TY - JOUR
T1 - Insights into Mad2 regulation in the spindle checkpoint revealed by the crystal structure of the symmetric Mad2 dimer
AU - Yang, Maojun
AU - Li, Bing
AU - Liu, Chyong Jy
AU - Tomchick, Diana R
AU - Machius, Mischa
AU - Rizo-Rey, Jose
AU - Yu, Hongtao
AU - Luo, Xuelian
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Marina Mapelli and Andrea Musacchio for communicating results before publication, and Minghua Wen for technical support. Results shown in this report are derived from work performed at Argonne National Laboratory, Structural Biology Center at the Advanced Photon Source. Argonne is operated by University of Chicago Argonne, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research under contract DE-AC02-06CH11357.
PY - 2008/3
Y1 - 2008/3
N2 - In response to misaligned sister chromatids during mitosis, the spindle checkpoint protein Mad2 inhibits the anaphase-promoting complex or cyclosome (APC/C) through binding to its mitotic activator Cdc20, thus delaying anaphase onset. Mad1, an upstream regulator of Mad2, forms a tight core complex with Mad2 and facilitates Mad2 binding to Cdc20. In the absence of its binding proteins, free Mad2 has two natively folded conformers, termed N1-Mad2/open-Mad2 (O-Mad2) and N2-Mad2/closed Mad2 (C-Mad2), with C-Mad2 being more active in APC/C Cdc20 inhibition. Here, we show that whereas O-Mad2 is monomeric, C-Mad2 forms either symmetric C-Mad2-C-Mad2 (C-C) or asymmetric O-Mad2-C-Mad2 (O-C) dimers. We also report the crystal structure of the symmetric C-C Mad2 dimer, revealing the basis for the ability of unliganded C-Mad2, but not O-Mad2 or liganded C-Mad2, to form symmetric dimers. A Mad2 mutant that predominantly forms the C-C dimer is functional in vitro and in living cells. Finally, the Mad1-Mad2 core complex facilitates the conversion of O-Mad2 to C-Mad2 in vitro. Collectively, our results establish the existence of a symmetric Mad2 dimer and provide insights into Mad1-assisted conformational activation of Mad2 in the spindle checkpoint.
AB - In response to misaligned sister chromatids during mitosis, the spindle checkpoint protein Mad2 inhibits the anaphase-promoting complex or cyclosome (APC/C) through binding to its mitotic activator Cdc20, thus delaying anaphase onset. Mad1, an upstream regulator of Mad2, forms a tight core complex with Mad2 and facilitates Mad2 binding to Cdc20. In the absence of its binding proteins, free Mad2 has two natively folded conformers, termed N1-Mad2/open-Mad2 (O-Mad2) and N2-Mad2/closed Mad2 (C-Mad2), with C-Mad2 being more active in APC/C Cdc20 inhibition. Here, we show that whereas O-Mad2 is monomeric, C-Mad2 forms either symmetric C-Mad2-C-Mad2 (C-C) or asymmetric O-Mad2-C-Mad2 (O-C) dimers. We also report the crystal structure of the symmetric C-C Mad2 dimer, revealing the basis for the ability of unliganded C-Mad2, but not O-Mad2 or liganded C-Mad2, to form symmetric dimers. A Mad2 mutant that predominantly forms the C-C dimer is functional in vitro and in living cells. Finally, the Mad1-Mad2 core complex facilitates the conversion of O-Mad2 to C-Mad2 in vitro. Collectively, our results establish the existence of a symmetric Mad2 dimer and provide insights into Mad1-assisted conformational activation of Mad2 in the spindle checkpoint.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060050
DO - 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060050
M3 - Article
C2 - 18318601
AN - SCOPUS:41749098779
SN - 1544-9173
VL - 6
SP - 643
EP - 655
JO - PLoS biology
JF - PLoS biology
IS - 3
M1 - e50
ER -