Monothiol and dithiol glutaredoxin-1 from Clostridium oremlandii: identification of domain-swapped structures by NMR, X-ray crystallography and HDX mass spectrometry

Protein dimerization or oligomerization resulting from swapping part of the protein between neighboring polypeptide chains is known to play a key role in the regulation of protein function and in the formation of protein aggregates. Glutaredoxin-1 from Clostridium oremlandii (cGrx1) was used as a model to explore the formation of multiple domain-swapped conformations, which were made possible by modulating several hinge-loop residues that can form a pivot for domain swapping. Specifically, two alternative domain-swapped structures were generated and analyzed using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray crystallography, circular-dichroism spectroscopy and hydrogen/deuterium-exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry. The first domain-swapped structure (β3-swap) was formed by the hexameric cGrx1–cMsrA complex. The second domain-swapped structure (β1-swap) was formed by monothiol cGrx1 (C16S) alone. In summary, the first domain-swapped structure of an oxidoreductase in a hetero-oligomeric complex is presented. In particular, a single point mutation of a key cysteine residue to serine led to the formation of an intramolecular disulfide bond, as opposed to an intermolecular disulfide bond, and resulted in modulation of the underlying free-energy landscape of protein oligomerization.