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Cordoba JJ, Mullins EA, Salay LE, Eichman BF, Chazin WJ. Flexibility and distributive synthesis regulate RNA priming and handoff in human DNA polymerase α-primase. bioRxiv 2023:2023.08.01.551538. [PMID: 37577606 PMCID: PMC10418221 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.01.551538] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/15/2023]
Abstract
DNA replication in eukaryotes relies on the synthesis of a ~30-nucleotide RNA/DNA primer strand through the dual action of the heterotetrameric polymerase α-primase (pol-prim) enzyme. Synthesis of the 7-10-nucleotide RNA primer is regulated by the C-terminal domain of the primase regulatory subunit (PRIM2C) and is followed by intramolecular handoff of the primer to pol α for extension by ~20 nucleotides of DNA. Here we provide evidence that RNA primer synthesis is governed by a combination of the high affinity and flexible linkage of the PRIM2C domain and the low affinity of the primase catalytic domain (PRIM1) for substrate. Using a combination of small angle X-ray scattering and electron microscopy, we found significant variability in the organization of PRIM2C and PRIM1 in the absence and presence of substrate, and that the population of structures with both PRIM2C and PRIM1 in a configuration aligned for synthesis is low. Crosslinking was used to visualize the orientation of PRIM2C and PRIM1 when engaged by substrate as observed by electron microscopy. Microscale thermophoresis was used to measure substrate affinities for a series of pol-prim constructs, which showed that the PRIM1 catalytic domain does not bind the template or emergent RNA-primed templates with appreciable affinity. Together, these findings support a model of RNA primer synthesis in which generation of the nascent RNA strand and handoff of the RNA-primed template from primase to polymerase α is mediated by the high degree of inter-domain flexibility of pol-prim, the ready dissociation of PRIM1 from its substrate, and the much higher affinity of the POLA1cat domain of polymerase α for full-length RNA-primed templates.
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Affiliation(s)
- John J. Cordoba
- Chemical and Physical Biology Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Elwood A. Mullins
- Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Lauren E. Salay
- Chemical and Physical Biology Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Brandt F. Eichman
- Chemical and Physical Biology Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Walter J. Chazin
- Chemical and Physical Biology Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Chemistry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
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Shekhar M, Smith Z, Seeliger MA, Tiwary P. Protein Flexibility and Dissociation Pathway Differentiation Can Explain Onset of Resistance Mutations in Kinases. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2022; 61:e202200983. [PMID: 35486370 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202200983] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Understanding how mutations render a drug ineffective is a problem of immense relevance. Often the mechanism through which mutations cause drug resistance can be explained purely through thermodynamics. However, the more perplexing situation is when two proteins have the same drug binding affinities but different residence times. In this work, we demonstrate how all-atom molecular dynamics simulations using recent developments grounded in statistical mechanics can provide a detailed mechanistic rationale for such variances. We discover dissociation mechanisms for the anti-cancer drug Imatinib (Gleevec) against wild-type and the N368S mutant of Abl kinase. We show how this point mutation triggers far-reaching changes in the protein's flexibility and leads to a different, much faster, drug dissociation pathway. We believe that this work marks an efficient and scalable approach to obtain mechanistic insight into resistance mutations in biomolecular receptors that are hard to explain using a structural perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mrinal Shekhar
- Center for Development of Therapeutics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Zachary Smith
- Biophysics Program and Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Markus A Seeliger
- Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8651, USA
| | - Pratyush Tiwary
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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