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1 Structural Biology Research Center, Photon Factory, IMSS, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
2 Biophysics Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
3 Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Sciences (CAIS), Biotechnology Division, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
4 Graduate School of Materials Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Ikoma, Nara 630-0192, Japan
(RECEIVED January 2, 2008; FINAL REVISION February 15, 2008; ACCEPTED February 15, 2008)
Miranda is a multidomain adaptor protein involved in neuroblast asymmetric division in Drosophila melanogaster. The central domain of Miranda is necessary for cargo binding of the neural transcription factor Prospero, the Prospero-mRNA carrier Staufen, and the tumor suppressor Brat. Here, we report the first solution structure of Miranda central "cargo-binding" domain (residues 460–660) using small-angle X-ray scattering. Ab initio modeling of the scattering data yields an elongated "rod-like" molecule with a maximum linear dimension (Dmax) of
22 nm. Moreover, circular dichroism and cross-linking experiments indicate that the cargo-binding domain is predominantly helical and forms a parallel coiled-coil homodimer in solution. Based on the results, we modeled the full-length Miranda protein as a double-headed, double-tailed homodimer with a long central coiled-coil region. We discuss the cargo-binding capacity of the central domain and propose a structure-based mechanism for cargo release and timely degradation of Miranda in developing neuroblasts.
Keywords: Miranda; Drosophila ; asymmetric cell division; coiled coil; SAXS
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