Post-translational modification sites are present in hydrophilic
cavities of alpha-synuclein, tau, FUS and TDP-43 fibrils: A molecular
dynamics study
Abstract
Hydration plays a crucial role in the refolding of intrinsically
disordered proteins into amyloid fibrils; however, the specific
interactions between water and protein that may contribute to this
process are still unknown. In our previous studies of alpha-synuclein
(aSyn), we have shown that waters confined in fibril cavities are
stabilizing features of this pathological fold; and that amino acids
that hydrogen bond with these confined waters modulate primary and
seeded aggregation. Here, we extend our aSyn molecular dynamics (MD)
simulations with three new polymorphs and correlate MD trajectory
information with known post-translational modifications (PTMs) and
experimental data. Interestingly, we show that amino acids in cavities
are more stably hydrated and more evolutionarily conserved than residues
that are outside of cavities. Furthermore, amino acids in cavities that
are post-translational modification sites have on average the longest
protein-water hydrogen bond lifetimes (HBL). Utilizing the deep
mutational screen dataset by Newberry et. al. and the Thioflavin T
aggregation review by Pancoe et. al. parsed using a fibril
cavity/non-cavity definition, we show that hydrophobic changes to amino
acids in cavities have a larger effect on fitness and aggregation rate
than residues outside cavities, supporting our hypothesis that these
sites are involved in the inhibition of aSyn toxic fibrillization.
Finally, we expand our study to include analysis of fibril structures of
tau, FUS, TDP-43, prion, and hnRNPA1; all of which contained hydrated
cavities, with tau, FUS and TDP-43 recapitulating our PTM results in
aSyn fibril cavities.