Cell-free translation and purification of Arabidopsis thaliana regulator of G signaling 1 protein

Half a Century of Progress: The Evolution of Wheat Germ-Based In Vitro Translation into a Versatile Protein Production Method

The first demonstration of wheat germ extract (WGE)-based in vitro translation synthesising a protein from exogenously introduced messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) was published approximately fifty years ago. Since then, there have been numerous crucial improvements to the WGE-based in vitro translation, resulting in a significant increase in yield and the development of high-throughput protein-producing platforms. These developments have transformed the original setup into a versatile eukaryotic protein production method with broad applications. The present review explores the theoretical background of the implemented modifications and brings a panel of examples for WGE applications in high-throughput protein studies and synthesis of challenging-to-produce proteins such as protein complexes, extracellular proteins, and membrane proteins. It also highlights the unique advantages of in vitro translation as an open system for synthesising radioactively labelled proteins, as illustrated by numerous publications using WGE to meet the protein demands of these studies. This review aims to orientate readers in finding the most appropriate WGE arrangement for their specific needs and demonstrate that a deeper understanding of the system modifications will help them make further adjustments to the reaction conditions for synthesising difficult-to-express proteins.

Artificial Lipid Biomembranes for Full-Length SARS-CoV-2 Receptor

The angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), as a functional receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is essential for assessing potential hosts and treatments. However, many studies are based on its truncated version but not full-length structure. Indeed, a single transmembrane (TM) helix presents in the full-length ACE2, influencing its interaction with SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, synthesis of the full-length ACE2 is an urgent requirement. Here, cell-free membrane protein synthesis systems (CFMPSs) are constructed for full-length membrane proteins. MscL is screened as a model among ten membrane proteins based on their expression and solubility. Next, CFMPSs are constructed and optimized based on natural vesicles, vesicles with four membrane proteins removed or two chaperonins added, and 37 types of nanodiscs. They all increase membrane protein solubility to over 50%. Finally, the full-length ACE2 of 21 species are successfully expressed with yields between 0.4 and 0.9 mg mL^-1 . The definite functional differences from the truncated version suggest that the TM region affects ACE2's structure and function. CFMPSs can be extended to more membrane proteins, paving the way for further applications.

Easy Synthesis of Complex Biomolecular Assemblies: Wheat Germ Cell-Free Protein Expression in Structural Biology

Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) systems are gaining more importance as universal tools for basic research, applied sciences, and product development with new technologies emerging for their application. Huge progress was made in the field of synthetic biology using CFPS to develop new proteins for technical applications and therapy. Out of the available CFPS systems, wheat germ cell-free protein synthesis (WG-CFPS) merges the highest yields with the use of a eukaryotic ribosome, making it an excellent approach for the synthesis of complex eukaryotic proteins including, for example, protein complexes and membrane proteins. Separating the translation reaction from other cellular processes, CFPS offers a flexible means to adapt translation reactions to protein needs. There is a large demand for such potent, easy-to-use, rapid protein expression systems, which are optimally serving protein requirements to drive biochemical and structural biology research. We summarize here a general workflow for a wheat germ system providing examples from the literature, as well as applications used for our own studies in structural biology. With this review, we want to highlight the tremendous potential of the rapidly evolving and highly versatile CFPS systems, making them more widely used as common tools to recombinantly prepare particularly challenging recombinant eukaryotic proteins.

An atypical heterotrimeric Gα protein has substantially reduced nucleotide binding but retains nucleotide-independent interactions with its cognate RGS protein and Gβγ dimer

Plants uniquely have a family of proteins called extra-large G proteins (XLG) that share homology in their C-terminal half with the canonical Gα subunits; we carefully detail here that Arabidopsis XLG2 lacks critical residues requisite for nucleotide binding and hydrolysis which is consistent with our quantitative analyses. Based on microscale thermophoresis, Arabidopsis XLG2 binds GTPγS with an affinity 100 times lower than that to canonical Gα subunits. This means that given the concentration range of guanine nucleotide in plant cells, XLG2 is not likely bound by GTP in vivo. Homology modeling and molecular dynamics simulations provide a plausible mechanism for the poor nucleotide binding affinity of XLG2. Simulations indicate substantially stronger salt bridge networks formed by several key amino-acid residues of AtGPA1 which are either misplaced or missing in XLG2. These residues in AtGPA1 not only maintain the overall shape and integrity of the apoprotein cavity but also increase the frequency of favorable nucleotide-protein interactions in the nucleotide-bound state. Despite this loss of nucleotide dependency, XLG2 binds the RGS domain of AtRGS1 with an affinity similar to the Arabidopsis AtGPA1 in its apo-state and about 2 times lower than AtGPA1 in its transition state. In addition, XLG2 binds the Gβγ dimer with an affinity similar to that of AtGPA1. XLG2 likely acts as a dominant negative Gα protein to block G protein signaling. We propose that XLG2, independent of guanine nucleotide binding, regulates the active state of the canonical G protein pathway directly by sequestering Gβγ and indirectly by promoting heterodimer formation.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Ligand-triggered de-repression of Arabidopsis heterotrimeric G proteins coupled to immune receptor kinases

