 concentrations as indicated, p37 (480 nM), NIPP1TAMRA (low concentration, 480 nM; high concentration, 9 µM). Lower panel: Output of kinetics analysis. All 100000 calculated combinations of KM and kcat are plotted as a point density function in a 2D-kernel plot. Geometric means (solid lines) and geometric SD (dashed lines) of KM and kcat are depicted. (h) Cartoon depiction of linear and circular I3 cleavage by TEV protease, resulting in linear proteins. (i) Re-linearization control reaction of circular I3 by TEV protease. Note that circular I3 shifts back to a slower migrating band after TEV-mediated linearization. Coomassie-stained gel as indicated.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Tables 1–4
Supplementary Table 1: Related to Fig. 1a. Data of nonredundant crosslinks in SDS22–PP1–I3 crosslinked with DSBU. All identified crosslinks with identified residues, peptides, scores, false discovery rates (FDRs) and scan numbers are listed in compact (left) and detailed view (right). The list has been reduced to contain each crosslink only once (non-redundant dataset). Supplementary Table 2: Related to Fig. 1c. Data of nonredundant crosslinks in p97–p37–SDS22–PP1–I3 crosslinked with DSBU. All identified crosslinks with identified residues, peptides, scores, FDRs and scan numbers are listed in compact (left) and detailed view (right). The list has been reduced to contain each crosslink only once (nonredundant dataset). Supplementary Table 3: Related to Fig. 1e. Data of UV-induced crosslinks of p97314pBpA (top) or p97592pBpA (bottom) with p37 and SDS22–PP1–I3. All identified crosslinks with identified residues, peptides, scores, and scan numbers with FDR < 5% are listed. Supplementary Table 4: Related to Fig. 3. Identified peptides covering the circularization site (red) in EosI3 subjected to control (linear) or sortase (circular) reactions detected by mass spectrometry. Samples were analyzed in triplicates. Runs where indicated peptides were identified are labeled in green. High confidence of identification by indicated search engines marked in green.
Source data
Source Data Fig. 1
Uncropped western blots and Coomassie gels.
Source Data Fig. 1
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Source Data Fig. 2
Uncropped western blots.
Source Data Fig. 2
Numerical values of graphs.
Source Data Fig. 3
Uncropped western blots and Coomassie gels.
Source Data Fig. 3
Numerical values of graphs.
Source Data Fig. 4
Uncropped western blots and fluorescence scans.
Source Data Fig. 4
Numerical values of graphs.
Source Data Extended Data Fig. 1
Uncropped western blots and Coomassie gels.
Source Data Extended Data Fig. 1
Numerical values of the graph.
Source Data Extended Data Fig. 2
Numerical values of graphs.
Source Data Extended Data Fig. 3
Uncropped Western blots and fluorescence scans.
Source Data Extended Data Fig. 3
Numerical values of graphs.
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van den Boom, J., Kueck, A.F., Kravic, B. et al. Targeted substrate loop insertion by VCP/p97 during PP1 complex disassembly. Nat Struct Mol Biol 28, 964–971 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-021-00684-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-021-00684-5
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