Issue 6, 2011

Detection of a secreted metalloprotease within the nuclei of liver cells

Abstract

ADAMTS13 is a secreted zinc metalloprotease expressed by various cell types. Here, we investigate its cellular pathway in endogenously expressing liver cell lines and after transient transfection with ADAMTS13. Besides compartmentalizations of the cellular secretory system, we detected an appreciable level of endogenous ADAMTS13 within the nucleus. A positively charged amino acid cluster (R-Q-R-Q-R-Q-R-R) present in the ADAMTS13 propeptide may act as a nuclear localization signal (NLS). Fusing this NLS-containing region to eGFP greatly potentiated its nuclear localization. Bioinformatics analysis suggests that the ADAMTS13 CUB-2 domain has a double-stranded beta helix (DSBH) structural architecture characteristic of various proteinprotein interaction modules like nucleoplasmins, class I collagenase, tumor necrosis factor ligand superfamily, supernatant protein factor (SPF) and the B1 domain of neuropilin-2. Based on this contextual evidence and that largely conserved polar residues could be mapped on to a template CUB domain homolog, we hypothesize that a region in the ADAMTS13 CUB-2 domain with conserved polar residues might be involved in proteinprotein interaction within the nucleus.

Graphical abstract: Detection of a secreted metalloprotease within the nuclei of liver cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Nov 2010
Accepted
15 Mar 2011
First published
11 Apr 2011

Mol. BioSyst., 2011,7, 2012-2018

Detection of a secreted metalloprotease within the nuclei of liver cells

R. C. Hunt, S. Geetha, C. E. Allen, K. Hershko, R. Fathke, P. L. Kong, E. Plum, E. B. Struble, K. Soejima, S. Friedman, S. Garfield, S. Balaji and C. Kimchi-Sarfaty, Mol. BioSyst., 2011, 7, 2012 DOI: 10.1039/C0MB00303D

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