2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Role of CCT assisted functions in cellular activities
| Project/Area Number |
18570175
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Cell biology
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
KUBOTA Hiroshi Kyoto University, Inst. Frontier Med. Sci, Assistant Prof (80332724)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
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| Keywords | CCT / molecular chaperone / folding / polvelutamine disease / Protein aggregation / neurodegenerative disease / beta sheet / substrate specificity |
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| Research Abstract |
Cytosolic chaperonin CCT plays an important role in protein folding in eukaryotic cells including mammalian cells. CCT has a highly evolved chaperoning function exerted by eight different subunits. However, details of the chaperone mechanism are still poorly understood. Here, we studied CCT-dependent cellular functions by using RNAi-mediated knockdown of CCT in mammalian cells, in addition to CCT specific recognition of substrate proteins in vitro.
Using PURE system, a cell-free in vitro translation system, we found that CCT specifically recognizes proteins rich in β-sheet and prevents their aggregation. By detailed analysis, we demonstrated that CCT specifically binds hydrophobic β-strands in a manner distinct from that of the E. coli homologue GroEL, and facilitates productive folding of substrate proteins.
Moreover, we found that CCT prevents aggregation and toxicity of polyglutamine-expansion proteins, which are known to aggregate in p-sheet rich structures, by RNAi-mediated knockdown and vector-based overexperssion experiments. Analysis of aggregation process suggested that CCT prevents aggregation in an early soluble stage of aggregation. Thus, CCT is a molecular chaperone that facilitates productive folding of proteins by preventing aggregation of aggregation-prone proteins including hydrophobic β-sheets and that protects cells from the toxicity of aggregation-prone proteins by modulating aggregation process.
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