Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of human Atg4B-LC3 complex

The reversible modification of Atg8 with phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) is crucial for autophagy, the bulk degradation process of cytoplasmic components by the vacuolar/lysosomal system. Atg4 is a cysteine protease that is responsible for the processing and deconjugation of Atg8. Human Atg4B (HsAtg4B; a mammalian orthologue of yeast Atg4) and LC3 (a mammalian orthologue of yeast Atg8) were expressed and purified and two complexes, one consisting of HsAtg4B(1-354) and LC3(1-120) (complex I; the product complex) and the other consisting of HsAtg4B(1-354) and LC3(1-124) (complex II; the substrate complex), were crystallized using polyethylene glycol 3350 as a precipitant. In both complexes His280 of HsAtg4B was mutated to alanine. The crystals belong to the same space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = 47.5, b = 91.8, c = 102.6 A for complex I and a = 46.9, b = 90.9, c = 102.5 A for complex II. Diffraction data were collected to a resolution of 1.9 A from both crystals.