期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2004
卷号：101
期号：22
页码：8331-8336
DOI：10.1073/pnas.0400553101
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Many of the proposed physiological functions of {alpha}-synuclein, a protein involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease, are related to its ability to interact with phospholipids. To better understand the conformational changes that occur upon membrane binding of monomeric {alpha}-synuclein, we performed EPR analysis of 47 singly labeled {alpha}-synuclein derivatives. We show that membrane interaction is mediated by major conformational changes within seven N-terminal 11-aa repeats, which reorganize from a highly dynamic structure into an elongated helical structure devoid of significant tertiary packing. Furthermore, we find that analogous positions from different repeats are in equivalent locations with respect to membrane proximity. These and other findings suggest a curved membrane-dependent {alpha}-helical structure, wherein each 11-aa repeat takes up three helical turns. Similar helical structures could also apply to apolipoproteins and other lipid-interacting proteins with related 11-aa repeats.
