Modulating the Intrinsic Disorder in the Cytoplasmic Domain Alters the Biological Activity of the N-Methyl-d-aspartate-sensitive Glutamate Receptor |
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Authors: | Ucheor B Choi Rashek Kazi Natalie Stenzoski Lonnie P Wollmuth Vladimir N Uversky Mark E Bowen |
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Institution: | From the Departments of ‡Physiology and Biophysics.;§Neurobiology and Behavior, and ;¶Chemistry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794.;the ‖Department of Molecular Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33612, and ;the **Institute for Biological Instrumentation, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142290 Pushchino, Moscow Region, Russia |
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Abstract: | The NMDA-sensitive glutamate receptor is a ligand-gated ion channel that mediates excitatory synaptic transmission in the nervous system. Extracellular zinc allosterically regulates the NMDA receptor by binding to the extracellular N-terminal domain, which inhibits channel gating. Phosphorylation of the intrinsically disordered intracellular C-terminal domain alleviates inhibition by extracellular zinc. The mechanism for this functional effect is largely unknown. Proline is a hallmark of intrinsic disorder, so we used proline mutagenesis to modulate disorder in the cytoplasmic domain. Proline depletion selectively uncoupled zinc inhibition with little effect on receptor biogenesis, surface trafficking, or ligand-activated gating. Proline depletion also reduced the affinity for a PDZ domain involved in synaptic trafficking and affected small molecule binding. To understand the origin of these phenomena, we used single molecule fluorescence and ensemble biophysical methods to characterize the structural effects of proline mutagenesis. Proline depletion did not eliminate intrinsic disorder, but the underlying conformational dynamics were changed. Thus, we altered the form of intrinsic disorder, which appears sufficient to affect the biological activity. These findings suggest that conformational dynamics within the intrinsically disordered cytoplasmic domain are important for the allosteric regulation of NMDA receptor gating. |
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Keywords: | Electrophysiology Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) Glutamate Receptors Ionotropic (AMPA NMDA) Intrinsically Disordered Proteins Single Molecule Biophysics |
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