Arabidopsis heterotrimeric G proteins regulate diverse processes by coupling to single-transmembrane receptors. One such receptor is the FLS2 receptor kinase, which perceives bacterial flagellin epitope flg22 to activate immunity through a class of cytoplasmic kinases called BIK1/PBLs. Unlike animal and fungal heterotrimeric G proteins that are activated by a ligand-induced guanine nucleotide exchange activity of seven-transmembrane G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), plant heterotrimeric G proteins are self-activating. How plant receptors regulate heterotrimeric G proteins in response to external ligands remains unknown. Here we show that RGS1, a GTPase accelerating protein, maintains Arabidopsis G proteins in an inactive state in complex with FLS2. Activation of FLS2 by flg22 induces a BIK1/PBL-mediated phosphorylation of RGS1 at Ser428 and Ser431 and that promotes RGS1 dissociation from the FLS2-G protein complex. This relieves G proteins from the RGS1-mediated repression and enables positive regulation of immune signaling. We additionally show that RGS1 is similarly regulated by multiple immune receptors. Our results uncover ligand-induced de-repression as a mechanism for G protein signaling in plants that is distinct from previously reported mechanism underlying the activation of heterotrimeric G proteins in other systems.

Tyrosine phosphorylation switching of a G protein

Heterotrimeric G protein complexes are molecular switches relaying extracellular signals sensed by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to downstream targets in the cytoplasm, which effect cellular responses. In the plant heterotrimeric GTPase cycle, GTP hydrolysis, rather than nucleotide exchange, is the rate-limiting reaction and is accelerated by a receptor-like regulator of G signaling (RGS) protein. We hypothesized that posttranslational modification of the Gα subunit in the G protein complex regulates the RGS-dependent GTPase cycle. Our structural analyses identified an invariant phosphorylated tyrosine residue (Tyr¹⁶⁶ in the Arabidopsis Gα subunit AtGPA1) located in the intramolecular domain interface where nucleotide binding and hydrolysis occur. We also identified a receptor-like kinase that phosphorylates AtGPA1 in a Tyr¹⁶⁶-dependent manner. Discrete molecular dynamics simulations predicted that phosphorylated Tyr¹⁶⁶ forms a salt bridge in this interface and potentially affects the RGS protein-accelerated GTPase cycle. Using a Tyr¹⁶⁶ phosphomimetic substitution, we found that the cognate RGS protein binds more tightly to the GDP-bound Gα substrate, consequently reducing its ability to accelerate GTPase activity. In conclusion, we propose that phosphorylation of Tyr¹⁶⁶ in AtGPA1 changes the binding pattern with AtRGS1 and thereby attenuates the steady-state rate of the GTPase cycle. We coin this newly identified mechanism "substrate phosphoswitching."

Nanodiscs in Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics

Membrane proteins play a most important part in metabolism, signaling, cell motility, transport, development, and many other biochemical and biophysical processes which constitute fundamentals of life on the molecular level. Detailed understanding of these processes is necessary for the progress of life sciences and biomedical applications. Nanodiscs provide a new and powerful tool for a broad spectrum of biochemical and biophysical studies of membrane proteins and are commonly acknowledged as an optimal membrane mimetic system that provides control over size, composition, and specific functional modifications on the nanometer scale. In this review we attempted to combine a comprehensive list of various applications of nanodisc technology with systematic analysis of the most attractive features of this system and advantages provided by nanodiscs for structural and mechanistic studies of membrane proteins.

A cell-free method for expressing and reconstituting membrane proteins enables functional characterization of the plant receptor-like protein kinase FERONIA

There are more than 600 receptor-like kinases (RLKs) in Arabidopsis, but due to challenges associated with the characterization of membrane proteins, only a few have known biological functions. The plant RLK FERONIA is a peptide receptor and has been implicated in plant growth regulation, but little is known about its molecular mechanism of action. To investigate the properties of this enzyme, we used a cell-free wheat germ-based expression system in which mRNA encoding FERONIA was co-expressed with mRNA encoding the membrane scaffold protein variant MSP1D1. With the addition of the lipid cardiolipin, assembly of these proteins into nanodiscs was initiated. FERONIA protein kinase activity in nanodiscs was higher than that of soluble protein and comparable with other heterologously expressed protein kinases. Truncation experiments revealed that the cytoplasmic juxtamembrane domain is necessary for maximal FERONIA activity, whereas the transmembrane domain is inhibitory. An ATP analogue that reacts with lysine residues inhibited catalytic activity and labeled four lysines; mutagenesis demonstrated that two of these, Lys-565 and Lys-663, coordinate ATP in the active site. Mass spectrometric phosphoproteomic measurements further identified phosphorylation sites that were examined using phosphomimetic mutagenesis. The results of these experiments are consistent with a model in which kinase-mediated phosphorylation within the C-terminal region is inhibitory and regulates catalytic activity. These data represent a step further toward understanding the molecular basis for the protein kinase catalytic activity of FERONIA and show promise for future characterization of eukaryotic membrane proteins.

Direct Modulation of Heterotrimeric G Protein-coupled Signaling by a Receptor Kinase Complex

Plants and some protists have heterotrimeric G protein complexes that activate spontaneously without canonical G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). In Arabidopsis, the sole 7-transmembrane regulator of G protein signaling 1 (AtRGS1) modulates the G protein complex by keeping it in the resting state (GDP-bound). However, it remains unknown how a myriad of biological responses is achieved with a single G protein modulator. We propose that in complete contrast to G protein activation in animals, plant leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinases (LRR RLKs), not GPCRs, provide this discrimination through phosphorylation of AtRGS1 in a ligand-dependent manner. G protein signaling is directly activated by the pathogen-associated molecular pattern flagellin peptide 22 through its LRR RLK, FLS2, and co-receptor BAK1.