skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The POTRA domains of Toc75 exhibit chaperone-like function to facilitate import into chloroplasts

Journal Article · · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [2]
  1. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
  2. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
  3. National Inst. of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD (United States)
  4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)

Protein trafficking across membranes is an essential function in cells; however, the exact mechanism for how this occurs is not well understood. In the endosymbionts, mitochondria and chloroplasts, the vast majority of proteins are synthesized in the cytoplasm as preproteins and then imported into the organelles via specialized machineries. In chloroplasts, protein import is accomplished by the TOC (translocon on the outer chloroplast membrane) and TIC (translocon on the inner chloroplast membrane) machineries in the outer and inner envelope membranes, respectively. TOC mediates initial recognition of preproteins at the outer membrane and includes a core membrane channel, Toc75, and two receptor proteins, Toc33/34 and Toc159, each containing GTPase domains that control preprotein binding and translocation. Toc75 is predicted to have a β-barrel fold consisting of an N-terminal intermembrane space (IMS) domain and a C-terminal 16-stranded β-barrel domain. Here we report the crystal structure of the N-terminal IMS domain of Toc75 fromArabidopsis thaliana, revealing three tandem polypeptide transport-associated (POTRA) domains, with POTRA2 containing an additional elongated helix not observed previously in other POTRA domains. Functional studies show an interaction with the preprotein, preSSU, which is mediated through POTRA2-3. POTRA2-3 also was found to have chaperone-like activity in an insulin aggregation assay, which we propose facilitates preprotein import. Furthermore, our data suggest a model in which the POTRA domains serve as a binding site for the preprotein as it emerges from the Toc75 channel and provide a chaperone-like activity to prevent misfolding or aggregation as the preprotein traverses the intermembrane space.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Inst. of General Medical Sciences; National Inst. of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; National Inst. of Health
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; W-31-109-Eng-38; 9 P41 GM103622; 1S10OD018090-01; 1K22AI113078-01; 2R01 GM061893
OSTI ID:
1374635
Journal Information:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 114, Issue 24; ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher:
National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
ENGLISH
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 40 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (75)

