A 3.8 Å resolution cryo-EM structure of a small protein bound to an imaging scaffold

Liu, Yuxi; Huynh, Duc T.; Yeates, Todd O.

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09836-0

Title: A 3.8 Å resolution cryo-EM structure of a small protein bound to an imaging scaffold

Journal Article · Tue Apr 23 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09836-0· OSTI ID:1609012

Liu, Yuxi ^[1]; Huynh, Duc T. ^[1]; Yeates, Todd O. ^[2]

Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); California NanoSystems Inst., Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Proteins smaller than about 50 kDa are currently too small to be imaged at high resolution by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), leaving most protein molecules in the cell beyond the reach of this powerful structural technique. Here we use a designed protein scaffold to bind and symmetrically display 12 copies of a small 26 kDa protein, green fluorescent protein (GFP). We show that the bound cargo protein is held rigidly enough to visualize it as a resolution of 3.8 Å by cryo-EM, where specific structural features of the protein are visible. The designed scaffold is modular and can be modified through modest changes in its amino acid sequence to bind and display diverse proteins for imaging, thus providing a general method to break through the lower size limitation in cryo-EM.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: FC02-02ER63421

OSTI ID:: 1609012

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 43 works

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