Probing Dynamic Conformations of the High-Molecular-Weight αB-Crystallin Heat Shock Protein Ensemble by NMR SpectroscopyClick to copy article linkArticle link copied!
- Andrew J. Baldwin
- Patrick Walsh
- D. Flemming Hansen
- Gillian R. Hilton
- Justin L. P. Benesch
- Simon Sharpe
- Lewis E. Kay
Abstract

Solution- and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy are highly complementary techniques for studying supra-molecular structure. Here they are employed for investigating the molecular chaperone αB-crystallin, a polydisperse ensemble of between 10 and 40 identical subunits with an average molecular mass of approximately 600 kDa. An IxI motif in the C-terminal region of each of the subunits is thought to play a critical role in regulating the size distribution of oligomers and in controlling the kinetics of subunit exchange between them. Previously published solid-state NMR and X-ray results are consistent with a bound IxI conformation, while solution NMR studies provide strong support for a highly dynamic state. Here we demonstrate through FROSTY (freezing rotational diffusion of protein solutions at low temperature and high viscosity) MAS (magic angle spinning) NMR that both populations are present at low temperatures (<0 °C), while at higher temperatures only the mobile state is observed. Solution NMR relaxation dispersion experiments performed under physiologically relevant conditions establish that the motif interchanges between flexible (highly populated) and bound (sparsely populated) states. This work emphasizes the importance of using multiple methods in studies of supra-molecules, especially for highly dynamic ensembles where sample conditions can potentially affect the conformational properties observed.
Cited By
Smart citations by scite.ai include citation statements extracted from the full text of the citing article. The number of the statements may be higher than the number of citations provided by ACS Publications if one paper cites another multiple times or lower if scite has not yet processed some of the citing articles.
This article is cited by 58 publications.
- Iva Pritišanac, Matteo T. Degiacomi, T. Reid Alderson, Marta G. Carneiro, Eiso AB, Gregg Siegal, and Andrew J. Baldwin . Automatic Assignment of Methyl-NMR Spectra of Supramolecular Machines Using Graph Theory. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2017, 139
(28)
, 9523-9533. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6b11358
- Loïc Salmon, Logan S. Ahlstrom, Scott Horowitz, Alex Dickson, Charles L. Brooks III, and James C. A. Bardwell . Capturing a Dynamic Chaperone–Substrate Interaction Using NMR-Informed Molecular Modeling. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2016, 138
(31)
, 9826-9839. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.6b02382
- Scott P. Delbecq, Joel C. Rosenbaum, and Rachel E. Klevit . A Mechanism of Subunit Recruitment in Human Small Heat Shock Protein Oligomers. Biochemistry 2015, 54
(28)
, 4276-4284. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.5b00490
- Andrew J. Baldwin, Danielle L. Egan, Fredrick J. Warren, Paul D. Barker, Christopher M. Dobson, Peter J. Butterworth, and Peter R. Ellis . Investigating the Mechanisms of Amylolysis of Starch Granules by Solution-State NMR. Biomacromolecules 2015, 16
(5)
, 1614-1621. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.5b00190
- Ivano Bertini, Claudio Luchinat, Giacomo Parigi, and Enrico Ravera . SedNMR: On the Edge between Solution and Solid-State NMR. Accounts of Chemical Research 2013, 46
(9)
, 2059-2069. https://doi.org/10.1021/ar300342f
- Abeeb Ajibade, Andrew Luan Liu, Xiaoqin Zou. Modeling protein flexibility in molecular docking. 2025https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-29808-0.00006-6
- Zihao Wang, Guodong Cao, Miranda P. Collier, Xingyu Qiu, Sophie Broadway-Stringer, Dominik Šaman, Jediael Z.Y. Ng, Navoneel Sen, Amar J. Azad, Charlotte Hooper, Johannes Zimmermann, Michael McDonough, Jürgen Brem, Patrick Rabe, Haigang Song, T. Reid Alderson, Christopher J. Schofield, Jani R. Bolla, Kristina Djinovic-Carugo, Dieter O. Fürst, Bettina Warscheid, Matteo T. Degiacomi, Timothy M. Allison, Georg K.A. Hochberg, Carol V. Robinson, Katja Gehmlich, Justin L.P. Benesch. Cardiac stress leads to regulation of Filamin C dimerisation via an ancient phosphorylation-modulated interaction with HSPB7. 2024https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.01.05.574393
