发布: 2018年04月05日第8卷第7期 DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2795 浏览次数: 13523
评审: Ralph Thomas BoettcherAkira KarasawaSarah Diermeier
Abstract
GTPases are molecular switches that cycle between the inactive GDP-bound state and the active GTP-bound state. GTPases exchange nucleotides either by its intrinsic nucleotide exchange or by interaction with guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs). Monitoring the nucleotide exchange in vitro, together with reconstitution of direct interactions with regulatory proteins, provides key insights into how a GTPase is activated. In this protocol, we describe core methods to monitor nucleotide exchange using fluorescent N-Methylanthraniloyl (MANT)-guanine nucleotide.
Keywords: GTPase (GTP酶)Background
GTPases are guanine nucleotide binding proteins that regulate a breadth of cellular processes, ranging from protein biosynthesis to cell-cycle progression and from cytoskeletal reorganization to membrane trafficking. GTPases can be thought of as molecular switches that cycle between a GDP-bound ‘off’ state and a GTP-bound ‘on’ state; upon GTP-binding via nucleotide exchange of GDP for GTP, GTPases become active and will bind to down-stream effector proteins to recruit and activate the biological function of these effectors. GTPases bind the γ-phosphate of GTP via interactions with a highly conserved threonine of the switch I loop (G2 domain) and a glycine within a DxxG motif of the switch II loop (G3 domain). Upon GTP hydrolysis, the loss of the interaction with the γ-phosphate causes a dynamic conformational change that turns the GTPase into an off state (Vetter and Wittinghofer, 2001). Typically, small GTPases have a very high affinity for guanine nucleotides, with dissociation constants in the nanomolar to picomolar range (Bos et al., 2007), and therefore require guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) to lower their nucleotide affinity to allow for rapid activation. Notable exceptions include several highly conserved centrosomal/ciliary small GTPases, such as Rabl2 (Kanie et al., 2017), ARL13B (Ivanova et al., 2017), Ift27/Rabl4 (Bhogaraju et al., 2011), and Arl6 (Price et al., 2012), and many large GTPases, such as the dynamin family (Gasper et al., 2009), which have lower affinities for GDP/GTP, with dissociation constants in the micromolar range. In this configuration, these GTPases can become activated without the use of GEFs via their intrinsic nucleotide exchange. Although small GTPases that show spontaneous exchange may have additional regulatory proteins, finding that a small GTPase has a micromolar affinity for GDP/GTP and is capable of spontaneous exchange may suggest the absence of a traditional GEF and suggest looking for other forms of GTPase regulatory factors (see Kanie et al. [2017] for a notable example).
Fluorescently-labeled guanine nucleotides are more suitable for monitoring nucleotide exchange than radioactive GDP/GTP, as they are safer and allow continuous spectroscopic monitoring and thus provide a more detailed analysis of kinetics. N-Methylanthraniloyl (MANT) is the most widely used fluorescent analog to label guanine nucleotides because it is smaller than most fluorophores and unlikely to cause major perturbations of protein-nucleotide interactions (Hiratsuka, 1983). Another attractive feature of this fluorescent nucleotide is that the emitted fluorescent signal increases dramatically upon binding to a GTPase (typically twice as high as the signal of unbound MANT-guanine nucleotide) (John et al., 1990), allowing one to directly monitor the association and dissociation of guanine nucleotides from GTPases. The most commonly used method to monitor nucleotide exchange is tracking the decrease in the fluorescence of protein-bound MANT-GDP upon addition of an excess amount of GppNHp, a non-hydrolyzable GTP analog. MANT-GDP-bound GTPase can be prepared by the incubation of nucleotide free GTPase with 1.5 fold excess of MANT-GDP (John et al., 1990; Eberth and Ahmadian, 2009). Although this protocol is described in great detail and allows us to save expensive MANT-GDP, it is time-consuming and limited by the accessibility to high performance liquid chromatography. Alternatively, we describe here a simpler protocol where MANT-GDP is loaded onto GTPase by incubating GTPase with 20-fold molar excess of MANT-GDP in the presence of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). EDTA chelates magnesium ions, which form coordination bonds with the β and γ phosphates of GTP (or β phosphate of GDP) and with the GTPase (Pai et al., 1990; Tong et al., 1991). EDTA significantly lowers the affinity of the GTPase for guanine nucleotide. The loading reaction is stopped by the addition of excess magnesium chloride. Unbound MANT-GDP is removed by gel filtration using a NAP-5 prepacked column and the nucleotide exchange reaction is initiated by the addition of 100-fold molar excess of GppNHp. Exchange is monitored by a decrease in the fluorescent signal as recorded by a spectrometer with excitation wavelength at 360 nm and emission at 440 nm.
Variations on this method are readily accomplished by addition of biochemically pure nucleotide variants, drugs, or purified protein regulatory factors, allowing for a range of mechanistic experiments and definitive tests of biochemical mechanisms.
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文章信息
版权信息
© 2018 The Authors; exclusive licensee Bio-protocol LLC.
如何引用
Kanie, T. and Jackson, P. K. (2018). Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Assay Using Fluorescent MANT-GDP. Bio-protocol 8(7): e2795. DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2795.
分类
生物化学 > 蛋白质 > 荧光
生物化学 > 蛋白质 > 活性
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