A PH domain in ACAP1 possesses key features of the BAR domain in promoting membrane curvature.
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ACAP1's BAR domain cannot bind membrane or impart curvature and depends on the neighbouring PH domain for both.
"Here, we show that this BAR domain can neither bind membrane nor impart curvature, but instead requires a neighboring PH (Pleckstrin Homology) domain to achieve these functions."
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Specific PH-domain residues mediate both membrane binding and curvature generation.
"Specific residues within the PH domain are responsible for both membrane binding and curvature generation."
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The BAR domain instead oligomerises ACAP1 by binding BAR domains of neighbouring molecules.
"The BAR domain adjacent to the PH domain instead interacts with the BAR domains of neighboring ACAP1 proteins to enable clustering at the membrane."
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The isolated ACAP1 BAR domain has little affinity for liposomes of any size, whereas the tandem BAR-PH fragment binds them.
"the BAR domain of ACAP1 also showed little affinity to the generated liposomes, regardless of their size"
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Purified ACAP1 BAR-PH tubulates liposomes in vitro, visualised by negative-stain electron microscopy - the direct assay of the bending activity.
"We next found that ACAP1BAR-PH also induces membrane curvature, as reflected by the tubulation of liposomes, which was visualized by negative-stain electron microscopy (EM)"
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Phe-280 in PH-domain Loop1 is required for curvature induction, with F280A reducing tubulation and the conservative F280W preserving it.
"In particular, mutation of this residue to alanine (F280A) reduced the ability of ACAP1BAR-PH to induce liposome tubulation, while a more conservative mutation (F280W) preserved the ability to tubulate liposomes."
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In the cryoEM reconstruction of a coated tubule the BAR domain makes no significant contact with the membrane, contributing packing interfaces between molecules instead.
"Second, there is no significant interaction between the BAR domain and the underlying membrane."
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The BAR domain's role is to form the interfaces that pack ACAP1 molecules into the membrane coat.
"Instead, the BAR domain contributes to the packing interfaces among ACAP1BAR-PH protein in assembling the coating on liposome membrane."
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ACAP1 BAR-PH is a dimer in solution, confirmed by size exclusion chromatography with light scattering.
"Dimerization of ACAP1BAR-PH was confirmed from size exclusion chromatography and light scattering"
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The dimerisation dissociation constant is below 5 micromolar, tighter than that reported for the N-BAR protein endophilin A2.
"The in vitro disassociation constant of the dimerization was calculated to be below 5 µM, according to the quantitative gel-filtration experiment"
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The crystallographic dimer interface is large and mainly hydrophobic.
"The dimer interface has a large area (4100 Å2), and contains mainly hydrophobic residues that likely mediate dimerization."
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A single PH domain per dimer suffices for membrane insertion and curvature generation.
"this additional finding suggests that one PH domain is sufficient to confer the ability of the ACAP1BAR-PH dimer to insert into membrane and impart curvature"