Small angle X-ray scattering studies of CTNNBL1 dimerization and CTNNBL1/CDC5L complex

The hPrp19/CDC5L complex is a non-snRNP spliceosome complex that plays a key role in the spliceosome activation during pre-mRNA splicing, and CTNNBL1 and CDC5L are essential components of the complex. In this study, to investigate the oligomeric state of CTNNBL1 in solution, we performed small angle X-ray scattering experiments in various concentrations of NaCl. We observed that CTNNBL1 existed as a dimer in physiological NaCl concentrations. Site-directed mutagenesis experiment of CTNNBL1 confirmed that N-terminal capping region and the first four ARM repeats are important for dimerization of the protein. We also found that the positively-charged NLS3-containing region (residues 197–235) of CDC5L bound to the negatively-charged patch of CTNNBL1 and that the CTNNBL1/CDC5L complex formed a heterotetramer consisting of one CTNNBL1 dimer and one CDC5L dimer. Moreover, reconstruction of 3D models of CTNNBL1/CDC5L complexes containing CTNNBL1 and three different truncated forms of CDC5L showed that the CDC5L(141–196) region and the CDC5L(236–377) region were positioned at the top of the N-terminal capping region and at the bottom of ARM VII of CTNNBL1, respectively.