Download MendeleyBinding of Glycerol to Human Galectin-7 Expands Stability and Modulates Its Functions.
Liang, Y., Wang, Y., Zhu, X., Cai, J., Shi, A., Huang, J., Zhu, Q., Si, Y.(2022) Int J Mol Sci 23
- PubMed: 36293173
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232012318
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:
7XAC, 7XBL - PubMed Abstract:
Glycerol is seen in biological systems as an intermediate in lipid metabolism. In recent years, glycerol has been reported to act as a chemical chaperone to correct the conformation of proteins. Here, we investigate the role of glycerol in galectin-7 (Gal-7). The thermal shift and CD assays showed that the thermal stability of Gal-7 increased with glycerol concentration but with little secondary structure changes induced by glycerol. In addition, glycerol can inhibit Gal-7-mediated erythrocyte agglutination. We also solved the crystal structures of human Gal-7 in complex with glycerol in two different conditions. Glycerol binds at the carbohydrate-recognition binding sites of Gal-7, which indicates glycerol as a small ligand for Gal-7. Surprisingly, glycerol can bind a new pocket near the N-terminus of Gal-7, which can greatly reduce the flexibility and improve the stability of this region. Moreover, overexpression of Gal-7 decreased the intracellular triglyceride levels and increased mRNA expression of aquaporin-3 (AQP-3) when HeLa cells were incubated with glycerol. These findings indicate that Gal-7 might regulate glycerol metabolism. Overall, our results on human Gal-7 raise the perspective to systematically explore this so far unrecognized phenomenon for Gal-7 in glycerol metabolism.
Organizational Affiliation:
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Brain Disease and Bioinformation, Research Center for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221004, China.