The Origin and Establishment of the Plastid in Algae and Plants journal December 2007
Conserved Omp85 lid-lock structure and substrate recognition in FhaC journal June 2015
In Vivo Function of Tic22, a Protein Import Component of the Intermembrane Space of Chloroplasts journal May 2013
Uniqueness of ab initio shape determination in small-angle scattering journal April 2003
A Molecular-Genetic Study of the Arabidopsis Toc75 Gene Family journal May 2005
Stable Expression Clones and Auto-Induction for Protein Production in E. coli book October 2013
Structure of the Membrane Protein FhaC: A Member of the Omp85-TpsB Transporter Superfamily journal August 2007
Outer membrane protein biogenesis in Gram-negative bacteria
  • Rollauer, Sarah E.; Sooreshjani, Moloud A.; Noinaj, Nicholas
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 370, Issue 1679 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0023
journal October 2015
DAMMIF, a program for rapid ab-initio shape determination in small-angle scattering journal January 2009
New Insights into the Mechanism of Chloroplast Protein Import and Its Integration with Protein Quality Control, Organelle Biogenesis and Development journal March 2015
The β-barrel membrane protein insertase machinery from Gram-negative bacteria journal April 2015
The Evolutionarily Related β-Barrel Polypeptide Transporters from Pisum sativum and Nostoc PCC7120 Contain Two Distinct Functional Domains journal June 2005
Tic20 and Tic22 Are New Components of the Protein Import Apparatus at the Chloroplast Inner Envelope Membrane journal November 1998
CRYSOL – a Program to Evaluate X-ray Solution Scattering of Biological Macromolecules from Atomic Coordinates journal December 1995
Determination of the regularization parameter in indirect-transform methods using perceptual criteria journal August 1992
The structural basis of autotransporter translocation by TamA journal September 2013
The Omp85-Related Chloroplast Outer Envelope Protein OEP80 Is Essential for Viability in Arabidopsis journal July 2008
PRIMUS: a Windows PC-based system for small-angle scattering data analysis journal September 2003
The Chloroplast Protein Import Channel Toc75: Pore Properties and Interaction with Transit Peptides journal August 2002
Omp85, an evolutionarily conserved bacterial protein involved in outer-membrane-protein assembly journal April 2004
First structural insights into the TpsB/Omp85 superfamily journal August 2009
The structural flexibility of the preferredoxin transit peptide journal June 1999
Dissection of β-barrel outer membrane protein assembly pathways through characterizing BamA POTRA 1 mutants of Escherichia coli: BamA POTRA 1 mutants journal August 2010
Deletion of Core Components of the Plastid Protein Import Machinery Causes Differential Arrest of Embryo Development in Arabidopsis thaliana journal January 2006
Structure of the BAM complex and its implications for biogenesis of outer-membrane proteins journal February 2016
Structure and Function of an Essential Component of the Outer Membrane Protein Assembly Machine journal August 2007
Size-Distribution Analysis of Macromolecules by Sedimentation Velocity Ultracentrifugation and Lamm Equation Modeling journal March 2000
Structural insight into the biogenesis of β-barrel membrane proteins journal September 2013
Fold and function of polypeptide transport-associated domains responsible for delivering unfolded proteins to membranes journal June 2008
Lateral opening in the intact β-barrel assembly machinery captured by cryo-EM journal September 2016
The paradox of plastid transit peptides: conservation of function despite divergence in primary structure journal December 2001
Tic22 Is an Essential Chaperone Required for Protein Import into the Apicoplast journal October 2012
The Roles of Toc34 and Toc75 in Targeting the Toc159 Preprotein Receptor to Chloroplasts journal September 2003
Crystal Structure of YaeT: Conformational Flexibility and Substrate Recognition journal December 2008
Neofunctionalization within the Omp85 protein superfamily during chloroplast evolution journal February 2012
Discovery of an archetypal protein transport system in bacterial outer membranes journal April 2012
Structural and functional analysis of the β-barrel domain of BamA from Escherichia coli journal June 2014
Biogenesis of mitochondrial β-barrel proteins: the POTRA domain is involved in precursor release from the SAM complex journal August 2011
Import Pathways of Chloroplast Interior Proteins and the Outer-Membrane Protein OEP14 Converge at Toc75 journal July 2004
Omp85 in eukaryotic systems: one protein family with distinct functions journal February 2011
xia2 : an expert system for macromolecular crystallography data reduction journal December 2009
Structural basis of outer membrane protein insertion by the BAM complex journal February 2016
Arabidopsis Genes Encoding Components of the Chloroplastic Protein Import Apparatus journal April 2001
Structure and Flexibility of the Complete Periplasmic Domain of BamA: The Protein Insertion Machine of the Outer Membrane journal November 2010
Features and development of Coot journal March 2010
Protein production by auto-induction in high-density shaking cultures journal May 2005
Toc64, a New Component of the Protein Translocon of Chloroplasts journal March 2000
New developments in the ATSAS program package for small-angle scattering data analysis journal March 2012
Evolution and targeting of Omp85 homologs in the chloroplast outer envelope membrane journal October 2014
The chloroplastic protein translocation channel Toc75 and its paralog OEP80 represent two distinct protein families and are targeted to the chloroplastic outer envelope by different mechanisms journal August 2004
The chloroplast-targeting domain of plastocyanin transit peptide can form a helical structure but does not have a high affinity for lipid bilayers journal July 1992
PHENIX: a comprehensive Python-based system for macromolecular structure solution journal January 2010
Evolutionary, Molecular and Genetic Analyses of Tic22 Homologues in Arabidopsis thaliana Chloroplasts journal May 2013
Omp85 from the Thermophilic Cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus Differs from Proteobacterial Omp85 in Structure and Domain Composition journal March 2010
The Bam machine: A molecular cooper journal April 2012
Automated matching of high- and low-resolution structural models journal February 2001
A Toc75‐like protein import channel is abundant in chloroplasts journal June 2002
Membrane protein architects: the role of the BAM complex in outer membrane protein assembly journal February 2009
Mitochondrial dysfunction remodels one-carbon metabolism in human cells journal June 2016
The Number, Speed, and Impact of Plastid Endosymbioses in Eukaryotic Evolution journal April 2013
The molecular chaperone Hsp90 delivers precursor proteins to the chloroplast import receptor Toc64 journal April 2006
Polypeptide Transport-Associated Domains of the Toc75 Channel Protein Are Located in the Intermembrane Space of Chloroplasts journal July 2016
Chloroplast protein import: solve the GTPase riddle for entry journal July 2004
Role of mitochondrial inner membrane organizing system in protein biogenesis of the mitochondrial outer membrane journal October 2012
The structure of the  -barrel assembly machinery complex journal January 2016
The Chloroplast Protein Translocation Complexes of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii : A Bioinformatic Comparison of Toc and Tic Components in Plants, Green Algae and Red Algae journal May 2008
VASCo: computation and visualization of annotated protein surface contacts journal January 2009
Biogenesis of β-barrel membrane proteins of mitochondria journal October 2005
Redox extends its regulatory reach to chloroplast protein import journal September 2010
Biogenesis of beta-barrel proteins in evolutionary context journal February 2015
How does a β-barrel integral membrane protein insert into the membrane? journal May 2016
Phaser crystallographic software journal July 2007
Reconstitution of a chloroplast protein import channel journal December 1997
Diversity and evolutionary history of plastids and their hosts journal October 2004
Multi-functional roles for the polypeptide transport associated domains of Toc75 in chloroplast protein import journal March 2016

Cited By (9)

Structural considerations of folded protein import through the chloroplast TOC / TIC translocons journal March 2019
New Perspectives on Chloroplast Protein Import journal April 2018
Targeted Control of Chloroplast Quality to Improve Plant Acclimation: From Protein Import to Degradation journal July 2019
The integration of chloroplast protein targeting with plant developmental and stress responses journal December 2017
The TOC GTPase Receptors: Regulators of the Fidelity, Specificity and Substrate Profiles of the General Protein Import Machinery of Chloroplasts journal June 2019
Protein import into chloroplasts and its regulation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system journal January 2020
Tic22 from Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 with holdase function involved in outer membrane protein biogenesis shuttles between plasma membrane and Omp85 journal March 2019
En route into chloroplasts: preproteins’ way home journal June 2018
TIC236 links the outer and inner membrane translocons of the chloroplast journal November 2018

Similar Records

Chloroplast Outer Membrane β-Barrel Proteins Use Components of the General Import Apparatus
Journal Article · Wed Jun 19 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Plant Cell · OSTI ID:1374635

Polyglycine Acts as a Rejection Signal for Protein Transport at the Chloroplast Envelope
Journal Article · Fri Dec 09 00:00:00 EST 2016 · PLoS ONE · OSTI ID:1374635

The structure of Tim50(164–361) suggests the mechanism by which Tim50 receives mitochondrial presequences
Journal Article · Tue Aug 25 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Acta Crystallographica. Section F, Structural Biology Communications · OSTI ID:1374635