title: Reprogramming control of an allosteric signaling switch through modular recombination.
abstract: Many eukaryotic signaling proteins are composed of simple modular binding domains, yet they can display sophisticated behaviors such as allosteric gating and multi-input signal integration, properties essential for complex cellular circuits. To understand how such behavior can emerge from combinations of simple domains, we engineered variants of the actin regulatory protein N-WASP (neuronal Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein) in which the "output" domain of N-WASP was recombined with heterologous autoinhibitory "input" domains. Synthetic switch proteins were created with diverse gating behaviors in response to nonphysiological inputs. Thus, this type of modular framework can facilitate the evolution or engineering of cellular signaling circuits.
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism; D000494:Allosteric Regulation; D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000818:Animals; D020650:Combinatorial Chemistry Techniques; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008024:Ligands; D008297:Male; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009865:Oocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D019151:Peptide Library; D015202:Protein Engineering; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D015398:Signal Transduction; D051317:Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Protein, Neuronal; D014981:Xenopus; D020764:cdc42 GTP-Binding Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D018909:src Homology Domains
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D008024:Ligands; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D019151:Peptide Library; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D051317:Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome Protein, Neuronal; D020764:cdc42 GTP-Binding Protein