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Basanta B, Chen W, Pride DE, Lander GC. Fabrication of Monolayer Graphene-Coated Grids for Cryoelectron Microscopy. J Vis Exp 2023. [PMID: 37747197 DOI: 10.3791/65702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM) has emerged as a powerful technique for probing the atomic structure of macromolecular complexes. Sample preparation for cryoEM requires preserving specimens in a thin layer of vitreous ice, typically suspended within the holes of a fenestrated support film. However, all commonly used sample preparation approaches for cryoEM studies expose the specimen to the air-water interface, introducing a strong hydrophobic effect on the specimen that often results in denaturation, aggregation, and complex dissociation. Further, preferred hydrophobic interactions between regions of the specimen and the air-water interface impact the orientations adopted by the macromolecules, resulting in 3D reconstructions with anisotropic directional resolution. Adsorption of cryoEM specimens to a monolayer of graphene has been shown to help mitigate interactions with the air-water interface while minimizing the introduction of background noise. Graphene supports also offer the benefit of substantially lowering the required concentration of proteins required for cryoEM imaging. Despite the advantages of these supports, graphene-coated grids are not widely used by the cryoEM community due to the prohibitive expense of commercial options and the challenges associated with large-scale in-house production. This paper describes an efficient method for preparing batches of cryoEM grids that have nearly full coverage of monolayer graphene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Basanta
- Department of Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research
| | - Wenqian Chen
- Department of Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research
| | - Daniel E Pride
- Department of Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research
| | - Gabriel C Lander
- Department of Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research;
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Yang J, Baron KR, Pride DE, Schneemann A, Guo X, Chen W, Song AS, Aviles G, Kampmann M, Wiseman RL, Lander GC. DELE1 oligomerization promotes integrated stress response activation. Nat Struct Mol Biol 2023; 30:1295-1302. [PMID: 37550454 PMCID: PMC10528447 DOI: 10.1038/s41594-023-01061-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 08/09/2023]
Abstract
Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that continually respond to cellular stress. Recent studies have demonstrated that mitochondrial stress is relayed from mitochondria to the cytosol by the release of a proteolytic fragment of DELE1 that binds to the eIF2α kinase HRI to initiate integrated stress response (ISR) signaling. We report the cryo-electron microscopy structure of the C-terminal cleavage product of human DELE1, which assembles into a high-order oligomer. The oligomer consists of eight DELE1 monomers that assemble with D4 symmetry via two sets of hydrophobic inter-subunit interactions. We identified the key residues involved in DELE1 oligomerization, and confirmed their role in stabilizing the octamer in vitro and in cells using mutagenesis. We further show that assembly-impaired DELE1 mutants are compromised in their ability to induce HRI-dependent ISR activation in cell culture models. Together, our findings provide molecular insights into the activity of DELE1 and how it signals to promote ISR activity following mitochondrial insult.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jie Yang
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Kelsey R Baron
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Daniel E Pride
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Anette Schneemann
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Xiaoyan Guo
- Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Genetics and Genome Science, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, USA
| | - Wenqian Chen
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Albert S Song
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Giovanni Aviles
- Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Martin Kampmann
- Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - R Luke Wiseman
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA.
| | - Gabriel C Lander
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA.
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