Ef-G:Trna Dynamics During the Elongation Cycle of Protein Synthesis
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2015 Ef-G:trna Dynamics During the Elongation Cycle of Protein Synthesis Rong Shen University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Biochemistry Commons Recommended Citation Shen, Rong, "Ef-G:trna Dynamics During the Elongation Cycle of Protein Synthesis" (2015). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1131. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1131 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1131 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ef-G:trna Dynamics During the Elongation Cycle of Protein Synthesis Abstract During polypeptide elongation cycle, prokaryotic elongation factor G (EF-G) catalyzes the coupled translocations on the ribosome of mRNA and A- and P-site bound tRNAs. Continued progress has been achieved in understanding this key process, including results of structural, ensemble kinetic and single- molecule studies. However, most of work has been focused on the pre-equilibrium states of this fast process, leaving the real time dynamics, especially how EF-G interacts with the A-site tRNA in the pretranslocation complex, not fully elucidated. In this thesis, the kinetics of EF-G catalyzed translocation is investigated by both ensemble and single molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer studies to further explore the underlying mechanism. In the ensemble work, EF-G mutants were designed and expressed successfully. The labeled EF-G mutants show good translocation activity in two different assays. In the smFRET work, by attachment of a fluorescent probe at position 693 on EF-G permits monitoring of FRET efficiencies to sites in both ribosomal protein L11 and A-site tRNA. The EF-G:L11 FRET efficiency is constant during the entire EF-G occupancy on the ribosome, while the EF-G:tRNA FRET proceeds from high to intermediate to low FRET values. Transition from intermediate to low is the rate-limiting step with a small FRET change, whereas transition from high to intermediate is fast, showing a large FRET change. In total, we capture a ~12 Ã? relative movement of A-site tRNA away from EF-G during translocation. This indicates that EF-G:A-site tRNA distance increases progressively during translocation, with our results providing the first good estimates of the timing of such changes. This EF-G:tRNA smFRET measurement was applied to bifunctional rhodamine labeled EF-G derivatives (BR-EF-G) and comparable kinetic results were obtained. FRET changes of BR-EF-G:Cy5-tRNA pair are larger if the BR group is located closer to the EF-G hinge region, suggesting that parts of domain IV of EF-G, which penetrate to the decoding region of the ribosome, move together with the A-site tRNA during translocation. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Chemistry First Advisor Barry S. Cooperman Keywords EF-G, SmFRET, tRNA, ribosome, kinetics Subject Categories Biochemistry This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1131 EF-G:tRNA DYNAMICS DURING THE ELONGATION CYCLE OF PROTEIN SYNTHESIS Rong Shen A DISSERTATION in Chemistry Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Supervisor of Dissertation Dr. Barry S. Cooperman, Professor of Chemistry Graduate Group Chairperson Dr. Gary A. Molander, Hirschmann-Makineni Professor of Chemistry Dissertation Committee: Dr. Ivan J. Dmochowski, Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Yale E. Goldman, Professor of Physiology Dr. E. James Petersson, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dedicated to my father Changming Shen and my mother Yan Shen ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A PhD journey is never easy. It is a pleasure and an honor to thank many people who made this thesis possible. First and foremost, this thesis would never have happened without the encouragement, guidance and support from my research advisor Dr. Barry S. Cooperman. It is my highest honor to be one of his students. From him, I have learned how to think critically which would greatly benefit my future career. His enthusiasm toward science and immense knowledge not only inspire me but also make the learning process a great fun for me. After five years research work in Dr. Cooperman’s lab, I find where my interest is and how I should pursue my future career. I would like to show my greatest gratitude towards our major collaborator with this project. Dr. Yale Goldman is not only a committee member, but also a very close collaborator with our group. In the text you will notice that a large portion of my work is smFRET study which was carried out in Dr. Yale Goldman’s lab. I attended his journal club and enjoy discussing my data with him. His inspiring insights into my work have proved to be priceless. I am indebted to my dissertation committee members, Prof. Ivan Dmochowski and Prof. Petersson for their constructive suggestions to my work and support to my study at Penn. I learned how to think about my research from other perspectives and without their help, it would have been impossible for me to accomplish my thesis. It is a great pleasure for me to thank all my current and past group members. When I first joined in the lab, Dr. Haibo Zhang taught me how to purify protein and helped iii me with my everyday work. Dr. Hanqing Liu helped me with the quench flow experiment. I learned how to do kinetic experiments and analyze the complicated data with the help of Dr. Wei Liu, who also shared a lot of invaluable experience with me about data interpretation. Dr. Ian Farrell and Dr. Jaskiran Kaur helped me with tRNA preparation. Dr. Chunlai Chen and Dr. Darius Kavaliauskas helped me with the smFRET experiment and spent a lot of time on discussing smFRET data with me. Dr. Amy Weil, Dr. Dulce Alonso, Dr. Gabi Rosenblum, Mr. Yuanwei Chen, Mr. Martin Ng and Ms. Adrienne Pesce have been incredible to work with and learn from. I would like to thank my roommates Na Zhang and Dr. Zhaoxia Qian, my dear friends Dr. Han Wei, Dr. Jiadi Zhang and Yanran Ai, with whom I came to Penn six years ago and Jie Qing, Fang Liu, Minyan Li, with whom I shared laughter and interesting conversations. I own my deepest gratitude to my family. I would like to thank my parents for their love, support and encouragement during these years and I will never know how far I could have made it without their support. I also want to thank my dog, lele, who is one of my dear family members and brought a lot of laughter to me. iv ABSTRACT EF-G:tRNA DYNAMICS DURING THE ELONGATION CYCLE OF PROTEIN SYNTHESIS Rong Shen Barry S. Cooperman During polypeptide elongation cycle, prokaryotic elongation factor G (EF-G) catalyzes the coupled translocations on the ribosome of mRNA and A- and P-site bound tRNAs. Continued progress has been achieved in understanding this key process, including results of structural, ensemble kinetic and single-molecule studies. However, most of work has been focused on the pre-equilibrium states of this fast process, leaving the real time dynamics, especially how EF-G interacts with the A-site tRNA in the pretranslocation complex, not fully elucidated. In this thesis, the kinetics of EF-G catalyzed translocation is investigated by both ensemble and single molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer studies to further explore the underlying mechanism. In the ensemble work, EF-G mutants were designed and expressed successfully. The labeled EF-G mutants show good translocation activity in two different assays. In the smFRET work, by attachment of a fluorescent probe at position 693 on EF-G permits monitoring of FRET efficiencies to sites in both ribosomal protein L11 and A-site tRNA. The EF-G:L11 FRET efficiency is constant v during the entire EF-G occupancy on the ribosome, while the EF-G:tRNA FRET proceeds from high to intermediate to low FRET values. Transition from intermediate to low is the rate-limiting step with a small FRET change, whereas transition from high to intermediate is fast, showing a large FRET change. In total, we capture a ~12 Å relative movement of A-site tRNA away from EF-G during translocation. This indicates that EF-G:A-site tRNA distance increases progressively during translocation, with our results providing the first good estimates of the timing of such changes. This EF- G:tRNA smFRET measurement was applied to bifunctional rhodamine labeled EF-G derivatives (BR-EF-G) and comparable kinetic results were obtained. FRET changes of BR-EF-G:Cy5-tRNA pair are larger if the BR group is located closer to the EF-G hinge region, suggesting that parts of domain IV of EF-G, which penetrate to the decoding region of the ribosome, move together with the A-site tRNA during translocation. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ..................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The central dogma and ribosome-catalyzed translation .................................................