- Fan Shi, Tong Zhang, Juan Li, Chaowei Shi, Shengqi Xiang. Studying large biomolecules as sedimented solutes with solid-state NMR. Biophysics Reports 2024, 10
(4)
, 201. https://doi.org/10.52601/bpr.2024.240014
- Y. Hu, M. Liu. Structural Disorder in Chaperone Functions Probed by NMR. 2023, 38-54. https://doi.org/10.1039/BK9781839165986-00038
- Bin Sun, Peter M. Kekenes-Huskey. Myofilament-associated proteins with intrinsic disorder (MAPIDs) and their resolution by computational modeling. Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics 2023, 56 https://doi.org/10.1017/S003358352300001X
- Linda Cerofolini, Giacomo Parigi, Enrico Ravera, Marco Fragai, Claudio Luchinat. Solid-state NMR methods for the characterization of bioconjugations and protein-material interactions. Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance 2022, 122 , 101828. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssnmr.2022.101828
- Rishav Mitra, Kevin Wu, Changhan Lee, James C.A. Bardwell. ATP-Independent Chaperones. Annual Review of Biophysics 2022, 51
(1)
, 409-429. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-biophys-090121-082906
- Theodoros K. Karamanos, G. Marius Clore. Large Chaperone Complexes Through the Lens of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Annual Review of Biophysics 2022, 51
(1)
, 223-246. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-biophys-090921-120150
- Michael A. Skinnider, Nichollas E. Scott, Anna Prudova, Craig H. Kerr, Nikolay Stoynov, R. Greg Stacey, Queenie W.T. Chan, David Rattray, Jörg Gsponer, Leonard J. Foster. An atlas of protein-protein interactions across mouse tissues. Cell 2021, 184
(15)
, 4073-4089.e17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.06.003
- Laura Troussicot, Björn M. Burmann, Mikael Molin. Structural determinants of multimerization and dissociation in 2-Cys peroxiredoxin chaperone function. Structure 2021, 29
(7)
, 640-654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.str.2021.04.007
- Aaron T. Balana, Paul M. Levine, Timothy W. Craven, Somnath Mukherjee, Nichole J. Pedowitz, Stuart P. Moon, Terry T. Takahashi, Christian F. W. Becker, David Baker, Matthew R. Pratt. O-GlcNAc modification of small heat shock proteins enhances their anti-amyloid chaperone activity. Nature Chemistry 2021, 13
(5)
, 441-450. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-021-00648-8
- T Reid Alderson, Elias Adriaenssens, Bob Asselbergh, Iva Pritišanac, Jonas Van Lent, Heidi Y Gastall, Marielle A Wälti, John M Louis, Vincent Timmerman, Andrew J Baldwin, Justin LP Benesch. A weakened interface in the P182L variant of HSP27 associated with severe Charcot‐Marie‐Tooth neuropathy causes aberrant binding to interacting proteins. The EMBO Journal 2021, 40
(8)
https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2019103811
- Henrik Müller, David M. Dias, Anna van der Zalm, Andrew J. Baldwin. αB-crystallin affects the morphology of Aβ(1-40) aggregates. 2021https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.07.433908
- Vitali Tugarinov, Theodoros K. Karamanos, G. Marius Clore. Optimized selection of slow-relaxing 13C transitions in methyl groups of proteins: application to relaxation dispersion. Journal of Biomolecular NMR 2020, 74
(12)
, 673-680. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10858-020-00349-3
- Ana T. Marcos, Diego Amorós, Beatriz Muñoz-Cabello, Francisco Galán, Eloy Rivas Infante, Luis Alcaraz‐Mas, José M. Navarro‐Pando. A novel dominant mutation in
CRYAB
gene leading to a severe phenotype with childhood onset. Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine 2020, 8
(8)
https://doi.org/10.1002/mgg3.1290
- Patrick Owusu‐Ansah, Xiaojie Yu, Richard Osae, Cunshan Zhou, Rong Zhang, Abdullateef T. Mustapha, Mo Li, Haile Ma. Optimization of thermosonication on
