TY - JOUR
T1 - The molecular mechanism for receptor-stimulated iron release from the plasma iron transport protein transferrin
AU - Giannetti, Anthony M.
AU - Halbrooks, Peter J.
AU - Mason, Anne B.
AU - Vogt, Todd M.
AU - Enns, Caroline A.
AU - Björkman, Pamela J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Peter Snow and Inderjit Nangiana (Caltech Protein Expression Facility) for expression of TfR constructs, Ross MacGillivray for Tf constructs, Angel J. Di Bilio for help with EPR spectroscopy, members of the Björkman, Mason, and Enns labs for critical reading of the manuscript, and Dr. Dennis Chasteen for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01 DK60770 [P.J.B.], R01 DK21739 [A.B.M.], R01 DK54488 [C.A.E.]), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (P.J.B.), a National Research Service Award (5T32-GM-7616 [A.M.G.]), and USDOE DE-FG02-00ER45828 Graduate Assistantship (P.J.H.).
PY - 2005/11
Y1 - 2005/11
N2 - Human transferrin receptor 1 (TfR) binds iron-loaded transferrin (Fe-Tf) and transports it to acidic endosomes where iron is released in a TfR-facilitated process. Consistent with our hypothesis that TfR binding stimulates iron release from Fe-Tf at acidic pH by stabilizing the apo-Tf conformation, a TfR mutant (W641A/F760A-TfR) that binds Fe-Tf, but not apo-Tf, cannot stimulate iron release from Fe-Tf, and less iron is released from Fe-Tf inside cells expressing W641A/F760A-TfR than cells expressing wild-type TfR (wtTfR). Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy shows that binding at acidic pH to wtTfR, but not W641A/F760A-TfR, changes the Tf iron binding site ≥30 Å from the TfR W641/F760 patch. Mutation of Tf histidine residues predicted to interact with the W641/F760 patch eliminates TfR-dependent acceleration of iron release. Identification of TfR and Tf residues critical for TfR-facilitated iron release, yet distant from a Tf iron binding site, demonstrates that TfR transmits long-range conformational changes and stabilizes the conformation of apo-Tf to accelerate iron release from Fe-Tf.
AB - Human transferrin receptor 1 (TfR) binds iron-loaded transferrin (Fe-Tf) and transports it to acidic endosomes where iron is released in a TfR-facilitated process. Consistent with our hypothesis that TfR binding stimulates iron release from Fe-Tf at acidic pH by stabilizing the apo-Tf conformation, a TfR mutant (W641A/F760A-TfR) that binds Fe-Tf, but not apo-Tf, cannot stimulate iron release from Fe-Tf, and less iron is released from Fe-Tf inside cells expressing W641A/F760A-TfR than cells expressing wild-type TfR (wtTfR). Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy shows that binding at acidic pH to wtTfR, but not W641A/F760A-TfR, changes the Tf iron binding site ≥30 Å from the TfR W641/F760 patch. Mutation of Tf histidine residues predicted to interact with the W641/F760 patch eliminates TfR-dependent acceleration of iron release. Identification of TfR and Tf residues critical for TfR-facilitated iron release, yet distant from a Tf iron binding site, demonstrates that TfR transmits long-range conformational changes and stabilizes the conformation of apo-Tf to accelerate iron release from Fe-Tf.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.str.2005.07.016
DO - 10.1016/j.str.2005.07.016
M3 - Article
C2 - 16271884
AN - SCOPUS:27644551255
VL - 13
SP - 1613
EP - 1623
JO - Structure with Folding & design
JF - Structure with Folding & design
SN - 0969-2126
IS - 11
ER -