The intrinsically disordered region of MBD2 is a promising target for treating cancer metastasis.

Jinhwa Jang, Sung-Hee Lee, Dong-Hoon Kang, Dae-Won Sim, Kyung-Suk Ryu, Ku-Sung Jo, Jinhyuk Lee, Hyojung Ryu, Eun-Hee Kim, Hyung-Sik Won & Ji-Hun Kim. BMB Reports 2022;55:488-93. https://doi.org/10.5483/BMBRep.2022.55.10.051

Caveolins are critical for the formation of caveolae, which are small invaginations of the plasma membrane involved in a variety of biological processes. Caveolin 3 (Cav3), one of three caveolin isoforms, is an integral membrane protein mainly expressed in muscle tissues. Although various human diseases associated with Cav3 have been reported, structural characterization of Cav3 in the membrane has not been investigated in enough depth to understand the structure–function relationship. Here, using solution NMR, we characterized membrane association, structural communications, and molecular dynamics of the monomeric Cav3 in detergent micelle environment, particularly focused on the whole N-terminal part that is composed of the flexible N-terminus and the scaffolding domain. The results revealed a complicated structural interplay of the individual segments composing the whole N-terminal part, including the pH-dependent helical region, signature motif-like region, signature motif, and scaffolding domain. Collectively, the present study provides novel structural insights into the whole N-terminal part of Cav3 that plays important biological roles in cellular processes and diseases. In particular, given that several disease-related mutations are located at the whole N-terminal part of Cav3, the sophisticated communications in the whole N-terminal segments are likely to have relevance to the molecular basis of Cav3-related disease.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection has rapidly spread through various routes. A genomic analysis of clinical MRSA samples revealed an unknown protein, Sav2152, predicted to be a haloacid dehalogenase (HAD)-like hydrolase, making it a potential candidate for a novel drug target. In this study, we determined the crystal structure of Sav2152, which consists of a C2-type cap domain and a core domain. The core domain contains four motifs involved in phosphatase activity that depend on the presence of Mg²⁺ ions. Specifically, residues D10, D12, and D233, which closely correspond to key residues in structurally homolog proteins, are responsible for binding to the metal ion and are known to play critical roles in phosphatase activity. Our findings indicate that the Mg²⁺ ion known to stabilize local regions surrounding it, however, paradoxically, destabilizes the local region. Through mutant screening, we identified D10 and D12 as crucial residues for metal binding and maintaining structural stability via various uncharacterized intra-protein interactions, respectively. Substituting D10 with Ala effectively prevents the interaction with Mg²⁺ ions. The mutation of D12 disrupts important structural associations mediated by D12, leading to a decrease in the stability of Sav2152 and an enhancement in binding affinity to Mg²⁺ ions. Additionally, our study revealed that D237 can replace D12 and retain phosphatase activity. In summary, our work uncovers the novel role of metal ions in HAD-like phosphatase activity.