Insight into freeze resistance and proteostasis from protective proteins and small organic molecules of marine species

蛋白质在压力条件下可以展开。 因此，这项提议旨在了解寒冷海洋和潮间带环境中的物种如何保持折叠蛋白质。重点是抗冻蛋白，它与冰结合并抑制其生长，以及化学伴侣，这是一种促进蛋白质正确折叠的小分子。 对蓝贻贝抗冻蛋白进行了纯化和鉴定。 这种蛋白质和两个抗冻蛋白从冬比目鱼，然后将作为模型的研究蛋白质折叠增强化学伴侣。 抗冻蛋白将是这项工作的理想模型，因为它们似乎有不同的折叠限制。 感兴趣的化学分子伴侣包括那些天然存在于贻贝和其他化合物的选择。 将使用蛋白质折叠的标准测试来评价伴侣活性。 在适当的情况下，将对蛋白质进行更详细的结构研究。 这项工作将提供一个新的特点抗冻蛋白从贻贝和洞察伴侣分子在这个物种。 这项工作将定义参数导致淀粉样蛋白形成的短冬比目鱼抗冻蛋白，并指出淀粉样蛋白预防化学伴侣的可能性。这项工作还将显示冬比目鱼的更长，高活性的抗冻蛋白在变性时是否形成淀粉样蛋白或非淀粉样蛋白聚集体，并且它将使我们能够确定长抗冻蛋白是否可以陪伴以维持其折叠。 总的来说，这项研究将提供更多的了解淀粉样蛋白的形成和化学伴侣的功能。我们预计将取得以下具体成果：（1）加强对栖息在极端海洋和潮间带环境中的物种的分子水平的了解，（2）这些物种所使用的生物学策略，可以人为地用于在其他情况下稳定组织、细胞或蛋白质，和（3）可用于预防或治疗蛋白质折叠疾病（例如人类的几种神经疾病）的化合物和方法。

Proteins can become unwound (unfolded) under stressful conditions. Therefore, this proposal aims to understand how species in cold ocean and intertidal environments maintain folded proteins. The focus is on antifreeze proteins, which bind to ice and inhibit its growth, and on chemical chaperones, which are small molecules that promote proper protein folding. The blue mussel antifreeze protein will be purified and characterized. This protein and two antifreeze proteins from winter flounder will then serve as models for the study of protein folding enhancement by chemical chaperones. The antifreeze proteins will be ideal models in this work because they appear to have divergent folding limitations. The chemical chaperones of interest include those that occur naturally in the mussel and a selection of other compounds. Chaperone activity will be evaluated using standard tests for protein folding. Where appropriate, there will be more detailed structural studies on the proteins. This work will provide a novel characterized antifreeze protein from the mussel and insight into the chaperoning molecules in this species. This work will define parameters causing amyloid formation in the short winter flounder antifreeze protein and indicate the possibility of amyloid prevention by chemical chaperones. This work will also show whether the longer, highly active antifreeze protein of winter flounder forms amyloid or non-amyloid aggregates upon denaturation and it will allow us to determine whether the long antifreeze protein can be chaperoned to maintain its fold. Overall, this research will provide greater understanding of amyloid formation and chemical chaperone function. We anticipate the following specific outcomes: (1) enhanced molecular-level understanding of the species that inhabit extreme marine and intertidal environments, (2) biological strategies used by these species that could be applied artificially for the stabilization of tissues, cells or proteins in other contexts, and (3) compounds and processes that could be used to prevent or treat diseases of protein folding (such as several neurological diseases in humans).