Intrinsic disorder in the regulatory N-terminal domain of diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 from Brassica napus

Sci Rep. 2018 Nov 12;8(1):16665. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-34339-1.

Abstract

Proteins with multifunctional regulatory domains often demonstrate structural plasticity or protein disorder, allowing the binding of multiple regulatory factors and post-translational modifications. While the importance of protein disorder is clear, it also poses a challenge for in vitro characterization. Here, we report protein intrinsic disorder in a plant molecular system, which despite its prevalence is less studied. We present a detailed biophysical characterization of the entire cytoplasmic N-terminal domain of Brassica napus diacylglycerol acyltransferase, (DGAT1), which includes an inhibitory module and allosteric binding sites. Our results demonstrate that the monomeric N-terminal domain can be stabilized for biophysical characterization and is largely intrinsically disordered in solution. This domain interacts with allosteric modulators of DGAT1, CoA and oleoyl-CoA, at micromolar concentrations. While solution scattering studies indicate conformational heterogeneity in the N-terminal domain of DGAT1, there is a small gain of secondary structure induced by ligand binding.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Acyl Coenzyme A / chemistry
  • Acyl Coenzyme A / metabolism
  • Brassica napus / metabolism*
  • Calorimetry
  • Chromatography, Gel
  • Circular Dichroism
  • Computational Biology
  • Diacylglycerol O-Acyltransferase / chemistry*
  • Diacylglycerol O-Acyltransferase / metabolism*
  • Plant Proteins / chemistry*
  • Plant Proteins / metabolism*
  • Protein Conformation

Substances

  • Acyl Coenzyme A
  • Plant Proteins
  • oleoyl-coenzyme A
  • Diacylglycerol O-Acyltransferase