1. Solution Structure of the Carboxy-Terminal Tandem Repeat Domain of Eukaryotic Elongation Factor 2 Kinase and Its Role in Substrate Recognition
- Author
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Fatlum Hajredini, Andrea Piserchio, David H. Giles, Nathan Will, Kevin N. Dalby, and Ranajeet Ghose
- Subjects
Elongation Factor 2 Kinase ,Models, Molecular ,Protein Conformation, alpha-Helical ,Protein Conformation ,Ribosome ,Article ,Substrate Specificity ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Peptide Elongation Factor 2 ,Protein Domains ,Tandem repeat ,Structural Biology ,Humans ,Amino Acid Sequence ,Phosphorylation ,Binding site ,Protein kinase A ,Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular ,Molecular Biology ,030304 developmental biology ,0303 health sciences ,Chemistry ,Translation (biology) ,Elongation factor ,Biophysics ,Translational elongation ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase (eEF-2K), an atypical calmodulin-activated protein kinase, regulates translational elongation by phosphorylating its substrate, eukaryotic elongation factor 2 (eEF-2), thereby reducing its affinity for the ribosome. The activation and activity of eEF-2K are critical for survival under energy-deprived conditions and is implicated in a variety of essential physiological processes. Previous biochemical experiments have indicated that the binding site for the substrate eEF-2 is located in the C-terminal domain of eEF-2K, a region predicted to harbor several α-helical repeats. Here, using NMR methodology we have determined the solution structure of a C-terminal fragment of eEF-2K, eEF-2K(562–725) that encodes two α-helical repeats. The structure of eEF-2K(562–725) shows signatures characteristic of TPR domains and of their SEL1-like sub-family. Further, using the analyses of NMR spectral perturbations and ITC measurements, we have localized the eEF-2 binding site on eEF-2K(562–725). We find that eEF-2K(562–725) engages eEF-2 with an affinity comparable to that of the full-length enzyme. Further, eEF-2K(562–725) is able to inhibit the phosphorylation of eEF-2 by full-length eEF-2K in trans. Our present studies establish that eEF-2K(562–725) encodes the major elements necessary to enable the eEF-2K/eEF-2 interactions.
- Published
- 2019