Carbohydrate affinity for the glucose-galactose binding protein is regulated by allosteric domain motions

Protein function, structure, and dynamics are intricately correlated, but studies on structure-activity relationships are still only rarely complemented by a detailed analysis of dynamics related to function (functional dynamics). Here, we have applied NMR to investigate the functional dynamics in two homologous periplasmic sugar binding proteins with bidomain composition: Escherichia coli glucose/galactose (GGBP) and ribose (RBP) binding proteins. In contrast to their structural and functional similarity, we observe a remarkable difference in functional dynamics: For RBP, the absence of segmental motions allows only for isolated structural adaptations upon carbohydrate binding in line with an induced fit mechanism; on the other hand, GGBP shows extensive segmental mobility in both apo and holo states, enabling selection of the most favorable conformation upon carbohydrate binding in line with a population shift mechanism. Collective segmental motions are controlled by the hinge composition: by swapping two identified key residues between RBP and GGBP we also interchange their segmental hinge mobility, and the doubly mutated GGBP* no longer experiences changes in conformational entropy upon ligand binding while the complementary RBP* shows the segmental dynamics observed in wild-type GGBP. Most importantly, the segmental interdomain dynamics always increase the apparent substrate affinity and thus, are functional, underscoring the allosteric control that the hinge region exerts on ligand binding.