Structure-based nuclear import mechanism of histones H3 and H4 mediated by Kap123

  1. Sojin An
  2. Jungmin Yoon
  3. Hanseong Kim
  4. Ji-Joon Song
  5. Uhn-soo Cho  Is a corresponding author
  1. University of Michigan Medical School, United States
  2. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea (South), Republic of

Abstract

Kap123, a major karyopherin protein of budding yeast, recognizes the nuclear localization signals (NLSs) of cytoplasmic histones H3 and H4 and translocates them into the nucleus during DNA replication. Mechanistic questions include H3- and H4-NLS redundancy toward Kap123 and the role of the conserved diacetylation of cytoplasmic H4 (K5ac and K12ac) in Kap123-mediated histone nuclear translocation. Here, we report crystal structures of full-length Kluyveromyces lactis Kap123 alone and in complex with H3- and H4-NLSs. Structures reveal the unique feature of Kap123 that possesses two discrete lysine-binding pockets for NLS recognition. Structural comparison illustrates that H3- and H4-NLSs share at least one of two lysine-binding pockets, suggesting that H3- and H4-NLSs are mutually exclusive. Additionally, acetylation of key lysine residues at NLS, particularly H4-NLS diacetylation, weakens the interaction with Kap123. These data support that cytoplasmic histone H4 diacetylation weakens the Kap123-H4-NLS interaction thereby facilitating histone Kap123-H3-dependent H3:H4/Asf1 complex nuclear translocation.

Data availability

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Sojin An

    Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Jungmin Yoon

    Structural Biology Laboratory of Epigenetics, Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea (South), Republic of
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Hanseong Kim

    Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Ji-Joon Song

    Structural Biology Laboratory of Epigenetics, Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea (South), Republic of
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Uhn-soo Cho

    Department of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, United States
    For correspondence
    uhnsoo@med.umich.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-6992-2455

Funding

National Institutes of Health (DK111465)

  • Uhn-soo Cho

American Diabetes Association (1-16-JDF-017)

  • Uhn-soo Cho

National Institutes of Health (AG050903)

  • Uhn-soo Cho

March of Dimes Foundation (N019154-00)

  • Uhn-soo Cho

National Research Foundation of Korea (2016R1A2B3006293)

  • Ji-Joon Song

National Research Foundation of Korea (2013R1A1A2055605)

  • Ji-Joon Song

National Research Foundation of Korea (2014K2A3A1000137)

  • Ji-Joon Song

National Research Foundation of Korea (2011-0031955)

  • Ji-Joon Song

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Eric Campos, The Hospital for Sick Children, Canada

Version history

  1. Received: July 7, 2017
  2. Accepted: October 12, 2017
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: October 16, 2017 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: November 8, 2017 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2017, An et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 2,446
    views
  • 381
    downloads
  • 18
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Sojin An
  2. Jungmin Yoon
  3. Hanseong Kim
  4. Ji-Joon Song
  5. Uhn-soo Cho
(2017)
Structure-based nuclear import mechanism of histones H3 and H4 mediated by Kap123
eLife 6:e30244.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.30244

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.30244

Further reading

    1. Cell Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    Dimitrios Vismpas, Friedrich Förster
    Insight

    Advanced cryo-EM approaches reveal surprising insights into the molecular structure that allows nascent proteins to be inserted into the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum.

    1. Developmental Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    Samuel C Griffiths, Jia Tan ... Hsin-Yi Henry Ho
    Research Article

    The receptor tyrosine kinase ROR2 mediates noncanonical WNT5A signaling to orchestrate tissue morphogenetic processes, and dysfunction of the pathway causes Robinow syndrome, Brachydactyly B and metastatic diseases. The domain(s) and mechanisms required for ROR2 function, however, remain unclear. We solved the crystal structure of the extracellular cysteine-rich (CRD) and Kringle (Kr) domains of ROR2 and found that, unlike other CRDs, the ROR2 CRD lacks the signature hydrophobic pocket that binds lipids/lipid-modified proteins, such as WNTs, suggesting a novel mechanism of ligand reception. Functionally, we showed that the ROR2 CRD, but not other domains, is required and minimally sufficient to promote WNT5A signaling, and Robinow mutations in the CRD and the adjacent Kr impair ROR2 secretion and function. Moreover, using function-activating and -perturbing antibodies against the Frizzled (FZ) family of WNT receptors, we demonstrate the involvement of FZ in WNT5A-ROR signaling. Thus, ROR2 acts via its CRD to potentiate the function of a receptor super-complex that includes FZ to transduce WNT5A signals.