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The Fas–FADD death domain complex structure reveals the basis of DISC assembly and disease mutations

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 17, pages 1324–1329 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

The death-inducing signaling complex (DISC) formed by the death receptor Fas, the adaptor protein FADD and caspase-8 mediates the extrinsic apoptotic program. Mutations in Fas that disrupt the DISC cause autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS). Here we show that the Fas–FADD death domain (DD) complex forms an asymmetric oligomeric structure composed of 5–7 Fas DD and 5 FADD DD, whose interfaces harbor ALPS-associated mutations. Structure-based mutations disrupt the Fas–FADD interaction in vitro and in living cells; the severity of a mutation correlates with the number of occurrences of a particular interaction in the structure. The highly oligomeric structure explains the requirement for hexameric or membrane-bound FasL in Fas signaling. It also predicts strong dominant negative effects from Fas mutations, which are confirmed by signaling assays. The structure optimally positions the FADD death effector domain (DED) to interact with the caspase-8 DED for caspase recruitment and higher-order aggregation.

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Figure 1: Biochemical and structural characterization of the Fas DD–FADD DD complexes.
Figure 2: Interactions in the Fas DD–FADD DD complex.
Figure 3: Structure-based mutagenesis and analysis of ALPS mutations.
Figure 4: Interactions in living cells and functional effects of Fas DD and FADD DD mutations.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Y.C. Park for earlier work on this project and K. Rajashankar, I. Kourinov and N. Sukumar for help with data collection . This work was supported by US National Institutes of Health grant R01-AI50872 (H.W.), the Post-doctoral Fellowship Program of Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) (J.K.Y.), the 2008 Long-term Overseas Dispatch Program for Pusan National University's Tenure-track Faculty (S.B.J.), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (A.Y.P.), the Royal Society (C.V.R.) and the Walters-Kundert Trust (C.V.R.). Diffraction data collection was conducted at the Northeastern Collaborative Access Team beam lines of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, supported by award RR-15301 from the National Center for Research Resources at the US National Institutes of Health. S.R. was a fellow of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (BMBF-LPD 9901/8-163). T.W. is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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Author notes

  1. Liwei Wang & Stefan Raunser

    Present address: Present addresses: National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China (L.W.); Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany (S.R.).,

  2. Liwei Wang, Jin Kuk Yang and Venkataraman Kabaleeswaran: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA

    Liwei Wang, Jin Kuk Yang, Venkataraman Kabaleeswaran, Qian Yin, Ermelinda Damko, Se Bok Jang & Hao Wu

  2. Department of Chemistry, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea

    Jin Kuk Yang

  3. Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Amanda J Rice, Stefan Raunser & Thomas Walz

  4. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Anthony C Cruz & Richard M Siegel

  5. Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Ah Young Park & Carol V Robinson

  6. Department of Molecular Biology, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea

    Se Bok Jang

  7. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Thomas Walz

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Contributions

H.W. initiated the project and participated in project design and analysis; L.W. provided the samples for EM; L.W. and E.D. performed in vitro mutagenesis experiments; L.W. and Q.Y. performed multi-angle light scattering experiments; J.K.Y., L.W. and S.B.J. grew the crystals and collected the diffraction data; V.K. and H.W. solved the structure; E.D. performed the CD experiments and the salt-dependence experiments; A.J.R., S.R. and T.W. performed the EM experiments; A.C.C. and R.M.S. performed the cell biology experiments; A.Y.P. and C.V.R. performed the mass spectrometry experiments; H.W. made the figures and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hao Wu.

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Wang, L., Yang, J., Kabaleeswaran, V. et al. The Fas–FADD death domain complex structure reveals the basis of DISC assembly and disease mutations. Nat Struct Mol Biol 17, 1324–1329 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.1920

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