Insights Into Protein Synthesis - Structural Aspects of Elongation Factor G and Fusidic Acid Inhibition

Sebastian Hansson

Research output: ThesisDoctoral Thesis (compilation)

Abstract

Elongation factor G (EF-G) catalyses the translocation step in protein synthesis on the ribosome. During this event the antibiotic Fusidic acid (FA) binds to and irreversably inhibits the release of the EF-G:GDP complex from the ribosome. The difficulties to elucidate the exact binding mechanism of FA to the EF-G:GDP:ribosome complex are due to the fact that FA only binds to EF-G when the factor is on the ribosome and in complex with GDP. In solution EF-G has decreased ability to form a complex with FA due to the low solubility of FA in a solution that enables further structural characterization.

The role of Phe90 in EF-G from T. thermophilus has been highlighted as a regulator that act as a gatekeeper promoting the binding site for FA. These observations came from direct structural interpretation of the highly sensitive G16V and highly resistant T84A EF-G mutants. Further support of this putative binding site came from mutational studies and further structural characterization of the two F90L and F90A mutants of EF-G. The F90L mutant also revealed the highest resolution (2.1 Å) of EF-G to date. To further establish and implement the binding site of FA in EF-G the structure of the D109K mutant was solved. These five mutants all support the putative binding site of FA being located at the interface between switch II from the G domain and domain III. The possible role of Lys25 in nucleotide regulation was proposed in the G16V and T84A study.

Characterization of the T84A mutant with a GDPNP molecule revealed the structural conformational changes that EF-G undergoes between nucleotide discrimination between GDP and GTP in solution. From this observation Phe90 again displays a central role in modulating the conformaitons of the whole of EF-G. Also, the role of Lys25 as a key residue in nucleotide regulation was further established.

The crystal structure of T84A in complex with GDPCP was solved to 2.9 Å resolution. The remarkable in this structure was the coordination of Lys25 to the nucleotide. From these results the role of Lys25 was thoroughly investigated and a proposed mechanism for its involvement in nucleotide regulation, nucleotide binding and GTPase mechanism was elaborated.
Original languageEnglish
QualificationDoctor
Awarding Institution
  • Biochemistry and Structural Biology
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Liljas, Anders, Supervisor
  • Logan, Derek, Supervisor
Award date2005 Sept 30
Publisher
ISBN (Print)91-7422-090-X
Publication statusPublished - 2005

Bibliographical note

Defence details

Date: 2005-09-30
Time: 10:00
Place: Lecture hall D Center for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Lund University

External reviewer(s)

Name: Aevarsson, Arnthor
Title: PhD
Affiliation: Prokaria Ltd, Iceland

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Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Biological Sciences

Free keywords

  • Molekylär biofysik
  • Structure chemistry
  • Strukturkemi
  • Molecular biophysics
  • Biologi
  • Biology
  • Biomedicinska vetenskaper
  • Biomedical sciences
  • conformational change
  • fusidic acid
  • protein synthesis
  • elongation factor G
  • crystal structures

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