Phosphorylation of T897 in the dimerization domain of Gemin5 modulates protein interactions and translation regulation

Gemin5 is a multifunctional RNA binding protein (RBP) organized in domains with a distinctive structural organization. The protein is a hub for several protein networks performing diverse RNA-dependent functions including regulation of translation, and recognition of small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs). Here we sought to identify the presence of phosphoresidues on the C-terminal half of Gemin5, a region of the protein that harbors a tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR)-like dimerization domain and a non-canonical RNA binding site (RBS1). We identified two phosphoresidues in the purified protein: P-T897 in the dimerization domain and P-T1355 in RBS1. Replacing T897 and T1355 with alanine led to decreased translation, and mass spectrometry analysis revealed that mutation T897A strongly abrogates the association with cellular proteins related to the regulation of translation. In contrast, the phosphomimetic substitutions to glutamate partially rescued the translation regulatory activity. The structural analysis of the TPR dimerization domain indicates that local rearrangements caused by phosphorylation of T897 affect the conformation of the flexible loop 2–3, and propagate across the dimerization interface, impacting the position of the C-terminal helices and the loop 12–13 shown to be mutated in patients with neurological disorders. Computational analysis of the potential relationship between post-translation modifications and currently known pathogenic variants indicates a lack of overlapping of the affected residues within the functional domains of the protein and provides molecular insights for the implication of the phosphorylated residues in translation regulation.