Bacillus cereus
from pork: Effects on inactivation and physicochemical properties. Journal of Food Process Engineering 2020, 43
(6)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpe.13401
- Aaron T. Balana, Paul M. Levine, Somnath Mukherjee, Nichole J. Pedowitz, Stuart P. Moon, Terry T. Takahashi, Christian F. W. Becker, Matthew R. Pratt. O-GlcNAcylation of small heat shock proteins enhances their anti-amyloid chaperone activity. 2019https://doi.org/10.1101/869909
- Maria K. Janowska, Hannah E.R. Baughman, Christopher N. Woods, Rachel E. Klevit. Mechanisms of Small Heat Shock Proteins. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology 2019, 11
(10)
, a034025. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a034025
- Axel Mogk, Carmen Ruger-Herreros, Bernd Bukau. Cellular Functions and Mechanisms of Action of Small Heat Shock Proteins. Annual Review of Microbiology 2019, 73
(1)
, 89-110. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-micro-020518-115515
- T. Reid Alderson, Elias Adriaenssens, Bob Asselbergh, Iva Pritišanac, Heidi Y. Gastall, Marielle A. Wälti, John M. Louis, Vincent Timmerman, Andrew J. Baldwin, Justin L. P. Benesch. Dysregulated interactions triggered by a neuropathy-causing mutation in the IPV motif of HSP27. 2019https://doi.org/10.1101/708180
- Martin Haslbeck, Sevil Weinkauf, Johannes Buchner. Small heat shock proteins: Simplicity meets complexity. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2019, 294
(6)
, 2121-2132. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.REV118.002809
- Olga Tkachenko, Justin L.P. Benesch, Andrew J. Baldwin. αB-crystallin inhibits amyloidogenesis by disassembling aggregation nuclei. 2018https://doi.org/10.1101/300541
- Hannah E.R. Baughman, Amanda F. Clouser, Rachel E. Klevit, Abhinav Nath. HspB1 and Hsc70 chaperones engage distinct tau species and have different inhibitory effects on amyloid formation. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2018, 293
(8)
, 2687-2700. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M117.803411
- Patrick C.A. van der Wel. Insights into protein misfolding and aggregation enabled by solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance 2017, 88 , 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssnmr.2017.10.001
- Elias Adriaenssens, Thomas Geuens, Jonathan Baets, Andoni Echaniz-Laguna, Vincent Timmerman. Novel insights in the disease biology of mutant small heat shock proteins in neuromuscular diseases. Brain 2017, 140
(10)
, 2541-2549. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awx187
- Serena Carra, Simon Alberti, Patrick A. Arrigo, Justin L. Benesch, Ivor J. Benjamin, Wilbert Boelens, Britta Bartelt-Kirbach, Bianca J.J.M. Brundel, Johannes Buchner, Bernd Bukau, John A. Carver, Heath Ecroyd, Cecilia Emanuelsson, Stephanie Finet, Nikola Golenhofen, Pierre Goloubinoff, Nikolai Gusev, Martin Haslbeck, Lawrence E. Hightower, Harm H. Kampinga, Rachel E. Klevit, Krzysztof Liberek, Hassane S. Mchaourab, Kathryn A. McMenimen, Angelo Poletti, Roy Quinlan, Sergei V. Strelkov, Melinda E. Toth, Elizabeth Vierling, Robert M. Tanguay. The growing world of small heat shock proteins: from structure to functions. Cell Stress and Chaperones 2017, 22
(4)
, 601-611. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12192-017-0787-8
- T. Reid Alderson, Justin L.P. Benesch, Andrew J. Baldwin. Proline isomerization in the C-terminal region of HSP27. Cell Stress and Chaperones 2017, 22
(4)
, 639-651. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12192-017-0791-z
- Boris I. Kurganov. Quantification of anti-aggregation activity of chaperones. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules 2017, 100 , 104-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2016.07.066
- Anastasia Zhuravleva, Dmitry M. Korzhnev. Protein folding by NMR. Progress in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy 2017, 100 , 52-77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnmrs.2016.10.002
- C. Yan, X. Zou. Modeling Protein Flexibility in Molecular Docking. 2017, 319-328. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409547-2.12351-0
