Structural characterization of the intermolecular interactions of synapse-associated protein-97 with the NR2B subunit of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors

The synapse-associated protein-97 (SAP97) is important in the proper trafficking and cell surface maintenance of the N-methyl-D-aspartate ionotropic glutamate receptor. The molecular scaffold/receptor interaction is mediated by the association of the C terminus of the NR2B subunit of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor with the PDZ domains of SAP97. Here, we characterize the binding of the C terminus of NR2B with the PDZ domains of SAP97 and determine the structure of the PDZ1-NR2B complex employing high-resolution NMR. Based on fluorescence anisotropy, the NR2B subunit binds to the first and second PDZ domains of SAP97, with higher affinity for PDZ2; no appreciable binding to PDZ3 could be measured. The structural features of the NR2B bound to PDZ1 is consistent with the canonical PDZ-binding motif with the glutamic acid at the -3 position of the C terminus (i.e. -E-S-D-V) interacting with the beta2/beta3 loop. Two sites within the loop of PDZ1 were replaced with the corresponding residue from PDZ2, D243G and P245Q. The former mutation, designed to remove a possible Coulombic repulsion between E(-3)(NR2B) and Asp-243 (PDZ1) has only a minimal effect on binding. The P245Q mutation leads to a 2-fold increase in binding affinity of NR2B, approaching that observed for wild-type PDZ2. These results indicate that modification of the beta2/beta3 loop provides an avenue for regulating the ligand specificity of PDZ domains.