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Updated: Mar 18, 2026

Preparation and In Vivo Use of an Activity-based Probe for N-acylethanolamine Acid Amidase
Published on: November 23, 2016
Structure and activation of pro-activin A
Xuelu Wang1, Gerhard Fischer1, Marko Hyvönen1
1Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, 80 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1GA, UK.
Activin A activation was studied, revealing its precursor structure and how proteolysis unlocks its growth factor activity. The pro-domain remains bound but can be displaced by follistatin.
Area of Science:
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Biology
- Structural Biology
Background:
- Activins are crucial growth factors involved in development and homeostasis.
- Like other TGF-β family members, activins are synthesized as precursors requiring proteolytic cleavage for activation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the activation mechanism of activin A.
- To determine the crystal structures of unprocessed pro-activin A and the cleaved pro-mature complex.
Main Methods:
- Site-directed mutagenesis to replace the natural furin cleavage site with a HRV 3C protease site.
- X-ray crystallography to obtain high-resolution structures.
- Biochemical analysis to determine complex stability and follistatin interaction.
Main Results:
- Proteolytic cleavage at the engineered site confers bioactivity, matching the mature domain.
- The pro-domain remains associated with the mature activin A with a low dissociation constant (5 nM).
- Follistatin can actively displace the pro-domain from the complex.
- Structural analysis revealed a novel domain-swapped, cross-armed conformation in dimeric pro-activin A.
Conclusions:
- Proteolytic processing is essential for activin A bioactivity.
- The pro-domain plays a role in regulating activin A activity and can be modulated by follistatin.
- The unique oligomeric structure of pro-activin A provides insights into TGF-β superfamily regulation.
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