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PMID: 27105849 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Do nucleic acids moonlight as molecular chaperones?

Nucleic acids research ·Vol. 44 ·No. 10 ·2016-00-02 ·Pages 4835-45

Docter BE, Horowitz S, Gray MJ, Jakob U, Bardwell JC

Abstract

Organisms use molecular chaperones to combat the unfolding and aggregation of proteins. While protein chaperones have been widely studied, here we demonstrate that DNA and RNA exhibit potent chaperone activity in vitro Nucleic acids suppress the aggregation of classic chaperone substrates up to 300-fold more effectively than the protein chaperone GroEL. Additionally, RNA cooperates with the DnaK chaperone system to refold purified luciferase. Our findings reveal a possible new role for nucleic acids within the cell: that nucleic acids directly participate in maintaining proteostasis by preventing protein aggregation.

MeSH Terms
Chaperonin 60/metabolism DNA/metabolism Molecular Chaperones/metabolism Protein Aggregates Protein Denaturation Protein Refolding RNA/metabolism
Chemicals
Chaperonin 60 Molecular Chaperones Protein Aggregates RNA DNA
Authors & Affiliations
5 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Docter Brianne E ORCID
Cellular and Molecular Biology Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Horowitz Scott
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Gray Michael J
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Jakob Ursula
Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Bardwell James C A
Cellular and Molecular Biology Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA jbardwel@umich.edu.
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Article Info
Journal
Nucleic acids research
Abbr.
Nucleic Acids Res
ISSN
1362-4962
DOI
10.1093/nar/gkw291
Email
jbardwel@umich.edu
Published
2016-00-02
Epub
2016-00-21
Pages
4835-45
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
0411011
PMCID
PMC4889950
Subset
IM
Grants
NIGMS NIH HHS · R01 GM102829 · United States
Howard Hughes Medical Institute · United States
NIGMS NIH HHS · R01 GM065318 · United States
NIGMS NIH HHS · R01 GM116582 · United States
NIGMS NIH HHS · T32 GM007315 · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkw291 PMC Full Text View journal details
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