Structural insights on the dynamics of proteasome formation

Molecular organization in biological systems comprises elaborately programmed processes involving metastable complex formation of biomolecules. This is exemplified by the formation of the proteasome, which is one of the largest and most complicated biological supramolecular complexes. This biomolecular machinery comprises approximately 70 subunits, including structurally homologous, but functionally distinct, ones, thereby exerting versatile proteolytic functions. In eukaryotes, proteasome formation is non-autonomous and is assisted by assembly chaperones, which transiently associate with assembly intermediates, operating as molecular matchmakers and checkpoints for the correct assembly of proteasome subunits. Accumulated data also suggest that eukaryotic proteasome formation involves scrap-and-build mechanisms. However, unlike the eukaryotic proteasome subunits, the archaeal subunits show little structural divergence and spontaneously assemble into functional machinery. Nevertheless, the archaeal genomes encode homologs of eukaryotic proteasome assembly chaperones. Recent structural and functional studies of these proteins have advanced our understanding of the evolution of molecular mechanisms involved in proteasome biogenesis. This knowledge, in turn, provides a guiding principle in designing molecular machineries using protein engineering approaches and de novo synthesis of artificial molecular systems.