Domain swapping is the process by which identical monomeric proteins exchange structural elements to generate dimers/oligomers. Although engineered domain swapping is a compelling strategy for protein assembly, its application has been limited due to the lack of simple and reliable design approaches ...
Domain swapping is the process by which identical monomeric proteins exchange structural elements to generate dimers/oligomers. Although engineered domain swapping is a compelling strategy for protein assembly, its application has been limited due to the lack of simple and reliable design approaches. Here, we demonstrate that the hydrophobic five-residue 'cystatin motif' (QVVAG) from the domain-swapping protein Stefin B, when engineered into a solvent-exposed, tight surface loop between two β-strands prevents the loop from folding back upon itself, and drives domain swapping in non-domain-swapping proteins. High-resolution structural studies demonstrate that engineering the QVVAG stretch independently into various surface loops of four structurally distinct non-domain-swapping proteins enabled the design of different modes of domain swapping in these proteins, including single, double and open-ended domain swapping. These results suggest that the introduction of the QVVAG motif can be used as a mutational approach for engineering domain swapping in diverse β-hairpin proteins.
Organizational Affiliation:
National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru, 560065, India. shachi@ncbs.res.in.
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