8GZE

Crystal Structure of human METTL9-SAH-SLC39A7 peptide complex

Summary for 8GZE

• Entry DOI: 10.2210/pdb8gze/pdb
• Descriptor: Protein-L-histidine N-pros-methyltransferase, Zinc transporter SLC39A7, S-ADENOSYL-L-HOMOCYSTEINE (3 entities in total)
• Functional Keywords: drev domain, methyltransferase, transferase
• Biological source: Homo sapiens (human); More
• Total number of polymer chains: 4
• Total formula weight: 63838.83

Authors

Zhao, W.T.,Li, H.T. (deposition date: 2022-09-26, release date: 2023-05-31, Last modification date: 2023-12-13)

Primary citation

Zhao, W.,Zhou, Y.,Li, C.,Bi, Y.,Wang, K.,Ye, M.,Li, H.
Molecular basis for protein histidine N1-specific methylation of the "His-x-His" motifs by METTL9.
Cell Insight, 2:100090-100090, 2023

PubMed Abstract: Histidine methylation serves as an intriguing strategy to introduce altered traits of target proteins, including metal ion chelation, histidine-based catalysis, molecular assembly, and translation regulation. As a newly identified histidine methyltransferase, METTL9 catalyzes N1-methylation of protein substrates containing the "His-x-His" motif (HxH, x denotes small side chain residue). Here our structural and biochemical studies revealed that METTL9 specifically methylates the second histidine of the "HxH" motif, while exploiting the first one as a recognition signature. We observed an intimate engagement between METTL9 and a pentapeptide motif, where the small "x" residue is embedded and confined within the substrate pocket. Upon complex formation, the N3 atom of histidine imidazole ring is stabilized by an aspartate residue such that the N1 atom is presented to S-adenosylmethionine for methylation. Moreover, METTL9 displayed a feature in preferred consecutive and "C-to-N" directional methylation of tandem "HxH" repeats that exist in many METTL9 substrates. Collectively, our work illustrates the molecular design of METTL9 in N1-specific methylation of the broadly existing "HxH" motifs, highlighting its importance in histidine methylation biology.

PubMed: 37398635
DOI: 10.1016/j.cellin.2023.100090

Experimental method

X-RAY DIFFRACTION (3.4 Å)