Human septin isoforms and the GDP-GTP cycle

Septins form oligomeric complexes consisting of septins from different subgroups, which form filaments that are involved in a number of biological processes. They are GTP-binding proteins that contain all the necessary elements to perform the general GDP-to-GTP conformational switch. It is however unclear whether or not such a switch is important for the dynamics of septin filaments. Here we investigate the complex GTPase reaction of members of each of the four human septin groups, which is dominated by the stability of dimer formation via the nucleotide binding or so-called G-interface. The results also show that the actual hydrolysis reaction is very similar for three septin groups in the monomeric state while the Sept6 has no GTPase activity. Sept7, the only member of the Sept7 subgroup, forms a very tight G-interface dimer in the GDP-bound state. Here we show that the stability of the interface is dramatically decreased by exchanging GDP with a nucleoside triphosphate, which is believed to influence filament formation and dynamics via Sept7.