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Updated: Feb 12, 2026

Quantifying the Binding Interactions Between CuII and Peptide Residues in the Presence and Absence of Chromophores
Published on: April 5, 2022
Structural modelling of the DNAJB6 oligomeric chaperone shows a peptide-binding cleft lined with conserved
Christopher A G Söderberg1, Cecilia Månsson2, Katja Bernfur2
1MAX IV Laboratory, Lund University, PO Box 118, SE-221 00, Lund, Sweden. christopher.soderberg@ri.se.
Abstract:
The remarkably efficient suppression of amyloid fibril formation by the DNAJB6 chaperone is dependent on a set of conserved S/T-residues and an oligomeric structure, features unusual among DNAJ chaperones. We explored the structure of DNAJB6 using a combination of structural methods. Lysine-specific crosslinking mass spectrometry provided distance constraints to select a homology model of the DNAJB6 monomer, which was subsequently used in crosslink-assisted docking to generate a dimer model. A peptide-binding cleft lined with S/T-residues is formed at the monomer-monomer interface. Mixed isotope crosslinking showed that the oligomers are dynamic entities that exchange subunits. The purified protein is well folded, soluble and composed of oligomers with a varying number of subunits according to small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Elongated particles (160 × 120 Å) were detected by electron microscopy and single particle reconstruction resulted in a density map of 20 Å resolution into which the DNAJB6 dimers fit. The structure of the oligomer and the S/T-rich region is of great importance for the understanding of the function of DNAJB6 and how it can bind aggregation-prone peptides and prevent amyloid diseases.
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