Co-operation between ATP binding subunits required for ATPase proteasome function

The primary functions of the proteasome are driven by a highly allosteric ATPase complex. ATP binding to only two subunits in this hexameric complex triggers substrate binding, ATPase–20S association and 20S gate opening. However, it is unclear how ATP binding and hydrolysis spatially and temporally coordinates these allosteric effects to drive substrate translocation into the 20S.

Researchers use FRET to show that the proteasomal ATPases from eukaryotes (RPTs) and archaea (PAN) bind ATP with high affinity at neighboring subunits, which complements the well-established spiral-staircase topology of the 26S ATPases.

They further show that two conserved arginine fingers in PAN located at the subunit interface work together as a single allosteric unit to mediate the allosteric effects of ATP binding, without altering the nucleotide-binding pattern.

Rapid kinetics analysis also shows that ring resetting of a sequential hydrolysis mechanism can be explained by thermodynamic equilibrium binding of ATP.

These data support a model whereby these two functionally distinct allosteric networks cooperate to translocate polypeptides into the 20S for degradation.

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151014/ncomms9520/full/ncomms9520.html