Search

A transcriptional regulatory system called heat shock response (HSR) has been developed in eukaryotic cells to maintain proteome homeostasis under various stresses. Heat shock factor-1 (Hsf1) plays a central role in HSR, mainly by upregulating molecular chaperones as a transcription factor. Hsf1 forms a complex with chaperones and exists as a monomer in the resting state under normal conditions. However, upon heat shock, Hsf1 is activated by oligomerization. Thus, oligomerization of Hsf1 is considered an important step in HSR. However, the lack of information about Hsf1 monomer structure in the resting state, as well as the structural change via oligomerization at heat response, impeded the understanding of the thermosensing mechanism through oligomerization. In this study, we applied solution biophysical methods, including fluorescence spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and circular dichroism spectroscopy, to investigate the heat-induced conformational transition mechanism of Hsf1 leading to oligomerization. Our study showed that Hsf1 forms an inactive closed conformation mediated by intramolecular contact between leucine zippers (LZs), in which the intermolecular contact between the LZs for oligomerization is prevented. As the temperature increases, Hsf1 changes to an open conformation, where the intramolecular LZ interaction is dissolved so that the LZs can form intermolecular contacts to form oligomers in the active form. Furthermore, since the interaction sites with molecular chaperones and nuclear transporters are also expected to be exposed in the open conformation, the conformational change to the open state can lead to understanding the regulation of Hsf1-mediated stress response through interaction with multiple cellular components.

Recent technological innovations have led to the development of methods for the rapid identification of high-affinity macrocyclic peptides for a wide range of targets; however, it is still challenging to achieve the desired activity and membrane permeability at the same time. Here, we propose a novel small molecule lead discovery strategy, ″Peptide-to-Small Molecule″, which is a combination of rapid identification of high-affinity macrocyclic peptides

Heat shock factor 1 (Hsf1) was found as a central upregulator of molecular chaperones in stress adaptation, but it has recently been rediscovered as a major component of persistent nuclear stress bodies (nSBs). When the persistently stressed cells undergo apoptosis, the phase transition of nSBs from fluid to gel-like states is proposed to be an important event in switching the cell fate from survival to death. Nonetheless, how the phase separation and transition of nSBs are driven remain unanswered. In this study, we discovered that Hsf1 formed liquid-liquid phase separation droplets in vitro, causing the assembly of Hsf1 to drive nSBs formation. Under oxidative conditions, disulfide-bonded and oligomerized Hsf1 formed gel-like and more condensed droplets, confirmed through fluorescence recovery, refractive index imaging, and light scattering. Then, on the basis of our results, we proposed that Hsf1 undergoes oxidative phase transition by sensing redox conditions potentially to drive the cell fate decision by nSBs.

Molecular chaperones often possess functional modules that are specialized in assisting the formation of specific structural elements, such as a disulfide bridges and peptidyl–prolyl bonds in cis form, in the client protein. A ribosome-associated molecular chaperone trigger factor (TF), which has a peptidyl–prolyl cis/trans isomerase (PPIase) domain, acts as a highly efficient catalyst in the folding process limited by peptidyl–prolyl isomerization. Herein we report a study on the mechanism through which TF recognizes the proline residue in the unfolded client protein during the cis/trans isomerization process. The solution structure of TF in complex with the client protein showed that TF recognizes the proline-aromatic motif located in the hydrophobic stretch of the unfolded client protein through its conserved hydrophobic cleft, which suggests that TF preferentially accelerates the isomerization of the peptidyl–prolyl bond that is eventually folded into the core of the protein in its native fold. Molecular dynamics simulation revealed that TF exploits the backbone amide group of Ile195 to form an intermolecular hydrogen bond with the carbonyl oxygen of the amino acid residue preceding the proline residue at the transition state, which presumably stabilizes the transition state and thus accelerates the isomerization. The importance of such intermolecular hydrogen-bond formation during the catalysis was further corroborated by the activity assay and NMR relaxation analysis.