Effect of Heat Shock on Protein Folding
Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator
LPBI
Getting Back in Shape
Contrary to years of research suggesting otherwise, most aggregated proteins regain their shape and functionality following heat shock.
| Dec 1, 2015 http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/44506/title/Getting-Back-in-Shape/
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SHOCKED OUT OF SHAPE: Exogenous proteins in a cell denature and aggregate in misfolded clumps when heat-shocked. During cell recovery, specialized molecular chaperone proteins degrade and dispose of the aggregates. A small portion of the exogenous proteins may refold, escaping degradation.© EVAN OTO/SCIENCE SOURCE
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Mature endogenous proteins aggregate in an organized fashion when heat-shocked, remodeling the cell’s protein synthesis machinery to facilitate survival. During recovery, molecular chaperones free the mature proteins to resume their normal activity.© EVAN OTO/SCIENCE SOURCE
EDITOR’S CHOICE IN CELL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
The paper
E.W.J. Wallace et al., “Reversible, specific, active aggregates of endogenous proteins assemble upon heat stress,” Cell, 162:1286-98, 2015.
Like cooking an egg, heating up a purified protein enough will denature it, destroying the 3-D structure key to its functionality. The protein unfolds in a one-way trip to a fried state. Previous studies of this phenomenon in cells often used exogenous proteins, which clumped together in response to heat and were largely degraded by the cell’s internal cleanup machinery—a set of molecular chaperones known as heat-shock proteins—if the cell survived.
“That, and other examples, had convinced people that what they were seeing inside cells, the clumps of proteins, represented a disaster—these giant piles of damaged proteins shoved together inside the cell so they can ultimately be cleaned up,” reflects Allan Drummond, a molecular biologist at the University of Chicago. “Nobody had really looked systematically at what happens to the proteins that are native to the cell.”
To do so, Drummond and colleagues tagged proteins in yeast cells with a set of stable isotope labels. They subjected the cells to temperatures that would stress, but not kill, them and then flash-froze them within minutes to capture a snapshot of protein aggregation at different intervals. The researchers then analyzed the clumped proteins using mass spectrometry.
Drummond’s group identified 982 proteins in the yeast cells, 177 of which aggregated in the cytosol and nucleus after heat shock. However, the researchers’ isotope labels revealed something unexpected: aggregated proteins were unclumping and returning to their previous states during the cell’s recovery period. “We had no cases that we were able to detect where proteins go into aggregates and then are degraded,” says Drummond.
“It’s really challenging this long-held assumption that heat stress causes terminal aggregation. They’ve shown that we get these aggregates or assemblies that are reversible and that may actually be pro-survival,” says Kevin Morano, a microbiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston who studies cellular responses to stress. “It is paradigm-shifting in a sense. We thought they were destroyed.” But in fact, the researchers found, the yeast cells began growing again without making substantial numbers of new proteins, suggesting that the proteins coming out of the aggregates were still functional.
Drummond’s group figures that heat stress, and the ensuing aggregation, may trigger the cell to produce more of its molecular chaperones to aid in recovery. The team observed a three-protein complex, needed to synthesize chaperones, that was active even while clumped with other proteins. “There are many different things that aggregation seems to be doing,” says Drummond. “It’s stopping the synthesis of most proteins, but promoting synthesis of a small set of proteins that are called in response to heat shock.”
Editor’s Note (December 2): The sub-headline for this article was changed to emphasize the finding that most proteins regain functionality.
Tags
protein structure, protein aggregating, protein, literature, heat shock proteins and cell & molecular biology
Reversible, Specific, Active Aggregates of Endogenous Proteins Assemble upon Heat Stress
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This is very insightful. There is no doubt that there is the bias you refer to. 42 years ago, when I was postdocing in biochemistry/enzymology before completing my residency in pathology, I knew that there were very influential mambers of the faculty, who also had large programs, and attracted exceptional students. My mentor, it was said (although he was a great writer), could draft a project on toilet paper and call the NIH. It can’t be true, but it was a time in our history preceding a great explosion. It is bizarre for me to read now about eNOS and iNOS, and about CaMKII-á, â, ã, ä – isoenzymes. They were overlooked during the search for the genome, so intermediary metabolism took a back seat. But the work on protein conformation, and on the mechanism of action of enzymes and ligand and coenzyme was just out there, and became more important with the research on signaling pathways. The work on the mechanism of pyridine nucleotide isoenzymes preceded the work by Burton Sobel on the MB isoenzyme in heart. The Vietnam War cut into the funding, and it has actually declined linearly since.
A few years later, I was an Associate Professor at a new Medical School and I submitted a proposal that was reviewed by the Chairman of Pharmacology, who was a former Director of NSF. He thought it was good enough. I was a pathologist and it went to a Biochemistry Review Committee. It was approved, but not funded. The verdict was that I would not be able to carry out the studies needed, and they would have approached it differently. A thousand young investigators are out there now with similar letters. I was told that the Department Chairmen have to build up their faculty. It’s harder now than then. So I filed for and received 3 patents based on my work at the suggestion of my brother-in-law. When I took it to Boehringer-Mannheim, they were actually clueless.