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Calcium and integrin binding protein 2 (CIB2) shares with the other members of the CIB family the ability to bind Ca2+ and Mg2+ via two functional EF-hand motifs, namely EF3 and EF4. As a cation sensor, CIB2 is able to switch to a conformation likely associated with specific biological functions yet to be clarified. Recent findings demonstrate the involvement of CIB2 in hearing physiology and a single, conservative point mutation (p.E64D) has been related to Usher Syndrome type 1J (USH1J) and non-syndromic hearing loss. We present an exhaustive biochemical and biophysical characterization of human wild type (WT) and E64D CIB2. We found that CIB2 does not possibly work as a calcium sensor under physiological conditions, its affinity for Ca2+ (Kdapp = 0.5 mM) being too low for detecting normal intracellular levels. Instead, CIB2 displays a significantly high affinity for Mg2+ (Kdapp = 290 μM), and it is probably Mg2+ -bound under physiological conditions. At odds with the homologous protein CIB1, CIB2 forms a non-covalent dimer under conditions that mimic the physiological ones, and as such it interacts with its physiological target α7B integrin. NMR spectroscopy revealed a long-range allosteric communication between the residue E64, located at the N-terminal domain, and the metal cation binding site EF3, located at the C-terminal domain. The conservative E64D mutation breaks up such inter-domain communication resulting in the impaired ability of CIB2 to switch to its Mg2+-bound form. The ability to bind the target integrin peptide was substantially conserved for E64D CIB2, thus suggesting that the molecular defect associated with USH1J resides in its inability to sense Mg2+ and adopt the required conformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calcium and integrin binding protein 2 (CIB2) shares with the other members of the CIB family the ability to bind Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ via two functional EF-hand motifs, namely EF3 and EF4. As a cation sensor, CIB2 is able to switch to a conformation likely associated with specific biological functions yet to be clarified. Recent findings demonstrate the involvement of CIB2 in hearing physiology and a single, conservative point mutation (p.E64D) has been related to Usher Syndrome type 1J (USH1J) and non-syndromic hearing loss. We present an exhaustive biochemical and biophysical characterization of human wild type (WT) and E64D CIB2. We found that CIB2 does not possibly work as a calcium sensor under physiological conditions, its affinity for Ca 2+ (K d app = 0.5 mM) being too low for detecting normal intracellular levels. Instead, CIB2 displays a significantly high affinity for Mg 2+ (K d app = 290 μM), and it is probably Mg 2+ -bound under physiological conditions. At odds with the homologous protein CIB1, CIB2 forms a non-covalent dimer under conditions that mimic the physiological ones, and as such it interacts with its physiological target α7B integrin. NMR spectroscopy revealed a long-range allosteric communication between the residue E64, located at the N-terminal domain, and the metal cation binding site EF3, located at the C-terminal domain. The conservative E64D mutation breaks up such inter-domain communication resulting in the impaired ability of CIB2 to switch to its Mg 2+ -bound form. The ability to bind the target integrin peptide was substantially conserved for E64D CIB2, thus suggesting that the molecular defect associated with USH1J resides in its inability to sense Mg 2+ and adopt the required conformation.

In addition to the well-known Ca(2+) sensor calmodulin, plants possess many calmodulin-like proteins (CMLs) that are predicted to have specific roles in the cell. Herein, we described the biochemical and biophysical characterization of recombinant Arabidopsis thaliana CML14. We applied isothermal titration calorimetry to analyze the energetics of Ca(2+) and Mg(2+) binding to CML14, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, together with intrinsic and ANS-based fluorescence, to evaluate the structural effects of metal binding and metal-induced conformational changes. Furthermore, differential scanning calorimetry and limited proteolysis were used to characterize protein thermal and local stability. Our data demonstrate that CML14 binds one Ca(2+) ion with micromolar affinity (Kd ∼ 12 µM) and the presence of 10 mM Mg(2+) decreases the Ca(2+) affinity by ∼5-fold. Although binding of Ca(2+) to CML14 increases protein stability, it does not result in a more hydrophobic protein surface and does not induce the large conformational rearrangement typical of Ca(2+) sensors, but causes only localized structural changes in the unique functional EF-hand. Our data, together with a molecular modelling prediction, provide interesting insights into the biochemical properties of Arabidopsis CML14 and may be useful to direct additional studies aimed at understanding its physiological role., (© 2016 The Protein Society.)