title: A conserved trimerization motif controls the topology of short coiled coils.
abstract: In recent years, short coiled coils have been used for applications ranging from biomaterial to medical sciences. For many of these applications knowledge of the factors that control the topology of the engineered protein systems is essential. Here, we demonstrate that trimerization of short coiled coils is determined by a distinct structural motif that encompasses specific networks of surface salt bridges and optimal hydrophobic packing interactions. The motif is conserved among intracellular, extracellular, viral, and synthetic proteins and defines a universal molecular determinant for trimer formation of short coiled coils. In addition to being of particular interest for the biotechnological production of candidate therapeutic proteins, these findings may be of interest for viral drug development strategies.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 PT, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Kammerer
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kostrewa
authors.forename: Pavlos
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Progias
authors.forename: Srinivas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Honnappa
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Avila
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lustig
authors.forename: Fritz K
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Winkler
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pieters
authors.forename: Michel O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Steinmetz
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D011506:Proteins; C072061:coronin proteins