- William M. Jacobs, Tuomas P. J. Knowles, Daan Frenkel, . Oligomers of Heat-Shock Proteins: Structures That Don’t Imply Function. PLOS Computational Biology 2016, 12
(2)
, e1004756. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004756
- Jonathan M. Lamley, Carl Öster, Rebecca A. Stevens, Józef R. Lewandowski. Intermolecular Interactions and Protein Dynamics by Solid‐State NMR Spectroscopy. Angewandte Chemie 2015, 127
(51)
, 15594-15598. https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.201509168
- Jonathan M. Lamley, Carl Öster, Rebecca A. Stevens, Józef R. Lewandowski. Intermolecular Interactions and Protein Dynamics by Solid‐State NMR Spectroscopy. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2015, 54
(51)
, 15374-15378. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201509168
- Donald Gagné, Rachel L. French, Chitra Narayanan, Miljan Simonović, Pratul K. Agarwal, Nicolas Doucet. Perturbation of the Conformational Dynamics of an Active-Site Loop Alters Enzyme Activity. Structure 2015, 23
(12)
, 2256-2266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.str.2015.10.011
- Andi Mainz, Jirka Peschek, Maria Stavropoulou, Katrin C Back, Benjamin Bardiaux, Sam Asami, Elke Prade, Carsten Peters, Sevil Weinkauf, Johannes Buchner, Bernd Reif. The chaperone αB-crystallin uses different interfaces to capture an amorphous and an amyloid client. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 2015, 22
(11)
, 898-905. https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.3108
- Jan‐Henrik Ardenkjaer‐Larsen, Gregory S. Boebinger, Arnaud Comment, Simon Duckett, Arthur S. Edison, Frank Engelke, Christian Griesinger, Robert G. Griffin, Christian Hilty, Hidaeki Maeda, Giacomo Parigi, Thomas Prisner, Enrico Ravera, Jan van Bentum, Shimon Vega, Andrew Webb, Claudio Luchinat, Harald Schwalbe, Lucio Frydman. Neue Ansätze zur Empfindlichkeitssteigerung in der biomolekularen NMR‐Spektroskopie. Angewandte Chemie 2015, 127
(32)
, 9292-9317. https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.201410653
- Jan‐Henrik Ardenkjaer‐Larsen, Gregory S. Boebinger, Arnaud Comment, Simon Duckett, Arthur S. Edison, Frank Engelke, Christian Griesinger, Robert G. Griffin, Christian Hilty, Hidaeki Maeda, Giacomo Parigi, Thomas Prisner, Enrico Ravera, Jan van Bentum, Shimon Vega, Andrew Webb, Claudio Luchinat, Harald Schwalbe, Lucio Frydman. Facing and Overcoming Sensitivity Challenges in Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2015, 54
(32)
, 9162-9185. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201410653
- Theodoros K. Karamanos, Arnout P. Kalverda, Gary S. Thompson, Sheena E. Radford. Mechanisms of amyloid formation revealed by solution NMR. Progress in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy 2015, 88-89 , 86-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnmrs.2015.05.002
- Raman Bakthisaran, Ramakrishna Tangirala, Ch. Mohan Rao. Small heat shock proteins: Role in cellular functions and pathology. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Proteins and Proteomics 2015, 1854
(4)
, 291-319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbapap.2014.12.019
- Björn M. Burmann, Sebastian Hiller. Chaperones and chaperone–substrate complexes: Dynamic playgrounds for NMR spectroscopists. Progress in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy 2015, 86-87 , 41-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnmrs.2015.02.004
- David D Boehr, Xinran Liu, Xiaorong Yang. Targeting structural dynamics of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase for anti-viral strategies. Current Opinion in Virology 2014, 9 , 194-200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coviro.2014.08.006
- Andrew J. Baldwin. An exact solution for R2,eff in CPMG experiments in the case of two site chemical exchange. Journal of Magnetic Resonance 2014, 244 , 114-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmr.2014.02.023
- Christine Slingsby, Graeme J. Wistow. Functions of crystallins in and out of lens: Roles in elongated and post-mitotic cells. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 2014, 115
