A new perspective on Hsp104-mediated propagation and curing of the yeast prion [PSI+]

Abstract

Most prions in yeast form amyloid fibrils that must be severed by the protein disaggregase Hsp104 to be propagated and transmitted efficiently to newly formed buds. Only one yeast prion, [PSI+], is cured by Hsp104 overexpression. We investigated the interaction between Hsp104 and Sup35, the priongenic protein in yeast that forms the [PSI+] prion.1 We found that a 20-amino acid segment within the highly-charged, unstructured middle domain of Sup35 contributes to the physical interaction between the middle domain and Hsp104. When this segment was deleted from Sup35, the efficiency of [PSI+] severing was substantially reduced, resulting in larger Sup35 particles and weakening of the [PSI+] phenotype. Furthermore, [PSI+] in these cells was completely resistant to Hsp104 curing. The affinity of Hsp104 binding to the Sup35 M-domain was considerably weaker than that of model Hsp104-binding proteins and peptides, implying that Sup35 prions are not ideal substrates for Hsp104-mediated remodeling. In light of this finding, we present a modified model of Hsp104- mediated [PSI +] propagation and curing that requires only partial remodeling of Sup35 assembled into amyloid fibrils. © 2012 Landes Bioscience.