2MHY
Structure determination of the salamander courtship pheromone Plethodontid Modulating Factor
Summary for 2MHY
| Entry DOI | 10.2210/pdb2mhy/pdb |
| NMR Information | BMRB: 19660 |
| Descriptor | Plethodontid modulating factor (1 entity in total) |
| Functional Keywords | pheromone, salamander, pmf, three-finger protein, tfp, signaling protein |
| Biological source | Plethodon shermani (Sherman salamander) |
| Total number of polymer chains | 1 |
| Total formula weight | 6267.85 |
| Authors | Wilburn, D.B.,Bowen, K.E.,Doty, K.A.,Arumugam, S.,Lane, A.N.,Feldhoff, P.W.,Feldhoff, R.C. (deposition date: 2013-12-05, release date: 2014-01-01, Last modification date: 2023-06-14) |
| Primary citation | Wilburn, D.B.,Bowen, K.E.,Doty, K.A.,Arumugam, S.,Lane, A.N.,Feldhoff, P.W.,Feldhoff, R.C. Structural insights into the evolution of a sexy protein: novel topology and restricted backbone flexibility in a hypervariable pheromone from the red-legged salamander, Plethodon shermani. Plos One, 9:e96975-e96975, 2014 Cited by PubMed Abstract: In response to pervasive sexual selection, protein sex pheromones often display rapid mutation and accelerated evolution of corresponding gene sequences. For proteins, the general dogma is that structure is maintained even as sequence or function may rapidly change. This phenomenon is well exemplified by the three-finger protein (TFP) superfamily: a diverse class of vertebrate proteins co-opted for many biological functions - such as components of snake venoms, regulators of the complement system, and coordinators of amphibian limb regeneration. All of the >200 structurally characterized TFPs adopt the namesake "three-finger" topology. In male red-legged salamanders, the TFP pheromone Plethodontid Modulating Factor (PMF) is a hypervariable protein such that, through extensive gene duplication and pervasive sexual selection, individual male salamanders express more than 30 unique isoforms. However, it remained unclear how this accelerated evolution affected the protein structure of PMF. Using LC/MS-MS and multidimensional NMR, we report the 3D structure of the most abundant PMF isoform, PMF-G. The high resolution structural ensemble revealed a highly modified TFP structure, including a unique disulfide bonding pattern and loss of secondary structure, that define a novel protein topology with greater backbone flexibility in the third peptide finger. Sequence comparison, models of molecular evolution, and homology modeling together support that this flexible third finger is the most rapidly evolving segment of PMF. Combined with PMF sequence hypervariability, this structural flexibility may enhance the plasticity of PMF as a chemical signal by permitting potentially thousands of structural conformers. We propose that the flexible third finger plays a critical role in PMF:receptor interactions. As female receptors co-evolve, this flexibility may allow PMF to still bind its receptor(s) without the immediate need for complementary mutations. Consequently, this unique adaptation may establish new paradigms for how receptor:ligand pairs co-evolve, in particular with respect to sexual conflict. PubMed: 24849290DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0096975 PDB entries with the same primary citation |
| Experimental method | SOLUTION NMR |
Structure validation
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