(1)
, 52-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2014.02.006
- Georg K.A. Hochberg, Justin L.P. Benesch. Dynamical structure of αB-crystallin. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 2014, 115
(1)
, 11-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2014.03.003
- Dong Long, Guillaume Bouvignies, Lewis E. Kay. Measuring hydrogen exchange rates in invisible protein excited states. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2014, 111
(24)
, 8820-8825. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1405011111
- Rachel W. Martin. NMR Studies of Eye Lens Crystallins. 2014, 139-152. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470034590.emrstm1354
- Tatyana B. Eronina, Natalia A. Chebotareva, Svetlana G. Roman, Sergey Yu. Kleymenov, Valentina F. Makeeva, Nikolay B. Poliansky, Konstantin O. Muranov, Boris I. Kurganov. Thermal denaturation and aggregation of apoform of glycogen phosphorylase
b
. Effect of crowding agents and chaperones. Biopolymers 2014, 101
(5)
, 504-516. https://doi.org/10.1002/bip.22410
- Nicola Salvi. Introduction. 2014, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06170-2_1
- Marco Fragai, Claudio Luchinat, Tommaso Martelli, Enrico Ravera, Irit Sagi, Inna Solomonov, Yael Udi. SSNMR of biosilica-entrapped enzymes permits an easy assessment of preservation of native conformation in atomic detail. Chem. Commun. 2014, 50
(4)
, 421-423. https://doi.org/10.1039/C3CC46896H
- Lucio Ferella, Claudio Luchinat, Enrico Ravera, Antonio Rosato. SedNMR: a web tool for optimizing sedimentation of macromolecular solutes for SSNMR. Journal of Biomolecular NMR 2013, 57
(4)
, 319-326. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10858-013-9795-x
- B. I. Kurganov. Antiaggregation activity of chaperones and its quantification. Biochemistry (Moscow) 2013, 78
(13)
, 1554-1566. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0006297913130129
- Marco Fragai, Claudio Luchinat, Giacomo Parigi, Enrico Ravera. Practical considerations over spectral quality in solid state NMR spectroscopy of soluble proteins. Journal of Biomolecular NMR 2013, 57
(2)
, 155-166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10858-013-9776-0
- Ivano Bertini, Gianluca Gallo, Magdalena Korsak, Claudio Luchinat, Jiafei Mao, Enrico Ravera. Formation Kinetics and Structural Features of Beta‐Amyloid Aggregates by Sedimented Solute NMR. ChemBioChem 2013, 14
(14)
, 1891-1897. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.201300141
- Vera A. Borzova, Kira A. Markossian, Dmitriy A. Kara, Natalia A. Chebotareva, Valentina F. Makeeva, Nikolay B. Poliansky, Konstantin O. Muranov, Boris I. Kurganov, . Quantification of Anti-Aggregation Activity of Chaperones: A Test-System Based on Dithiothreitol-Induced Aggregation of Bovine Serum Albumin. PLoS ONE 2013, 8
(9)
, e74367. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0074367
- Gillian R. Hilton, Georg K. A. Hochberg, Arthur Laganowsky, Scott I. McGinnigle, Andrew J. Baldwin, Justin L. P. Benesch. C-terminal interactions mediate the quaternary dynamics of αB-crystallin. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2013, 368
(1617)
, 20110405. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2011.0405
- Scott P. Delbecq, Rachel E. Klevit. One size does not fit all: The oligomeric states of αB crystallin. FEBS Letters 2013, 587
(8)
, 1073-1080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.febslet.2013.01.021
- Christine Slingsby, Graeme J. Wistow, Alice R. Clark. Evolution of crystallins for a role in the vertebrate eye lens. Protein Science 2013, 22
(4)
, 367-380. https://doi.org/10.1002/pro.2229
- Andrew J. Baldwin, Lewis E. Kay. An R1ρ expression for a spin in chemical exchange between two sites with unequal transverse relaxation rates. Journal of Biomolecular NMR 2013, 55
(2)
, 211-218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10858-012-9694-6
Article Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.
Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.
The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated.