IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v14y2023i1d10.1038_s41467-023-37040-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cryo-EM structures of human Cx36/GJD2 neuronal gap junction channel

Author

Listed:
  • Seu-Na Lee

    (Korea University)

  • Hwa-Jin Cho

    (Seoul National University)

  • Hyeongseop Jeong

    (Korea Basic Science Institute)

  • Bumhan Ryu

    (Institute for Basic Science)

  • Hyuk-Joon Lee

    (Korea University)

  • Minsoo Kim

    (Sungkyunkwan University)

  • Jejoong Yoo

    (Sungkyunkwan University)

  • Jae-Sung Woo

    (Korea University)

  • Hyung Ho Lee

    (Seoul National University)

Abstract

Connexin 36 (Cx36) is responsible for signal transmission in electrical synapses by forming interneuronal gap junctions. Despite the critical role of Cx36 in normal brain function, the molecular architecture of the Cx36 gap junction channel (GJC) is unknown. Here, we determine cryo-electron microscopy structures of Cx36 GJC at 2.2–3.6 Å resolutions, revealing a dynamic equilibrium between its closed and open states. In the closed state, channel pores are obstructed by lipids, while N-terminal helices (NTHs) are excluded from the pore. In the open state with pore-lining NTHs, the pore is more acidic than those in Cx26 and Cx46/50 GJCs, explaining its strong cation selectivity. The conformational change during channel opening also includes the α-to-π-helix transition of the first transmembrane helix, which weakens the protomer-protomer interaction. Our structural analyses provide high resolution information on the conformational flexibility of Cx36 GJC and suggest a potential role of lipids in the channel gating.

Suggested Citation

  • Seu-Na Lee & Hwa-Jin Cho & Hyeongseop Jeong & Bumhan Ryu & Hyuk-Joon Lee & Minsoo Kim & Jejoong Yoo & Jae-Sung Woo & Hyung Ho Lee, 2023. "Cryo-EM structures of human Cx36/GJD2 neuronal gap junction channel," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37040-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37040-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37040-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-023-37040-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kathryn Tunyasuvunakool & Jonas Adler & Zachary Wu & Tim Green & Michal Zielinski & Augustin Žídek & Alex Bridgland & Andrew Cowie & Clemens Meyer & Agata Laydon & Sameer Velankar & Gerard J. Kleywegt, 2021. "Highly accurate protein structure prediction for the human proteome," Nature, Nature, vol. 596(7873), pages 590-596, August.
    2. Janette B. Myers & Bassam G. Haddad & Susan E. O’Neill & Dror S. Chorev & Craig C. Yoshioka & Carol V. Robinson & Daniel M. Zuckerman & Steve L. Reichow, 2018. "Structure of native lens connexin 46/50 intercellular channels by cryo-EM," Nature, Nature, vol. 564(7736), pages 372-377, December.
    3. John Jumper & Richard Evans & Alexander Pritzel & Tim Green & Michael Figurnov & Olaf Ronneberger & Kathryn Tunyasuvunakool & Russ Bates & Augustin Žídek & Anna Potapenko & Alex Bridgland & Clemens Me, 2021. "Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold," Nature, Nature, vol. 596(7873), pages 583-589, August.
    4. Nicolás Palacios-Prado & Sandrine Chapuis & Alejandro Panjkovich & Julien Fregeac & James I. Nagy & Feliksas F. Bukauskas, 2014. "Molecular determinants of magnesium-dependent synaptic plasticity at electrical synapses formed by connexin36," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, December.
    5. Chan Cao & Nuria Cirauqui & Maria Jose Marcaida & Elena Buglakova & Alice Duperrex & Aleksandra Radenovic & Matteo Dal Peraro, 2019. "Single-molecule sensing of peptides and nucleic acids by engineered aerolysin nanopores," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Hyuk-Joon Lee & Hyung Jin Cha & Hyeongseop Jeong & Seu-Na Lee & Chang-Won Lee & Minsoo Kim & Jejoong Yoo & Jae-Sung Woo, 2023. "Conformational changes in the human Cx43/GJA1 gap junction channel visualized using cryo-EM," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, December.
    7. Jonathan A. Flores & Bassam G. Haddad & Kimberly A. Dolan & Janette B. Myers & Craig C. Yoshioka & Jeremy Copperman & Daniel M. Zuckerman & Steve L. Reichow, 2020. "Connexin-46/50 in a dynamic lipid environment resolved by CryoEM at 1.9 Å," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Shoji Maeda & So Nakagawa & Michihiro Suga & Eiki Yamashita & Atsunori Oshima & Yoshinori Fujiyoshi & Tomitake Tsukihara, 2009. "Structure of the connexin 26 gap junction channel at 3.5 Å resolution," Nature, Nature, vol. 458(7238), pages 597-602, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hang Zhang & Shiyu Wang & Zhenzhen Zhang & Mengzhuo Hou & Chunyu Du & Zhenye Zhao & Horst Vogel & Zhifang Li & Kaige Yan & Xiaokang Zhang & Jianping Lu & Yujie Liang & Shuguang Yuan & Daping Wang & Hu, 2023. "Cryo-EM structure of human heptameric pannexin 2 channel," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Zhihui He & Yonghui Zhao & Michael J. Rau & James A. J. Fitzpatrick & Rajan Sah & Hongzhen Hu & Peng Yuan, 2023. "Structural and functional analysis of human pannexin 2 channel," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Hyuk-Joon Lee & Hyung Jin Cha & Hyeongseop Jeong & Seu-Na Lee & Chang-Won Lee & Minsoo Kim & Jejoong Yoo & Jae-Sung Woo, 2023. "Conformational changes in the human Cx43/GJA1 gap junction channel visualized using cryo-EM," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Deyun Qiu & Jinxin V. Pei & James E. O. Rosling & Vandana Thathy & Dongdi Li & Yi Xue & John D. Tanner & Jocelyn Sietsma Penington & Yi Tong Vincent Aw & Jessica Yi Han Aw & Guoyue Xu & Abhai K. Tripa, 2022. "A G358S mutation in the Plasmodium falciparum Na+ pump PfATP4 confers clinically-relevant resistance to cipargamin," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.
    5. Shuo-Shuo Liu & Tian-Xia Jiang & Fan Bu & Ji-Lan Zhao & Guang-Fei Wang & Guo-Heng Yang & Jie-Yan Kong & Yun-Fan Qie & Pei Wen & Li-Bin Fan & Ning-Ning Li & Ning Gao & Xiao-Bo Qiu, 2024. "Molecular mechanisms underlying the BIRC6-mediated regulation of apoptosis and autophagy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Xiaoke Yang & Mingqi Zhu & Xue Lu & Yuxin Wang & Junyu Xiao, 2024. "Architecture and activation of human muscle phosphorylase kinase," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Kristy Rochon & Brianna L. Bauer & Nathaniel A. Roethler & Yuli Buckley & Chih-Chia Su & Wei Huang & Rajesh Ramachandran & Maria S. K. Stoll & Edward W. Yu & Derek J. Taylor & Jason A. Mears, 2024. "Structural basis for regulated assembly of the mitochondrial fission GTPase Drp1," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Fan Lu & Liang Zhu & Thomas Bromberger & Jun Yang & Qiannan Yang & Jianmin Liu & Edward F. Plow & Markus Moser & Jun Qin, 2022. "Mechanism of integrin activation by talin and its cooperation with kindlin," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    9. Martin F. Peter & Christian Gebhardt & Rebecca Mächtel & Gabriel G. Moya Muñoz & Janin Glaenzer & Alessandra Narducci & Gavin H. Thomas & Thorben Cordes & Gregor Hagelueken, 2022. "Cross-validation of distance measurements in proteins by PELDOR/DEER and single-molecule FRET," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    10. Jutta Diessl & Jens Berndtsson & Filomena Broeskamp & Lukas Habernig & Verena Kohler & Carmela Vazquez-Calvo & Arpita Nandy & Carlotta Peselj & Sofia Drobysheva & Ludovic Pelosi & F.-Nora Vögtle & Fab, 2022. "Manganese-driven CoQ deficiency," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Alexander Kroll & Sahasra Ranjan & Martin K. M. Engqvist & Martin J. Lercher, 2023. "A general model to predict small molecule substrates of enzymes based on machine and deep learning," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    12. Lisa-Marie Appel & Vedran Franke & Johannes Benedum & Irina Grishkovskaya & Xué Strobl & Anton Polyansky & Gregor Ammann & Sebastian Platzer & Andrea Neudolt & Anna Wunder & Lena Walch & Stefanie Kais, 2023. "The SPOC domain is a phosphoserine binding module that bridges transcription machinery with co- and post-transcriptional regulators," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-22, December.
    13. Maciej K. Kocylowski & Hande Aypek & Wolfgang Bildl & Martin Helmstädter & Philipp Trachte & Bernhard Dumoulin & Sina Wittösch & Lukas Kühne & Ute Aukschun & Carolin Teetzen & Oliver Kretz & Botond Ga, 2022. "A slit-diaphragm-associated protein network for dynamic control of renal filtration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    14. Michael A. Longo & Sunetra Roy & Yue Chen & Karl-Heinz Tomaszowski & Andrew S. Arvai & Jordan T. Pepper & Rebecca A. Boisvert & Selvi Kunnimalaiyaan & Caezanne Keshvani & David Schild & Albino Bacolla, 2023. "RAD51C-XRCC3 structure and cancer patient mutations define DNA replication roles," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.
    15. Zachary C. Drake & Justin T. Seffernick & Steffen Lindert, 2022. "Protein complex prediction using Rosetta, AlphaFold, and mass spectrometry covalent labeling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    16. Leonardo Betancurt-Anzola & Markel Martínez-Carranza & Marc Delarue & Kelly M. Zatopek & Andrew F. Gardner & Ludovic Sauguet, 2023. "Molecular basis for proofreading by the unique exonuclease domain of Family-D DNA polymerases," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    17. Karin Vogel & Tobias Bläske & Marie-Kristin Nagel & Christoph Globisch & Shane Maguire & Lorenz Mattes & Christian Gude & Michael Kovermann & Karin Hauser & Christine Peter & Erika Isono, 2022. "Lipid-mediated activation of plasma membrane-localized deubiquitylating enzymes modulate endosomal trafficking," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    18. Robin Anger & Laetitia Pieulle & Meriam Shahin & Odile Valette & Hugo Guenno & Artemis Kosta & Vladimir Pelicic & Rémi Fronzes, 2023. "Structure of a heteropolymeric type 4 pilus from a monoderm bacterium," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    19. Jie Li & Haonan Zhang & Dongyu Li & Ya-Jun Liu & Edward A. Bayer & Qiu Cui & Yingang Feng & Ping Zhu, 2023. "Structure of the transcription open complex of distinct σI factors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    20. Hongmin Cai & Shimeng Guo & Youwei Xu & Jun Sun & Junrui Li & Zhikan Xia & Yi Jiang & Xin Xie & H. Eric Xu, 2024. "Cryo-EM structures of adenosine receptor A3AR bound to selective agonists," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37040-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.