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Native Mass Spectrometry Captures the Conformational Plasticity of Proteins with Low-Complexity Domains
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology, Biology, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Molecular biophysics.ORCID iD: 0009-0006-3481-1540
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology, Biology, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Molecular biophysics.
Karolinska Inst, Dept Microbiol Tumor & Cell Biol, S-17165 Solna, Sweden..ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8184-0145
Karolinska Inst, Dept Microbiol Tumor & Cell Biol, S-17165 Solna, Sweden..
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2025 (English)In: JACS Au, E-ISSN 2691-3704, Vol. 5, no 1, p. 281-290Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Disordered regions are an important functional feature of many multidomain proteins. A prime example is proteins in membraneless organelles, which contain folded domains that engage in specific interactions and disordered low-complexity (LC) domains that mediate liquid-liquid phase separation. Studying these complex architectures remains challenging due to their conformational variability. Native mass spectrometry (nMS) is routinely employed to analyze conformations and interactions of folded or disordered proteins; however, its ability to analyze proteins with disordered LC domains has not been investigated. Here, we analyze the ionization and conformational states of designed model proteins that recapitulate key features of proteins found in membraneless organelles. Our results show that charge state distributions (CSDs) in nMS reflect partial disorder regardless of the protein sequence, providing insights into their conformational plasticity and interactions. By applying the same CSD analysis to a spider silk protein fragment, we find that interactions between folded domains that trigger silk assembly simultaneously induce conformational changes in the LC domains. Lastly, using intact nucleosomes, we demonstrate that CSDs are a good predictor for the disorder content of complex native assemblies. We conclude that nMS reliably informs about the conformational landscape of proteins with LC domains, which is crucial for understanding protein condensates in cellular environments.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Chemical Society (ACS), 2025. Vol. 5, no 1, p. 281-290
Keywords [en]
intrinsic disorder, electrospray ionization, protein engineering, liquid-liquid phase separation
National Category
Molecular Biology Biophysics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-554845DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.4c00961ISI: 001392166000001PubMedID: 39886581Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85214338339OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-554845DiVA, id: diva2:1953157
Funder
EU, Horizon 2020Swedish Cancer SocietySwedish Research CouncilKnut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, 2022-06725Swedish Research Council, 815357EU, European Research Council, 233-0334Available from: 2025-04-17 Created: 2025-04-17 Last updated: 2025-04-17Bibliographically approved

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Osterholz, HannahStevens, AlexanderBrackmann, KlausMarklund, ErikDeindl, SebastianLeppert, AxelLandreh, Michael

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Osterholz, HannahStevens, AlexanderAbramsson, Mia L.Brackmann, KlausRising, AnnaMarklund, ErikDeindl, SebastianLeppert, AxelLandreh, Michael
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