Journal: The EMBO Journal
Article Title: Tyrosine phosphorylation regulates hnRNPA2 granule protein partitioning and reduces neurodegeneration
doi: 10.15252/embj.2020105001
Figure Lengend Snippet: hnRNPA2 LC (AlexaFluor 488‐tagged, green) undergoes LLPS, while hnRNPF PLD (AlexaFluor 555‐tagged, red) does not. However, hnRNPF PLD partitions into hnRNPA2 LC droplets when mixed at a 1:1 ratio. Conditions: 20 µM indicated protein (~1% fluorescently tagged), 20 mM MES pH 5.5, 50 mM NaCl, 150 mM urea. Scale bar: 10 µm. At 300 µM, FUS LC (AlexaFluor488‐tagged, green) undergoes LLPS, but at 200 µM hnRNPF PLD (AlexaFluor555‐tagged, red) still does not undergo LLPS. When mixed at 300 µM FUS LC and 200 µM hnRNPF PLD, hnRNPF PLD does not partition into FUS LC droplets. Conditions: 300 µM FUS and 200 µM hnRNPF PLD (~1% fluorescently tagged), 20 mM MES pH 5.5, 150 mM NaCl, 150 mM urea. Scale bar: 10 µm. While FUS LC and hnRNPF PLD both have a small negative predicted net charge at neutral pH, hnRNPA2 LC has a predicted + 4 net positive charge, due to the 9 positively charged residues (8 arginine, 1 lysine) and 5 negatively charged residues. Removal of the charged residues from hnRNPA2 LC (hnRNPA2 LC CD ) prevents partitioning of hnRNPF PLD into the hnRNPA2 LC phase. Addition of hnRNPA2 LC‐like charged residue patterning to FUS LC (FUS LC CE ) allows the partitioning of hnRNPF PLD at 40 µM. Conditions: protein concentration indicated next to image (20 µM hnRNPA2 LC and hnRNPA2 LC CD , 40 µM FUS LC CE , hnRNPF PLD concentration matches other protein in mixture (either 20 or 40 µM)) (all ~ 1% fluorescently tagged), 20 mM MES pH 5.5 50 mM NaCl, 150 mM urea. Scale bar: 10 µm. Substitution of all arginines in hnRNPA2 LC with lysine prevents the partitioning of hnRNPF PLD into hnRNPA2 LC R→K droplets. Removing all charged residues except for arginine from hnRNPA2 LC (hnRNPA2 LC CD,R ) allows partitioning of hnRNPF PLD into droplets, indicating arginine in hnRNPA2 LC is required and necessary for hnRNPF partitioning. hnRNPA2 LC R→K does not phase separate much as hnRNPA2 LC at these conditions, see Appendix Fig for quantification of phase separation of variants. Conditions: 20 µM proteins, 20 mM MES pH 5.5 50 mM NaCl, 150 mM urea. Scale bar: 10 µm. Quantification of phase separation of hnRNPA2 LC constructs used to determine the residue types important for hnRNPF PLD partitioning. hnRNPA2 LC N→S (purple) has similar phase separation to hnRNPA2 LC. hnRNPA2 LC CD (red) is consistently phase separated with ~ 5 µM protein remaining in the supernatant at all salt conditions tested. Adding back arginines to hnRNPA2 LC no charge (hnRNPA2 LC CD,R , green) brings phase separation as a function of salt to similar levels as hnRNPA2 LC. Changing all the arginine residues to lysine (removing the π‐character but maintaining positive charge, hnRNPA2 LC R→K ) also removes the salt dependence of phase separation but has reduced phase separation overall. Conditions: 20 µM of each protein, pH 5.5 MES, NaCl concentration as indicated, 25° C. Error bars are standard deviation of three replicates.
Article Snippet: The following constructs and general purification strategies were used for protein expression in BL21 Star (DE3) E. coli cultures (Life Technologies): hnRNPA2 LC (190–341), insoluble His‐tag purification as described (Ryan et al , ) (Addgene ID: 98657) hnRNPA2 LC S285C and S329C variants for PRE, insoluble His‐tag purification as described (Ryan et al , ) (Addgene ID: 98665, 98667, respectively) MBP‐hnRNPA2 LC, soluble His‐tag purification as described (Ryan et al , ) (Addgene ID: 98661) FUS LC and FUS LC 12E, soluble His‐tag purifications as described (Monahan et al , ) (Addgene ID: 98653, 98654) C‐terminal maltose‐binding protein‐tagged hnRNPA2 FL WT, D290V, and P298L, soluble His‐tag purification (Addgene ID: 139109, 139110, 139111, respectively) TOG D1, soluble His‐tag purification (Addgene ID: 139112) hnRNPF PLD, His‐tag purification (Addgene ID: 139113) N‐terminal maltose‐binding protein‐tagged hnRNPF FL and hnRNPF ∆PLD, soluble His‐tag purification (Addgene ID: 139114, 139115, respectively) HRPA‐1 LC, insoluble His‐tag purification (Addgene ID: 139116) C‐terminal maltose‐binding protein‐tagged HRPA‐1 FL, soluble His‐tag purification (Addgene ID: 139117) hnRNPA2 LC CD , hnRNPA2 LC CD,R , hnRNPA2 LC R→K , hnRNPA2 N→S , hnRNPA2 LC 5E , hnRNPA2 LC 12E , insoluble His‐tag purification (Addgene ID: 139118, 139119, 139120, 139121, 139122, 139123, respectively) hnRNPF PLD Y→S , hnRNPF PLD S→A , His‐tag purification (Addgene ID: 139124, 139125, respectively) FUS LC CE , FUS LC CE,R→K , FUS LC R , insoluble His‐tag purification (Addgene ID: 139126, 139127, 139128)
Techniques: Residue, Protein Concentration, Concentration Assay, Construct, Standard Deviation